SUSAN WEBB, M.D.
Physician, Social Choreographer, Social Dreaming Host
A psychoanalytically-trained psychiatrist, psychedelic researcher and artist, I have spent the last two decades engaged in explorations of the mind, dreams and art. In my clinical practice I have long used dream work for individual exploration, as a tool to understand inner life at a deeper level.
Upon returning to graduate school for an MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis at Duke University in 2018, I discovered Social Dreaming Matrix and instantly fell in love with the practice. A method developed decades ago for use in organizational psychology had undergone surprisingly few revisions over time, and struck me as full of creative and transformative potential.
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A practice to access the collective unconscious, connect deeply, and activate the social imagination, the potential of SDM to activate personal creative channels quickly became clear: regular participants to an ongoing weekly global matrix began to report prolific work: completion of films, manuscripts, choreographic works, paintings and other artistic endeavors flourished in the community.
Re-Imagining Medicine: The Everyday Choreography of the Healer. Workshop, 2019. Duke University.
As the technique evolved to incorporate meditation, deeper embodiment, and the inclusion of poetry, as both an inspiration and a neuro-linguistic tool to support the non-linear language-thought process of states of reverie, the experience of the ongoing matrix deepened to something described at times as ineffable, and the potential of this technology to activate and enhance other social, spiritual, creative and realms became a subject of inquiry.
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Along a parallel line, in 2020 I trained with The Usona Institute to become a psychedelic facilitator and worked as a lead facilitator on the FDA phase 2 clinical trial investigating psilocybin for depression at Emory University. In the course of exploring the currently utilized modalities for psychedelic integration, it occurred to me that social dreaming matrix mirrors the psychedelic journey itself. Social dreaming is a deeply connected, embodied practice that happens in liminal space using deep listening and non-linear language to allow for the emergence of new truths and it might readily serve as a bridge into and out of other non-ordinary states. As well, psychedelic users, both micro and macro-dosers, report an increase in vivid dream activity as well as increased engagement with dream life.
A field study with a cohort in Austin, Texas confirmed the relevance of social dreaming for psychedelic integration, and the results were presented to a conference at the Imperial College of London Centre for Psychedelic Study in 2020.
Social dreaming for psychedelic integration is now offered in-person and online for groups around the globe, along with matrices for other special interest groups. Possibilities to re-wild the individual and the collective unconscious seem limitless.
