Dream Never Die: Lessons of the Liminal

Dreams Are as Sincere as Reality. Lessons of the Liminal is an audio practice in deconstructing what we have been told is real. Rooted in beauty, Black futurity, and lived truth, this series explores dreams not as escape, but as material; directions for building new worlds. Through reflection, philosophy, and embodied listening, we ask how reality is constructed, who it serves, and how shared dreaming becomes a practice of liberation.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

I am the beginning.

unknown 0:09

I am here.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Never change. Dream never die. Dream never die. What are you made of? We live in a world that does not know how to love us. But this should not stop us from learning to love ourselves. New worlds are possible, new worlds can be born, and they are born from those who dare to seed what others cannot. A reality that denies our existence, our dreams. A reality that moves against the truth of being cannot stop what is born from beauty. One of the foundational principles I live by is dreams are as sincere as reality. You may wonder, what are dreams? Dreams are possibilities of knowing. They are not fantasies, they are not distractions. Dreams are directions. They are the raw material of reality. And what is reality? Reality is a construction held as true. It's an agreement, a repetition, a shared belief that becomes more solid over time. Reality is not born, it is made. What is sincerity? Sincerity is the matter of belief. To be sincere is to be truthful, to be honest. Dreams are as sincere as reality. This orientation and hope of existence is simple but radical. The distinction between dreams and reality can allow space of unknowability. It also depends upon the weight of belief we place on them. Both dreams and reality are intangible. Both require participation to exist. Both are constructed. And because they are constructed, they can be reconstructed. And this is what dreams are as sincere as reality is attempting to do. It's attempting to loosen the strings of what you believe to be true and what you want to be true. And this is important because often people think of dreams as impractical or naive, as unreal, and reality becomes the final unquestionable motion of existence. But this is not necessarily the way in which we go towards liberation. Every act of revolution has started as a dream. Dreams become realities. When they are shared, when they are cared for, when they are tended to, they take on form. This is why we need to nourish our dreams, not as far escapes, but as doorways and portals of care. Dreams are gateways, gateways into possibility, gateways into collective becoming. When we share our dreams, we are sharing power, we are sharing nourishment, we are sharing our truth. As we move towards liberation, we believe it's essential to bind dreams and reality together. More precisely, to move towards truth. I don't want us to bother ourselves with what is real or what is not real, because often this is based upon vision, not based upon heart. Because the real does not need to be true, it only needs to be shared. And I feel like this exists within faith, but also within the black liberation practice. And what so many of us want to make real, what we want to declare as true, is white imagination. If you are raised in the Western world, you are taught to live inside this white imagination, and you are taught to explain and legitimize and understand yourself through the gaze of whiteness. But that construction is boring, and that construction is burning. I do not want equality in a world that needs to dehumanize and exterminate and categorize and devalue life in order to understand itself, in order to function. I am not interested in repairing a world that requires our erasure, that requires my invisibilization, that requires anyone's invisibilization. Our dreams can come true, but first we need to understand our dreams were never far-fetched or dangerous or naive. They just didn't exist in the imagination, we were taught. Our human body is black and trans and non-binary, and there is a lot of unknowability that exists in being ourselves. What is considered real for me is often false to others. This world has never managed to define me or understand me because it doesn't have the imagination to comprehend beyond explanation. And this is the same and has been the same for so many black, queer, and rationalized people. Bodies who live, bodies who are often questioned, often mistaken to be something that they are not. Reality is unstable, truth can be plural. Dreams are not naive, they are necessary, they are the building blocks of reality. The portal of possibility is the one we need to allow ourselves to believe. To place as much intention, as much care in our dreams as we do in the shared constructions of the realities we face. I want us to do a practice together. This is where the lessons of the liminal begin. I want us to pause, to rest. Maybe you want to find a quiet place to lean into yourself. And I want you to ask yourself, what have I been told is real about me? What parts of me feel truthful but perhaps not real? What dreams have I been taught to dismiss? What have I been told is real about me? What parts of me feel more truthful than real? What dream have I been taught to dismiss? And a bonus question for those who are wishing to grow new worlds not only within themselves, but are ready to bridge that world with others. What is your dream for this world? Tangible dreams for this world we share together. Allow these questions to settle into your body, placing your hand on your heart, placing your hand on your solar plexus. Allow the answers to come from these spots. Allow the answers to move, to respond. Don't explain. Be a witness to yourself. Allow it to unfold. Allow it to be something you sit with today, tomorrow, forever. Because it's a passage inside of your heart that is asking you, needing you to pay attention. Dreams are not opposed to reality, they are practice, they are sincere, they are deliberate, they are communion. I want us to invite ourselves into further truth. I want us to begin sharing dreams, to trust our dreams, to let it reshape the world beside us, through us, and in us. This is how we destroy reality. This is why dreams never die. This is how we make new worlds. This is how we begin. The sound you hear in this episode is made possible by Charlie, Legion Seven, Psy, and Cloud. We hope that your dreams never die.