Monte
Ullman (1916-2008)
The
Little Prince
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Montague Ullman, popularly
known as Monte, had a stately bearing befitting that of
a nobel laureate. His dignity, his superior intellect,
his accomplishments, his empathy were evident to all who
knew him. But there was another equally engaging prism
to this multifaceted doctor, teacher, healer, dream
worker, scientist, parapsychologist. As Monte’s
companion and colleague for the last five years of his
life, reflected in that prism I saw Monte as the Little
Prince, embodying the classic story by Antoine de
Saint-Exupery. Like the Little Prince, Monte was an
explorer who set out on a journey to learn about the
invisible parts of life. He had the innocent wonder of a
shy little boy in search of truth, using his
imagination, memory, creativity and honesty – all his
keys to dreaming – to write scholarly papers.
Where did this little Monte Prince live? As in the story
of the Little Prince, he lived on a planet that was
scarcely larger than a house – a house of dreams, but he
was in search of something much larger than a single
planet. He referred to this incomprehensibly vast realm
that had many more planets than anyone could count, as
the Implicate Order. Like the Little Prince, when
scientists would only listen to him if he behaved and
dressed as they did, Monte wore blue jeans and broke
from the establishment proudly claiming his independent
status as “a recovering psychiatrist.” With all the
right credentials and insights advancing far beyond
traditional psychoanalytic theory, he created a new way
of thinking about the dream. He fathered the process of
dream sharing and the sense of oneness it produced.
For those of you who hadn’t the great pleasure of
knowing Monte, he was a life force in the world of
dreams. There was no substitute for his insight. In his
last paper, “The Dream: In Search of a New Abode”
(2006), he had the prescience to connect the theories of
physicist David Bohm to dreaming consciousness. Like the
dream, Bohm’s implicate order was an order of wholeness
that includes all that exists in a state of
interconnectedness which actually mirrors what Monte had
accomplished in his dream-sharing approach..
Monte frequently said that in a dream sharing group,
there was a true sense of communion. The human
connection he experienced in each and every group
produced in him overwhelming feelings of connectivity
for his dream of species survival had come to life.
Every dream group was the “best one ever,” so said
Monte.
He remained devoted to his Saturday groups to the end
and held a special place in his heart for the The Dream
Group Forum (Drömgruppsforum), a national society formed
in Sweden in 1990 and the Finnish Dream Group Forum
formed in 2003. He frequently reminisced with great
affection about his early friendships with Kerstin
Anderson, Britmari Felke and Gunnar Sundstrom of Sweden.
He shared a special father-son kinship with Markku
Siivola of Finland who to this day tends Monte’s link on
his website honoring his memory with enduring loyalty
and dedication. Varida Kautner, a former student greatly
influenced by Monte, shares in the work on Monte’s bio
link.
Monte often referred to our society as dream deprived
and credited the Swedes for opening the door to his
concept of dream sharing. He felt that Sweden was the
launching pad that advanced his method in the United
States and loved to tell how he met with the Swedish
Parliament to seek government funding for dream sharing
groups. Monte’s dreamwork is beginning to reach around
the globe where Ullman dream groups are led both by
professionals and laity trained in the Ullman method,
including Taiwan where Bill Stimson and Shuyuan Wang
carry on his work and where Appreciating Dreams was
translated into Chinese.
Monte taught us the power of love and the secrets of
what is important in life through our dreams. His
soul-stirring influence on those whose lives he touched
is testimony to his great wisdom, his incredible
kindness and extraordinary contributions.
And for all of his brilliance and wisdom, he was a
terrific tease with a wonderfully zany sense of humor.
Once when we were watching David Blane, the street
performer, on TV, Monte decided he was going to
outperform Blane’s levitation technique so he
dramatically elongated his body and stood very, very
tall on tip toe. One foot might have been about a
quarter inch above the ground, while he cleverly
concealed the other. I feigned wonder and whispered in
awe, “How did you do that?” Grinning like a Cheshire
cat, he said, “It’s a secret!”
Monte was so modest he never wanted to take credit for
anything. I would often tell him how much people loved
him and what a contribution he was making. Invariably he
would reply, “Oh – go on.” After some two years, I told
him I figured out what that meant. He bashfully said,
“Yeah, okay, so what does it mean? I said, “It means you
want more,” and he burst into gales of laughter. He
secretly treasured those compliments.
Monte was a happy, charming spirit who loved to laugh
and never forgot to be human. His enormous compassion
affected dreamers in every walk of life. One by one,
each person I had spoken with after Monte passed
revealed a profoundly intimate soul-connection to him,
be it his gardener, his health-care aides, his barber,
his dry-cleaner, his dream workers, his esteemed
colleagues – friends he hadn’t seen or spoken to for
decades – even people he knew only peripherally – and
his family who are so very proud of him. Grown men wept,
words fell short and the world wobbled for each of us
had suffered an inexpressible loss. He lived his theory
of species-connectedness as his presence on earth
elicited every loving emotion on the scale of human
feelings. They are reflected in these tributes:
My father was a special man. He had the gift to heal. He
was able to listen to and solve problems with ease. His
gentle soft voice was soothing and so heartfelt in his
words. Magic was an early passion, in particular,
Houdini who really captured his imagination. This led to
séances as a teenager which brought back the spirit of
Dr. Bindelof and triggered his interest in the
paranormal. But his dream work was his ultimate passion.
Holding workshops and teaching his own method of how to
analyze dreams was his goal. Not too many people achieve
their goal in life and he was able to do just that. My
father was such a quiet and unassuming guy who possessed
so many fine qualities; he never bragged or boasted. He
was always honest and truthful. He had a wicked sense of
humor. He worked hard to provide for his family and in
the end, his dream did come true. (From Monte’s youngest
daughter, Lucy Bain, who lives in Scotland.)
“I just got the news. I am almost without words.”
(Gunnar)
“He always had time for me. He helped me with the
adoption of my son with the Russian authorities. They
broke the mold when they made Monte.” (Ted Chaiko -
handyman)
“I instantly broke down in tears when I received the sad
news last night.” (Bob Van De Castle)
“Monte was a happy man. He was so at peace with himself.
He had a great appetite and never complained. (Myrna
Rodriquez - Health Care Aide)
“Monte has been very important for us in Sweden - he was
loved in Sweden. It was something special to meet him
and talk with him. No one has impressed me so much as
Monte did with all his knowledge, skill, humility and
love.“ (Kerstin Anderson)
“Monte has left us and we are poorer without him. His
contributions to psychiatry, psychology and
parapsychology are a marvelous, stunning. incredible
legacy that reflect his wisdom, his insight and his
critical acumen.” (Stanley Krippner)
“Monte taught me so much about wisdom, compassion,
imagery, love, laughter, kindness, truth, and love of
humankind.” (Linda Raab)
“Monte was one of the truly great human beings I have
known in my life. His kindness, wisdom and vision were
inspirational.” (Patrice Keane - ASPR)
“It was a gift for us to know Monte, as delightful a
spirit as I’ve ever known and whom I can imagine is
smiling kindly down on us at this very moment.” (Sally
Rhine-Feather)
“I loved Monte. I feel as though I’ve lost a brother.”
(Jan Tolles - Norway)
“Thank you Monte, for changing my life by your dream
research and work which gave me the reassurance I needed
to accept my extraordinary dreams, despite familial,
societal and religious discouragements.” (Goshengolly)
“He was an inspiration to us and helped find the path to
dreaming. I cherish those great memories of Monte.”
(Dale Graff)
“I have lost a very dear friend to whom I am deeply
grateful. He has enriched my life, my soul, my very
capacity for seeing, and I cannot mull over a dream
without an awareness of Monte. That myriad ties have
formed around the globe through the sharing of dreams is
as fitting a tribute to Monte as I can imagine.”
(Deborah Hillman)
“If this were my dream” is an important and famous
contribution of Monte’s work, but the real and unfailing
safety I always felt in Monte’s groups was because of
its full structure.” (Gloria Sturzenacker)
“Monte’s groundbreaking research and pioneering
explorations and work in the field of dreams, dreaming,
and psi have made the paths wider for those following
their dreams and the wisdom therein.” (Victoria)
“What a loss that Monty is no longer in life.”
(Elisabeth Bratt Neuberg)
“He will be dearly, deeply missed but through his well
said and researched words, he’ll be around forever.”
(Roberta)
“I feel like the earth is less solid and the air is
harder to breathe … (Judy Kaplan)
“He was a very important and very influential person in
my life and career.” (Gilead Nachmani)
“One Swedish pupil said: My life changed when I met him
and his method: I sat for half an hour thinking of what
he has meant personally and professionally for me.”
(Kerstin Anderson)
In 2006, the IASD (International Association for the
Study of Dreams) honored him with a Lifetime Achievement
Award for his research and contributions to the field of
dreams. IASD’s support of Monte’s method at the 2008
Montreal Conference for CEU credits may be one giant
step for dreaming consciousness in granting his
life-long dream of incorporating the value of dreaming
into an educational curriculum. How miraculous it would
be if the Ullman Method of dream sharing were introduced
in higher education: in the college graduate school
curriculums.
He also wanted to expand his method beyond the dream
community to children. Just days before he passed, at
the suggestion of Bill Stimson, I encouraged Monte to
speak of his feelings about dreams and education.
This is what he said:
"I would like to see more activity on the parts of
adults in managing children in their dream life by
bringing it down to their level and helping them see
that dreaming is a way of thinking while they're
sleeping through creating active imagery -- getting
something across by collective imagery. It's a unique
language.
“Adults can bring out the fact that children have dreams
and can talk about them and begin to reflect on what's
going on in them. In other words, we're offering a free
education to children about taking the pictures in their
dreams seriously, because they're meant to have meaning.
“Dreaming is a language that helps to bring feelings to
the surface. It's a pictorial elocution, a way of
talking in pictures.”
I thought – who can better understand a picture than a
child? Children’s minds are so fertile. Grownups
overlook the little details that children pay strict
attention to. As written in the Little Prince "Only
children know what they are looking for." Monte managed
to tap into the child in all of us.
Monte Ullman was a humanitarian to his very core. Our
humble mentor who tenderly fathered our dreams and
taught us to share and fed our hearts, left his physical
body on June 7, 2008 to return to his abode in the sky,
perhaps to meet up with David Bohm. Now that he’s
settled in his new abode, he is likely to see the day
end and the twilight falling whenever he likes. Knowing
the vital force with which Monte healed so many lives
there is good reason to believe that he is still in some
ineffable way watching over our dreams, arranging
dream-sharing groups, loving and protecting us – and –
working toward species-connectedness as he did in life.
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