This was a dream I woke up into from another dream.
I realized I must be dreaming. I tried to tell the other characters. I tried to wake myself up.
Then this happened:
I am in the center of a circle of animals, people, and what strikes me as "totems," who are all dancing, round and round. There is drumming, singing, chanting. I am dancing rhthymically, interactively with the group, rejoicing and ecstatic with the energy. The room feels charged with God. I am singing about that. At the end of the dance/singing, I am introduced to the group. The beings there honor my energy and my life. They welcome me and I feel their gladness that I am here. A man comes up to introduce himself to me. I ask him a question. He is unclear as to whether I am asking "who are you" or "how are you." I am unsure myself. I say, "how about both?" It is apparent that he is undergoing some kind of sadness or suffering. Next there is a group meeting. We are in a room with rows of long hard benches without backs. It seems to be a sort of dream council. A petite, young girl (seemed maybe between 8-12?) with very long hair goes up to the front to speak. There is great power and wisdom in her words and voice. The gist of her account is that she is underg
oing, in waking life, a kind of trial. Her experiences in these other states of consciousness are helping her to come into what she is: a "teacher." After she is done speaking, she goes back and lays down on the bench. Hearing her speak is both humbling and empowering to me. It seems to show me that there is another layer to what I am going through in my waking life, i.e., my cancer experience. Though my body is suffering, there is a spiritual refinement that is happening. I recognize the strength in that young girl to be something that is also within my own self. I am a teacher and a student at once. The phenomena that is apparent to normal waking senses and orindary orientation to time and space is truly just one layer of all that is happening. 
