Meet Laura Deal of Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Deal

Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a writer of essays, fiction, and poetry, a storyteller, dream worker, and Laughter Yoga leader. From the time I was a child, I have been curious about my dreams and deeply in love with stories. I’ve been fortunate to have studied with Dr. Rev. Jeremy Taylor, one of the founders of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, and to have found wonderful communities of writers and storytellers. In 2022 I received a grant from Humanities North Dakota to study with brilliant artists and develop a performance in which I embody the character of Marion Woodman, the Jungian analyst who popularized the importance of the Feminine in Jung’s work, and in 2024 I received the J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award and grant given to storytellers who show exceptional talent but have not yet received national recognition. These two awards have allowed me to study with some of the most talented artists in my field. I also volunteer with Spellbinders, an organization that trains elders to craft programs of stories to share with elementary school students. I tell folk tales to kindergartners, going in once a month to four different classrooms, which helps students with listening skills, sequencing, and ultimately improves literacy, though the students experience it as an entertaining break in their routine. What all of my creative avenues have in common is that they build compassion, and it certainly seems like the world needs more compassion.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge was that my parents were both teachers and discouraged me from pursuing my writing goals. They wanted to protect me from the economic challenges of the freelance life, but the message I internalized was that I should ignore my creative impulse and just be “practical.” So I followed in their footsteps, earning a Ph.D. in History in order to become a college professor. Unfortunately, the market had changed dramatically from their day, and I had very few options in academia.
I devoted time to learning the writing craft, and got very close a few times to having a New York publisher pick up one of my books, but the dream was hard to keep alive, especially with that little voice from my childhood whispering that I shouldn’t bother. After twenty years I shifted from writing to the art of oral storytelling, and there I found many wonderful opportunities and much more success. Meanwhile, I became a certified leader in Group Projective Dreamwork through Jeremy Taylor’s Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork.
What I realized about these two passions of mine, writing and dreams, is that they both speak in the language of metaphor. That inspired me to begin a website called First Church of Metaphor, where various art forms are celebrated, and I explore dream symbols that people ask me about. It has provided a fascinating glimpse into the unconscious elements of our culture and our times.
Though I never really stopped writing, and have crafted many stories for my oral repertoire, I recently returned to writing novels, because there are some stories that can only be told in that format. The detour into oral storytelling helped me wrap another layer of understanding around my written work, and all those years of study and practice of the craft of writing has certainly shaped my spoken work. The dedication too, plays a part, because when I’m developing a spoken story, I generally work with it every day for some weeks before I feel it’s ready. Without the practice of writing my page a day, I might not have the patience I need for developing and learning a spoken story.
Another huge obstacle that turned into many opportunities was the shutdown in 2020. When the pandemic hit, like any performing artists, storytellers had gigs cancelled for months in advance. At first we thought it would be weeks, or a few months, but then it became clear that we would need to reinvent ourselves. Online storytelling is here to stay, because of the accessibility it affords for both storytellers and audience members, and many producers now offer both in-person and streaming options. Live storytelling on a platform like Zoom allows the storyteller to use the camera to good effect, and there are many creative storytellers finding audiences online, even after many people have returned to in-person events only. It has provided another avenue of exploration of the ways to convey a story to an audience.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Though many people dismiss their nighttime dreams as “day residue” or “just a dream,” in my experience, the symbols and metaphors in our dreams come to show us the places where our psyches are growing and developing. Online dream dictionaries can help us find those deeper meanings, but the most powerful work happens in the discussion of the dream with an experienced dream worker, one on one or in groups. The Projective method asks anyone speaking about another’s dream to use the first person, or “When I imagine this dream for myself, I think of this…” We do this for two reasons. One is that only the original dreamer can say with any certainty what it true about the deeper meanings of their dreams, and this certainty comes in the form of an “aha” of recognition. By expressing my thoughts about the dream images in the first person, I allow the dreamer to hear what I’m saying without getting defensive. The other reason is that it allows me to truly understand that anything I say about another person’s dream is my own projection, and at some level I wouldn’t even have the idea about what the symbol means if that weren’t true for me. This practice builds compassion because we discover the thoughts, impulses, and experiences we have in common, and that translates to waking life experiences as well. I’m much less likely to judge someone for being different, and much more likely to be curious about the ways in which we are alike.
I learned so much about dream work from the retreats I attended with Jeremy Taylor and local dream expert Billie Ortiz, that in 2013 I published a book that’s part memoir and part dream symbol dictionary called The Newcomer’s Guide to the Invisible Realm: A Journey Through Dreams, Metaphor, and Imagination, and soon after published a collection of poetry, much of it based on dreams, called Marbles. That experience stood me in good stead when it was time to record my spoken work on my two albums, The Diffendaffer Taffy Café and Simple, Clever, and Wise. Both of these recording received Honors from the World Storytelling Awards, and I was able to use my own photography on the covers of the books and the albums.
My deepest joy is building compassion, which I also accomplish through storytelling. Whether I’m telling folktales to children (or adults) or sharing personal stories, the audience is participating by imagining the story as they listen. The practice of imagining the story helps them find the places where they resonate with that experience, and for that time they’re in the story’s spell, they are metaphorically walking in others’ shoes. The shared experience of the story fosters connection between the storyteller and the audience, and among the audience members.
Many adults think that storytelling is just for children, or that it’s only personal stories in a setting like The Moth. But the world of oral storytelling encompasses much more than that, including modern retellings of folk tales, tall tales (fondly called “lies”), historical stories, and historical impersonations. Most storytelling festivals will include all of those kinds of stories. I’ve been fortunate to be invited multiple times to the Women’s Storytelling Festival, which is happening March 20-23 this year, and is available both online and in person. It’s been fun to be part of several festivals around the country, both in person and online.
Laughter Yoga builds compassion as well, because it doesn’t even require language, yet the shared experience of laughing together releases dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. All of those make us more friendly with one another. And the beauty of Laughter Yoga, which was started by Dr. Madan Kataria, MD, in Mumbai, India in 1995, is that our brains don’t know the difference between laughter as an exercise and spontaneous laughter. So we get all the benefits of laughter even if we’re “faking” it.
This is such an interesting time to be working in the traditional art of oral storytelling. The world changes faster all the time, and that creates a lot of anxiety. Human brains are used to evolving at a slower rate, and here we are in the communication revolution of the internet, leading lives more connected with people from all across the globe than humans have ever been before. Yet within that, we yearn for connection, and storytelling, where the storyteller looks the audience in the eye, satisfies that longing. I think the future of storytelling will certainly include organizations like Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST, pronounced Assist), which is online-only and was born on March 16, 2020, when storytellers were watching their scheduled gigs get cancelled, one after another. ASST set out to help itinerant storytellers learn how to tell stories online, and to raise funds to help those who couldn’t pay their bills. Online storytelling has evolved into a beautiful art form of its own, with the benefit that audiences can tune in from nursing homes, or far distant countries. And the stories will still work in the psyches of the audience and storyteller, but there is an incredible sense of community that develops when audiences are in the same room as the storyteller. There’s undeniable energy in the room.
I hope that more people discover storytelling and explore the meanings of the symbols in their dreams and find ways to laugh together. We’ll all be better off if we do more of all those things.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I’m a big fan of storytelling podcasts, including the Story Story Podcast, which is on a bit of a hiatus right now but has an incredible collection of stories told by excellent storytellers from around the world. I also find inspiration on The Apple Seed, on BYU Radio. I love Jeremy Taylor’s books on dreams, and I learn the most about dreams from actually doing dream work, often at the retreats hosted by Billie Ortiz at Wake Up to Your Dreams.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.LauraDeal.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MsDreamReader
• Other: https://www.FirstChurchofMetphor.com

Image Credits
Laura Deal at microphone credit Brenton Kirkhart.
Laura Deal at Women’s Storytelling Festival credit Jessica Robinson.
Laura Deal in classroom credit Clare Schoolmaster.