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Electric Dreams Volume 05 Issue 07
Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams
Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams
Volume 5 Issue 7
Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams
Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams
AUGUST 1998
Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams
Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams
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E L E C T R I C D R E A M S
Volume 5 Issue #7
AUGUST 1998
ISSN# 1089 4284
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Electric Dreams on the World Wide Web
USA
www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
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www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mettw/edreams/
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-- Send Dreams and Comments on Dreams to:
Bob Krumhansl <bobkrum@erols.com>
--Send Dreaming News and Calendar Events to:
Peggy Coats <pcoats@dreamtree.com>
--Send Articles and Subscription concerns to:
Richard Wilkerson: <rcwilk@dreamgate.com>
--For back issues, editors addresses
and other access & Staff see
ELECTRIC DREAMS ACCESS INFORMATION
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C O N T E N T S
++ Editor's Notes
++ Dream Airing: Notes, letters to the editor
++ Q&A: Watch Your Dreams
Nancy Huseby Bloom
++ Column: Dream Trek: The Liberation of the Creative Spirit
Linda Lane Magall¢n
++ Article: The Practical Side Of Dreaming
Janice Baylis, Ph.D.
++ Article: Dream Science and Dreamwork: Friends or Foes?
Richard Wilkerson
GLOBAL DREAMING NEWS - Peggy Coats
- Watch Your Dreams - in the Newspaper!
- ASD 1999 Conference in Santa Cruz - Seeking Volunteers
- Ione's Third Annual Dream Festival Coming in October
- Millennium Myth and Dream Tour to Egypt and Israel
- Drumming A Dream: Music As A Soul Making Path
RESEARCH & REQUESTS
- Skilled Lucid Dreamers Wanted to Participate in Scientific Research
- Lucidity Institute Experiment: Tibetan Dream Yoga Meets Western Power Napping
WEBSITE & ONLINE UPDATES
- Astrology, Dream Interpretation, Numerology and Online Tarot Readings
- Dreamwork in Australia
- Griebel's Dictionary of Dream Symbols
- Kathleen Sullivan's Dreams and Dreamwork
- Year Long Dream Course Online
- Free DreamMap Program for Downloading
- Commercial Dream Journal - Awake
- New Archive Mirror for Electric Dreams Backissues
DREAM CALENDAR for August 1998
D R E A M S SECTION INDEX BY BOB K. (For ED V5 N7)
Bob Krumshansl brings you dreams, comments on dreams and a dream editor's notes section.
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AUGUST 14, FRI deadline for submission
FOR Next Electric Dreams vol 5(8)
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Editor's Notes
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Dreams, what good are they?
We have known for some time that they are quite useful to interpreters who explore them for psychological and spiritual purposes.
For several years, Nancy Bloom has been helping people explore dreams for personal growth and awareness and lends to Electric Dreams this month some selections from her column, Watch Your Dreams.
We also know that a full theory of the mind must take them into account. But can dream science offer dreamwork any help? Investigate this area in my articles Dream Science and Dreamwork: Friends or Foes?
But do dreams offer something beyond these usual approaches?
In this issue Janice Baylis explores the Practical side of dreaming. Take a trip into the world of dreams as it relates to help with health and safety, finances, career, creativity, interpersonal relationships and personality growth.
In our attempts to make use of dreams, are we missing the most exciting potential of all, the release of our magical child? Linda Magallon gives us direction in turning dreaming into an art form that develops and transcends normative dreaming and dreamwork in The Liberation of the Creative Spirit.
Dream News: so what is happening? Peggy Coats brings you the latest news from around in world, both online and off. Find out about Dreamwork in Australia. Join in an experiment from the Lucidity Institute. Download a free dream-analysis program. Find out what events are happening in your area. Check out the newest Web sites on dreams and dreaming.
Bob Krumhansl is back this month with the dreams and comments! Be sure to read his editorial and check out the Dream Section.
Also, Bob could use some volunteers. If you have a little time, just a few minutes a week, send me a note "Hey Richard, I want to volunteer, tell me more!"
Richard Wilkerson rcwilk@dreamgate.com
Do you have a dream related Web-site? Be sure to send us a link with a description of our site to be added to our Giant Links page:
www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/online97.htm
What happened to JULY ED? Well, this is it, we just decided to move the months up by one.
Speaking of Backissues:
Special thanks to Low Bandwidth for not only putting up a site on Electric Dreams, but including the FULL ascii txt archive, from issue #1 in 1994 to the latest issue in 1998. If you are missing an issue, be sure to stop by and get a copy. They have many other interesting zones for you to enter besides dreams and dreaming.
http://www.disobey.com/low/listings/electric_dreams.htm
How would you like to get an Illustrated version of Electric Dreams? We have made it very easy. Just sign up and well send you a free copy via email. You unzip the issue and read it in your own web browser offline for speed and beauty. The covers alone make it worthwhile! How?
Send and email
TO: edream-web-request@list.best.com
In the body of the email put only
Subscribe your-email
You can check out how this will look online at
http://wkweb4.cableinet.co.uk/dma/ed/start.htm
Illustrated versions are sent out about a week after the regular edition.
Finally, the dream groups: The dreamwheel will start the 1st of August. If you would like to join in the group (via email) send me note and say, "Hey Richard, I want to join the DreamWheel group, send me more info and sign me up!" rcwilk@dreamgate.com
++ Richard
"I wake up in the morning with a dream in my eyes."
allen ginsberg
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Dream Airing
Notes, letters to the editor
Send to rcwilk@dreamgate.com
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Subj: JungNet: Sad News...
Date: 98-07-19 17:21:23 EDT
From: nautis@webcom.com (Matthew Clapp)
To: JUNGNET@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is with deep regret that I inform you of the passing of Edward F. Edinger. He died on July 17 after some months of ill-health. He was 76 years old.
There will be a memorial service, date to be announced, at the C.G. Jung Institute, 10349 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064. (Tel. 310-556-1193; fax 310-556-2290; web site
http://home.earthlink.net/~junginla/). Instead of flowers, donations welcome to the journal Psychological Perspectives (same address).
We mourn the loss of a great man, whose writings in the service of Jungian psychology are known world-wide. We are proud to have published 10 of his books, and greatful(sic) to have 2 more in hand, available next year.
Meanwhile, we invite you to send us brief appreciations of Dr. Edinger's work, to be included in a special edition of our newsletter, Jung at Heart. If you are so inclined, please send by September 1.
-Sincerely, Daryl Sharp.
Obituary:
http://home.earthlink.net/~junginla/edinger.htm
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From
Patricia Kampmeier <patkamp@pacbell.net>
I am *Still* collecting dreams for a book!
of fish, worms, wolves, cats and salamanders, and also numinous dreams of any kind. Series of any of these would be especially interesting. Please tell your dream(s) and then a little about what that symbol means for you. If you wish to show the work you have done, including drawings, to arrive at that meaning(s),that would be great, too, though not necessary.
Several meanings for a particular symbol are OK, since dreams are
many-layered. I would also like to know how old you were when you had each dream.
You can email me
patkamp@pacbell.net
or use the online form
www.dreamgate.com/dream/kampmeier/
Thanks, Pat
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Electric Dreams Cover - For you to download!
Electric Dreams would like to thank Artist Bryan A. Smith <bryan@thinkpiece.com>
www.thinkpiece.com
If you are interested in learning more about the artist, and viewing his more of his work, you are invited to visit his site at:
http://www.thinkpiece.com
You are also invited to forward comments to Bryan at:
bryan@thinkpiece.com
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Watch Your Dreams
with Nancy Huseby Bloom
dream@icehouse.net
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Nancy has worked with dreams for nearly twenty years and has facilitated dream groups for about 12. She have formal training from the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, but notes that most of her knowledge of dreams comes from her own studies, her dream groups and working with her own dreams.
She is currently facilitating two groups, has a self-syndicating column, and has written several papers She also works in TV and Radio promoting dream awareness, a calling from the Infinite.
Here she shares with us a few Questions and Answers on Dreams.
Dear Nancy,
I have been having dreams with the same theme for the last month now. In each one I am shot or killed. In one of my dreams I am shot in the leg. In the next one I am shot in the stomach and left for dead. Is this a sign of what will happen in the future? Why do I continue to have these dreams? The situation is different each time but I always end up getting shot. Sheila
Dear Sheila,
These dreams can be explored in several different ways. First of all, had you seen a particularly violent scene in a movie or read a disturbing account of a shooting in the newspaper around the time the dreams started? These images and reports can stay with us, sometimes for years, putting fear in our lives and effecting our dreams.
Being shot may also suggest that you are feeling attacked or victimized in some way. Dreams often revise or exaggerate waking life situations so that verbal abuse in the form of sarcasm or criticism can be converted by the psyche into a vicious and sudden physical assault. Being shot in the legs may be a sign you are feeling trapped or unable to move. Being shot in the heart or chest suggests a broken heart, whereas a head injury would signal the destruction of ideas or clear thinking.
You shared with me on the telephone that you have had a good marriage and happy family life, but that your husband has become increasingly jealous and recently commented that he would "shoot you" if you ever had an affair. You may not have felt threatened when your husband actually said those words but your psyche may have taken it as a serious warning. Reckless comments can become a source of deep anxiety and fear.
Jealously can be a serious problem in relationships so it might be wise to seek out someone who can help you with this problem.
On a personal level are you changing or in a transition right now? Death in dreams is often about the dying away of old parts of ourselves, such as outmoded beliefs, attitudes and ways of being. The old must die to make way for the development of new life, ideas or creativity.
Sometimes our own death in dreams is an indication of a desire to escape from life and all of its responsibilities or to punish ourselves in some way. Most of the time, these desires are totally unconscious and the dreams fulfill our wishes so we dont feel the need to do it in our waking life.
Your question to me was, Is this a sign of what will happen in the future? It eases my mind that each dream is a different situation and in a different location. If it were my dream I would concentrate more on the other issues I have presented, while still being aware of where I am and my surroundings.
Keep a dream journal to help you chart the course of your dreams. Date each entry and be sure to include a sentence or two describing any important conversations or interactions with family or friends and your feelings that day. Be sure to write down all dreams, not just the shooting dreams, as they will provide more clues.
If these dreams continue, it would be wise to speak with a trusted friend, minister or counselor.
Week of August 16
Dear Nancy,
I keep a journal and have explored my dreams for years. I am pretty content with my life but too busy with work and the care of my elderly parents. I recently took on another job, which I am adjusting to, but Im feeling stressed out and could use a break. I loved this dream. Diana
I am at a woman's home with my two grown daughters. She is serving us lunch. She has fixed large plates of elaborate, gourmet finger foods but a small bowl of thick vegetable soup is set at my place at the table. The bowl is pretty and very full but I wonder why I am getting something different and less elegant. I walk over to a wooden box and see a beautifully colored bird that is close to death and my heart goes out to him. I pick him up carefully. He is wild and afraid of me. I hold him close to my heart to give him comfort and support while I look for food for him. I feed him and he gets stronger. I put him in a cupboard so he can explore. He loves that so I put him in a drawer to explore there. He is very friendly now and I pick him up and set him on my shoulder. He says, "Tch, tch, tch, ahh....." twice, and pats my cheek lovingly with his wing. I feel an incredible love for him. He is going to live in my pocket so he can come out and explore anytime he wants.
Dear Diana,
What a beautiful dream! Let's begin by exploring the images of the food being served.
Food often symbolizes nourishment of the mental, emotional, physical or spiritual self. This scene suggests that you feel you are receiving nourishment but others around you are getting a more beautiful and grand experience. Do you find yourself comparing your life with others? Do you feel your daughter's lives are more upscale and elegant than yours?
The health and condition of dream animals always gives us deep insight into our own mental or emotional health. Birds are often symbols of freedom but right now your life seems to be restricted to work and the care of your parents.
You shared with me that you love to travel and experience new places but had to forego that pleasure this year. This little dying bird, this part of you that longs to fly and explore, needs to be cared for and nourished. The care and attention you give to him you give to that part of yourself.
Your dream suggests that he would be happy exploring even small, common places. Can you find a bit of extra time for yourself each day and perhaps a couple of hours each weekend? Sometimes just allowing time for taking walks, finding new and interesting things in your own neighborhood or pursuing a new creative outlet can be enough.
You have nurtured and revived this little bird and now he lives in your pocket. A pocket is a place for safekeeping but also a place to hide things. I would caution you not to forget about him again. Your wandering and adventurous spirit needs care and nurturing.
Only when we care for ourselves can we truly care for others. I would hope you have a dream soon where he is carrying you aloft on his back.
Nancy Huseby Bloom <dream@icehouse.net>
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DREAM TREK
By Linda Lane Magall¢n
The Liberation of the Creative Spirit
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Good morning Star Shine
The Earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Once upon a time, when we were children, Alice tumbled down a rabbit hole, Dorothy and Toto walked into Oz and Wynken, Blynken and Nod sailed off into a sea of stars. Dreams and imagination flew at high mast, as the clear and brightly colored banners of childhood.
Nowadays, in a dreamworkers' group, I'll listen to adults tell their dreams and it sounds like the sparkling night sky has been covered with storm clouds, smothered with low-lying tule fog or enveloped in black forgetfulness. Where did the stars go? What happened to the swinging moon, the soaring comet and the sweet Milky Way?
Dreamwork can clue us into the reasons why the sky closes in. Conflicted dreams are sure signs of psychological wounds and psychic trauma extending back even to infancy. Our abused and neglected child of the past is still alive in us and influences us in the present. Because that child speaks through dreams, dreamwork interpretation techniques can unlock the seeds of conflict.
It is the task of the recovery process to diagnose and heal past abuse, to "recover" the child and make it whole. For some, this merely means a return to what passes for normal in our culture. In dreaming terms, it is a shift from nightmare to the usual, mundane dream.
But the recovered child has been called The Inner Self. The Divine Child. The Magical Spirit. The Creative Child. Recovery actually means going BEYOND the norm.
For those engaged in this creative process, it will involve the "uncovering"of other seeds, like artistic ability that, through development and training, can blossom into marketable talent. It is not presumed nor guaranteed that everyone who recovers his or her Creative Child will become the next Michaelangelo, but that possibility is not dismissed, either. Everyone from the doodler to Dali is honored for re-accessing his or her core spirit of creativity.
I wish I could say I see the same thing happening in terms of the Magical Spirit of Dreams, but I don't. The focus on dreamwork as healing the hurt and fixing the flaw leaves out something very important. While this sort of dreamwork hogs center stage, the Creative, Magical Child is left standing, waiting in the wings.
With the possible exception of the lucid dreaming community, there is little recognition that dreaming is an art, capable of development and training, Some would and have argued against such an active approach. Rather, the emphasis is on dreams as a "natural process." Everybody dreams, let's leave it at that.
My response would be: everybody breathes. That's a natural process, too, but does it mean that no one can or should develop and train breathing? Tell that to the opera singer, the scuba diver, the meditator or the mother-to-be in labor. There are many useful and creative reasons to take a proactive approach to breathing and our society is capable of honoring them all.
So why can't our society do the same honor to the art of dreaming?
As I value helping my physical children to achieve their dreams, so I value the worthy cause of helping my Creative Child of Dreams blossom. I want to liberate the Inner Spirit of dream; to release her genius. I want to return her true royal heritage. I want to see her have every chance to achieve her richest potential, to be the magical, super, wondrous self I know she can be.
So let's blow the lid off the creative glass ceiling-to soar above the limits of mundane, waking ego constraints to the heights of a magical dream life of the Inner Child of Dreams.
Let's take back the starry night.
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THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF DREAMING
by Janice Baylis, Ph.D.
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Practical dreaming, is that an oxymoron? Let's explore and find out. There's nothing wrong with dreams that move the dreamer along spiritually. Each of my books devote chapters to spiritual dreams. But, likewise, I see nothing wrong with, and lots right with, dreams that help the dreamer along in the mundane, practical areas of their life. We can all use help with health and safety, finances, career, creativity, interpersonal relationships and personality growth.
Back in 1959, when I was a young mother and teacher, I drove sixty miles round-trip to work. After surgery a fellow teacher, Mabel Olsen, asked me to pick her up part way to shorten her drive. We choose a parking lot in front of some stores as the spot to leave her car.
We met there daily at 7 am. One morning Mabel phoned me before I left my house and asked me to meet her around the corner on the residential street. She said that she felt badly about taking up space in the parking lot all day. That morning while Mabel was getting into my car on the residential street we heard an enormous CRASH! When we got back by the parking lot we saw a small airplane upside down in the corner of the lot where we would have been.
I stopped the car, stared at Mabel and asked her how she'd known. "I dreamt it last night," she said,"But I didn't tell you because I thought you might think it was silly to pay attention to a dream. I didn't know if it would really happen."
In case you are having trouble accepting that warning dreams occur consider the case of the Titanic. The British Society for Psychical Research has records of four precognitive dreams reported before the sinking of the Titanic. Two passengers with tickets for the maiden voyage dreamed of drowning and cancelled their trips. Two other passengers reported dreams of drowning but went anyway and did drown.
That practical dream launched me on a life-long, self-directed, in-depth study of dreams. I soon discovered the Edgar Cayce dream interpretation work. He was a trance clairvoyant who interpreted over 600 dreams while in trance. His interpretations acknowledged the practical side of dreaming. He made many statements like this one, " The dreams as we see that come to this body, with their lessons, are the experiences necessary for the entity's ...better development mentally, morally, spiritually, financially, see?" This is from Cayce Reading 136-15. He frequently mentioned physically as well.
I tabulated the dreams in the Cayce series and found these percentages.
11% Health and safety - diet, exercise, warnings etc.
14% Financial and job related - real estate, investments, spending etc.
27% Interpersonal relationships - family, co-workers, friends.
20% Personality or character - too much or too little ego, etc.
4% Creativity - project design, marketing etc.
9% Concept understanding and thinking - What's it all about?
15% Spiritual development - purification and even cosmic consciousness.
This article is about some dreams that have helped people in these various areas of their lives.
You will also learn something about how dreams use a visual picture image to stand in for a related or associated non-visual concept. Dreams also take what we would say, including jargon, slang and figures of speech, and make a picture of it. Often to understand we have to take the picture and put it back into words, the verbal message.
One of the best known Bibical dreams offered physical guidance. I mean the Pharoah's dream of seven fat cattle and seven fat ears of corn devoured by seven lean cattle and seven parched ears of corn. Through the warning from this dream the Egyptian nation stored up food ahead of their seven year drought and were saved from starvation. Very practical.
We all have this source of practical guidance speaking to us every night. It might be as simple as this woman's dream. She was enjoying a vacation with the usual food fun.
"I am in the hotel dining room at a table with my in-laws. (The in-laws weren't really with me). A little pig, wearing a dress, walks into the room. I know it is my pig. I think it is so cute. I can hardly wait to take it home and share it with my children. Then I realize it is cute now because it is little, but if I take it home it will grow and grow and become a big, fat problem."
This was a gentle nudge from her dream-mind. It is okay, with in the law, to be a little piggy while on vacation. But a big, fat problem if you keep it up at home.
We often dream about what is on our waking mind. A young bachelor was living in an apartment but had started checking out condominiums. He was thinking it would be a good idea to start building up some equity. After a day of condo searching he had this dream.
"A hand appears and shows me a business card. On the card is the address of the condo I'd like the best. The hand then gave the card to one of the girls I have been dating"
He bought the condo. A year later he married the girl in the dream. Still later when they had a baby he was really glad he'd bought that condo. They now had enough equity to buy a house for the family. I call that practical financial guidance.
A dream student of mine and her husband were planning to buy a half acre in San Diego County, build a house and retire. They gave a realtor a price range and he showed them some lots. They said they'd let him know. During the next week the wife had this dream.
"My husband and I are buying a bird's nest. It looks very soft and cozy. I am especially impressed with the lovely tree it is in. "
When they went back the next week-end she asked the realtor about lots with trees. He told them they had some but they would cost more than they'd mentioned. They looked anyway and bought one in a hollow to build their little nest. They got a much pleasanter homesite and it was financially wise too.
Pansy Essman was a grandmother with an assemblyline job in a factory. She and her daughter brought the first grandchild home from the hospital together. They gave Baby Letha her first bath. The baby was frightened. She screamed and kicked and all of them got soaked. That night Grandma Pansy had a dream.
"I went to my closet and took out a sponge-like pillow shaped to hold a baby's body. I used it to give Letha a bath and she loved it. I woke up and realized I had the answer to the problem many mothers have with newborns "
After six months of research Pansy had the colorful, non-allergenic sponge she needed. She formed her own company, Pansy Ellen Baby Bathaids. Soon they were manufacturing 20,000 baby bath pillows every month. Pretty practical financial dream guidance wouldn't you agree?
A great deal of adult life is spent on the job and many dreams concern the dreamer's work life.
Jean, a secretary for an oil company executive brought this dream to my class. She asked one of the most common questions, "Why did I dream of "So and So", I haven't thought of him in thirty years?" Here is her dream.
"My boss and I are up on top of an old oil rig. It is very wobbly and shaky. I look down and there is Mr. "So and So" looking up at us."
I asked her several questions about this man such as his name, character traits, physical traits, occupation etc. It turned out he had owned and operated the concession stand at their local beach. After some discussion it came to light that Jean's boss was rigging things at the company in a dishonest way As a result he was rising to the top in the company. Jean knew about the illegal maneuvering but had made concessions about it because her job seemed to depend on it.
The dream seemed to indicate that the situation was getting shaky. So, Jean got herself another job, and none too soon. Her boss was found out and toppled from his position. Another case of practical dream information.
Cindy was disgruntled at work and was considering quitting. But, a good job in a medical lab would not be easily replaced. Her dreams gave her an idea where the problem was and how she could fix it.
"I am at work. It is late afternoon, just about quitting time. I have long black hair (my real hair is brown and shorter). This long black hair is getting in my eyes and interfering with my work.
"I leave work and on my way home I stop and get a hair cut. Next morning I arrive at work with short hair and it is blonde. My co-workers clamor around admiring my new short, blonde hair.
"A company nurse comes up and says, "Oh, how great! This is just what the doctor ordered to grow a new culture. He is sure a culture grown from short, blonde hair will produce a medicine with great healing power." The nurse took a strand of my hair and went off to start a culture plate."
You see, dreams use visual things that can be associated with the non-visual idea they want to represent. Since hair and thinking both come from the head they are associated by the similarity of location. Cindy's long, black dream hair represented lots of dark, negative thoughts. It was Cindy's own negative thinking that was interfering with her work. Cindy's fault-finding personality was the problem.
The dream suggests that Cindy "cut that out" and "lighten up". If she appeared at work with a more cultured, less critical attitude her co-workers would admire her. It wasn't easy but Cindy did manage to change her thinking. This dream combined practical career, self-growth and interpersonal guidance.
Probably the most troublesome area of life is interpersonal relationships. People are so peoplish. But, our dreams will help. Before giving the next dream example I am reminded of something Dr. Ann Faraday said in her book, The Dream Game, "People are often incredulous when they first learn of the dreaming mind's capacity for playing with words. Freud noted it as did Carl Jung and others such as the American psychic, Edgar Cayce."
Sally had only been married a couple of weeks when she had this dream.
"I'm walking through a World War II defense plant. I spot a photographic negative on the floor. I hold it up to the light and see that it is a picture of my new father-in-law. I start to throw it is the wastebasket but it is too big. So, I pin it on a nearby bulletin board."
This man she said was very difficult, noone in the family could get along with him. Yes, she agreed he was very defensive and negative and also he was of World War II vintage. Okay, we got the picture. Her dream is shedding light on this man. He is too big a thing in her life to toss in the wastebasket. The dream has a practical suggestion for her. Take special notice of him, pay lots of attention to him. Sally tried this approach. Soon everyone in the family was impressed at how well they were getting along.
New married life requires lots of adjustments. Here is an example from the Cayce files. The dreamer had been married six months. She had the dream on Dec. 10th, right around gift shopping time. She dreamed she wanted to buy her husband something so she went into a store to buy him some ties. She felt they cost too much so decided to buy herself some jelly beans instead.
Cayce, in trance, told her that it was about her need to manifest special relations (ties) regarding her husband. Going back on that when ties are being attempted to be purchased and the turn to herself for physical satisfaction was not good. She needed to pay the price for the new family ties so that "the better relations throughout these periods may be the more perfectly manifested."
Cayce Reading 136-23.
Mother's often have difficulty with teenage sons. The mother may complain to the father and then the boy is in trouble with both parents. Such was the case when this mother had this dream.
"It is early morning (Comes the dawn). I am in bed with my husband, biting his ear. Our son comes in and tells me he needs some change for school. I say, 'There is a dollar on the night stand.'
'No' he says, 'I need change, quarters, dimes, nickles.' I am very upset with him.
"Then he becomes himself at the age of nine. I remember how he was my freckle-faced darling and I give him a big hug."
The message she got from that dream was to change her relationship to her son. To stop complaining and to just love him as she did when he was younger. Sounds practical to me.
A young college girl came to one of my dream study classes curious about a recurring dream. She'd been having this dream off and on since she was sixteen.
"A large pair of men's feet come out of the drawers of my bedroom chest. The feet walk up and down all over me.
Sometimes I know they are my father's feet, sometimes they are the feet of a boyfriend."
Due to her childhood family life, her idea of male-female relationships was that men dominate. She could easily see her dreams were telling her repeatedly that "men walk all over you". She agreed that it was true. Just as her father had "walked all over" her mother and herself, she didn't feel it could be any other way. As suggested by the drawers in her bedroom boyfriends took advantage of her sexually because she allowed it.
This dream really helped her understand the pattern, where it came from AND that it didn't have to be that way. This was a great psychological breakthrough for her. She became more self-protective and assertive and men began treating her better, more respectfully.
Creative problem solving is a practical feature of dreams. The "Sleep on it" advice has been around for centuries. Elias Howe when he was trying to design a sewing machine began by using a needle like the hand sewing needle, one with a hole in the blunt end. It wasn't working. Finally one night he dreamed some natives were prodding him along with spears. They were taking him to boiling the pot. Just before he woke up he noticed that each spear had a hole in the pointed end.
Not having heard of Freudian dream interpretation he did the practical thing and applied the idea to his design problem. The rest is history. Aristotle once said that the key to dream interpretation is resemblances. The spears and the sewing needle resemble each other. They share shape qualities both being long, narrow and pointed. Their functions and location are different but differences don't count. It is similarities that we use to make associations awake or asleep.
Practical dreaming is not an oxymoron. To be a dream and to be practical is by no means a contradiction in terms.
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The dreams in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from my files and my books, SLEEP ON IT! The Practical Side of Dreaming, and Sex, Symbols and Dreams. <www.dreamdecoding.com> or <www.amazon.com>
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Dream Science and Dreamwork: Friends or Foes?
Richard Wilkerson
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o Introduction: Why Dream Science and Dreamwork?
So why should a dream worker or someone just interested in his or her own dreams care about the science of dreaming?
There are several reasons. The first is that if you work with the meaning of dreams you will eventually be confronted by someone who will tell you that science has found that dreams are random and have no meaning and are nothing but the mind getting rid of garbage.
Is this really what science really has found?
If so, what on earth are we doing when we comment on the meaning of dreams, why talk about it at all? Understanding what dreaming science is about will allow you to not only come to your own conclusions on this, but can also lead to new discoveries and techniques in dream sharing.
Lucid dreaming, for example, has come about in part due to some clever people utilizing dream science studies on REM and realizing that if the eyes move during dreams, that we could use them to signal from the dream state. Also, Pre-sleep stimulus experiments help us understand and develop techniques in dream incubation and other pre-sleep intentions we want to carry into the dream state. Clinical observations and content analysis allow us to make intelligent statements about what we do and don't dream about. Understanding of dream physiology helps us to understand and control the amount of recall we want with dreams. And these are but a few of the ways that dreaming science contributes to dream work.
In this quick survey, we can't really cover half a century of science - but what I can do is give you a peek into the issues being investigated and discussed, and provide references for those areas that are of interest to you. Also, the story of the discovery of REM sleep is interesting and helps to understand the different kinds of consciousness that can be studied.
oThe REM story in short - Discovery
Before the discovery of REM (Rapid Eye Movement during dreaming) it was believed that there was just one kind of sleep state.
In 1953 at the University of Chicago, Nathaniel Kleitman and his student Eugene Aserinsky found otherwise. (Aserinsky & Kleitman, 1953) Dr. Kleitman had been studying sleep difficulties in infants and wanted to explore the slow rolling eye movements that babies have at sleep onset. He had his student Aserinsky watch these movements of sleepy infants. What surprised Aserinsky and changed the notion of sleep forever, was the occasional occurrence of very rapid movements of the eyes at various times during the sleep cycle. Though the eyes remained closed, they moved just as if the child was awake and outside playing games. Aserinsky and Kleitman then monitored adults and found the same thing, and that these eye movements lasted anywhere from three to fifty-five minutes (Van De Castle, 1994). Since the movements appeared as if the sleepers were scanning, they decided to awaken them and ask what they were looking at. They were, more often than not, dreaming. When they woke sleepers up when there was no eye movement, they rarely reported dreams. These discoveries were reported in _Science_ on September 4th, 1953 and again in an expanded article in 1955. It was the beginning of what is now 40 years of dream research in the sciences.
While Aserinsky finished his medical program and left the labs, William C. Dement (1976) filled his place and soon was able to characterize sleep in stages. Part of understanding that the REM state is different is that it is a physiologically different state than waking or other kinds of sleep. During REM sleep, there are irregular patterns in breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. Our muscles are tense, though they can twitch and jerk. It is often said that all motor commands from the brain to the muscles are cut off during REM, but this may be a little misleading. As Alan Worsley has stated about the lucid dream state, though somewhat paralyzed, there is a bit of an ability to control the twitching and spasms.
o Stages of Sleep
Here is a characterization of REM and sleep based on the Sleep Laboratories and Dream Research pamphlet put out by the Association for the Study of Dreams.:
"In sleep, people tend to move through REM and nonREM (NREM) stages in a predictable way. When first falling asleep, people move into stage one sleep. In this transitional period, they sometimes experience little "dreamlets". They then move into stages two, three, and four, with each stage marking a progressively "deeper" sleep. But then, usually about an hour or two after they've gone to sleep, people move back "up" through states three, two and one, and enter the first REM stage of the night. REM sleep is sometimes called "paradoxical sleep" because it is both light *and* deep. REM sleep brings people very close to waking, and yet it is clearly the time when they are most "out of it". The first REM period of the night usually lasts only a few minutes, After that, people go back "down" to stages two, three and four, As the night goes on, the REM periods get longer and longer, until they last for an hour or more, At the same time, people spend less time in non REM sleep. By the end of the night they stop having stage four sleep, and basically alternate between stage two and REM. Thus, people have most of their REM sleep towards the end of the night."
o Why we have REM
Though little talked about in the general culture compared to the consciousness, unconsciousness and sleep in general, the REM state takes up a significant portion of our lives (Fishbein, 1981). About one out of every 13 days of hours is taken up by REM sleep, which comes out to about 7 or 8 years of dreaming in a lifetime. So what's it for?
At first it was thought that REM equals dreaming, but soon it was found that dreaming could occur in non-REM (NREM) and other states. Still, one can get a dream report from a person awakened from REM about 80% of the time and many researchers still seem to confuse or combine the two (Hunt, 1989). Watch for this error.
There are now several theories how REM sleep may be adaptive to our survival ("Survival" being one of the few paradigms that science can talk about). We don't have the time or space to do much more than mention them, but I'd like to at least do that.
- The Arousal/Sentinel Theories. These theories suggests that the animal needs to be somewhat ready to interact with the outer environment (Cohen, 1979). Sleep puts the animal in a dangerously un-alert condition. REM sleep corrects this by activating the brain without fully awakening the animal.
An offshoot of this theory is that REM sleep is a less advanced sleep than NREM and will someday simple disappear (Hunt, 1989). This theory is hard to refute, but just as hard to accept or prove.
A variation of this includes the need for arousal to maintain the ego-self structure and for visual processing particular to mammals (Ellman, 1991).
- The Learning Theories. These range from postulates that REM is actually coding our genetic structure to ideas that REM facilitates learning. See below "Dream Recall and Memory Process" for more on these theories.
- Theories and REM Deprivation
One way to study what REM does is to not let sleepers have any. In REM deprivation experiments, sleepers are allowed stage 1-4 sleep, but awakened during REM. Some findings (Goodenough, 1991) showed that for the next few nights there is a rebound effect and we go into REM faster and have more of it. Lack of REM seems to impair our functioning and self image, though this effect is very subtle and highly controversial.
Also, not only does REM deprivation lead to more dreaming in subsequent nights, but more *intense* dreaming. Still, the final word on all this is not out and the conservative researchers are saying at this time that there is no provable injury to one's mental health. Nor does there seem to be enough evidence to judge the theory that REM sleep is for memory consolidation, though many still hope to prove this. One thing that is clear is that individual differences are significant. The strongest example is that inner directed individuals, those who can easily fantasize, seems less disrupted by REM deprivation. Again, the future of REM deprivation experimentation will have to better be able to distinguish between REM and dreaming
o Recall Science
I'm going to use Dream Recall Studies as a kind of sample of what has been going on in dream science and how it can be useful to us as dream concerned individuals. I'm hoping this will demonstrate how you can explore dream science for more personal skills and techniques.
As an Exercise: Rather than just reading this information for knowledge about dreaming and sleeping, see if each piece of evidence my give you a hint for something you might be able to do to control the amount of dream recall you have. Devise a technique you can apply to dream recall.
Generally, dream recall research looks at issues of *content* or *process* (Goodenough, 1991). The content theories include: salience (relevancy, novelty, bizarreness, affectfulness, or intensity), its opposite - dream disorganization (too chaotic to be remembered), interference (example: body movements disrupt recall), disinterest in dreams, and repression. The process theories are mostly memory- process oriented, with the inclusion of arousal theories, state dependent learning and the new neural net connectionist theories.
- Repression:
Due to the strong influence of psychodynamic dream theory, a major reason postulated for the lack of dream recall is that dreams contain things we just don't want to remember. This is content that the waking self just can't handle or would cause too much distress if remembered. This dream material is referred to as "ego toxic". This follows from Freud's notion that dreams are mediating desires that are pushing for expression and attention and counter forces keeping those thoughts and impulses from disturbing the sleeper. Most of the content is disguised before reaching consciousness, but some gets kept away from the waking ego altogether. Hence the memory loss. Or at least, this is the theory.
The clinicians feel that the notion is useful and the process easily observed over time (Goodenough, 1991). New patients recall less dreams. As patients begin to show other signs of less resistance to the material that the dream content is displaying, more of this dream content shows up. The higher the repression, the lower the content. However, these ideas are more anecdotal clinical observations than tested research. Attention to dream recall seems to bring more of it about - do we have to postulate that this is due to being less repressed? The tests that look at personality are not very conclusive. The typical approach (Witkin, 1970) is to test people that seem to be more repressed and the results are just not very convincing. There is little difference in recall between those considered repressed and those who are not.
More Personality tests in relation to repression results:
http://www.dreamgate.com/dlc/classes
o Summarizing the repression study clues for recall.
Generally, it seems that repression plays a role, but just how it works is not at all clear. Therapies and activities we take up that reduce our repressive habits could increase our recall. Becoming more internally cued and allowing for more divergent activities looks like a possibility. Reducing anxiety before bedtime may decrease anxious images that could lead to a repressed dream. Not always telling our dreams to the same person(s) or internal person(s) might open up new channels of dreams that would be repressed by our habits of dream sharing to just one real or imaginary person. Included in this may be re-visioning our inner mothers to tell us when we have a dream something like "Oh, boy, that's a great dream, tell me more!" And this may also lead us in another important direction. If we learn to engage anxiety and imaginal fear a little more, we will be able to have alternatives to just pushing odd and stressful things away. It is a useful basic strategy to delay and set aside stressors, but not a long term solution to everything. And so, one approach, like the child who is encouraged to tell or draw a dream, is to do so ourselves. Different forms of storytelling and dreamsharing may allow us to play with material that otherwise might be too toxic and forgotten as useless.
Though we have but barely touched upon the idea of dreams and repression by going through a general summary of the empirical research, its clear that the studies can support and enhance our control of dream recall. There are some other interesting areas that might be explored here. For one thing, we have focused only on *amount* and not on *quality* of recall. But more important than putting out a perfect summary I wanted to show that we could as individuals use the available research to our advantage.
- Dream Recall and Memory-Process
When we view dream recall from the standpoint of content, the focus is on how that content disrupts recall. In memory-process theory the focus is on how *all* memory and information acquisition is impaired during sleep, (contrary to the recently pop ideas on sleep learning).
There is a little evidence, according to Goodenough, that state-dependent learning is part of the issue. State-dependent learning theory came from observations in drug studies where information learned in a drugged state was forgotten in the non-drugged state, but then remembered again when the subject was again in the drugged state (Tart, 1975). The same can be found in dreams - that a task taught to a dreamer in REM would not carry over into NREM nor waking. And dreamers sometimes report recalling in a dream something they had previously dreamt about, but hadn't recalled until memory of the dream occurred in a new dream. But state-dependency seems to account for only a small part of the loss of memory during sleep (Cartwright, 1977)
This information may still be helpful to us as dream recallers. Long term dream recallers do know that if one tries to remain in the sleeping position, and close to the sleep state, that recall in enhanced.
Memory Consolidation or Arousal-Retrieval?
Traditional memory studies divide memory into long term and short term memory. Short term memory is temporary and information held there disappears. For information to be stored in long term memory in a way that it can be retrieved, requires more that just loading short term memory.
One popular theory (Polombo, 1978) is that the transfer from short to long term memory requires waking consciousness. The further from the dream in time one is awakened, the less chance there is of that dream being remembered. If one is distracted upon awakening from a dream, the chances of recall go down. If one wakes up in the middle of the night with a dream, the longer one stays awake, the greater the chance that dream will be re-remembered in the morning.
At first it was thought that the problem was that consciousness was needed to move the dreams in short term memory to long term memory. But later it was felt that the problem was not so much getting the dream memories in long term memory, but getting them out. Dreamers often report not recalling a dream in the morning and then later in the day something will trigger the whole recall of the dream. This is not a case of the dream not being consolidated in long term memory, but of the addressing system to get it out.
What does this tell us to help us recall dreams? First of all its important to talk about the specific tasks that short term waking consciousness performs that facilitate recall. They seem to be repetition/rehearsal, recording, and reorganization. Any distraction during waking (or guilty complexes distracting us) will make it more difficult to recall the dream. Going over the dream, recording (or pretending to record) the dream and reorganization or seeing the dream from various viewpoints all will increase recall.
For those interested in dreamwork, recall is often the main issue. Study and readings of recall research can lead to new techniques for dream concerned individuals and cut down the time spent on approaches that are unlikely to succeed.
o The Content of Dreams
Although there have been only a few major studies before Calvin Hall and Robert Van de Castle's work, these two are the names that come up most often in connection with dream content studies.
Hall wanted to discover the cognitive factors behind the images that might support his cognitive dream theories. From the late 1930's to the late 1950's he collected and sorted through thousands of dream reports of students at Western Reserve University.
Some of the Results: (Hall &Van De Castle, 1966)
The most common setting: Home or other Building. Yet while familiar living places were common, work places were very infrequent. Automobiles frequently appeared. Strangers appeared more frequently than not, though friends and family also were abundant. Men seem to dream more about men than women, but women dream about both sexes equally. Usually the people we dream about are about our own age.
We really like to move in dreams. Body movements, walking and running especially. After that, we like to talk, only occasionally sitting and watching. We hardly ever cook, type or fix things.
Statistically, more than not, dream encounters with others are hostile and the feeling in the dream unpleasant. And yet when you ask dreamers if they like dreams, most say yes! It seems the chance to indulge in surreal events outweighs the negativity surround this happening.
The content analysis of dreams is still in its infancy, and there are hopes that the Internet will bring about wider ranged studies. The possibility of having thousands of individuals typing dreams each morning into the computer and having these dreams immediately sorted has intrigued more than one researcher.
o The Effect of Stimuli before and during Dreaming
In the Nineteenth Century it was popular for scientists to believe in associationalism. In the mind, one stimulus would lead to another, and so on. If perfume were introduced to a sleeper on a hot night, it was thought that it would elicit dreams of tropical romance. The influence of psychoanalysis challenged this simple one to one correspondence, but it would be half a century before science would test these and other theories with rigorous science.
What better way than the modern clinical sleep lab, for example, to test whether dreams are compensating daytime activities as Jung suggested, or hiding anxious memories as Freud thought?
Well, it has not been quite so easy. It is clear that dreams can be influenced by external stimuli, but this still tells us little about the way the dream is constructed.
Stimuli During Dreaming Sleep
It appears that when we dream there is a barrier which surrounds us and filters out much of the external stimuli, allowing us to sleep peacefully and undisturbed. But as we all know, there is a limit to what is blocked. Loud noises and lights and shoves can wake us up. Furthermore, as every mother knows, significant sound like a child's crying that may not wake up Dad, will arouse Mom. But what about sounds and events that are not strong enough to wake us up, but strong enough to get incorporated into an ongoing dream?
Berger (1963) tested a variety of influences and found many stimuli do get through, the most often incorporated being water sprays. In his experiment, sprays of water to the sleepers face during REM were often incorporated as sudden rainfall, leaky roofs and being hosed by someone.
Castaldo & Holtzman (1967, 1969) tried a similar experiment and found that while some loud sounds are blocked, a person's name could get through and be incorporated into the dream.
Thus we can say that some stimuli does influence dreams during sleep, but it will be a long time before we can make generalizations.
Stimuli Before Going to Sleep
The influence of pre-sleep stimuli is just as much as mystery as sleep stimuli. The big question in this research has been whether in dreams we act like we do in life. Are we trying to master situations in fantasy that we have in life? What if the dream is giving us something completely different than our waking style of being or if the dream is hiding all our anxieties and worries so we can rest? The answer seems to be "Yes!" to all. Depending on the various studies looked at, each hypothesis seems to work under some conditions and not under others.
Consider for example Wood's (1962) experiment were he kept his subjects socially isolated during the day and then tested to see if they would report dreams about being with more people than usual. They sure did. Bokert extended this experiment to other needs, depriving subjects of food and water. And they tended to dream more about food and water.
When Breger (& Hunter & Lane 1971) introduced problem solving tests before sleep, found that the style of the dreamer in life was incorporated into sleep. One might be led to conclude that dreams are trying to problem solve. Yet this is not always so
But when other stressful situations are introduced before sleep, (such as showing a gruesome film) the results really vary. Foulkes and Rechteschaffen (1964) for example, found that after a violent film there was no apparent corresponding violent dreams, though the dreams were generally more active than usual. For many children there was a opposite reaction, with an increase in pleasant dreams!
Bertini's experiments (1968) suggests that stress before sleep leads to more early childhood memories. This would be consistent with Alan Siegel's idea that dreams that incorporate stress seek earlier patterns of resolution. A later experiment by Goodenough (et at 1975) seemed to indicate that stress films cause stress dreaming only in those prone to stress. So are dreams mastering anxiety or just deflecting our attention away? It seems there is not going to be an easy answer, nor one coming soon.
One last note on pre-stimulus influence. The use of pre-hypnotic suggestions have been found to increase incorporation. See for example the Breger, Hunger & lane 1971 experiment and Cartwright , 1974). This kind of research may help us in dream work in areas of pre-sleep preparation to use dreams for problem solving and other kinds of incubation.
o Dreams as Meaningful vs Nonsense
It was hoped that with the discovery of REM sleep that soon all the questions about the meaning of dreaming would unfold. But with the discoveries of dreams occurring outside of REM, not only in NREM but in hypnosis, daydreaming and waking dreams, the hope faded. A shift was made away from the content analysis to the process of dreaming itself. The gist of the thinking behind this is as follows - If you want to study muscle functions, its not really necessary to know if a person is using his muscles to pick up a can of tomato soup or chicken soup.
And so why focus on the particular dream to understand dreaming? The general question was how dreaming might function to help the biological organism. REM dreaming has been found in not only non-humans (most all mammals have REM sleep) but also in new infants and pre-natal infants. How might this be adaptive to the survival of a mammal? The current thinking on this is that REM might be used at different developmental times for different purposes (Hunt, 1989).
In infants, REM might be stimulating associate neural development while in adults it might be functioning a little this way but also serve other functions, such as allowing the brain to be prepared and stay oriented in sleep.
All these theories are still quite distant from any proof.
Another track that has developed is the case for dreaming having to do with learning and unlearning. Earlier suggestions and research focused on dreaming as processing the residue of the day and coding it into long term memory.
Hobson and McCarley (1988) found that dream activity in cats begins after random firings in the brain stem. They feel that the sleepy brain gets stimulated by these random firings and tries to make sense out of them and the memories that are initiated. Flying and paralysis, for example, would simply correspond to periods of brain stem activity and inactivity. They do suggest in the Activation-Synthesis model that there is some synthesis by the higher brain functions and thus the dream does contain some higher cognitive actions.
Crick and Mitchison (1983, 1986) combined this research with a model of neural networks to suggest that the brain is actually unlearning during dreaming. They suggested that the neural networks that the mind loads during the day get saturated with information and create false links between neural nets that produce what we see as bizarre dreams. The random firing cleans these out during the night. Thus, they hypothesize, remembering dreams may be counter productive to the unlearning process.
The mistake in all these theories, according to Harry Fiss (1986) and others (see Hunt 1989), is in our model of science. They way it works now, science ignores all meaning and value. All the tools and methods of science work outside the realm of meaning - they work on quantity, not quality. To use a method from the beginning that has no measure of meaning and then conclude that dreams are meaningless, is to go beyond what the tools can offer us.
One solution, on the edge of the edge, is a re-vision of neural networking. Gordon Globus (1981, 1991, 1993) has suggested that the brain works not only with stimulus-response and chemicals, but with models of *whole worlds*. He uses a similar model to Crick and Mitchison, but points out that there is a complex interactive brain system best described as neural nets that *produce* as well as respond to events. In waking life there is feedback and corrections from a more concrete world. In sleep we continue to produce models of worlds, but they have their own rules and we then interact with these.
Thus we can return to the first issue raised by Hobson, that dreams seem to begin after random firing in the brain stem. Well, yes this is so, but its like saying that the universe began after a random big bang. This says little about the meaning and value we give to things in life, and the significance that they return to us. However, just as with the Big-Bang theory, the attempt to bring together scientific understanding with value and meaning continues to inspire new ideas in both areas.
o Conclusion:
It is true that there is still a huge gap between dream work and dream science. But as shown, this gap can lead to creative inspiration and cooperation as well as antagonism. The most active group working in this area in the last decade has been the Association for the Study of Dreams, which brings together researchers, clinicians and other dream concerned individuals to discuss the differences and promote cross field understanding. I highly recommend the conferences to those interested in dream science, dream psychology, dreams and spirituality or dream anthropology, as well as lay interests in grassroots dreamwork. If you cannot make it to a conference, ASD publishes a quarterly peer reviewed journal and a friendlier Dream Time Magazine. See below for details or visit the web site at:
www.ASDreams.org
Recommended Readings.
I don't think the "friendly" book on the science of dreaming has been written, though both Van De Castle in his Our Dreaming Mind and Anthony Shafton in his Dream Reader have both attempted a recent synthesis of dream science.
If you
are willing to take on a little more time and study, I have three suggestions.
1. Harry Hunt's (1989). The Multiplicity of Dreams. Yale University Press. This is on my TOP FIVE DREAM BOOKS list. Hunt's book is a little difficult at times as it is often a reaction to a lot of the dream science and theorizing that has taken place and he is inconsistent in who his audience is. Sometimes he carefully explains his thoughts and the experiments, while at other times he makes assumptions on the part of the reader that include having read a great deal of the literature on dreams and cognitive science theory. Still, it is at this time the best (intermediate) overall survey of dream science theory.
2. Moffitt, Kramer and Hoffmann (1993). _The Functions of Dreaming_. NY:SUNY press. For a little more detailed analysis of the literature, this is a really good book. Some areas are ignored or left out, but the ones covered are done so quite well.
3. Ellman, Steven J. & Antrobus, John S. (Eds). (1991).
The Mind in Sleep: Psychology and Psychophysiology. 2nd edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. This is a little more advanced of a text, but covers a large range of topic in dreaming science and does so quite well. If there is a fault, it the dryness and objectivity offered. I often get the feeling when reading this that we don't really know anything about the science of dreams and all experiments up to the present have been very inadequate.
More Bibliography and references. I've made a lot of
statements in this essay without much in the way of
footnotes. The reason is that I wanted this essay to be
directed towards your doing your own research in this
area. However, though I'm not including a bibliography
with this lesson, if you do want to look up any of the
references or citations, I have put a 50 page
bibliography online at the DreamGate/Electric Dreams
Dream Bibs Online site, See the DreamGate Collected Bibliography
www.dreamgate.com/dream/bibs
Also, I suggest that you visit the ASD Web site
mentioned above and check out their articles on dreams
and dreaming. www.asdreams.org
If you can't find what you want, try posting your question to the ASD bulletin board.
Richard Wilkerson
Rcwilk@dreamgate.com
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G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S
July-August 1998
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If you have news you'd like to share, contact Peggy Coats, pcoats@dreamtree.com. Visit Global Dreaming News online at http://www.dreamtree.com/News/global.htm.
This Month's Features:
NEWS
- Watch Your Dreams - in the Newspaper!
- ASD 1999 Conference in Santa Cruz - Seeking Volunteers
- Ione's Third Annual Dream Festival Coming in October
- Millennium Myth and Dream Tour to Egypt and Israel
- Drumming A Dream: Music As A Soul Making Path
RESEARCH & REQUESTS
- Skilled Lucid Dreamers Wanted to Participate in Scientific Research
- Lucidity Institute Experiment: Tibetan Dream Yoga Meets Western Power Napping
WEBSITE & ONLINE UPDATES
- Astrology, Dream Interpretation, Numerology and Online Tarot Readings
- Dreamwork in Australia
- Griebel's Dictionary of Dream Symbols
- Kathleen Sullivan's Dreams and Dreamwork
- Year Long Dream Course Online
- Free DreamMap Program for Downloading
- Commercial Dream Journal - Awake
- New Archive Mirror for Electric Dreams Backissues
DREAM CALENDAR for August 1998
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N E W S
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>>>>>> Watch Your Dreams - in the Newspaper!
Nancy Huseby Bloom has had a dream column in the Spokesman Review Newspaper in Spokane, WA for over 3 years. People send in their dreams through the paper and she calls the dreamers and together they work on possible meanings. She then writes a column based on their work and her knowledge of dreams. This work has been received very well and my column is now in six newspapers (in the Features section) including: Spokesman Review in Spokane, WA on Thursdays, The Albuquerque Tribune in Albuquerque, NM on Tuesdays , The Journal Inquirer in Manchester, CT on Mondays, The Gazette in Colorado Springs, CO on Saturdays, The Detroit News in Detroit, MI, and The Fresno Bee in Fresno, CA on Mondays. Nancy's purpose in creating this column is to promote dreamwork and get it in the mainstream to help raise the consciousness of our world. If you would like to see her weekly in your home town, please contact your local newspaper and give them her phone number and/or address and if contacted, she will send them a sample packet of her weekly columns. She can be contacted at:
Nancy Huseby Bloom, P.O. Box 8739, Spokane, WA 99203. Phone: (509) 935-455-3450
>>>>>> ASD 1999 Conference in Santa Cruz - Seeking Volunteers
Each year the Association for the Studies of Dreams holds an annual conference for dreamers worldwide. In June, 1999, that conference will be held at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The ASD and BADG (The Bay Area Dreamworkers Group) are seeking volunteers to help with a variety of committee assignments. If you think you'd like to get involved with members of the dream community during this exciting event by lending a helping hand behind the scenes, please contact Eric Snyder at (707) 824-9121 for more information.
>>>>>> Ione's Third Annual Dream Festival Coming in October
Ione's Dream Festival , a Kingston City and Hudson Valley wide celebration co- sponsored last year by the Pauline Oliveros Foundation and the City of Kingston has received an Arts and Healing Community Grant of $975 from the Institute of Noetic Sciences and The Fetzer Institute. The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a research, education and membership organization with over 50,000 members worldwide. The institute was founded by the Astronaut Edgar Mitchell. The Fetzer Institute supports research,education and service programs exploring the integral relationships among body, mind and spirit. Ione is an author and psychotherapist and dream facilitator who resides in
Kingston. Her new handbook on dreaming, Is This a Dream? is forthcoming in October. Ione has created Dream Festivals and Dream Workshops in New York City and in Europe over a period of twenty years, and is a strong proponent of the concept of Dream Community. The Mission Statement for Ione's Dream Festival is as follows. Ione's Dream Festival is a Celebration of Dreams and Dreaming. It is through paying attention to our dreams that a community holds together. Dreams are a common link among peoples of all cultures, ages and walks of life. Our Dreams have value. The idea is to honor them for what they are without demanding logical meaning. As we pay attention they begin to reveal more of their secrets to us. Dreams are a rich built- in source of self knowledge and as such are our deepest source of creativity.
This year's Dream Festival will feature colorful Dream Boxes created by children and adult artists and placed at public locations throughout the area termed Dream Depots. Dreams deposited in these boxes will be collected and some will be read, performed and published. On Saturday, October 24 there will be a Gala Opening of an invitational exhibit of dream related art featuring local and international artists. On Friday evening a concert will take place featuring Canadian composer and cellist Anne Bourne, Saturday's concert will feature electric guitarist Stephen Vitiello. Multi instrumentalist Pauline Oliveros, Trombonist Monique Buzzarte, and guitarist Lorah Yaccarino will be guest players on both nights. Saturday Afternoon will feature An experiential Dream Workshop facilitated by Dr. Naomi Schechter and her colleagues. The conclusion of Ione's Dream Festival will be a five hour marathon event featuring performances, readings and Happenings on Sunday from 1PM -6PM. Dreams may be sent to Ione's "Dream Sac" on the internet at Http://www.deeplistening.org/ione These dreams should include the directive: "For the Dream Festival"
The Dream Festival is coming to the Hudson Valley
October 23,24,25
http://www.deeplistening.org/ione
Iodreams@deeplistening.org
>>>>>> Millennium Myth and Dream Tour to Egypt and Israel
December-January 1999-2000
Join us as we welcome in the New Year in Egypt. We'll do dream work every day and Jeremy will provide the mythic stories of the places we visit.
We're planning the trip now and it looks like we might be on a Nile cruise boat for the New Year with a sound and light show at Luxor Temple compound the evening of Jan 1. We will include a visit to Cairo, including the museum, see the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings and Queens, Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel
and we hope for 3 days in Jerusalem. Hotels are booking for the Millennium now, so we need to know how many are interested. Please let us know if you think you'd like to join us. Approximate dates: Dec 20-Jan 4. Kathy and Jeremy Taylor, 415.454-2793 or ktaylor597@AOL.com
>>>>>>>> Drumming A Dream: Music As A Soul Making Path
Robert Weathers
W O R K S H O P
Saturday, August 8, 1998
C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles
10349 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90064
U.S.A.
$70 regular
$60 students/seniors
CE, CME, CN credit available
This workshop presents a fun and illuminating journey into the art and metaphor of drums and percussion. Archetypal images, created sounds and clinical dreams of drumming will be amplified in relation to the cultivating of one's life as art-form. Using drums and rhythmic exercises, participants will be invited to a day's meditation on: the chthonic nature underlying personal spiritual discipline; integrating one's inferior function as creative process; and numinous experience as mending ego-Self rupture. The focus throughout this workshop will be on engaging with art's integrative contributions toward the soul's individuation. Live drumming will be featured throughout, both to stimulate and to illustrate the activity of the psyche.
Suggested Reading: African Rhythm and African Sensibility by J.M. Chernoff; The Healing Drum by Y. Olallo and M. Hall; Through Music to the
Self by P.M. Hamel. Participants are requested to bring a hand drum.
Robert Weathers, Ph.D., is in the Analyst Training Program at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and has studied popular and ethnic drumming over thirty years. He is a professor of Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University.
http://home.earthlink.net/~junginla/
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R E S E A R C H & R E Q U E S T S
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>>>>>>Skilled Lucid Dreamers Wanted to Participate in Scientific Research
What is happening in your brain when you realize you are dreaming? Dr. LaBerge is currently seeking volunteers to help answer this question in research at Stanford University. To qualify you should live in or visit the San Francisco bay area and be fairly confident that you could have a lucid dream in the laboratory. Call or email for details (+1-650-321-9969 or research@lucidity.com).
>>>>>> Lucidity Institute Experiment: Tibetan Dream Yoga Meets Western Power Napping
Sleep Posture, the Nasal Cycle, and Naps
For over 1,000 years, the Tibetan Buddhists have been practicing lucid dreaming as a means of approaching enlightenment. In this pursuit, they have developed elaborate techniques for inducing lucidity. Some of these are esoteric beyond the capacity of the uninitiated Western mind to conceive, let alone practice. However, others bear a striking resemblance to the techniques now employed by Western oneironauts, for example, frequent reflection throughout
the day on the dreamlike nature of reality.
The Lucidity Institute is grateful to the Fetzer Institute, which has provided them with funding to investigate the value of ancient Tibetan lucid dreaming induction techniques in the West. One such avenue which has been little explored to date is that of posture during sleep. They have conducted a few NightLight experiments over the years in this area. However, the number of participants has been too small to allow reliable conclusions. Thus, they are once more offering an experiment investigating sleep posture and nasal laterality (an ancient Yogic technique for influencing states of mind), combined this time with the extraordinarily powerful napping technique of inducing lucid dreams.
Thus, this experiment has two goals. One is to further refine the nap technique, which we have found to be the most effective of all for inducing lucid dreams. This study will help establish whether 30 or 60 minutes of wakefulness inserted in the latter part of a night's sleep is more likely to lead to lucidity. Second, they wish to clarify the results of a previous NightLight experiment on
nasal laterality, gender and lucid dreaming. Some Tibetan lore suggests that men and women should sleep on opposite sides, because their energy channels are reversed. They would like to find out if this is fact or superstition.
They have made this experiment as simple as possible so that more of you will participate. By using naps, they expect to collect a lot more lucid dreams than in previous attempts, and that's good news for participants as well! Please join in this endeavor and help bring Tibetan Dream Yoga to life in the West. If you are interested in participating, please email The Lucidity Institute with your postal address and we will send you a copy of the NightLight experiment. We will also make the experiment available online at our website (http://www.lucidity.com) in Adobe pdf format.
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W E B S I T E & O N L I N E U P D A T E S
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Do you know of interesting new websites you'd like to share with others? Or do you have updates to existing pages? Help spread the word by using the Electric Dreams DREAM-LINK page
www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/online97.htm. This is really a public projects board and requires that everyone keep up his or her own link URLs and information. Make a point to send changes to the links page to us.
>>>>>> Astrology, Dream Interpretation, Numerology and Online Tarot Readings
New Age Interactive, a web site offering a comprehensive line up of New Age practices and entertainment, has debuted on the Internet at http://www.newageinteractive.com/. Visitors to New Age Interactive will find a wide variety of pursuits. The site's Online Tarot section gives the user complete control over the tarot deck and will help interpret what the cards have to say. Numerology Online allows one to explore the complicated and amazing revelations produced through the complex and historically relevant practice of the numerological system. The Online Dream Interpreter provides everything one needs to understand about the subconscious mind and the scenarios which dominate during the reign of rapid eye movement. Also available on New Age Interactive is a guide to the Chinese zodiac; a cyber-resource charting the moon's phases; a check on the Earth's current population; an exploration of superstitions, omens, rituals, talismans and urban legends; a section allowing one to calculate age down to the second; and a quick check of previous incarnations during past lifetimes. And for those who want to enhance their experience, there is a the Village Market featuring New Age products, as well as a link to the award-winning Interactive Health Food Store program which details natural and organic items. New Age Interactive will be updated continuously and new sections soon to be added will include a daily horoscope, interactive astrology, interactive I Ching, online fortune telling, interactive palm reading, and interactive self-
hypnosis. For more information, visit New Age Interactive at http://www.newageinteractive.com/
>>>>>> Dreamwork in Australia
http://www.janeanderson.com.au
Jane Anderson is a scientist, author, dream interpreter and ABC radio broadcaster working in Australia. Her site includes a Dream Interpretation Service, two Discussion Forums, extracts from her books and much more. While her first two books were strictly on dreams (based on my research), "The Shape of Things to Come" (to be published by Random House in July) is the result of three years research into precognition, taking in precognitive dreaming, synchronicity, modern physics and a ground breaking series of hypnosis. Visit her site to find out more!
>>>>>> Griebel's Dictionary of Dream Symbols
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8201/dreamsymbols.html
(new URL!) has been updated (300 new entries, a total of 1700).
The unique features of this dictionary are:
1) it is accessible via the World Wide Web
2) it is probably the most comprehensive of its kind
3) entries are linked to related entries
4) it is a collective project--you can submit new entries
or suggestions for translations
5) it's free...
>>>>> Kathleen Sullivan's Dreams and Dreamwork
http://www.mbay.net/~dremwvr/
In 1980, Kathleen Sullivan's focus was drawn inward by one life-altering dream. The complete story of that experience can be read in the first chapter of her book, Recurring Dreams: A Journey to Wholeness (Freedom, California: Crossing Press, 1998). Overwhelmed by the demands of the unconscious, by chronic illness and emotional distress, Sullivan surrendered to the dream and has followed it to an entirely new career as a full-time dreamworker, counselor, talk show host and author. Learn more about her philosophy and work at her website.
>>>>> Year Long Dream Course Online
http://www.magicalblend.com/Dream/Dream.html
Harvesting Dreamland:A Course in Self-Discovery and Self-Mastery
by Craig Webb
Take a year long course on the fascinating implications and applications of dreams. In each issue we'll offer techniques that facilitate awareness of and interaction with your dreams that can be practically applied. This first article describes dream incubation and suggests some enticing goals.
Future topics will cover dream interpretation techniques, dream skills as a springboard for creativity, precognitive and mutual dreams, nightmares and how to benefit from them, as well as an exploration of the intriguing realm of lucid (conscious) dreaming.
Readers are invited to become involved, send in questions and talk about your experiences with these lessons. They will answer your questions as best they can, and, if you give permission, will include your responses anonymously) in upcoming articles and in ongoing research at The D.R.E.A.M.S. (Dream Research and Experimental Approaches to the Mechanisms of Sleep) Foundation of Montreal, Canada. Instructions for responding by mail, fax, or e-mail are included at the end of this article.
From : Craig Webb, Executive Director of the D.R.E.A.M.S.
Foundation, has been exploring, writing, speaking, and teaching
about dreams for over ten years, and has worked with author and
Stanford researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge. The D.R.E.A.M.S. Foundation (http://prelude.PSY.UMontreal.ca/dreams_foundation) is a
non-profit organization that offers information and courses about dreams, nightmares, lucid dreams, and their practical applications.
To receive a free pamphlet, reserve a copy of Craig's forthcoming book, Lucid Living in this Waking Dream: A Course in Applied Dreaming, or to find out about lucid living canoe-trip adventures, contact: The D.R.E.A.M.S. Foundation, Box 513 Snowdon,Montreal, QC H3X 3T7, 514-488-0347
(e-mail:lucid@magnet.ca). [as of 07MAR09 changed to info@dreams.ca0
>>>>>>>>>>
Free DreamMap Program!
Thank you for your patience. I finally finished the Dream Map for Windows.
It is available for *free* download at:
http://www.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~windeatr/dreamMap.html
This is the main page for the Dream Map. The actual software is but one click away once you arrive at the main Dream Map page. The Dream Map application (.exe) is in zip format, and may be un-zipped using any commercial or shareware unzip program. If you don't have an unzip program you may find one at :
http://www.shareware.com
Dream Map for Windoze has been a long time coming and I am sure you will enjoy what you find! Please send any critiques or feature requests to me at:
mailto:dMapWin95@polysense.com
For those of you on WebTV, the DreamMap software will not run on WebTV, you need a Macintosh or Windows computer to use the Dream Map.
Yours,
Dan Cummings
dMapWin95@polysense.com
>>>>>>>> Commercial Dream Journal - Awake
Friendswood, Texas - June 17, 1998 - Awake Software today announced Awaken 98, dream journaling software for personal use. Awaken 98 contains many features that make dream journaling easier, faster and more enjoyable.
"We wanted to develop this program so that it would be easier to keep track of any of the issues involved in dream analysis - from feelings to background to dream incubation questions and so on, and at the same time make it as simple to use as possible.", explains Bill Kudrle, president of Awake Software. "We hope that this will be the beginning of a significant service to those interested in dreams and personal growth."
Using the metaphor of a two sided dream notebook, Awaken 98 contains up to seven pages for recording and analyzing dreams. Pages include those for describing the dream, recording the dream, searching for symbols, general questions as well as personal reflective questions about the dream, interpretation of the dream, and ways to honor the dream. Any page can be easily hidden or shown as desired so that the process can be simplified to any desired depth of analysis. Awaken 98 is highly configurable in many other ways.
Key features of Awaken 98 include:
Wizards for stepping through the entire dream analysis process or in just filling out one page.
A symbol dictionary which is fully editable and contains icons for each symbol.
Personal associations can be made to any symbol and are kept as part of the symbol dictionary.
Pages with extensive text editing use the Rich Text Format, which allows the setting of different fonts, colors, styles, paragraph indentation, borders and the embedding of pictures in a single page.
Password protection for every user and encryption of the files and database for privacy protection.
Super search capabilities allows for searches through all of the notebooks with the ability to target any or all pages and to use synonyms as well.
Browse through the notebooks by one of many factors, including feelings, categories, incubation questions, symbols, personal issues and of course date and title.
Drag and drop toolbars.
Master lists for questions, categories, feelings, and other items that can be easily edited.
98 is priced at US$34.95 for the floppy disk version. An electronic downloadable version will be available shortly for a price of US$29.95. Technical support via email is provided free with all orders.
Awake Software is a company whose mission statement is to help us to Live with Greater Consciousness. It was founded in 1994 and has been in development until the release of Awaken 98. More information is available from
support@awake-software.com or by visiting the website at www.awake-software.com.
SOURCE: Awake Software
http://www.awake-software.com/
>>>>>>>> Electric Dreams Backissues and MORE
So you need a back issue of Electric Dreams? We now have several sites carrying Archives. Low Bandwidth has just put up a complete 7MG Archive at http://www.disobey.com/low/listings/electric_dreams.htm
If you are missing an issue, be sure to stop by and get a copy. They have many other interesting zones for you to enter besides dreams and dreaming.
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D R E A M C A L E N D A R
August 1998
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Aug 3-4, in Moraga, CA
Jeremy Taylor, summer term Seminar, 9-3pm at St. Mary's College. Contact: Jackie Hoover at (510) 631-4506 for more information or visit the website at www.jeremytaylor.com
.
Aug 7-9 in Mendocino, CA
Weekend workshop with Jeremy Taylor. Contact: Mary Dawson at (916) 753-2362 for more information or visit the website at www.jeremytaylor.com
.
Aug 8 in Los Angeles, CA
Dreaming a Drum: Workshop at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles
10349 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90064
http://home.earthlink.net/~junginla/
Aug 10 in Highlands, NC
Dr. Jean Benedict Raffa, author of Dream Theatres of the Soul will be presenting a one-day workshop on understanding and working with dreams, entitled "Dreams, Gateway to the Soul" at the Highlands Conference Center on August 10, from 9 - 4.For more information, or to register for classes call (704) 526-9381.
Aug 15 in Berkeley, CA
Intuitive Healing - Accessing Your Inner Physician, a workshop which includes dream analysis, body scanning and imagery. 10am - 4pm. Fee $85. For more information, contact Marcia Emery at (510) 526-5510 or by email, PowerHunch@aol.com.
Aug 22 in Oakland, CA
Special Dream Event in conjunction with the final day of the "Dream Art" show at the Center for Visual Art. For more information, call (510) 451-6300.
Aug 22-27 in Roberts Creek, British Columbia
Four-day workshop with Jeremy Taylor. For more information, contact: Doneal at (604)885-4710 or visit the website at www.jeremytaylor.com
Aug 28-30 in Hendersonville, NC
Weekend workshop with Jeremy Taylor. For more information, contact: Bob Hayden at (704)333-6058 or visit the website at www.jeremytaylor.com
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== D R E A M S S E C T I O N == ED V5 N7 ==
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
D R E A M S SECTION INDEX BY BOB K. (For ED V5 N7)
Hi there! Welcome to ELECTRIC DREAMS - DREAMS SECTION for
Vol. 5 Number 7 - July 1998.
Hi there dreamers! I missed you. This month brings us back after a dream drought, er... time displacement, er... unanticipated vacation from the dreams section. The *lost dreams* of May ED 5.5 and June ED 5.6 will appear soon. Ever go through dream droughts, periods when you don't have any dream recall even if you want to? A request asks for assistance. Heratheta shares some observations from his recent trip to the city by the bay, San Francisco, which somehow leads to an exchange on mushrooms. Dreams are like that, jumping from one subject to another in a seemingly random illogical way, but there is a bridge there somewhere. In fact, in San Francisco it's the Golden Gate Bridge;)!
We resume our tour through the land of dreams with some excellent examples. Two of our long time dreamer novelist accomplished writers contribute to this edition: stan kulikowski ii again draws us into his complex feeling and image filled relationship world, while Nutcracker reappears after a long absence to share a snapshot of todays media spliced with sharp details and feelings.
In this issue we also see Tornado's return in a cluster, the meaning of a blank book is examined, a woman rises above herself, an attack by Freddy Kruger takes on an unexpected twist, Chuck Norris and Bruce Willis visit our pages, an animal morphs before our eyes, we visit the Temple of The Golden Dawn - sort of-, we join in a Hospital adventure and other trips into the world of dreams.
Enjoy your visit to the pages of Electric Dreams.
NEW CATEGORIES:
STRANGERS [Who and what we don't know yet]
EDITORIAL:
VACATION TIME
Summertime is traditionally linked with vacations. It is a time to take some time off, to rest, relax, set aside the concerns of our daily life and do some exploring of the unknown or the traditional. It is a time to refresh your perspectives and renew your commitment to those things you want to be involved with. If you are taking a vacation soon, enjoy it. One of the theories of dreams is that they are akin to vacations of the conscious mind. What do you think? Learn some more basic ideas about dreams in a current series being run on msnbc.com at:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/178718.asp
THANKS
As usual thanks to all the dreamers and dream commentators for sharing a little bit of their internal reality with a larger community.
FEEDBACK FROM THE DREAMERS
-- Question: Remembering Dreams --
-- Commentary by Heratheta@aol.com on Novato Center For Dreams --
-- Commentary by Richard on Novato Dream Library and Archive --
--Heratheta on a dreamers look at san francisco--
--From MGM on Graffitti and Mushrooms--
--From Richard on fertility and mushroom cults --
--From Heratheta on John Allegro and Graffitti--
COMMENTARY ON DREAMS FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES
NEW DREAMS:
PRECOGNITIVE/FUTURE DREAMS [Stories from past experiences, or
send them in before it happens, if you can]
REPETITIVE DREAMS [Significant by nature]
DREAM TRACES IN WAKING LIFE [The effects of external stimuli on
our dreams or is it the other way around - our dreams leaving a
trace on our physical reality?]
DEFYING CLASSIFICATION [Your stumpers may not be so mysterious to
others]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
LINKS TO STAGES OF LIFE
BIRTH [Starts]
CHILDHOOD [Early development]
ADOLESCENCE [Maturing, testing]
ADULTHOOD [The main event for most]
OLD AGE [Wisdom, Approaching the Journeys end]
DEATH [Endings]
COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD [Beyond our terrestrial limits]
==========================================
==========================================
AGGRESSION [By us or against us- crossing others paths]
ALIENS [Visitors or visited - creatures from other dimensions]
AMUSEMENT PARK [A place to relax and enjoy, another reality]
ANGELS [Visitors from Spiritual dimensions]
ANIMALS [Basic Instincts- This month brings us Owls, a morphing Deer, and a snakewoman]
** Dream: Owls in my dream by Sonja (980622) **
== Commentary by kris on Owls in my dream by Sonja (980623) ==
** Dream: Animal Morphing by Nutcracker (980723) **
BATHROOMS [Maintenance, Cleansing and Elimination]
BELONGING [What we are associated with or wish we were]
BOOKS (Extensions of our memory and imagination, our permanent records)
** Dream: Protecting my Book by Cunyat (980710) **
BRIDGES [How we get across an obstacle or go from here to there]
CELEBRITIES [The well known - famous and infamous]
** Dream: My Dream of Chuck Norris by ? (980704) **
CLOTHING [What we wear tells us about ourselves and the events we
participate in]
COMEDY [With an accent on puns, funny situations or jokes]
COMMUNICATIONS [From telepathic to devices to signs & symbols]
COMPUTERS [Extensions of our minds, mind tools, communication]
CULTS [Somewhere out there ...]
DIRECTIONS [Ever stop and ask for directions? North, South,
East, West, up, down, ahead, behind, straight, turn, right, left,
make a circle, cross, go through, open, close, mix, add, boil,
cook, simmer, but most of all - follow these instructions
carefully...and don't be shy about asking someone else down the
path, except, of course, for the Big Bad Wolf!!!]
== Commentary by Heratheta on Various dreams ==
nurse dream
snowman dream
owl dream
dream bust
car dream
dark river dream
chuck norris
elm st.dream
protecting book dream
eyes of someone else dream
flagpole dream
tornado dream
building dream
DISCOVERY [New insights and unexpected developments]
DREAMING [Dreams about dreaming]
DRUGS [Healing or Hurting?]
EATING [Getting nourishment for maintenance, growth and pleasure]
ELEVATORS [Going UP or DOWN - Push the right button or else...]
ESCAPE [Get me outta here!!!]
** Dream: the dark river by (9807057) **
EYES [The organs of sight...the window to the soul...]
FEAR [What scares us]
** Dream: The Snakewoman by MGM (980626) **
** Dream: FREDDY by Fiona (980708)**
FOOD [The source of our physical nourishment]
FIRE [Flames bring light, heat and destruction/transformation]
FLYING [Confidence, Power, Freedom & Perspective]
GIFTS [Offerings to or from others]
HOBBIES [Our interests and desires]- COLLECTING THINGS
HOLIDAYS [Time off to ...]
HOSPITAL [A place for treatment, healing and repair]
** Dream: Medical nurse at Hospital admission by MB (980622)**
HOUSE [Where our lives take place]
** Dream: Group Home by dreambat (980712) **
HOTELS [Temporary Dwelling or Special Event location]
JOURNEYS [Missions away from our home base -explorations]
** Dream: Blue Moon by ? (9604XX) **
== Commentary by MGM on 'Blue Moon' (980713) ==
** Dream: cross country ski party by stan kulikowski ii(980718)**
== Commentary by Heratheta on Cross Country Skiing (980719) ==
LOST [Disorientation or abandonment]
LOTTERY DREAMS [Sudden Wealth - Randomness favors the
dreamer]
LOVE [All around us, yet so hard to find and keep]
LUCID DREAMING [Knowing you are Dreaming when you are Dreaming]
MEMORY [Remembering ...In dreams we often struggle with the issue
of memories and remembering a dream which by definition involves
the process of recollection.]
MIRRORS [Reflection of Self]
(SEE The Dark River under ESCAPE for several mirror images)
MUSIC [Melodies of the land within]
NUDITY [What you see is what you get]
PERFORMERS [Entertainers]
PROBLEMS [Situations or difficulties sometimes present choices]
POLITICAL SCENE [Public issues through positions of power]
RELATIONSHIPS [Other parts of ourselves including family which
constitutes the first and earliest of our relationships, often
influencing how we relate to the outside world]
RELIGIOUS RELATED [The Ritual and the Spiritual]
** Dream: Crowley Dream by lp (980702) **
ROMANCE [Thrills and Chills, lost in another]
SCHOOL THEMES [Learning and learning related trials]
SOLUTIONS [The answers to problems or quandaries]
STAIRS [Bridges between levels, between the upper and the lower]
STRANGERS [Who and what we don't know yet]
** Dream: snowman by ? (980601)**
TEETH [Ok, losing teeth is one of the top ten dreams people have
questions on. Theories on what they mean range all over the
spectrum of possibilities.]
TORNADOS [Pretty well defined destructive power of nature]
** Dream: Tornado man by ? (980625) **
== Commentary by Heratheta on Tornado Man (980626) ==
** Dream: "Top of the Hill" by dreambat (980628) **
** Dream: Tornado Dreams by Bluemoon(980720) **
TRAPPED [Temporarily helpless- Sometimes we are paralyzed or
imprisoned by jobs, relationships or expectations]
VEHICLES [Means of transportation, reflection of lifestyle]
** Dream: Airplane by Joe (980720) **
WATER [A magical earthly fluid, nourishment, cleansing]
WORKPLACE [Where we make a living]
WRITING & WRITERS [Communication and creativity]
= = = = = = = = = = = ==
DREAM SERIES
(None this month)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Hasta La Vista!
==============================================
==============================================
FEEDBACK FROM THE DREAMERS
-- Question: Remembering Dreams --
From: Sue Buckley (sbuckley@airmail.net)
Is there a process or technique that can help you recall your dreams? My friend Ken used to be able to recall most every dream and now he cannot. He has made many dramatic changes in his life - a divorce - started to listen to new music - began playing the harmonica - fell in love again.
I look forward to your comments. Thank you. Sue
[BK- Sue: The best place in the world today to find anything related to dreams is on the internet at the Dream Resources section of www.dreamgate.com. You will not only find tips on recalling dreams, but some link to any dream related topic you can think of! Check these links out:
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/online97.htm
-- Commentary by Heratheta@aol.com on Novato Center For Dreams --
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 23:40:12 EDT
may I also not forget to mention the hospitality while I visited the bay area of the novato center for dreams. it is an astounding library of dream books and videos. those of you who had read the EASY DREAMS text recently in ELECTRIC DREAMS can also see the video at the NOVATO CENTER FOR DREAMS in novato california just a short drive north of the golden gate bridge. I was particularly interested in a dream book in the novato center library which was in russian, a language I am studying. and, speaking of russian dreams I have yet to find a russian dreamer who considers his or her dream a reality, granted a different reality, thinner I like to say, but real enough. I believe it can be the result of the communist oppression over the last 8 decades forbidding anything but the state's unconscious manifesto of nightmares. speaking again about the video of easy dreams, it is a 40minute discussion of the techniques detailed in the text recently published by electric dreams and although it is not easy to send gratis I have as in the case of novato dream center and others who have contact with an audience I have not yet reached mailed it so. contact me at heratheta@aol.com or on the ed-core page if you have such an audience and I will consider sending you the video free of charge. you know, richard w and I were talking at the fine arts lagoon about how the new digital cameras will turn the tide of cyberspace and make it more human again so it is in that spirit that I have made the above gesture before and now on this bastille day a day to remember which eased for a while oppression. vive la france, vive la liberte de l'esprite.
-- Commentary by Richard on Novato Dream Library and Archive --
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:41:38 -0700
Hi heratheta,
I'm glad to hear you made it to the Library. Sorry Jill couldn't be there. I enjoyed our time together in SF, sorry it was so foggy - this week we are having a heat wave!
I'm sending this note out via ed-core rather than directly to you as I do want people to know about the library and archive. Jill Gregory has provided a ideal place for dreamers to archive their work with dreams, not only books and tapes, but dream inspired art and other artifacts as well. No personal journals at this time. You can get more info at: http://members.aol.com/dreammzzz/index.htm
It is quite amazing what she has collected over the years. I find the books far more extensive than my other two favorite dream book collections, the Berkeley Graduate Psych Library and the SF State Main Library - both of which are excellent. The Berkeley library has more journal articles available, but SFSU is better with books by dream interested folks. The Novato library has a vast collection and fills out some areas not found the University libraries, like Children's books on dreams, European books on dreams, and popular culture books. Jill also has collections of out of print journals such as the Sundance Journal and Lucidity Letter journals.
If you know where to get copies of either the GATES project newsletters/journal or the DreamWorks Journal, please contact me. Both of these are needed. (Dreamworks is at SFSU). Finally, if you need articles from the ASD journal Dreaming, drop me a line - tell me what city you are in and I'll tell you where the nearest library is that contains the material.
-Richard
--Heratheta on a dreamers look at san francisco--
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 20:57:55 EDT
I would like to mention a graffiti about dreams I saw in san francisco on polk st. between northpoint and bay probably at the corner of northpoint and polk but it maybe polk and bay on the west side of polk . I noticed it driving toward fishermans wharf having had a delightful chat with richard wilkerson at the palace of fine arts lagoon. the graffiti is there for those in the bay area to see and it was quite spectacular for me as there are very few of us with that grafitti's message. it warmed my heart that cold afternoon. that siting made my trip to san francisco. by the way richard, the book I mentioned on linguistics is THE SACRED CROSS AND THE MUSHROOM by JOHN ALLEGRO.
--From MGM on Graffitti and Mushrooms--
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 23:16:32 -0400
If you wouldn't mind, please relate to us what the graffito said.
Meanwhile, I am going to post a letter I wrote to The Straight Dope, a column by Cecil Adam, which appears in the Chicago Reader, AOL and in various newspapers. Mr. Adams attempts to answer questions of about urban legends and anything else that strikes his fancy. He hasn't answered my letter yet. The letter I wrote was about the book Heratheta mentions above.
Dear Mr. Adams,
I read "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, A study of the nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the ancient Near East," by John M. Allegro, a philologist. The book was published by Doubleday & Company Inc. in 1970. Allegro says the Indo-European and Semitic language families are both derived from the ancient tongue of Sumeria, long extinct. (Encarta contradicts Allegro, saying, "Its vocabulary, grammar, and syntax do not appear to be related to those of any other known language.")
Allegro says religions in the ancient Near East, including the Greeks', Hebrews' and Christians', were based on worship of a fertility god whose sperm was the rain that fell on the earth and the fields, which were furrowed into a vulva. Their union produced crops. "Chrisitian" means "smeared with semen" and refers to their practice of smearing themselves with "aromatic gums and spices of the traditional Israelite anointing oil: myrrh, aromatic cane, cinnamon, and cassia, all representing the powerful semen of the god." There was another ingredient in the anointing oil: magic mushrooms (Amanita muscaria), which were "the pure unadulterated semen of the god" and the "son of God", and which when eaten, bestowed divine knowledge on the priest or adherent. The Old and New Testaments, written in code to conceal the true fertility/mushroom cult from outsiders and the authorities, are, according to Allegro, filled with puns that allude to the holy mushroom.
Here are a couple of passages from "The sacred Mushroom and the Cross":
"The use of the name Jesus (Greek iesus) as an invocation for healing was appropriate enough. Its Hebrew original, yehoshua, Joshua, comes from Sumerian IA-U-ShU-A (ShUSh), 'semen, which saves, restores, heals'. Hellenized Jews used for 'Joshua' the Greek name Iason, Jason, very properly, since iason, 'healer', and the deponent verb iaomai, 'heal', come from the same Sumerian source. In the New Testament taunt, 'Physician, heal thyself' (Luke 4:23), we probably have a direct allusion to this meaning, as we certainly have in Jesus' title 'Saviour', Greek soter, the first element of which reflects the same Sumerian word ShU, 'save', and so is rightly used in Greek for saving from disease, harm, peril, etc., and is a common epithet of Zeus and kings.
"The fertility God Dionysys (Greek dionusos), whose cult emblem was the erect phallus, was also a god of healing, and his name, when broken down to its original parts, IA-U-NU-ShUSh, is almost idential to that of Jesus, having NU, 'seed', only in addition; 'Semen, seed that saves', and is comparable with the Greek Nosios, 'Healer', an epithet of Zeus.
And this:
"If we are to make any enlightened guess at 'primitive' man's ideas about god and the universe it would have to be on the reasonable assumption that they would be simple, and directly related to the world of his experience. He may have given the god numerous epithets describing his various functions and manifestations but there is no reason to doubt that the reality behind the names was envisaged as one, all-powerful deity, a life-giver, supreme creator. The etymological examination of the chief god names that is now possible supports this view, pointing to a common theme of life-giving fecundity. Thus the principal gods of the Greeks and Hebrews, Zeus, and Yahweh (Jehova), have names derived from Sumerian meaning 'juice of fecundity', spermatazoa, 'seed of life'. The phrase is composed of two syllables, IA (ya, dialectically za), 'juice', literally 'strong water', and U, perhaps the most important phoneme in the whole of Near Eastern religion. It is found in the texts represented by a number of different cuneiform signs, but at the root of them all is the idea of 'fertility'. Thus one U means 'copulate' or 'mount', and 'create'; another 'rainstorm', as source of the heavenly sperm; another 'vegetation', as the offspring of the god; whilst U is the name of the storm-god himself. So, far from evincing a multiplicity of gods and conflicting theological notions, our earliest records lead us back to a single idea, even a single letter, 'U'. Behind Judaism and Christianity, and indeed all the Near Eastern fertility religions and their more sophisticated developments, there lies this single phoneme U'.''
And one more:
"The idea of the creative Word of God came to have a profound philosophical and religious importance and was, and still is, the sujbect of much metaphysical debate. But originally it was not an abstract notion; you could see the "Word of God", feel it as rain on your face, see it seeping into the furrows of mother earth, the "labia" of the womb of creation. Within burns an eternal fire ..."
My questions for you are these: Did Allegro originate these theories, and have they been accepted by other philologists and scholars? Is he a reputable scholar? Does anyone else believe that the Indo-European and Semitic languages and religions are indeed fertility and mushroom cults derived from ancient Sumerian language and culture?
I noted in front of the book that he also wrote "Dead Sea Scrolls" (Pelican A376), "People of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (Doubleday, N.Y.) and other books.
I look forward to reading your answer. Thanks.
--From Richard on fertility and mushroom cults --
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:29:00 -0700
*Does anyone else believe that the Indo-European and Semitic languages and religions are indeed fertility and mushroom cults derived from ancient Sumerian language and culture?*
That they were ~the~ singular influence seems to be an inflated position that pushes aside all other views and influences. For scholarly purposes of exposition, (or exhibition) this is sometimes necessary, but never ~true~ in the sense we ususually use the word.
But I'm speaking here without having read the book. A few general history observations:
Clearly Sumarian language and culture had a deep impact on the Levant, on Egypt, Turkey/Anatolia and further. Trade records with Indus River valley cultures have been found. When the Hebrews were in Babylon, a Sumerian hand-me-down city, and decided to switch from oral to written records, the sumerian (then assysian) language was surely going to impact the writing.
Clearly a whole host of ecstatic mystery cults deeply impacted the area as well. Mushrooms would certainly play a part in any cult that experiments with local hallucinagens. The Greeks sure had enough left-over mushroom sculptures to verify the lasting tradition.
-Richard
--From Heratheta on John Allegro and Graffitti--
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 01:28:35 EDT
thanks Mark for your interesting comments and questions. personally I believe the knowledge of john allegro is older than he was and therefore that he tapped into a remarkable vein. i'll always be greatful for his courage to write the book which was later purged from bookstores with an intolerance like the inquisition. he later wrote of the fury and the oppression quite understandably as you might expect from such a world class scholar. but, then copernicus, pasteur, & galeleo, were all treated poorly by the politicians, eccleasiastical,academic, and state who used the hallucinations of the religions to form governing bodies serving their need to express themselves over others. as to how such an idea could be suppressed though not extinguished, how long did the tobacco industry keep the warning labels of cigarette packs? but the graffiti, oh yes, I remember it was in bubbles, blue red, and especailly the last line of what i'm trying to have enlarged from a foto I took of it remains cleaar to me "I do not want to be my dream" . when I enlarge the foto I shall print it out here tomorrow, godhallucinationmushroomdoubtthickthinreality willing.
To mm and those interested the full grafitti dream text at the southwest corner of northpoint and polk in sanfrancisco reads:
my desire is to dream
my wish is to
wake up and
my hope is to not
be a dream
there are other grafitti by this same person also in sanfrancisco east of this above one and I have meant to call the person,for at the bottom of the text above is a telephone number and a ? what do you think? I shall take a closer look with a microscope at the picture I have but I don't see how I will be able to make it out. there is a 415 area code I see before it and perhaps a sanfrancisco resident if they should ever pass this corner and see the grafitti will pass the number along. the other grafitti also are conscerning dreams and it might be nice to contact the grafittist with all the sanfrancisco dream activity going on. well on to the microscope until then. I do remember there were some spanish names following the telephone number so more than one person is involved.
COMMENTARY ON DREAMS FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES
NEW DREAMS:
PRECOGNITIVE/FUTURE DREAMS [Stories from past experiences, or
send them in before it happens, if you can]
REPETITIVE DREAMS [Significant by nature]
DREAM TRACES IN WAKING LIFE [The effects of external stimuli on
our dreams or is it the other way around - our dreams leaving a
trace on our physical reality?]
DEFYING CLASSIFICATION [Your stumpers may not be so mysterious to
others]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
LINKS TO STAGES OF LIFE
BIRTH [Starts]
CHILDHOOD [Early development]
ADOLESCENCE [Maturing, testing]
ADULTHOOD [The main event for most]
OLD AGE [Wisdom, Approaching the Journeys end]
DEATH [Endings]
COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD [Beyond our terrestrial limits]
==========================================
==========================================
AGGRESSION [By us or against us- crossing others paths]
ALIENS [Visitors or visited - creatures from other dimensions]
AMUSEMENT PARK [A place to relax and enjoy, another reality]
ANGELS [Visitors from Spiritual dimensions]
ANIMALS [Basic Instincts- This month brings us Owls, Deer, ..]
** Dream: Owls in my dream by Sonja (980622) **
Hi there
Normally when I dream it does not bother me, but the day when I dream about something and it bothers me, then I know that something is going to happen.
I've dreamt last night about owls and it is bothering me a lot and I would like to know what the meaning of owls are. I am not superstitious about owls so that is why I cannot figure out why it is bothering me.
It was also a kind which I cannot recognised and there were babies as well.
Could you please come back to me
Thank you
Sonja
== Commentary by kris on Owls in my dream by Sonja (980623) ==
I'm intrested in this dream about Owls that bothered you. But I need more information that this to go by. When I comment on a dream, I need every last detail of it, including colors of things in the dream, and your feelings of things while you were dreaming about them. I need to know everything as if you were trying to explain a story or movie to me in exact detail, as it happened, leaving nothing out.
I don't think that there is some blanket statement meaning that someone can say "Owls mean such-and-such." Dream symbols are different depending on the person's perception of these things, and depending of the context, and of your feelings in the dream.
I am intrested in this dream, and would undoubtedly have some comments on it if I were able to view it as a movie in my mind. Please re-post it in great detail.
Thanks,
Kris a.k.a. DreamWind
DreamWind
************************************************************* Remember always, that all power comes from the creator *************************************************************
== Commentary by MGM on Owls in mythology (980624) ==
Hi, Sonja. I did a little bit of research on the Web but couldn't find any interpretations of owl dreams. I did find a bit about the owl and its place in myth. Here is what I found:
Because he is a solitary night bird, the owl has come to represent the forsaken. Job in his affliction calls himself "a companion to owls". [Job 30:29] He has been abandoned by the light and makes a fearful noise because of his sufferings. The solitary bird is assumed to be lonely and Job longs for the companionship of God which he once enjoyed.
The forsaken Christ says, "I am like an owl of the desert." [Psa 102:6 NKJV] He has been abandoned by the Father, the crowds, even his disciples. This psalm often bears the caption: "A prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed, & pours out his sighing before the Lord." Adam Clarke calls it, "The prayer of the captives in Babylon when ...they were almost worn out with oppression, cruelty, & distress."
The owl is associated with ruins - places that have been utterly abandoned and are unfit for human habitation. The complete ruin of the cities of Israel's enemies is emphasized by statements like: "the owl and the raven shall dwell in it" [Isa 34:11 NKJV], it shall be an habitation of dragons and a court for owls" [Isa 34:13], "the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation." [Jer 50: 39] Since the owl is a bird of ill omen, its voice among the ruins warns future generations that herein lies the wrath of God.
Regarding ill omens, the prophet, Micah, foreseeing the punishment of Israel, says, "Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls." [Micah 1:8]
Since the owl loves darkness it was associated with death and the Devil who is the Prince of Spiritual Darkness. As the Devil lays snares for the children of Adam, the owl was believed to lead his fellow creatures into the hunter's traps.
In Celtic regions this night-dweller was considered a "corpse-bird" or "night hag". Asian peoples told tales of the owl stealing children in the night. Others believed witches could fly about in the form of owls and that sorcerers could send messages by means of this bird. The tufts on the heads of horned owls caused them to be associated with demons especially that of avarice or greed. The owl was also associated with cold weather, death, moonlight, blindness, and passivity.
Christianity saw in the owl a symbol of Christ who came to those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. [Luke 1:79] This is the case with owls in pictures of the Passion. Early mystics believed the owl had a luminous substance in its eyes which dissolved the darkness, giving it excellent night vision. In the same way, the light of Christ was said to dissolve the darkness of this world and give a pure and good direction. The Christ-owl may be found with the cross on its breast or head.
In Le Livre des Symboles, the light or wisdom of the Holy Spirit is represented by the owl who brings light to the dark souls of unbelievers. The owl was used by the Greeks to symbolize wisdom and, as such, it is an attribute of St. Jerome. It is also representative of the wisdom found in solitary prayer and so appears in pictures of hermits. As wisdom, the owl is a symbol of meditation, retreat, or the scholar. As the scholar, it is often found perched on a scroll or book.
Except where otherwise indicated all scripture quotes are from the KJV.
More information about owls is available at:
The Raptor Center Raptor Pictures
Make ASCII Owl Pics with Your Computer at:
The Complete Guide to Owls 1997 by Suzetta Tucker
** Dream: Animal Morphing by Nutcracker (980723) **
I was at home when I got the message that I needed to go to this place to transfer an animal from one location to another. I was with three other females. One was my best friend Barb, the other two, I never saw their faces. Barb was in the front passenger seat, I was sitting behind her. We both had our windows down. I was cold and closed mine, wondering if I should ask Barb to close hers too, but when I closed mine, hers closed automatically. Did she read my mind?
We're driving along, out in the country on a dirt road. Up ahead we need to take a left. As we do so, to my right I see a grungy Mexican guy in a beat up tan truck talking to some young boy leaning against a large tree. I think to myself, boy, get yourself in the house and quit talking to strangers. I feared for the boy's safety.
We made the left turn and came to our destination. It seems like it might have once been a small zoo, now abandoned. I walked to were I knew the animal to be. It was a narrow rocky path, sandy and golden in color. The cage was at the end of the path. It was actually a cage inside a cage. The animal, whatever it was, was banging the interior door against the exterior door. I opened the outside door. I don't know what kind of animal this is. It appears to be a small (dwarf size) deer, but the deer face looks more like a Tapir's, oblong and thick. It doesn't have the delicate features of any deer I've ever seen. The animal is still banging away on the door. There's no way I can open it and try to catch the animal by myself in the cage I brought with me. I close the outer door and then open it again.
Now the animal is lying flat on the ground and is a white (baby) seal. The seal then stands up on its hind flippers and is hopping and ranting about the cage (acts and looks like the Tasmanian Devil in the cartoons). I close the door and go back to my friends.
Now Bruce Willis (Armageddon) has come to help. He and I go to the cage. He opens the first door then puts his hand inside the second and pets the animal (which is now lying flat again and is the baby seal, only brown in color now). Then the baby seal nips at his hand, but not seriously biting him. Bruce opens the seals mouth to show me his teeth. It looks like some alien creatures teeth. It has long white teeth and these are covered with green circular, sharp pointy teeth that rotate. There are approximately 6 of the green circular teeth. Bruce leaves and I think that now that the animal is calm, I can get it into the other cage with the help of my friends. (7/20/98)
BATHROOMS [Maintenance, Cleansing and Elimination]
BELONGING [What we are associated with or wish we were]
BOOKS (Extensions of our memory and imagination, our permanent records)
** Dream: Protecting my Book by Cunyat (980710) **
I am in a bookstore with a friend of mine. I am following him whilst he buys a book for her wife. He buys a book on jogging, "Running for Health" and, as I practice that sport regularly, I got somehow flattered.
When we reach the cashbox, I see a book next to it which I instantly feel it is a book of mine and I take it. I say: "That book was mine!" meaning that I was carrying it when I entered the bookstore and I don't have to pay for it.
And that's it.
When I recalled this dream it didn't look very interesting at first, but when I began to play with it I soon realized that the book I took in the dream was somehow very meaningful to me.
The book was dark brown, with hard covers, and it seems very precious to me in the dream, as I hold it next to my chest.
The first thing that struck me was that whilst the book is in the bar supporting the cashbox it is upside down so that the front cover is not visible, and when I hold the book the front cover is against my chest so that it is not to be seen either. On the other hand, the back cover is blank and doesn't say anything.
I felt as though the book could show a part of me that I am afraid to show to others for fear they could write, scratch or spoil the book, as that would hurt me deeply.
When I tried to continue the dream so that it could make me feel better, I found that the bookstore was in a first floor, and that its window opened over a garden blown by a very refreshing wind.
I also found that the pages of the book were completely blank: white, new pages with no traces of anything on them.
I wanted to get out to the garden and feel the fresh wind. Also I wanted to get rid of the book. However, I could not leave the book behind, and at last I found it attached to me by its spine, as though it were a part of me (in fact the book sprouts from the middle of my trunk, its spine spanning along part of my chest and belly, with the pages directed outwards).
What at last made me feel good was the image of myself flying over the garden, with my book hanging down from me, so that its pages are also blown by the wind, ready to get in touch with the elements and all the forces of life.
Trying to look at the dream from a psychology point of view (I'm not at all a psychologist, so please forgive me if what I say looks silly from that point of view), I would say that the dream is trying to say to me the following things: being quite a reserved and shy person, it seems that I am afraid to look at life directly. That's the reason I follow my friend sheepishly in the dream, using him in the dream (and perhaps others in real life) as a barrier to shield me from the emotions of life.
That is the reason for the book being so white and untouched (not letting the emotions of life to reach me), and I think that the dream is telling me to open the book (my inner self) to life, to stop using others as shields, to face life directly, to experience fully what life has to offer, and most important, to enjoy it.
Hope you like my dream!
BRIDGES [How we get across an obstacle or go from here to there]
CELEBRITIES [The well known - famous and infamous]
** Dream: My Dream of Chuck Norris by ? (980704) **
Dream Title My Dream of Chuck Norris
Date of Dream 7-4-98 11p.m.
One night I had two dreams of Chuck Norris. In the first dream we were chasing each other around with a hose. We were under a
large tree going around. It was a very happy time and the sun was shining and the birds were signing. Chuck had one a blue shirt. I don't remember anything else of this dream. I dream of Chuck often and I am a big admirer of him.
In my second dream that night, Chuck was in a fight with Bruce Lee. Bruce knocked Chuck to the floor and took a bag of rice out of my fridge and choked Chuck to death. As Chuck was dying, I held his hand telling him not to die and to use my strength to get through it. He looked at me and then died.
I would like to know what these dreams mean. They are the two I most think of and wonder what they may mean. I thank you for your time.
CLOTHING [What we wear tells us about ourselves and the events we
participate in]
COMEDY [With an accent on puns, funny situations or jokes]
COMMUNICATIONS [From telepathic to devices to signs & symbols]
COMPUTERS [Extensions of our minds, mind tools, communication]
CULTS [Somewhere out there ...]
DIRECTIONS [Ever stop and ask for directions? North, South,
East, West, up, down, ahead, behind, straight, turn, right, left,
make a circle, cross, go through, open, close, mix, add, boil,
cook, simmer, but most of all - follow these instructions
carefully...and don't be shy about asking someone else down the
path, except, of course, for the Big Bad Wolf!!!]
== Commentary by Heratheta on Various dreams ==
From: Heratheta@aol.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 00:03:51 EDT
nurse dream-thanks for being someone others were sure of the day of this dream and for taking some time to the left and or right of the elevator
snowman dream-thanks for having been a nice person traveling to the right or left of the doorway of that room where your peace lay after this dream
owl dream- of course you explained your own dream and acted correctly by not becoming trouble for anyone including yourself following this dream seeking the path of peace to the right or left of the birds I know all these dreamers did the best they could following these dreams and will continue to do so and I am encouraged helping to encourage them to the right or left of the geographical locations above until their next dreams and mine. I travel a lot to the north northwest and south southeast in my peace trying always to maintain my course with a different behavior from the dream's. peace is a real geographical direction that can change heading and walking it with your attitude and not the dream's is a help to us all.
www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/
has more details. peace is a way.
From: Heratheta@aol.com
Subject: dream bust and car dream
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 02:19:03 EDT
dream bust- the time you spent to the right and left of the living room in peace is also important
car dream-the time you spent normally after this dream is encouraging to me
From: Heratheta@aol.com
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 20:21:42 EDT
dark river dream-warned avoid danger ---
chuck norris 1 warned avoid happy---chuck norris 2 warned avoid needing someone else's strength---
elm st.dream-warned avoid scaring yourself and others---all warnings were for the day following these dreams and avoidance should have been to the right or left of the geography of the dream.
From: Heratheta@aol.com
Subject: Re: Digest ed-core.v001.no096 &.n097
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 20:36:36 EDT
protecting book dream-warned avoid somehow---
eyes of someone else dream warned avoid fact---
flagpole dream warned avoid easier---all above warnings were for the day following these dreams remembering dreams can be nutritionally helped with these tryptophane rich foods--pork shrimp lobster duck apples pineapple watermelon hazelnuts asparagus onions mushrooms cabbage broccoli cauliflower beer tequila(100% agave only) most everything else is harmful to memory as well as I can remember
From Heratheta
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 21:00:04 EDT
of course they are related if you look at the words-had to & having to- the dreams were showing you what was becoming excessive in your live and those were the things you had to do
From: Heratheta@aol.com
Subject: Re: Digest ed-core.v001.n103
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 21:26:46 EDT
tornado dream- avoid very in your thoughts and deeds until the next dream and as an old piece of advice gave proceeding in an unvery mood to the left or right of the tornado would have been the way
From: Heratheta@aol.com
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 23:33:20 EDT
thanks for avoiding "some kind of" in yourself and others following this building dream and seeking peace to the left or right of the building in a way that is definite
DISCOVERY [New insights and unexpected developments]
DREAMING [Dreams about dreaming]
DRUGS [Healing or Hurting?]
EATING [Getting nourishment for maintenance, growth and pleasure]
ELEVATORS [Going UP or DOWN - Push the right button or else...]
ESCAPE [Get me outta here!!!]
** Dream: the dark river by (9807057) **
Dream Title the dark river
Date of Dream July 5-98
I dreamed I was beneath a chair drawing objects that were common like a shoe, a chair leg and such.. then I find myself in front of a large estate..I had come by van to this place and I was standing in the sloping parking lot (the estate was on a mountain top) and I looked about up and down the road.. There was a feeling of danger here and I knew it before I had even arrived. I looked up and the sun was warm and shining on the trees that surrounded the estate on all sides. There was oddly, nothing to be seen beyond this position, so I looked down at my clothing to see who I was? I suspected I was involved in something medical because I wore mostly white..(I find myself dressed in white frequently in my dreams)..I was wearing a white dr's coat and some heels in white. I walked towards the building and noticed that the outer structure had a wide stone staircase to the left that wound around the building to somewhere. I enter the front side door, right beside the stone steps and walked into a large hall, or room that was busy with people walking about. They were all in the medical field and I entered and walked up to a staff attendant who was awaiting my arrival. I looked at a chart and turned to see that there was a cell with bars to my left. In it was a man seated on a bed. He was watching tv and yet I knew he was watching me at the same time. I spoke to the attending doctor and I discussed the case with him.. I then noticed that a male nurse was entering the cell to bring food to the man in the cell at the time.. I turned to the doctor and warned him outright that the man in the cell was extremely dangerous and that I knew him well. I went on to say that the man in the cell could not be trusted with even the smallest of instruments or toys to amuse himself with.. The doctor assured me that they were taking every precaution. I knew this not to be so...
Now I see myself in the parking lot. It is important to me that the van is still there and that I can leave whenever I want. I re-enter the facility and in my mind, I am seeing the male nurse being stabbed by the man in the cell. I do not actually see it, but rather, it is a premonition of what is either about to occur or perhaps already occurred.. I am not sure.. I walk in slowly...up to the main desk.. there is no one about. I turn towards the cell.. the man is gone.. as I suspected...I now hear the sound of a ball hitting a glove. I turn towards the front door.. The cell man walks casually by, tossing a ball into a glove..he turns to look at me...I freeze.. I see him but I do not move even though I know he sees me.....he goes past the door now.. I begin to reason out a plan.. I look about but I can see no one still left alive. I must assume that they are all dead. I decide to go to the stone stairs.. I figure that the man will not think that I would walk towards him.. I exit the main floor and run up the stairs hoping that there are those who are still alive on the second floor. It is hot and I am running fast. I enter the upper floor door and I find myself in a room similar to a motel room. There is a bed, a bureau, a large mirror on top, and a window on the far side of the bed. I think to myself that I must find comfortable shoes to escape with.. My visual concept at this point is that the van is no longer of any use because I see the cell man pulling wires from it. I look out the window and down to the parking lot..So many vehicles there and probably every one of those people is dead.. these were my thoughts at the time. I turn and see myself in the mirror. I am blonde, straight haired and thin. I am wearing a blue and pink blouse and probably in my mid 40's.. I do not look at all like my real self and I note this as I see my reflection. Yet the other me.. the real me is there inside the mind of this person. We are separate entities at this moment while looking at the mirror. Now I look down and at the side of the bed is a pair of sneakers. They are a bit worn and fleural in pattern. I sit at the end of the bed and begin to put them on. I am thinking consciously about scaling the side of the wall from the bedroom and making a run down the mountain towards help. I fiddle for a moment or two with one shoe.. thinking it is a bit large for me... I begin to put on the other one...I AM STARTLED AT THIS POINT.. the cell man is standing right to my left above me. My only recourse was to pretend that I was not seeing the man or rather seem to be in a trance to avoid his presence. I looked up into the mirror and I see us both in this instance. He is smiling at me. He is middle aged, greying slightly on the sides, has perfectly straight teeth, a 5 o'clock shadow, beige shirt with faint stripes, dark beige khaki dress pants. I continue to stare at him as I rise up to make my exit. I now feel that I am knocked backwards by a force much greater than him. I land on the bed and I look up into the mirror. I see the man standing there in the mirror.. he is peeling off his face to expose what appears to be raw flesh. With an evil white smile he lays on the bed beside me, holding me. I feel his presence is pure evil.. I attempt to push away but he is too strong.. I then begin to see my reflection in the mirror .. I am slowly rising above the room.. beginning to look down at the cell man on the bed, his reddened fleshy face is hard to look at yet I find myself watching it.. I know what is happening on the bed is wrong yet I am now detached to it in some way.. watching it as though it were a tv show or something.. I am thinking that I am dead now and that is why I am separate from the woman below me..I cannot be sure. As I rise above, I see the woman still struggling yet I have no concept of her sense of fear or terror.. nothing matters to me now.. then I wake up.
Comments by Dreamer: I am a frequent flyer in dreamland..I love to write my dreams down.. I touch, smell, taste and experience some out of body experiences in my dreams and would like to know if others do the same. I feel my dream was a memory of something.. this was my impression when I awoke....
Comments: I want to find someone who understands the relevance of these dreams.. they are much too strong for me at times.
EYES [The organs of sight...the window to the soul...]
FEAR [What scares us]
** Dream: The Snakewoman by MGM (980626) **
When I was a young boy, I dreamt about a bust of a woman my parents had in our family home. In waking life, the black marble bust stood on a chest of drawers in the living room. In my dream the statue came alive as a woman with the body of a snake. She was speaking to me and looming over me, and I was very frightened of her, though I cannot remember what she was saying.
MGM
** Dream: FREDDY by Fiona (980708)**
Dream Title FREDDY by Fiona
Date of Dream 7/7/98
I am in a huge old warehouse; the scene is exactly like in all those Nightmare on Elm St movies. It's damp and steamy and I can't see further than three meters away from me as it is so dark. I'm scared. Then I realize that someone is drawing closer to me and instinctively, I run from them. It turns out to be Freddy Kruger and he chases me for what seems like hours. His knives are out and he is slashing them at me, missing me by millimeters every time. Then suddenly the scene changes and I am now being chased around home. I see my father and I scream and scream for him to help me. Helplessly screaming, I think I will be killed for sure. I'm still running and screaming for help and realizing that my dad is doing nothing to help me. Then flash back to the warehouse and I am again running, but this time I fall down and hide behind some thick metal pipes. I'm trembling, trying to sob quietly as I know my death is not going to be peaceful when freddy suddenly pounces on me while making the most hideous noise ever imaginable. It is at this time that Freddy befriends me and tells me how lonely he is because everyone always runs from him. It is at this stage that I have incredible sex with him, climaxing in seconds. At this stage I wake up.
FOOD [The source of our physical nourishment]
FIRE [Flames bring light, heat and destruction/transformation]
FLYING [Confidence, Power, Freedom & Perspective]
GIFTS [Offerings to or from others]
HOBBIES [Our interests and desires]- COLLECTING THINGS
HOLIDAYS [Time off to ...]
HOSPITAL [A place for treatment, healing and repair]
** Dream: Medical nurse at Hospital admission by MB (980622)**
My husband and I are in a hospital in adjoining rooms. I see people going into the elevator to go shopping on another level. Before getting in I want to make sure which floor we are on so that I can find my way back to my room afterwards. Then my husband is in the elevator too in a wheelchair. When the door of the elevator opens he says, "let's get out of here." Suddenly, I cannot find him anymore and I hear that they are calling his name over the P.A. system. I have a conversation with the woman who is doing the paging. They have located my husband but they think he should be punished for leaving his hospital room without permission. I embrace the woman and say that even if her job is ordinary, it is still very important work. I watch her while she registers some new patients that are coming in.
End of dream
HOUSE [Where our lives take place]
** Dream: Group Home by dreambat (980712) **
I'm at a group home for boys, but only the director is there. I have a sense that its afternoon and everyone is out. The director is talking to me from the kitchen, he may be preparing a meal or checking the supplies. I see my wife Cassidy lying on a couch in an orange bikini. She looks like a teenager herself. We go outside and I see a thick flagpole. I climb up the pole. There is a metal double loop section for tying off the rope for the flag I have to get past, and its easier than I thought it would be. Climbing is also easier than I thought it would be and I go up much further than I expected, maybe half way. I fear loosing my strength and climb back down. I'm surprised that Cassidy isn't more impressed.
dreambat
HOTELS [Temporary Dwelling or Special Event location]
JOURNEYS [Missions away from our home base -explorations]
** Dream: Blue Moon by ? (9604XX) **
Dream Title Blue Moon pt50
Date of Dream 07/11/98 7:30pm
Okay, here goes...
This dream took place April of 96 while I was in Chicago taking care of a sick friend. I was suffering from a bad tooth at the time and was treating it with a bee propolis herbal complex.
It was about 2am and I was restless in my sleep, woke up long enough to dose myself then drift back off. Before I could slip back into oblivion I was taken by this dream/illusion...
I am definitely looking through the eyes of someone else... this I know for a fact. I know this as I know myself. This was the very first sensation I got as I began this dream/illusion. Whoever this person was allowing me to view through his/her eyes.
It was night, there was a full moon (I know... it sounds like a cliche opening) and I was standing in a small grove. I was watching the moon rise above the trees which was to my right. As I turned to the left viewing the surrounding area my eyes rested upon a Huge earth mound. As I looked down toward my feet, I saw that my hand was resting upon a outcrop of smooth stone about waist high.
The night was filled with an eerie blue light that was not a part of the night.
As I looked at the hand, I saw a ring with a blue stone in it. It was my right hand. The ring looked familiar, similar to the lapis lazuli my sick friend had given me on my birthday several years back. She knew nothing of the stone, just thought it was me and had it mounted.
As I looked at the ring, the entire hand and ring began to glow with the same eerie blue light. At that moment my eye was caught by a movement at the mound. A door was sliding open from right to left and inside I saw two stone tablets with writing similar to hieroglyphics but somehow different. As my curiosity became immersed with the tablets, the door continued to open and next to the tablets was an Egyptian statuette kneeling, sitting back on its heels with its hands resting on the its lap. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, my attention was caught by the statuette.
== Commentary by MGM on 'Blue Moon' (980713) ==
Richard, please use this version. Thanks!
Mark
>Dream Title Blue Moon
There were several powerful symbols in this dream.
**It was night, there was a full moon (I know... it sounds like a cliche opening) and I was standing in a small grove. I was watching the moon rise above the trees which was to my right. As I turned to the left viewing the surrounding area my eyes rested upon a Huge earth mound. As I looked down toward my feet, I saw that my hand was resting upon a outcrop of smooth stone about waist high.**
I thought you might like to read what Barbara Walker has to say about groves and the goddess known as Isis in her book "The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets":
"GROVE, SACRED Next to a cave, a grove was the most popular uterine symbol in ancient religions, even among the early biblical Semites, to whom Asherah was the Mother-Goddess of the Grove. A large tree, pillar or obelisk within the grove often represented the male god inside the Goddess as both child and lover.
"The Old Testament 'Asherah' is translated 'grove,' without any explanation that the sacred grove represented the Goddess' genital center, birthplace of all things. In the matriarchal period, Hebrews worshiped the Goddess in groves (1 Kings 14:23), later cut down by patriarchal reformers who burned the bones of Asherah's priests on their own altars (2 Chronicles 24:4-5). ...
"...The Goddess's grove-yoni was 'Athra qaddisa,' the 'holy place' (literally 'divine harlot'). Sometimes she was called simply 'Holiness,' a word later applied to Yahweh. ... In Egypt she was also a Law-giving Mother, Ashesh, an archaic form of Isis; the name meant both 'pouring out' and 'supporting,' the functions of her breasts. ... Some called her 'Great Lady of Ashert, the lady of heaven, the queen of the gods.' "
And from the Egyptian Book of the Dead (as cited by Walker)), Isis was:
Terrible one, lady of the rain-storm, destroyer of the souls of men,
devourer of the bodies of men, orderer, producer, and maker of
slaughter ... Hewer-in-pieces in blood, Ahibit, lady of hair ... Fire-lover,
pure one, lover of slaughterings, cutter off of heads, devoted one,
lady of the Great House ... her name is Clother, hider of her creations,
conqueror of hearts, swallower of them ... Knife which cutteth when
its name is uttered, slayer of those who approach thy flame.
**As I looked at the hand, I saw a ring with a blue stone in it. It was my right hand. The ring looked familiar, similar to the lapis lazuli my sick friend had given me on my birthday several years back. She knew nothing of the stone, just thought it was me and had it mounted.
As I looked at the ring, the entire hand and ring began to glow with the same eerie blue light. At that moment my eye was caught by a movement at the mound. A door was sliding open from right to left and inside I saw two stone tablets with writing similar to hieroglyphics but somehow different. As my curiosity became immersed with the tablets, the door continued to open and next to the tablets was an Egyptian statuette kneeling, sitting back on its heels with its hands resting on the its lap. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, my attention was caught by the statuette.**
Of rings, I found this in "A Dictionary of Symbols," by J.E. Cirlot:
"RING Like every closed circle, the ring is a symbol of continuity and wholeness. This is why (like the bracelet) it has been used both as a symbol of marriage and of the eternally repeated time-cycle. Sometimes it occurs in animal form, as a snake or an eel biting its own tail (Ouroboros); sometimes as a pure geometrical form. It is interesting to note that, in some legends, the ring is regarded as the only remaining link of a chain. Thus, it is told that when Jupiter allowed Hercules to rescue Prometheus, it was on condition that the latter should thereafter wear an iron ring, set with a piece of rock from the Caucasus, as a symbol of submission to his punishment. Another type of ring is found in the circle of flames surrounding the dancing Shiva as he performs the cosmic dance; this flame-ring can be related to the Zodiac. Like the Zodiac and the Ouroboros of the Gnostics, it has an active and a passive half (evolution, involution), and stands for the life-cycle of both the universe and each individual being: the circular dance of nature in eternal process of creation and destruction. At the same time, the light radiated by the ring of flames symbolizes eternal wisdom and transcendental illumination."
Also, Walker writes of lapis (which means 'stone' in Latin): "LAPIS MANALIS 'Stone of the Underworld,' or of the dead, the sacred stone covering the pit of the 'manes' on Rome's Palatine Hill. At the annual festival of Mania, the Ancestral Moon-mother, the stone was removed and her children the 'manes' or ghosts-of-ancestors were invited to join the feast. Sometimes the festival was called Parentalia, since the ghosts in the underworld were the same as the 'di parentes' or 'parent gods' from past ages. Northern Europeans celebrated the same kind of festival at Halloween or Samhain, also a feast to which ancestral ghosts were invited."
As you may know, some ancient societies such as Amerindians and Celts buried their dead in barrows, or burial mounds.
So if what these scholars have written can be applied to your dream, you, the Anointed Ring-Bearer, saw the Moon Goddess of Life and Death with the Tablets of Law emerging from a Phallic Burial Mound in her Sacred Grove, which is the goddess's own Yoni! Rather millennial, if you ask me.
MGM
** Dream: cross country ski party by stan kulikowski ii(980718)**
(note: stan Requests that his name and address be kept intact)
<bigger>
DATE : 17 jul 1998 08:58
DREAM : cross country ski party
=( last night I was up until 02:30 preparing my presentation powerpoint slides and sample programs for today's lecture on pointers. when I got finished I tried to go right to sleep as there is a lecture on campus I would like attend at 09:00. the lecture is on instructional technology. the topics did not sound very advanced but it would be good for me to show myself at these gatherings, besides I would like to see what the woman has to say. I set the alarm for 07:55. but I can not get to sleep for more that an hour yet. when the alarm goes off, I hit the 15 min snooze and turn it off on the second sounding. still unable to move, I fall back to sleep without intending to. )=
mark littlefield's new house in massachusetts is a typical farmhouse, built in the mid1800s with large paned windows in kitchen where I sit with his wife, fran. the view those windows is very nice, taking in the valley and what used to be farm lots, now slightly wooded and developed into scattered housing. across the valley is a singularly steep mountain side, thin trees lost without their leaves in midwinter. and it is snowing. the start of a lovely new england snowfall with big fluffy white flakes floating down and beginning to accumulate on the mountain side across the way.
francis has a friend with her, a woman with large eyes and dark hair. we have been talking about renting some cross country skis so we can go skiing later tonight when the snow gets deep enough. it will be a little a warm, so early in the season, but it is fun to slush about even in the wet packing snow. the only drawback is putting the soft red wax on your ski base at the start of the season which has to be flamed off for a hard wax base later when it gets properly cold. of course, since the skis we will get are rentals, they will probably be waxless and so there will be no problem in gumming up the ski base.
"I am looking forward to skiing down that mountain over there." I tell the two women, indicating the view through the window.
"isn't that too steep?" asked the wide eyed woman.
"well, ninety degrees is too steep because you just fall and break bones and your equipment. no fun that. but anything slightly less than ninety can apply contact to your skis as gravity pulls you. that contact keeps your skis oriented to the surface and the slight friction gives you enough control to move left and right around the trees. it does not matter how fast you go so long as you keep control and the pull out at the bottom is gradual enough that your legs can support you on the shift from down to flat." I make this all sound thrilling and fun, but it really is not quite that easy.
"mark is here. we better go." says fran.
outside mark has pulled up in the driveway in a large american car, a lincoln or bonneville pontiac I think. it has huge bench seats inside. the exotic woman and I get in the back while fran sits up front. the drive to the university is short, but mark tells us that we are going to stop for witherspoon on the way.
herrold witherspoon is a friend of mine from new york, and i will be glad to see him again. but the wide eyed lady suddenly looks unhappy. she tells me that she and witherspoon had been lovers once, but this arrangement did not end very amicably. she squirms a bit as mark pulls into another drive down the road.
witherspoon's house is typical of a sculptor. parts of various projects scattered about like loose anatomy carelessly discarded at a butcher's shop. a head of a deer there, a small rhinoceros overturned there, a flight of small sea birds frozen in wood forever startled into almost flight. while we wait for witherspoon to come out, i notice something odd. in the wood lot behind the garage that serves as his studio, i see a couple human skulls among the leaves on the ground. these appear to be real bone and not some artist's model. around the other side of the garage i find a few more human bones among the trees. i understand that artists need anatomical models as well as medical people, but these appear to more natural remains like an indian graveyard being uncovered by natural erosion.
i do not have much more time to consider these remains as herrold comes up to the car. he is dressed in massive layers of a heavy coat and scarves. no sooner than he touches the front car door, then the dark lady in back with me starts to moan and squirm, upset by his appearance. seeing her, he pulls back from the door handle. she looks the other way, biting her hand and trying control herself, but she stills lets out a noisy wail in spite of herself.
this is all very nonverbal, but witherspoon mutters something to mark and goes across the driveway. he starts up a dusty blue bmw which obviously he has not driven in months. mark starts up our car and we proceed back out on the highway.
"what was all that about?" i ask her. "witherspoon has been a friend of mine for many years and i know he is not cruel or nasty. sometimes careless, but never deliberately mean."
"well," she says with a sigh, "one night when we were sitting around naked after a few hours of love making, he took offense at how i got this scar on my back." she slips her shoulder out of the halter top to show me her shoulder blade. she has a large pink white scar the shape of a wilted flower. a daisy, bruised and drooping with petals missing and a torn leaf still clinging to the stem. this is not some injury that happens to look like a flower, but definite decorative scarification. someone whittled that into her flesh with a pen knife.
"i guess he could not handle my days as a biker slut." she sighed again as if missing him. "you can not imagine how much fun i could have behind the vendors boothes at yankee stadium on a saturday afternoon." indeed, i guess i can't.
it is not long until we get to the university. in the main campus building of the student union i supposed we are there to get our skis and leave, but mark says there is some instructions we have to listen to before we can get fitted for the shoes. we have to go upstairs.
as we approach the stairway, there is another group coming down. it looks like a batch of new students on tour for orientation. their guide is explaining some feature of the student union and mentions something about antiabortion facilities for preparing rallies and protests.
i take a rattle out of my pocket and start to shake it so it makes its stacatto clicking noise. this is something new that people use to identify themselves as prochoice supporters. it looks like a small glass test tube with tiny steel beebees inside. by shaking it, the steel beads roll over tumblers and make a noise similar to a rattlesnake or a ratchet depending on how fast you shake it. the purpose of this device is to warn the prolifers that we are already decided on the issues so no one has to waste their time with useless rhetoric.
the crowd on the stairs makes way for us, my clicking clearly bothering them. but once we are on the second floor, i can put the rattle back in my pocket and we proceed to the shoe fitting room.
once i sit down and remove my boots to try on the rental ski shoes, i am dismayed by appearance of my left foot. the toes are all crumpled and blackened like they are dead. i reach down to straighten them and they have no feeling or movement. when i start to stand on the foot, there is only a numb tingling sensation from them. taking a step, the whole foot curls over so i stand on the back of it with the shriveled sole pointed upward. i quickly take the weight off it, worried that i might also damage the bones in the ankle.
i sit back down, massaging the poor senseless foot. perhaps if i get some circulation back into it. i think that the skiing might help to straighten and strengthen the foot, being lashed to a long board for exercise.
=( i wake again. 08:40. it is too late to go the lecture at the university, but enough time before class to type this in. my left foot does has a tingling sensation in the two smallest toes. this has been there for almost a week to a lesser degree, but this morning it is pronounced. i have wondered if this might be the onset of some nerve disease, like amyotropic lateral sclerosis, which begins with deadening of the peripheral nerve ending. earlier in the week it seemed slightly noticeable in the smallest toes of both feet, so it is less likely to an injury or due to uncomfortable footwear. today it is clearly pronounced on the left foot when i woke up. no idea yet what this minor discomfort is about. the real witherspoon i know lives in new york and has distributed the ashes of his wife and several friends around his wooded property on the edge of a reservoir watershed. that is probably where the washed up bones notion came from. )= </bigger>
. stankuli@gulf.net
=== qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit | | who not is today, tomorrow less suitable will be --- -- Ovid _Remedia Amoris_ i 94
== Commentary by Heratheta on Cross Country Skiing (980719) ==
skiing dream-this dream showed you you needed to avoid becoming in your thoughts and deeds something you and others are looking forward to this would hve been most easily accomplished to the right or lift of the mountain in the dream
LOST [Disorientation or abandonment]
LOTTERY DREAMS [Sudden Wealth - Randomness favors the
dreamer]
LOVE [All around us, yet so hard to find and keep]
LUCID DREAMING [Knowing you are Dreaming when you are Dreaming]
MEMORY [Remembering ...In dreams we often struggle with the issue
of memories and remembering a dream which by definition involves
the process of recollection.]
MIRRORS [Reflection of Self]
SEE The Dark River under ESCAPE
MUSIC [Melodies of the land within]
NUDITY [What you see is what you get]
PERFORMERS [Entertainers]
PROBLEMS [Situations or difficulties sometimes present choices]
POLITICAL SCENE [Public issues through positions of power]
RELATIONSHIPS [Other parts of ourselves including family which
constitutes the first and earliest of our relationships, often
influencing how we relate to the outside world]
RELIGIOUS RELATED [The Ritual and the Spiritual]
** Dream: Crowley Dream by lp (980702) **
Hi:
I had an unusual dream last night that I would like to share. Usually my dreams are so surreal that they are hard to recall correctly, let alone describe. Although this dream was strange, it was much more clear than usual. Also I was able to remember most of the events upon waking. I welcome any comments or interpretations..
A group of friends (fictional) and I were going to the apartment of an elderly lady who had passed on. She had been a recluse and no one really new her. It was as if she had invited us to discover what her life was about and to settle things for her. We went to her home, understanding that we would be leaving our old lives and taking a new path.
Inside the front door to her apartment was a very small room (little more than a large box). One at a time, we each climbed into the box. As each person got entered, the room would turn around and the turn back empty.
On the other side was a huge cavern. In the center of the cavern was a temple. In the far wall, on either side of the temple, there were two large holes. A river flowed out of each hole and across the length of the cavern. There were a large number of rooms on either side of the hall. This was the ancient temple of The Golden Dawn and it was where the members of that order were taught. It had been empty for years and we were to be the new members of the order. Athough no living persons had been there in ages the souls of Alister Crowley and the rest of the order were still present.
We each took a room about the size of a cubicle. In each room was a bed and a nightstand. Inside the nightstands and in small hidden cabininets, were book written by Crowley (all the books were written under different names but it was understood he wrote them all).
Throughout our time in the temple there was always a sense of imminent danger from the natural elements. At one point a boulder, swept along by one of the rivers (the one on the right of the temple), blocked the hole from which that river flowed. We had decided to leave for fear of what might happen when the pressure built up behind the stone. As we were leaving one of the members decided he was going to stay, and went back into the main hall. Just then there was an explosion, as the boulder broke through. We were all sure he was dead. We felt as if the group was one single unit and, feeling we had lost him. it was as if all of us had died. However when we reentered we found him shaken up but alive. At another point we were going though some artifacts left by Crowley. There were a number of walking sticks and I was to choose one to use (I do have a real life disability and sometimes use a cane). I was not comfortable with most of them. I found one that was comfortable although., it was so long, it was more like a staff (yes, I am quite aware how Freud would interpret this). We were required, after a time, to choose one particular area of his (Crowley's not Freud"s) work to study. I chose his books on astrology and the cosmos.
That was pretty much it. I realise some liberties were taken with the history of Crowley and The Golden Dawn, but that's what dreams do.
lp
P.S. There are no guarantees, expressed or implied, with regard to the spelling of words in this letter.
ROMANCE [Thrills and Chills, lost in another]
SCHOOL THEMES [Learning and learning related trials]
SOLUTIONS [The answers to problems or quandaries]
STAIRS [Bridges between levels, between the upper and the lower]
STRANGERS [Who and what we don't know yet]
** Dream: snowman by ? (980601)**
Dream Title snowman
Date of Dream 06-01-98
i have a friend that has someone come to her in her room and talks to her about herself and has a black robe on and a hood and won't let her see his face. he recently cut her on her leg. is this person dangerous and what should she do with him or about him. she is afraid of this person.
TEETH [Ok, losing teeth is one of the top ten dreams people have
questions on. Theories on what they mean range all over the
spectrum of possibilities.]
TORNADOS [Pretty well defined destructive power of nature]
** Dream: Tornado man by ? (980625) **
Dream Title Tornado man
Date of Dream June 17th, 1998, 6am.
To start out, I've been having repetetive nightmares about tornadoes for about five or six years. I'm 16 years old. I've never been in a tornado in real life. Usually, in my dream I am aware of a tornado coming, and my biggest dilemma is getting all of my family into the basement. For some reason they don't come right away, and keep saying things like "wait just a minute until I finish my coffee." I wake up in a total panic.
A few nights ago, I dreamt that I was eating lunch with some friends outside and saw a tornado coming. I Hurried and pushed most of my friends into a windowless bathroom. I went back outside to get the last girl, but the tornado had turned into a man who said he was hungry. I offered him my plate of macaroni and cheese, and he ate it. Then he looked at my friend Tessa and said "But she's full of blood" and he tossed a broken plate like a blade, straight through the middle of her skull. I woke up knowing that I was the next one to have my blood sucked by the tornado. It's confusing, but I knew in my dream that the tornado WAS the man, and I feared him accordingly.
Comments by Dreamer: I am really curious why I keep having these repetetive tornado nightmares which change every night, but always with a tornado about to get me.
== Commentary by Heratheta on Tornado Man (980626) ==
thanks for staying calm after a dream like this and taking some time to the right and left of the tornado"s path.
** Dream: "Top of the Hill" by dreambat (980628) **
My wife and I are traveling somewhere in a city neighborhood. Oddly we have found a path through or across building tops. We get picked up in a car, it's Cassidy's (my wife) old 64 Chevy Malibu, though more grey. Her older brother is driving. He is a smarty-pants and tease but isn't bugging us too much right now. We ride on the back trunk, on top of the car. At a hill I decide to get off and walk for exercise. We both walk up the hill, but near the top are no longer sure which way the car went. Its evening and there are many neighbors handing out, as if it were the Fourth of July and they were waiting for a fireworks display. I notice a line in the sky and tell everyone its a tornado. The tornado starts to drop, then doesn't. I think about how this is the top of a hill, and that its meeting a tornado would be like the old mystic prints of Yahew when He would create and axis mundi between tornado and mountain. I've asked everyone to get down, but they aren't very concerned. I'm still very excited at having seen the tornado in its line-in-the-sky mode.
dreambat
** Dream: Tornado Dreams by Bluemoon(980720) **
Hi,
Just wondering if someone could help me decipher a strange dream I had. The dream had to do with a very large black tornado and a stranger that had approached me earlier in the day. The dream was very vivid and I can not seem to stop thinking about it. You can E mail me at bluemoon@the dog housemail.com Your insights would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bluemoon
TRAPPED [Temporarily helpless- Sometimes we are paralyzed or
imprisoned by jobs, relationships or expectations]
VEHICLES [Means of transportation, reflection of lifestyle]
** Dream: Airplane by Joe (980720) **
Dream Title Airplane by Joe
Date of Dream night of july 17
I was in an airplane. I was sitting in the back, talking to someone. Before we took off, I moved to the front section. As we were taking off, the plane hit a wall. There was no roof, so me and the other passangers had to watch the plane hit. Even after we had hit, it kept going, striking objects untill finally coming to a stop.
Comments by Dreamer: I'm not sure what this means, but i had a dream the same night where i was reunited with three girls whom I had met about 2 weeks ago at a resort. I was at the same resort, and I saw them for a while before having to say good-bye once again. I believe that this is directly related to the airplane dream, which occured directly before/after.
WATER [A magical earthly fluid, nourishment, cleansing]
WORKPLACE [Where we make a living]
WRITING & WRITERS [Communication and creativity]
= = = = = = = = = = = ==
DREAM SERIES
(None this month)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Well friends that's it for the dreams section of Electric Dreams Volume 5 Number 7. Thanks for reading. Send in your dreams and commentary for our next issue ED 5.8 August 1998.
Hasta La Vista!
Bob K.
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