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Electric Dreams Volume 12 Issue 06
E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s
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E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s
Volume #12 Issue #6
June 2005
ISSN# 1089 4284
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http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
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Download a cover for this issue:
http://tinyurl.com/bps53
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C O N T E N T S
++ Editor's Notes - Richard Wilkerson
++ Global Dreaming News - Harry Bosma
++ Cover Artist Bio
Laura Atkinson
++ Article: A Preview of Alchera 4
Harry Bosma
++ Column: An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange
Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams
Robert Waggoner 2005
Editor, Lucy Gillis
++ Article: Give Your Inner Child A Lift
Linda Lane Magallón
++ Dream: Dragon Breath
Stan Kulikowski II
++ Column: The View From the Bridge
The Power of DaFuMu Dreaming
Jean Campbell
++ Article: Response to Strephon Kaplan-Williams' comments on
"Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?"
Anthony Shafton
++ Article: The Artist and the Tidal Wave
How Dreams Can Save Your Creative Life
John D. Goldhammer, Ph.D.
++ Article: The Dream Koan, "Why Do We Dream?"
Richard Catlett Wilkerson
++ DREAM SECTION: Dreams from May, 2005
Host Kat Peters-Midland
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D E A D L I N E :
June 20th deadline for July 2005 submissions
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Post Dreams and Comments on Dreams to:
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
Send news, events, workshops, conferences& reviews to
Harry Bosma <ed-news@alquinte.com>
Send Articles, news and other items to:
Richard Wilkerson: <rcwilk@dreamgate.com>
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Editor's Notes
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Welcome to the June 2005 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal to dreams and dreamwork online.
If you are new to dreams and dreamwork, there are a few lists where Electric Dreams people seems to congregate. One is
dreamchatters@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe by going here and registering
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dreamchatters/
.. and another is the IASD bulletin board hosted by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D.
Please, no dreams interpreted here, just discussion of dreaming and dreamwork topics.
http://www.asdreams.org/subidxdiscussionsbboard.htm
Hello IASD conference attendees!
This issue will be printed up for offline reading at the conference. If you haven't yet registered, you better hurry, space is running out quickly now. http://www.asdreams.org/2005
This month in Electric Dreams:
You might think it self-serving that our news editor has included an article about his own dream journal software, but in fact this is an invited article. A few years ago we reviewed this and other journal software with Peggy Coats in the IASD Dream Time Cyberphile (Winter 99)
http://dreamgate.com/dream/cyberphile/rcwasd10.htm
and it just feels like its time to start updating this information, particularly with software developers like Harry, who have been responding to the users of the software and have continued to add to the programs. Now that there is a new version about out, you are lucky if you read "A Preview of Alchera 4" by Harry Bosma.
Lucid Dream Exchange editor Lucy Gillis offer ED readers a excerpt from her Lucid Dream Exchange, this month from Robert Waggoner, long time lucid dream explorer. Be sure to read "Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams" and double your lucid dreams.
After eight hours of work at the office, then you finally off and go home and get some sleep. And what then? We are told we have dream work to do. Linda Lane Magallón wonders if all this work is really the best way to liberate your inner child. Rather, how about a dream flight? Be sure to read "Give Your Inner Child A Lift ."
Stan Kulikowski II often contributes dreams from his journal written in a unique format. This month, "Going to Decatur"
Jean Campbell keeps us up each month on the activities of The World Dreams Peace Bridge. From all around the world, people are dreaming for peace. One of the ways is through "The Power of DaFuMu Dreaming" which Jean discusses and gives example of in her column, The View.
We are pleased to have Anthony Shafton in this issue, responding to Strephon Kaplan-Williams (SKW). SKW has been wondering if the notion going around that there aren't many blacks in the dream movement isn't a kind of Ethnocentric viewpoint, as blacks have had their own traditions of dreamwork for sometime. This question was posed in the March ED issue, in relation to a 1990 Dream Time article by Anthony Shafton who had attended an IASD (ASD) conference and saw only two three blacks. Shafton, (author of Dream-Singers, and an immense work on dreamwork, Dream Reader) now responds to SKW and updates us on his research in a "Response to Strephon Kaplan-Williams' comments on 'Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?'"
One of the most popular questions we get on the IASD bulletin board is 'Why do we dream?" I've begun to see this question more like a Zen Koan, where each time this un-answerable question is asked, there is a moral imperative to answer. Leaping into this paradox yet one more time, I've included a response I posted last month. You can discuss these issues and more at the IASD BB:
http://www.asdreams.org/subidxdiscussionsbboard.htm
Fortunately for Electric Dreams readers, Janet Garrett puts the articles from past issues online in an easy-to-access format. These articles contain a wide range of information for dreamers and dreamworkers. You can see her work progress and view hundreds of article on dreams at: http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/index.htm
Harry Bosma has collected dream news, web updates, conference announcement and other events in the world of dreaming and you can read about those below in the Global Dreaming News. If you have any dream news, conferences, books, workshops, and especially any online meetings or events, be sure to send that information to Harry by the 15th of each month at ed-news@alquinte.com
Being in the ocean all alone, trying to save a friend, being with friends from schooldays, being arrested for a publication, and trying to escape from a brown bear...another fascinating dream section of the Electric Dreams! Kat Peters-Midland has collected the finest from the month to read. Be sure to read all of these dreams and more.
If you want to send in dreams, please enter them at http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
or join the dream flow at dreamflow@yahoogroups.com
(dreamflow-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
Cover this month by Laura Atkinson
More on the cover and the artist below.
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For those of you who are new to dreams and dreaming, be sure to stop by one of the many resources:
http://www.dreamtree.com
http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/library
Electric Dreams in PDF: (thanks to Nick Cumbo)
http://electric.dreamofpeace.net/
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From Planet Dream,
-Richard Wilkerson
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G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S
http://dreamunit.net/news-en/
June 2005
If you have news you'd like to share, simply email Harry Bosma at his special ed-news@alquinte.com address. I will be away most of June, so replies will be slow.
Online:
- Moonflower Vine
- Spirit Community
Physical world:
- Dream Studies Courses at JFKU
- "DREAM WEEK" to Feature Experts - IASD conference
Books, movies, research:
- Foreign Objects: Dream Drawings
Recurring events:
- Ritual DaFuMu for Peace
- IASD Online Auction
* * * ONLINE * * *
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- Moonflower Vine
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I would like to mention my new web site: www.themoonflowervine.com
The Moonflower Vine is my story of prophecy and healing through dreams. A reluctant subject at first--I'm just a dreamer, not an expert--I came to accept and appreciate this gift as a connection to the higher consciousness we all share. A precognitive series of dreams a few years ago started the journal writing of my dream experiences. Struggling constantly with denial, misinterpretation, overinterpretation, among other things, I finally settled down to let things flow. It seemed out of my control anyway.
Words are inadequate to describe how much dreams have helped me.
Thank you for any mention of my new site.
Sincerely, Carol Gardner
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- Spirit Community
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Spirit Community currently has more than 28,000 pages of free dream interpretation tools to help you understand the meanings of your dreams. There are several dream dictionaries, dream interpretaton methods, 3000 dream symbols and classic writings on dreams by Fueud and Stout.
www.spiritcommunity.com
Fine regards & blessings, Dr. August H. Wald, Ph. D.
* * * PHYSICAL WORLD * * *
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- Dream Studies Courses at JFKU
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JFKU offers a graduate level 36-unit certificate program in Dream Studies at our Pleasant Hill Campus. Courses in Dream Studies are offered every quarter. For more information on how to enroll, contact Marilyn Fowler, Director of the Dream Studies Program, JFKU. 925-969-3513, mfowler@jfku.edu
Courses for Summer Quarter:
The Language of the Dream (1 unit)
Instructor: Lynne Ehlers, PhD
Thursdays, 4:30-6:30 pm, July 14 - August 11, 2005
Shamanism and Dreams (1 unit)
Instructor: Fariba Bogzaran, PhD
Friday evening, all day Saturday, August 26-27
http://www.jfku.edu/?a=holistic_is_dream&cid=2&spid1=63&spid2=72&spid3=74
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- "DREAM WEEK" to Feature Experts - IASD conference
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http://asdreams.org/2005/
BERKELEY, CA - The week of June 24-June 28, 2005, has been declared Dream Week by the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, California to honor the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) which is holding its 22nd annual conference at the Doubletree Hotel at the Berkeley Marina that week.
Internationally Recognized Experts: The IASD conference, entitled, CALIFORNIA DREAMING, includes over 100 presentations by the world's foremost dream researchers, authors, and clinicians. Included are diverse presentations on psychological, biological, anthropological, spiritual, artistic, and literary perspectives on dreaming.
Dream Research: Who remembers their dreams and why? What has science learned about the meaning of dreams? What is the link between REM sleep and dreaming? The answers to these and other questions will be featured in presentations by G. William Domhoff, Ph.D. who is an Emeritus Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and by renowned nightmare researcher, Ernest Hartmann, M.D. and other North American and European researchers. How do the dreams of liberals differ from those of conservatives? Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D. will present research on differences between Democrat's and Republican's dreams and nightmares about sex, flying, terrorism, and death and will explore the unconscious roots of America's bitterly divided political landscape.
Continued Education Program: Conference Program Co-Chair and past-President of IASD, Alan Siegel, Ph.D., will coordinate a series of clinical and research seminars on the meaning of dreams and their use in psychotherapy throughout the life cycle with presentations on children's nightmares, characteristics of dreams during life transitions such as pregnancy, marriage, divorce, midlife, and approaching death. A special seminar on dreams, aging, and grief will feature noted author, Patricia Garfield. Clinical, cultural, and ethical considerations in using dreams with trauma survivors will also be addressed.
Dreams and the Arts: Acclaimed novelist, Chitra Divakaruni (Mistress of Spices), will present a keynote speech on traditional and contemporary views of dreams in Indian culture and will read from her latest novel, Queen of Dreams, which is set in Berkeley and features an Indian woman who discovers the dream journal of her deceased mother. She will be introduced by IASD President, Richard Russo, who will also make a presentation on dreams and photography. A juried exhibit of dream-inspired art will be open during the conference with the artists available at a reception on the evening of June 25th. The art show will be viewable during the conference on the IASD website. At the conference, a series of workshops will show the role of the expressive arts in exploring and understanding dreams.
Cultural and Spiritual Dimensions of Dreams: How do different religious traditions view dreams? A series of presentations by anthropologists, psychologists, and religious studies scholars will explore the role of dreams in the Koran, Bible, and the Talmud, reviewing ancient and contemporary spiritual perspectives on dreams. A symposium on Islamic Dreams will feature a presentation by English anthropologist, Iain Edgar, Ph.D., on the "True Dream" in Contemporary Islamic Jihadist Dreamwork. Research on lucid dreaming and PSI phenomena in dreams include a presentation on precognitive dreams, by distinguished researcher and author, Stanley Krippner, Ph.D and a keynote presentation by Charles Tart, Ph.D.
International Association for the Study of Dreams: The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) is the only organization of its kind in the world. This non-profit, international, multidisciplinary organization has a diverse membership representing a variety of dream-related activities, including academic research, clinical practice, and individual study. The IASD was founded in California and has its headquarters in Berkeley, CA. www.asdreams.org
Conference and Contact Information: Members of the public may register for conference activities on a space-available basis. Reporters are welcome to cover presentations. Please go to the registration desk and request a press pass. Media access to workshops is strictly limited; reporters must receive approval to attend from workshop leaders. For additional information on IASD and the conference program visit our website, asdreams.org or call toll-free at 1-866-DREAM12.
Media Contacts:
Alan Siegel, Ph.D. at (510) 527-7929 or
Wendy Pannier at (610) 995-1507
* * * BOOKS, MOVIES, RESEARCH * * *
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- Foreign Objects: Dream Drawings
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by David Reisman
Foreign Objects is a compilation of pen-and-ink drawings, executed in 1995 and 1996, from artist/writer David Reisman's dream journals. Surreal, funny, and at times unsettling, Reisman's drawings feature friends and family, acquaintances, a variety of character types, and celebrities including Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Jackson Pollock, and David Letterman. While Foreign Objects is a kind of unconscious autobiography, the book may be seen as an effort, as his brother Carl Reisman notes in his foreword, to "help us to build bridges, however rickety, between our secret selves and consciousness, and between our isolated selves and humanity."
Reading Foreign Objects is like visiting a Museum of Everyday Life that's been broken down into its quantum state and reassembled as a surrealist masterpiece! David Reisman's dream art is autobiography at its most auto-luminescent.
-Rick Veitch, Author/artist of Rabid Eye: The Dream Art of Rick Veitch
When Goya etched "The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters" he wasn't reading David Reisman's Foreign Objects. In this diary of dream moments, Reisman illustrates many hilariously absurd situations that will leave you laughing. Still, this book does produce a trance-like state where the idea of someone half-submerged in floor boards seems as normal as, say, George W. Bush being president of the United States. Hmmm, Goya was right!
- Peter Kuper, Cartoonist
FOREIGN OBJECTS, Dream Drawings
by David Reisman
ISBN 0-9706407-2-2
First printing: November 2004
Trade paperback
200 pages 8.5" x 5.5"
US$14.95
Available from the Hornbill Press:
www.hornbillpress.com
* * * RECURRING EVENTS * * *
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- Ritual DaFuMu for Peace
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The World Dreams Peace Bridge, on the 15th of each month, is holding a monthly DaFuMu (a collective dream of good fortune: http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/dafumu.htm) to support peace.
In joining a DaFuMu each month we will be seeking the mandala of peace within the universal mind: learning what it is to be peaceful at a personal level, how to act in a peaceful manner within the world, and accessing and supporting the general mandala of peace available to all people. So, please join in on the 15th of each month. Before sleeping set your intention to dream towards the mandala of peace.
If you feel that your dream has touched upon a symbol that can be used within the mandala of peace we are creating, or on a particular relation of peace, please let us know. Just send your comment, picture or dream to http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/dafumumonthly.htm. To join the World Dreams Peace Bridge discussion group, just send an e-mail to worlddreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .
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- IASD Online Auction
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Each month new, fabulous items are up for bid online on the Auction Board on the IASD web site. To look at all of the bargains and place your bid on these items, go to http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/bb2005/viewforum.php?f=7 or to http://www.iasdreams.org and follow the links from the home page.
Also - you can do your part in supporting the IASD by donating a book, CD, DVD, a piece of art, some delectable item of your choice! It's easy to do - just contact Kat Peters-Midland (moderator) at IASDonlineauction@comcast.net or or go to http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/asdauction/auction.htm and follow the directions to submit your donation there!
In the next couple of months, you will find these fabulous items up for bid and so much more!
* Women's Bodies, Women's Dreams by Patricia Garfield, PhD.
* The Lucid Dreaming Kit PLUS the bonus Eight Hour CD by Bradley Thompson.
* $800 ($100 per quarter) off of the tuition for The Haden Institute Two-year Dream Leadership Training of any NEW STUDENT.
* The Thirteen Dreams Freud Never Had: The New Science by J. Allan Hobson, MD, signed by the author and dedicated to IASD.
* The Wilderness of Dreams: Exploring the Religious Meanings of Dreams in Modern Western Culture. By Kelly Bulkeley, PhD.
Kat Peters-Midland
Director IASD Online Auction
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Cover Artist, Laura Atkinson
"Keys to a Faraway World"
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Artist Statement / Bio:
As a former photojournalist, Laura Atkinson has explored the links between art, visual therapy, and the realities of the dream state for many years. Her work, while being a deeply personal exploration of her own dreams, jars the viewer with its beauty of light interplay, form, and design. Her work has a tactile beauty that brings viewers into her private world while simultaneously giving one the permission to touch, feel, and experience each piece, while making it part of his/her own world, language, and life. She has been also been studying and photographing energy fields using a Kirlian technique, discovering the wonders of digital photomontage, as well as working on a large, handpainted silk project involving 30 dreams that were submitted by various IASD members and friends.
This month's cover:
"Keys to a Faraway World"
A very simple dream. I am outfitted in some type of futuristic flight suit. I swoop down to a person who hands me large key-ring with hundreds of old fashioned metal keys on it. I bounce off the ground like a trampoline, taking flight back towards the moon. I feel the mist of the clouds then the sky turns black. I am alarmed that there aren't stars in this sky. I stop on the moon and the key ring dissolves, scattering the actual keys. They are floating in slow motion before my hands as I try to grasp them one at a time. Some of them defy gravity and fall into the powdery surface of the moon. I am left holding one key, which I must keep secret because it is the key to unlock a faraway world.
Website: http://www.arthatglows.com Email: ArtThatGlows@cox.net
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A Preview of Alchera 4
Harry Bosma
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For many years I've been working on a new version of the Alchera dream journaling software. I think that the upcoming version 4 still has the same simple feel as the previous versions, even though internally the amount of program code seems to have exploded. Let me first give a quick overview of the current version before I move on to the upcoming version 4.
Current version
Paper journals have their advantages. Everyone likes the directness of a pen against paper. If you like to travel you know that a paper journal packs much lighter than a computer. Dream software has advantages too. I like to quickly search through years of dreams, to keep notes on recurring imagery, and to index my dreams. I don't really travel that often anymore, so I've become a big fan of dream software.
While many of the longtime dreamers may not really need a symbol dictionary, I get the impression that they still find it fun to flip to the Symbol page to check out to which symbols a dream links to. I plead guilty as well. I keep several custom dictionaries, one of them for numbers and Tarot cards. By systematically entering numbers encountered in my dreams I discovered that they actually make sense. The related dreams frame at the Symbol page automatically shows other dreams with the same symbol. Sometimes I think to see a new image in a dream, only to have the related dreams show me dreams from a long forgotten time.
The Alchera 3.x versions also have bells and whistles that won't all necessarily improve how you work with dreams, but are just fun to play with. Dreams can be emailed directly from within Alchera. Charts can be generated for types of indexed dreams. Plugin tools shows how many dreams you logged per month, or how your dream counts relate to moon phases.
Alchera 4, standard edition
Dream journaling software almost by definition attracts longtime dreamers, but I keep hoping to find ways to draw in novice dreamers and even non-dreamers. Alchera 4 lets people attach small icons to dream titles. These icons come in two groups. The first group contains icons for happy dreams, dreams with success, new friends, new talents, in short dreams with hot apple pie and babies. Everyone likes hot apple pie and babies. The second group contains all kinds of things that go wrong. The suggestion I want to give is that you should celebrate the good dreams, and if you don't like the bad ones, you can perhaps find a way to improve them. I have no idea whether this will catch on, but I can reassure longtime users of Alchera that the use of these icons is entirely optional.
Alchera 4 introduces a special dictionary for names of people and places. This is for dreamers who like to pay attention to people and places, and what they signify. It still surprises me how people and places are the most frequently occurring elements of a dream, yet routinely overlooked. I wonder what it means when people show up in particular dreams, and perhaps I'm not the only one. I also use this dictionary to store the names of all the strangers I meet in dreams. The names dictionary has a few other uses. Among others, the research edition uses it to identify characters in a dream.
There are some improvements. The used word processor displays more image formats, including those found on the internet. Not only the journal entries, but also the symbol dictionaries and the new names dictionary accept pictures. Titles can be sorted in various ways, for example on word count or moon phase. Other Alchera 4 improvements are reserved for the research edition. Current customers are eligible for a free upgrade to the research edition, which is why the release of Alchera 4 depends on finishing the entire line.
The research edition
The research edition improves support for the coding system developed by Calvin S. Hall and Robert Van De Castle. I often refer to this system as the Hall and Van De Castle scales. Alchera 4 supports most of the scales. This means that you can index your dreams for characters, social interactions, success and failure, good fortune and misfortune, and emotions. Support for the remaining and generally less interesting considered scales will most likely be limited.
Manual indexing of the scales is simply a matter of dragging words to certain place holders. That beats writing down codes on score cards. Alchera can index the scales automatically for as far as it only requires recognition of words. The character and emotions scales are relatively simple for automatic indexing. You will still need to manually inspect the results, because it can misidentify a word, or underestimate the count. The moment that sentences need to be analyzed, you're on your own. Alchera can pick up keywords that indicate a social interaction, but can't yet determine all the details. Success and failure, as well as good fortune and misfortune, typically require much human intelligence to detect and classify, so Alchera doesn't even try here. As characters are by far the most common elements in a dream, and central to the main other scales, I feel that significant time is saved even while automatic indexing is partial and needs manual inspection.
Alchera really shines when results get presented. A list of tables and charts can be viewed, comparing results to norms, for all dreams, for specific years only, for search results on words, for search results on index items attached to dreams, and for ad hoc selections of dreams.
The future
The future of Alchera looks good. Alchera 4 has been designed for easy creation of special editions. There already exists a special edition used with Jean Campbell's Dream Scouts project, based on the standard edition of Alchera 4. The release of the regular editions will have to wait a while, because parts of the research edition are still being tested. Existing customers are welcome to try such a test version.
Perhaps you're going to the IASD conference of 2005, in Berkeley. I plan to show previews of Alchera 4 there, so you're warned! If you're not going, then I hope you will check out the website for updates, and - if you haven't done so already - subscribe to the monthly newsletter where I tell about Alchera and other dream projects.
Thanks for reading!
Harry Bosma
The website of the Alchera dream software:
http://mythwell.com
For kids (and their parents), check out the Dream Scouts project:
http://imageproject.org/dreamscoutsinternational.htm
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An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange
By Lucy Gillis
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With over thirty years of lucid dreaming experience, Robert Waggoner has come to recognize several subtle factors that can help to induce lucid dreams. He shares his observations with us below:
Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams
(c) Robert Waggoner 2005
Over the past 30 years of lucid dreaming, experience has taught me that occasional subtle factors influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming. Like running downhill with the wind behind your back, these subtle factors seem to influence one's awareness, so that the threshold of conscious awareness or lucidity appears more easily attained in the dream state.
In my early years, the connection between these subtle factors and lucid dreaming seemed scarcely noticeable. But as the years progressed, I began to recognize the pairing of the factors and the lucid dreaming. Over time, I began to meet more and more experienced lucid dreamers, and I found concurrence with our joint observations, and some new subtleties that had escaped me. That subtle factors seem to influence lucid dreaming or one's ability to become consciously aware at all, suggests that the "mechanism" of lucid dreaming involves more than simply an intense desire or memory activation to achieve lucidity. It suggests that lucid dreaming has biological and environmental antecedents supporting it.
When certain conditions appear, a potential lucid dreamer may have an extra boost in reaching the threshold level of conscious awareness. I have selected the following seven subtle factors influencing lucid dreaming for your consideration:
1) Approaching Thunderstorm or Weather Fronts
In my experience here in the Midwest, there seems to be a subtle increase in the number of spontaneous lucid dreams when a thunderstorm or (spring, summer, fall) weather front appears imminent. In fact, I have wakened from a number of lucid dreams by the sound of thunder. As meteorologists discovered, the imminent arrival of thunderstorms or a storm front appears associated with a number of atmospheric changes such as changes in barometric pressure and electrical ionization. Many people report that they "feel" a storm approaching before seeing any outer manifestations. Could these atmospheric changes of stormy weather influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming? Though a subtle factor, it seems possible. From that observation, I have a negative ion air cleaner in my bedroom.
2) Extreme Physical Labor or Exhaustion
While I do my best to avoid too much labor, inevitably during the year, I put in a hard day of gardening or lawn work, or helping a friend move to a new apartment. Afterwards, falling asleep seems welcomed relief. Yet, surprisingly, these nights seem to create a higher likelihood of lucid dreams. Why? Are there chemical changes in the body from the physical labor that promote lucidity? Or does the lucid awareness come into existence as a counterbalance to hours of external, physical focus? As a subtle factor, infrequent lucid dreamers may wish to suggest a lucid dream after a day of serious physical work. That assumes, of course, that they are not too exhausted to care about lucid dreaming after a tough day.
3) Yoga
Perhaps similar to the subtle factor of extreme physical labor on some levels, I have noticed that attending my weekly yoga class seems to increase the likelihood of a lucid dream that night. Though the class lasts for one and a half hours and varies in strenuousness, the compelling subtle factor appears to involve performing the asanas or yoga postures. Though one may claim that the greater probability of lucidity results from the subtle (or not so subtle) energy or chi arising from the yoga postures, my experience suggests that whatever the reason, yoga seems to improve one's chances of lucid awareness.
4) New Sleep Locale
Have you ever noticed this? You go on a trip and sleep in a new bed, and that night you have a lucid dream? Or, you renovate your house and sleep in a different bedroom for a few nights, and the first night you have a lucid dream? I have. I think that the mechanism behind this involves greater vigilance from sleeping in new surroundings. Perhaps some primeval part of our brain/mind feels the need for greater awareness in the strange new surroundings of the different sleep locale, and this greater awareness translates into a greater chance of conscious awareness in the dream. Want to lucid dream? Go sleep in the den, or maybe the kitchen!, some place new.
5) Vacation or the Weekend.
While sharing some points with "new sleep locale", I feel that a vacation exists as a subtle factor to improve lucid dreaming in my experience, along with the weekend. How to explain this? Vacations and weekends normally have this in common: the sense of a break from daily-work and its stresses. I have found that I remember more dreams on the weekend. My mind, thoughts and consciousness seem freer and wide-ranging on vacation. The typical, 50 hour a week, get-up-and-work lifestyle doesn't seem naturally conducive to lucid dreaming, except on the weekend or on vacation when "time" becomes freer and returns to one's self. It appears we need "free time" to free our mind, and become lucid.
6) Diet
A number of lucid dreamers have noticed that diet seems to influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming. I have to agree. While the proper diet for lucid dreaming may take decades of research to determine, diet appears as a subtle factor in lucid dreaming. For interested lucid dreamers, they may wish to look back at their diet immediately before a spontaneous lucid dream. If they notice commonalities, they may wish to incorporate that diet into their lucid dream incubation.
7) The Full Moon
Even though I submitted a (short) lucid dream in this LDE that occurs on the night of a full moon, I and some others have noticed that achieving lucidity on or around a full moon seems more difficult than other times of the lunar cycle. While some may suggest that a waxing moon seems the best time for lucid dreaming, I would like to see an actual research study of spontaneous (that is, unplanned) lucid dreaming occurrence and the phases of the moon.
Any graduate students out there needing a research project? Numerous anecdotes and some research on criminal activities suggest that full moons tend to correspond with behavioral changes and "lunacy". But why a full moon seems to impact negatively the occurrence of lucid dreaming, I don't understand, yet it too appears as one of those subtle factors in lucid dreaming success.
So there you have seven subtle factors that seem to influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming. If you feel you have more subtle factors, send Lucy or I an email, and we hope to include them in future issues of the Lucid Dream Exchange.
The Lucid Dream Exchange is a quarterly newsletter featuring lucid dreams and lucid dream related articles and interviews. To subscribe to The Lucid Dream Exchange send a blank email to:
TheLucidDreamExchange-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
You can also check us out at www.dreaminglucid.com
Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams
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Give Your Inner Child A Lift
(From "How To Fly")
(c) 2005 Linda Lane Magallón
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I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope.
In our busy workaday world, it can be hard to find time to take a break from adult concerns. This especially applies to the field of dreams. The techniques used on dreams have been called dream "work," and for good reason. They require that we address serious issues like the meanings of our dreams or the resolution of the anxiety that they may contain. The sober tenor of such endeavors can mask our equally serious need for dreamplay. All work and no play don't just make Jack a dull boy; they make him an unhealthy one.
So how can you play with dreams? The most popular suggestion is artistic creativity. That's a response with a powerful historic precedent. And it's no surprise to discover that the dream flows as freely through the brush as through the recording pen.
For all their benefits, traditional dreamwork and dreamplay have this in common: they don't take place until the end of sleep. We in the waking world may struggle for survival or play at picnics, but all too often we forget to clean up after ourselves. The residue of the daytime drama still serves as fodder for nocturnal life. And guess who has to choke down the leftovers every night?
There was an old man from Peru
Who dreamed he was eating his shoe.
He woke in a fright
In the middle of night
And found it was perfectly true.
I called traditional dreamwork and dreamplay "afterwork" and "afterplay" because they take place after the dream is done. Some folks have rediscovered the sort of Creative Dreaming featured in Patricia Garfield's book of the same name. This sort occurs before and during the dream. It features the proactive skill of incubation.
The advantage of before-dream creativity is that it can be set up to launch the dreams that follow. If we waking egos do clean-up work plus add some rich nutrients before sleep, the results are truly amazing. Suddenly, the dream isn't shackled with serving us; the Inner Child isn't just a servant who works for us. Now, she has time to play while the dream is still happening. Now, she has the energy to experience the extraordinary. She has the curiosity to explore the unknown. Finally, she has the opportunity to grow and glow, to desire and wonder.
The difference between before and after can be merely a case of shifting intent. Instead of painting a dream you had last week, you might paint the dream you want to have tomorrow. This means you are nurturing the dream ahead of time. You are creating a blueprint for a new environment, building a new playground of the mind.
Plato found the model of play in children's need to leap, to transcend the limits of gravity, of the grave and the serious. Flying is definitely a leap of the imagination. Flying dreams provide an opportunity for the Child Within to take a vacation from mundane constraints, to express herself freely, to swing suspended between Earth and silent sky. If we don't put obstacles in her way.
Rock a bye Baby
On the tree top
When the wind blows,
The cradle will rock
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall
And down will come baby
Cradle and all
Sometimes I wonder about us adults. Do we really want to give our children nightmares? What do you think are the results of singing this traditional lullaby just before a child goes to sleep? I remember that every time I heard it (and I was the eldest of 5 children, so I heard it a lot), I pictured a baby in a bassinet come crashing down out of the tree. Lovely image to take to dreamland.
It may seem counterintuitive, but to fly freely, we first must be well grounded. Suppose you do fly into the stratosphere. How are you going to get back down? Have you thought that far ahead? A safe flight does require some pre-planning. Let's see if you remember how to stretch your imagination like a kid does. So consider this for a moment: if you could pack a safety symbol in your Inner Child's flight bag, what would it be? How about a net, a parachute or angel wings for safe flights? Or if you could design a safe spot in your Inner playground, what would you use as a landing pad? A mattress, a pool of water, a mound of whipping cream?
Some of us have great runways
already built for us,
so if you have one,
TAKE OFF.
If you don't,
grab a shovel and build one.
To build a flying dream, we must pair movement of consciousness with appropriate imagery. Our sleeping minds match the emotions or sensations that cause our hearts to leap and soar with visuals drawn from waking experience. Since most of us are not pilots or astronauts, those pictures tend to be of the grounded variety. Thus, though we well feel our spirits in motion as we sleep, we're most likely to dream up a physical body walking down a road or riding in a car. To fly, we must substitute free-flying imagery for its grounded counterpart. Where do we get that sort of imagery?
Even when our lives are stationary, we can observe nature in motion. When was the last time you lay on the grass, looking upwards to view butterflies, helicopters and leaves drifting in the wind? The clouds, driven along the blue sky, may tempt us to travel with them. The seasonal smells can make us feel buoyant, too. When I gaze skyward into the night, I might see shooting stars or planes flashing their approach to San Jose airport. Even the moon moves if I stare at it for long.
Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
As the seasons change to cold and chilly, we may withdraw into our cozy cocoons, but we need not leave flight behind. Inside the home, the pictures to invoke flying dreams can come from paintings or photos, collages or calendars and especially in the books we read. We might incubate flight when we immerse ourselves in an adult novel. But fairy tales, myths, short stories and tall tales from the children's section of the library are a particularly rich source of imagery.
Crossing the skies of Earth, dipping into off-planet atmospheres or roaming the reaches of outer space, humans streak and bob throughout the annals of fantasy and science fiction. Teenage comics and adolescent paperbacks house these contemporary myths. On their covers, we are likely to find the archetypal images of flight that will fly us into the future.
Fly high my pretty one
Through endless sunny colors
Ribboned currents of support
Light and lifting
Caressing arms of wind.
Together fly
Finger touching
Break and dance
Spin the sky
Return encircling
Wings entwining
Welcoming
Nuzzle
Lucky for us, the Inner Child has always had an inborn ability to expand still snapshots into live action movies. But nowadays, we can help her create a data bank of moving pictures, too. Movies, DVDs and CDs: video makes a great visual aid.
Don't forget MTV. Because flying can make our hearts pound, our spirits sing, the right selection of song or music may actually help induce a flying dream. The monotonous throb of a mantra or tom-tom can put us into an altered state, but a dream is already an altered state! We don't need to calm down there; we're already asleep. To fly we need to rev up our Inner Child. So a faster rhythm is quite appropriate. Thus, flying is not so much a lullaby as it is a wake-up call, a sudden "Ah ha!"
Self-suggestion is a powerful ally in achieving dreams of flight. There are certain times in my life when I'm likely to be elated - for instance, when I finally finish writing an articles on dreams. If I can catch the moment just as I'm feeling the rush of elation, I can saddle it with a strong suggestion to fly and ride both into my dreams that night. What better source for a suggestion than a song? The refrain from Peter Pan is quite effective:
You can fly! You can fly! You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!
Our Inner Child also responds well to affirmations. Yes, I can do it! She's very proud of her achievements, so we can pat ourselves on the back when we reach our flying goals.
Tight-woven cocoon
You were born to be life's
golden butterfly.
Flying is not for couch potatoes! Flying is dream air-obics, an exercise of consciousness. It's a wind game that proves to us we're fully alive. Emotions move us, no doubt about it. But so can tactile sensations. I had quite a bit of success when I put suggestion and sensation together one summer. I held the intention to incubate flying dreams while swimming in my pool. I pictured myself flying plus I felt the sensation of flying while I swam. Then subvocally I urged my Inner Child to remember the same feeling after I fell asleep.
Write of swimming under water and you will have the flight of the bird through the air.
For me, falling backwards into the pool translated into a dream of falling back off a ledge on the building that houses the David Letterman Show. The dog-paddle, crawl and breaststroke actions were all copied by my Inner Child in nonlucid dreams of flying.
But not the sidestroke. Instead, I had a dream of lying on my side, in bed. Those waking movements were too lazy to inspire dreaming flight.
I came like Water,
and like Wind I go.
Now, you may not fly or swim in waking life. But you do move. As your feet hit the ground, your Inner Spirit floats along for the ride. Every day, she has an in-the-body-experience, just as you do. At night she can call up the motion while she flies free. But to release her, you may have to rev up your energy, even for a short while. Go for a brisk walk. Ride a bicycle. Create the wind to massage your skin.
A snail, who had a way, it seems,
Of dreaming very curious dreams,
Once dreamed he was - you'll never guess -
The Lightning Limited Express!
When I was a kid, I used to play "Super Arm." I'd put my arm out the car window in a horizontal position and fly it like Superman. You can do the same thing in your imagination. Get comfortable in your chair. Close your eyes and pretend you are a passenger in a car. Feel the motion of the car. Let the vibration hum through the soles of your feet and the cup of your seat. Look out the window and watch the scenery go by. Look ahead at the highway, straight as an arrow. See that small tree at the side of the road? Watch it come closer...and closer...and then whiz by. Open the window just a crack; listen to the wind whistle past. Then open it all the way. Feel the wind as it caresses the hair on your skin. As much as you can, become your arm. Place all your concentration there. Let the sense of vehicle fade away. Raise and lower your hand. Up and down. Up and down. Now, side to side. Now, request your Inner Child to form a dream like this. You can open your eyes now. If your attention has been on more on your seated body than your arm, don't be surprised if you get a sitting-flying dream.
I remember, I remember
The fir-trees dark and high
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky...
I remember, I remember
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing...
For a standing-flying dream, imagine yourself flying while you're standing upright in a bus, subway or boat. For easy upward or downward movement, the escalator and elevator are your best places to practice.
When you are in your safest space, try closing your eyes. But this time don't project or expect any pictures. Instead, become a night flyer. Conjure up the sensations of flight sans imagery. Learn to enjoy moving through the friendly dark. The great hood of night can be a warm blanket against the frigid cold of anxiety.
When the nightbird sings
Then my soul takes wing
to a land of wise
and wondrous things.
Through the gifts of day
hold me in their sway
'tis the gifts of night
are my soul's delight.
A dream that corresponds to physical reality has practical value to our waking selves. But remember, it is a mask to that which is more native to the reality in which our Inner Child resides. In dreamspace, there is no need for gravity. We actually cooperate with the natural properties of the dream state in order to achieve flight. But we can still use the waking world to launch our flights, by importing emotions, imagery and physical sensations. Coupled with a self-suggestion, we use such artistic treasures to form a flying dream. And off we go.
When I fly,
I crash straight thru the roof.
Then I know I'm there.
When I'm bounding down the street,
taking giant boomerang steps,
50 yards or more,
Then I know I can blast off
under my own power.
For the high octane joy of it.
I never flap or fuddle.
I run and jump off the cliff,
just to get air-borne deliciously.
When I fly,
I glide over the tops of trees
to spy into secret backyards below.
When I fly,
I know time is always now
and space stretches
wherever my mind goes.
When I fly,
it's to fly forever
Authors of Poetry and Prose
Cahn/Fain. " You can fly! You can fly! You can..."
Carroll, Lewis. " Child of the pure unclouded brow..."
Da Vinci, Leonardo. " Write of swimming under water..."
Earhart, Amelia. " Some of us have great runways..."
Herford, Oliver. " A snail, who had a way, it seems..."
Hood, Thomas. "I remember, I remember..."
Johnson. Carol. "When the nightbird sings..."
Khayym, Omar. " I came like Water..."
Magall-n, Linda Lane. "Fly high my pretty one..."
Smith, Kent. " Tight-woven cocoon..."
Smith, Kent. "When I fly..."
http://members.aol.com/caseyflyer/flying/dreams.html (Dream Flights)
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THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
The Power of DaFuMu Dreaming
Jean Campbell
May 2005
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Not so very long ago, it would have been laughable to think about connecting with friends in Japan, Australia, Germany, without great expense and long delay. Now, the Internet makes almost instant communication, at no expense at all, a daily occurrence.
You probably know, if you've been watching the news, that the situation in Iraq grows daily more dire. The number of car bombings, abductions and shootings increases to the point where some observers speak of civil war. Yet this chaos has not entirely stopped the flow of communication from people living in the madness. Recently, the speed of the Internet and the speed of telepathy united to present an amazing communication from Baghdad to The World Dreams Peace Bridge.
>From a time slightly before the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, members of the Peace Bridge have been dreaming about the children of the world, particularly the children of Iraq. What began as dreams soon turned into the Aid for Traumatized Children Project, through which the Peace Bridge has been able to provide almost $20,000 in aid to the children in Baghdad, Fallujah and other hard-hit areas of the country. For a small group of dreamers, that is a large feat.
Project fundraising is ongoing. For example, the Silent Auction/International Bazaar at this year's conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in Berkeley, California June 24-28 will be a fundraiser for the group's work with the children of Baghdad. This work has provided therapeutic toys, art supplies and dream journals for the children, and also support for important, Iraqi-led programs such as Seasons Art School, run by Emad Hadi; and the PTSD Project of Dr. Ali Rasheed and Dr. Wisal Aldouri, aimed at teaching those who work with children how to recognize and treat post-traumatic stress.
In all of this cooperative effort, it has seemed only natural that e-mail communication would hurry back and forth many times each week from Baghdad, in the same way that members of the Peace Bridge living in Dallas, or Cincinnati, or Istanbul, less threatened parts of the world, communicate via the Internet.
Then, for two and a half alarming weeks in May, there were no communications from Baghdad. We knew that Ali Rasheed was safe in London, where he had been invited to speak about his program. But what of Emad and the children at Seasons Art School? Were they safe? Were they alive? Had the frequent power outages disrupted communication? Had the Internet Cafe they use closed?
In the past few months, I have become the primary contact for Emad with the Peace bridge. We are in the process of creating a dream work program with twenty-one children between the ages of ten and fourteen who attend Seasons Art School, and I had just sent the first dream exercise for these children, The Crystal Birds, before silence descended.
I found myself feeling frantic as the days went by. Via the Internet (or lack of it) I was learning what it feels like to have loved ones living with the deprivations and uncertainties of war. Over the months since we first connected with Baghdad, I have come to admire and respect to the fullest the courage and heroic determination of those who remain in Iraq to fight for the well-being of the children.
On May 24, I sent a note to the Peace Bridge discussion group, expressing my feelings, my fear for Emad and the others. It felt, I said, as bad to me as if someone were dropping bombs on Kotaro in Tokyo or taking shots at Victoria's children in Australia. Could we please have a special DaFuMu dreaming for our friends in Baghdad? (For a full explanation of DaFuMu Dreaming go to the World Dreams Peace Bridge web site at www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org.) Other members of the group agreed.
At last, on Wednesday morning, May 25, I received an e-mail from Emad. Indeed, things had been bad. One of the school's staff had been injured on the way to the Ministry of Education and had to be rushed to the hospital. In another event, "terrorists" attacked the security guards at The Peace Bird's School, another program operated by Emad's organization, Childhood Voices-Iraq. And threats had been made against Emad himself.
At the same time, Emad was telling me not to worry. "In fact, you know," he said, "once security is missed in a country, then everything becomes abnormal, even though we are used to such things."
And finally, in this e-mail, Emad offered a proof to the strength of DaFuMu Dreaming.
" Dear Jean," he said, "before I forget I want to tell you something very important, I wrote this message today morning because yesterday I had seen you in my dream, you were crying and I saw your face different from the photo you sent us. Also I had noticed many people moving around you, so I really got worried and hope you are well, inshaallah."
Emad was writing out of concern for me, apparently having connected with my feelings and with the DaFuMu dreams and prayers sent his way by members of the Peace Bridge.
There are many wise dreamers on The World Dreams Peace Bridge. One of them, Kotaro, responded this week to say:
"When many things around the world seem becoming worse and worse a temptation attacked me, to look at these events from the point of higher dimension, I mean to see them very super psychic dimension. This temptation is very strong. But when I notice it I immediately escape from it. Ancient sages taught sometime that every human come into this world with the agreement on what the entity will experience on this planet. According to the teachings from one of the Asian religion, all things are just illusions. To escape from these too easy understandings, I always imagine so many children who are born within these years and those who were murdered, killed by the War or lack of foods, extreme cold weather, direct and indirect violence of power politics of big countries, and the babies waiting to born in wombs of their mothers who had been affected by DU without doubt."
Can we change the world by paying attention? By dreaming? By hoping? I believe so.
Note: Please, if you are attending the IASD conference in Berkeley, stop to look at the items in the World Dreams Silent Auction/International Bazaar. All proceeds go to aid the children of Iraq.
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Dream: Dragon Breath
Stan Kulikowski II
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DATE : 2 may 2005 06:13
DREAM : dragon breath
=( last night was sunday. i spent the evening grading my students web site projects for the programming course. i can not tell how this course went this term, with the very short scheduled times and my changing the nature of final project. several of them did not turn in one or two of the assignments and i could only approximate grades for the ones who did the last perl CGI survey. i will know better later this week when i assemble the course CDr disk and can carefully go over their code when i install it. mother watched her television series until 22:00 when i put on our weekly episode of doctor who, finally gotten the basic grading finished so i can turn in grades tomorrow afternoon. i got to bed around 00:30 and to sleep about an hour later. )=
i can hear the brown leather wings of the dragon creak as it catches the wind to bank a turn as it orients for another strafing run.
stretching its neck as it comes at us in the small town, its mouth opens to pour out its fire against the buildings and the people running between them.
there are several of these dragons in the air attacking our village.
these things are huge, maybe a hundred meters from nose to tail.
they can catch up an automobile or pickup truck in their rear claws and toss them in the air like a child throws a toy. trains and semitrucks are a little too large to be snatched so easily but one dragon can land on top or beside one to achieve traction enough to tear them to shreds no matter how fast they are going. nothing is safe from these beasts.
when the last dragon passes over and goes up to join the others in a cloud formation, we wonder if they have finally gone away. much of the town is in flaming ruins and the bodies of many of our neighbors lay dead upon blackened earth.
after about twenty minutes with no further attack, the survivors begin to stumble back into what used to be the commons at the center of town. most of them walk like zombies, dazed with shock. i suppose none of us are thinking too clearly or we would not be gathering together to make an inviting mass target for the predators up there in the sky.
but there is one discovery that brings my spirits up. over where the village church was until a couple hours ago, the dead body of the smallest dragon lies in a heap among the broken timbers and rubble of the church. this was the youngest of the reptiles, still green in color, so it was just past puberty and so not very experienced in airborne assault. its head is only about five meters wide, its black tongue lolling dry out of its mouth, spilling across the sidewalk which once led up to the church doors. on top of this head stands one of the combat soldiers who had come to defend our town. he looks so proud as he lifts a foot up onto one of the ear ridges on the side of the dragon head, unzips his pants and proceeds to piss onto the dead eye of the beast. i do not know how he had helped down this creature, but it is the first sign we have that they can be killed.
too late i hear the moan of a man standing next to me, followed by screams from further down the commons. turning i see the giant head of another dragon scooping down to the grass, its wings folded back in dive position for maximum speed so its head is about all i can see from this perspective. it is coming straight across the middle of the commons, directly at me. its mouth is open, irregular teeth like a crocodile framed with sickly white lips pulled back and spotted with red and brown scales. its bottom jaw is plowing the earth in front of it as it devours anyone who can not jump out of its path.
i am one of those frozen in an adrenaline rush, unable to run anymore. i smell the rancid burnt breath of the dragon surround me as i tumble between the teeth, two meters tall, into the sticky foamy saliva and the wiggling tongue mashing the screaming bodies of others being eaten and swallowed.
after being eaten, i am somehow in the library building across town.
there are a number of others huddling together between the rows of book shelves. it is dark inside, the power station long since burnt out. i hear the sound of two dragons landing just outside. their long necks begin to snake around the walls, their eyes peering in through the windows to discover more victims inside.
i see rosie welter, a long time friend of my mother, standing beside the water fountain on the wall. i hurry over to her and push her ahead of me towards the door to the basement. we have to get out of the main study room as a giant dragon eye fills the window just behind her.
i get her into the stairs going down when i hear the hushed rumble of dragon's air intake then the full roar of the fire burst filling the room just behind us. the heat is intense, but the flames do not quite find their way into our stairwell. i wonder if we will be cooked before we get to the bottom of the stairs, but the searing heat does not last very long.
the darkness of the basement is now lit by the flames of the burning books at the top of the stairs. we find our way over to the farthest wall where there is some construction scaffolding. i find a sheet of metal on the scaffold that is parallel to the concrete wall so there is a gap about a meter wide. rosie and i push into this gap to hide behind its protection. flame lights up the cracks where two of the metal sheets meet, but we are kept from the next fire breath that cauterizes the rest of the room.
=( awake at 03:55. strangely enough, this dream was not as frightening as it seems now when writing it. i felt just tired from the exertion of all the running, but not particularly emotional when i came awake. i could hardly call this a nightmare, except for that one adrenaline surge just before the dragon gorges on my body. that was the only fright response in the dream, the rest was just a rather weary escape anxiety. even getting killed, i just pop up again in another scene to continue the flight from the gigantic monsters. is there anything very subtle about this dream? the one ray of hope with the rude pissing soldier, but he was in the line of attack behind me when i got eaten. the metal construction sheets to keep us from the dragon fire i suppose is another slim evidence of beneficial aspect in the dream but i see little else here to feel positive about. i notice that we try to find something good in almost every dream, but perhaps we take dream analysis too far in that line.
there may be some that are just what they seem, premonitions of unrelenting doom. "the horror, the horror" as kurtz finally sees in joseph conrad's _heart of darkness_ )=
--
. although fate may defeat the efforts of virtue to avert misfortune,
=== it cannot deprive us of the power to endure it with equanimity.
| | -- plutarch, gaius gracchus 19
--- stankuli@etherways.com
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Response to Strephon Kaplan-Williams' comments on
"Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?"
by Anthony Shafton
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[EDITOR: This reply refers to the following article:
Kaplan-Williams, Strephon (2005). Reply to Anthony Shafton's "Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?" , Electric Dreams 3(12), March 2005.
Available online : http://tinyurl.com/dneuo ]
"Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?" originally appeared on the cover page of the ASD Newsletter (predecessor of Dream Time) in the Fall 1991 issue. It was written in reaction to the 1990 ASD Conference, the first I attended, where African American participants numbered only 2 or 3.
Strephon Kaplan-Williams (SKW henceforth) must have missed the article in 1991. He may well also not have seen the several articles of mine on the subject of blacks and dreams to appear in Dream Time subsequently; nor comments on the topic in my book Dream Reader (SUNY, 1995) and one edited by Kelly Bulkeley, Among All These Dreamers (SUNY, 1996); nor my full book on the subject, Dream-Singers: The African American Way with Dreams (John Wiley & Sons, 2002), which was favorably reviewed in Dream Time. But whether or not SKW is aware of developments of my research on black dream culture, it's puzzling that he chose to react against an article 14
years after its appearance.
SKW's argument opens: "First, Shafton assumes I think . . . ." But SKW is mentioned neither in the text of the article nor its bibliography. This puts his whole discussion in a peculiar light.
SKW offensively implies that he but not I sees "people as persons," and that I show "prejudice" by "categorizing blacks and whites." He "of course looked for cultural differences"-without categorizing?-but "did not find any" worth attending.
It would have made a more plausible case if SWK had responded to the specific reasoning of the numerous black psychologists and dreamworkers I cited in the article-among them two members of the ASD, Loma Flowers and Bruce Bynum- who don't hesitate to categorize themselves and who do recognize psychocultural reasons why the dream movement was not attracting more African Americans. Neither they nor I would ever suggest that such cultural features disqualify blacks to any degree from dreamwork, nor that blackness must necessarily enter into work with every dream of black persons. However, as my article argued, ignoring cultural differences contributes to the subtle pressure blacks are under to conform to mainstream patterns. SKW should consider the possibility that the black dream group clients on whom he prides himself may at times have censored themselves for want of a congenial environment in which to reveal themselves.
I didn't have an easy time finding a publisher for Dream-Singers, my book about black dream culture. White editors, as does SKW, took a safe but superficial politically correct position. So it's instructive that when the book was finally accepted, at Wiley, it was for a list of black interest titles and by a black editor. It's one thing to reject genetic race, another to brand as racist, as does SKW by implication, one who affirms the reality and influence of the social construct.
Without going into detail, here are some features of African American beliefs and attitudes about dreams explored in Dream-Singers. These are of course merely trends or tendencies, they should in no way be misconstrued as either/or differences.
Seventy percent of American blacks affirm the spiritual reality of ancestor visitation dreams, as compared with 35% of American whites. This is one of several features of black dream culture probably due to survival of African cultural traits. For predictive dreams, 92% of blacks affirm belief, as against 57% of whites. Statistically significant differences are also found in knowledge of dream signs; in the occurrence of "meant for" dreams (where the dreamer believes the meaning of the dream is meant for someone else and should be conveyed to them); and in openness to dreamlike experiences in the waking state (visions, voices). Also, blacks are more likely than whites to grow up in households with family dream sharing; to be exposed to testimony involving dreams in church; and to have knowledge involving dreams in connection with numbers (or lottery) gambling and with spiritual magic in the form of hoodoo.
In general, dreams matter to blacks. That's not just my judgment, that's what many blacks will say. A hospital lab tech, one of over 115 African Americans I interviewed on the subject of dreams, told me that "black people, they respect their dreams." Poet Sterling Plumpp said that dreams are "at the core of black culture." Another writer, Eileen Cherry, reminisced thus about her experience:
My mother and sisters, and people in my family, we talked about our dreams, all the time, like "Ooo, I dreamt about Aunt Pat last night," "Ooo, I had this dream about'cha," and "What did you dream last night?" But it's connected to reaching out, it's connected to community, it's connected to another level of communication. And the dreamwork in the African American community is connected to the religious experience. So it's embedded in my life.
Consider King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Nearly all whites assume King meant 'dream' in the sense of 'hope' and not 'night dream'. Nearly all blacks I interviewed about it, by contrast, take both meanings, and take them as interrelated. For example, one woman replied to the suggestion that King meant only a waking hope:
No, no. Nn-nn. Martin said he had that dream. I believe you have a hope, and then comes a night dream that affirms it. I think that you believe in the one when you believe in the other.
One thing pointed out in my 1991 article is that de-emphasis of the real-world, social dimension of meaning in dreams, in exclusive favor of their intrapsychic meanings, is one feature of the dream movement unattractive to potential black participants.
Perhaps these few observations will begin to persuade SKW that however successful he may be with the dreamwork method he touts, his work and that of other dreamworkers won't suffer from better information.
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The Artist and the Tidal Wave
How Dreams Can Save Your Creative Life
(c) 2005 by John D. Goldhammer, Ph.D.
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Inside you there's an artist
you don't know about.
--Rumi
For many years the occasional dreams I remembered appeared to be either unintelligible nonsense or exhaustive dramas about frustrating work scenarios. I would wake up in a panic, relieved it was just a dream. But one December night over twenty years ago, everything changed. I dreamt that I was looking through a tiny window in a massive, ornate door, intently curious to see what was in a mysterious room. I was startled to see a huge single eye looking back at me intently. That winter night I began a remarkable journey that forever changed my life, an adventure that continues to this day.
Beginning with that dream, the floodgates opened and a torrent of dreams spilled over the walls of my well-planned and quite ordinary life. They contained thematic images, symbols, and dramas that moved through my life, leaving strange tracks, exotic fragrances, tearing down old buildings, setting fires. I was captivated. I committed myself to understanding their real meaning and gradually filled five dream journals with thousands of dreams, all the while voraciously reading everything I could find on dreams, symbols, the imagination, and theories and techniques of dream interpretation. Several years later, another unusual dream was the catalyst that inspired me to leave a lucrative business career, return to school and become a psychotherapist specializing in dreamwork.
The poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), once suggested a stunning possibility: that "Dreams ... may well have an analogy with our whole life and fate." I couldn't agree more! After twenty-plus years of researching dreaming and techniques of dream interpretation, working with over twenty thousand individual dreams, I discovered something extraordinary, something with tremendous implications for both individuals and for our planet. I realized that the majority of our dreams have a profound intent and purpose; they stand as guardians at the gates of the human spirit, defending us from all manner of nefarious influences. In fact, our dreams focus, with laser-like precision, on freeing us from anything that is self-negating and self-defeating. Dreams are like a master sculptor removing everything from the block of marble that is not "elephant." This natural process slowly but surely brings one's *Authentic Self* and particular *genius* into clear definition. Like a fog lifting as the sunlight emerges, we begin to see and to know exactly what it is that we must do with our life.
This astonishing characteristic of dreaming has tremendous implications: it means that we each have an inner, spiritual and psychological defense system designed to not only insure the survival of life as we know it but also to facilitate the evolution of the human spirit and change the world we live in. To be sure, our dreams are *social activists*. They *intend* to derail the status quo, to dynamite the careening train of a routine life. Dreams want the individual life to become a creative *intervention* in the social order.
Here's a fascinating example that appears to be a specific memory of dying: Terri, a beautiful, exuberant eighteen-year-old rebel, had a frightening dream immediately after joining a spiritual group. She had the dream just as she was in the process of moving across the country so that she could be near the minister, a commanding, charismatic woman in her early sixties who she described as "my spiritual teacher." Unfortunately, over time, the group evolved into a very destructive cult. Many years later, after finally leaving the group, we worked on that old dream that still puzzled her. Back then, her spiritual teacher told her the dream was from a past life in Pompeii and that was the end of that. The dream had always haunted her and just would not go away.
Here's her dream:
I am on a beach at the ocean painting with an easel. There is a woman with me also painting. I then look out and see a gigantic tidal wave nearly on top us! Then I look back at my painting and my friend and I realize everything has been swept away and I am under the water and will drown. I repeat a prayer but I feel the water filling my lungs and I am surprised there is no pain.
Terri's dream was to be an artist. Art was her passion in life. She told me, "I always dreamt I wanted to be a great painter." And her dream begins with her "painting" at the ocean. She described her friend as, "someone I had known for a couple of years. She's an eccentric genius, a writer, but also somewhat self-destructive." Terri felt she accurately represented a part of herself-eccentric and talented as an artist but with a self-destructive side. I asked Terri to imagine *being the tidal wave*. "I'm going to overwhelm everything-wipe it out," she said, adding, "I was amazed I was dying and there was no burning, no pain."
"All the time I was in the group, my guru said art was not my right work. I accepted this without a fight, I just let go, exactly like dying in that tidal wave, without a struggle," she explained. Now Terri realized the tidal wave was the group's ideology that had killed her authentic life, her passion, her art; it was the artist, her creativity that drowned under that wave so long ago. Now the dream resonated powerfully; it made perfect sense. She told me, "Now after many years outside the group, I am struggling to find and uncover that artist, that painter that I let die." Finally understanding her dream gave her the resolve and renewed determination to resurrect her art and her creative life.
Our dreams carry the awesome potential to help us to see clearly who we really are-our natural, inborn potential and unique character without anything "put on" us. When understood, they become our passport into a life that has meaning, passion, and purpose. Our dreams want our lives to *make a difference*. We need only remove all the isms and complex psychological systems that would like to tell us what our dreams mean and instead learn how to give our dreams the respect and the freedom to *speak for themselves*.
And he turned his mind to an unknown art.
- James Joyce
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John Goldhammer, Ph.D., is the author of three books, a psychologist, dream researcher, and educator. The Artist and the Tidal Wave is adapted from his newest book, _Radical Dreaming: Use Your Dreams to Change Your Life_ (Kensington Publishing / Citadel Press). He lives in Seattle, Washington. www.radicaldreaming.com.
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The Dream Koan, "Why Do We Dream?"
Richard Catlett Wilkerson
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Why do we dream?
This question has become somewhat of a koan for me.
The priest Hsiang-yen said, "It is as though you were up in
a tree, hanging from a branch with your teeth. Your hands
and feet can't touch any branch. Someone appears beneath
the tree and asked, `What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's
coming from the West?' If you do not answer, you evade your
responsibility. If you do answer, you lose your life. What
do you do?" Hsiang-yen: Up a Tree
Why do we dream? For me this is a similar question. To remain silent is to avoid ones responsibility to others. But to answer is to fall into the void.
Typically I respond to this question with an array of answers, a collection of hypotheses that include that we dream to protect sleep, we dream to consolidate our daily experiences and reactions to these experiences, we dream to restore ourselves psychologically, physically and spiritually, we dream to rehearse and play, we dream to flee and hide, we dream to contextualize our emotions, we dream to explore and discover... on and on until the answer to "Why do we dream?" seems to be unrecognizable from "Why do we live?" And yet the denial of the difference between all of life and dream life seems an easy out.
This leads to thinking about some of the differences between waking and dreaming, which include the intensity of the imagined experience in dreaming, the receptivity to psi and paranormal phenomenon, the receptivity to unconscious influences, the different brain centers that are activated, the different neuro-chemical states that dominate.
But this really doesn't get at the need-to-know gutsy feeling in the question, "Why do we dream?"
And so there are "approaches" to the question. I can't go into all of them, but some of the most popular include Evolutionary Dreaming (we dream because its adaptive to the survival of the species), Psychological Dreaming (we dream for a wide variety psychological reasons, that have to do with our psyche and life), Spiritual Dreaming (we dream to align ourselves with the Infinite), Recreational Dreaming (we dream because we can, and we want to, much like "Why do we skateboard?, or "Why do we paint?").
I guess these might be reduced to two, that we dream because we are compelled, and we dream because we are motivated. There are reasons we are compelled to dream, biologically, physiologically, environmentally, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and so on. This is often what people mean when they ask the question, Why do we dream? What compels us to do this activity and not something else?
And there are reasons we dream in particular ways, which is more the motivated side of the equation. One can easily see here that we could get swamped in the nature-nurture controversy, of the willed aspects of the dream and driven aspects.
I typically like to think about it in a dynamical way, were there is the interaction of a multiplicity of forces in two forms: there is content, and its expression. The more forceful of the two is the expression. The carpenter presses against the wood and it becomes a table, or a chair. She gives expression to the wood. The wood is too hard and the carpenter falls to the floor. Here the wood has given expression to the carpenter. But these are simplifications of the lines of forces that inform the carpenter and the wood. The carpenter is herself a process of influences, of the wood carving tradition she comes from, the moods she carries from the community breakfast before she began work that day, the dreams she had the night before, the possible angles a human body can apply pressure from. The wood, too, is a multiplicity of influences, the soil going into the make up of the tree, the genetic patterns imposed on the wood cells, the animals that each imposed various expressions on the tree, the influences of different seasons.
In the same way we talk about dream content when we wake up and tell our dream, but the dream is formed from a multiplicity of forces that have given it a particular expression one moment, and a different expression the next. The dream may deeply influence me upon waking and now the dream is giving expression to my life.
One wonders, is there dreaming without a dream? Can we say why we dream without talking about what we dream? I don't think there is any content without expression, nor expression without content. But these can so dramatically change that we move into the world of the abstract, where generalizations appear to represent the many. Fruit is an abstraction that appears to represent particular apples and oranges. Apples and oranges are an abstraction that appears to represent groups of fruits. But we must remember that if there were no fruits, what would these abstractions represent? Nothing. We must question what kind, and how good of a representation are our abstractions? Or are all representations a kind of control system that requires a liberating response?
So, we can say that pre-natal children begin "dreaming" before they are born at about the time the nervous system is developing, and that dreaming here just means that REM cycles are occurring. Is this dreaming without content, or are those little angels involved in dreaming up a storm?
I think a good place to start might be the story some scientists tell about dreaming.
Evolutionary Dreaming: The biological story is basically centered on the notion that dreams are adaptive and help us somehow survive better in the world.
There is a counter-train of thought to evolutionary dreaming that says no, dreaming is like our appendix, we don't need to dream, some people don't seem to dream and they seem just fine. (One wonders what they mean by "fine." If I can get along in life without my arms and hands, would they say I'm doing just fine without them?) But here I want to track the positive story:
A kind of fictional story evolves out of this Evolutionary View, that our world is dark half the time and in light half the time, so creatures evolve that do better in one half or the other. When in the less adapted half, it's better to keep the creature hidden and away, asleep in a hidey-hole. This worked fine for lizards and worms, the body temperature drops and the creature goes into a semi-coma. But the mammalian brain can't get so cool and doesn't come out of coma states very well as the reptile brain and so the brain stem REM pulses regularly through the night to stimulate the mammalian brain. This brain activation would tend to wake the creature up, so 1. All impulses to the limbs from the brain are cut off, 2. Noise and other disturbances from the outer world are dampened in effect, i.e. the threshold for disturbing the sleeping creature is higher than normal, and 3. Brain chemicals and processes are coordinated that help the creature imagine it is awake while making it difficult to actually wake up. This would be dreaming for the Evolutionary Biology theory.
Further, if the poor little creature was dreaming there was a juicy berry over the log outside the hidey-hole, and woke up and acted on this information, (when in fact over the log was a hungry snake) well, this wouldn't work so well, so dreams are set up to be forgotten upon waking.
Then along comes a creature (human) who has the capacity to represent things that are past (language) and can recall his/her dreams, at least if they exercise this capacity to represent the past in language (dream journal or tell yourself or another your dream immediately). Now these dreams that were originally created to keep the creature down during the night can be appropriated for other reasons.
Many are quick to point out that animals too may have learned to appropriate dreams for uses besides the above mentioned theory that they are just imagining some satisfaction instead of waking up and acting upon it. That is, animals may practice and rehearse in dreams, animals may play and explore and animals may be sensitive to psi or paranormal information that comes in through dreams. But this doesn't essentially change or challenge the Evolutionary Theory. Many organs, they say, have evolved for one reason, and later been appropriated by the body for other, multiple uses and reasons.
This is pretty much how other researchers view dreams, that they were originally adaptive mechanisms for keeping the creature out of trouble, and later got appropriated for other uses, including memory consolidation, contextualization of emotions, rehearsal of life tasks and concerns, resolution of psychological issues, contact states for a multitude of dimensional beings, ghosts, demons, gods, spirits, archetypes, angels, past lives, future lives, alternative universes and distantly located humans and other beings and objects. It is all highly speculative. Researchers are even less sure of this view as the REM = Dreams theory falls further and further apart.
As we move out of the Evolutionary theory (dreams originally adaptive, now appropriated for other reasons) the question of why we dream begins to appear now as a theoretical debate over origins.
That is, another viewpoint is that dreams were first, and material life came into being out of this dream, and may continually be coming into being from dreams of gods and other divine imaginings. If Aboriginal DreamTime is a model for much of early human thought, then the belief that dreams preceded any biological need for them has been around a hundred or thousand times longer than the Evolutionary theory. Carl Jung once had a vision of a Buddha figure dreaming, then in shock, realized it was him dreaming himself, and that when the dreaming-Jung woke up, waking-Jung would disappear.
One needn't call on the gods for help to see alternatives. Perhaps the desire to dream was what preceded the first dream, just as the desire to have hands instead of hooves preceded this development. (hoofed creature desiring hands mates with a mutant with more hands like features...)
In other words, the origin of dreaming question is like a chicken/egg question, more a theological debate than a truly scientific study. Once we concede that the origin of dreams is a mystery, then the whole new, and much more interesting, world of dreaming opens up. That is, we can't say in a ~singular~ way why we dream, only that there is a multiplicity of dreaming, a myriad of dreamings, a gaggle of reasons why we dream.
Perhaps the existential choice view is a good way to end: Why do you dream?
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** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS
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The Dream Section is edited by Kat Peters-Midland
Being in the ocean all alone, trying to save a friend, being with friends from schooldays, being arrested for a publication, and trying to escape from a brown bear...another fascinating dream section of the Electric Dreams!
Dream title: A real man's dream
Dream date: 5/11/05
Dreamer name: The Beautiful Mind
Dream text: I had this dream that me and this girl was in this classroom setting and I could tell that we liked each other. This girl was so beautiful and she was so amazing. We were talking and this man come up and put his hands on her like he was going to touch her on her ass. So I swung him around and I cursed him out. And I knocked him out with one punch. And then I was walking on the street and I think a celebration-like a parade was going on. And I was talking on my cell phone to my best friend and I was telling him what happened. And he had said I hope that you didn't fight over a girl and then I woke up.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Date
Dream date: 4-27-05
Dreamer name: Redroses
Dream text: It started out that I had a crush on my choir teacher. People were saying he was gay but my gut said otherwise. One day during school, the choir teacher and I were talking and he was telling me how he felt, that he wasn't gay, and he wanted to get to know me more. Then we ended up going on a date. I was driving in some town (don't know where) and we ended up stopping at a gas station because he said he had to get something. He came out and had all these gifts for me. I was stunned but also felt bad because I didn't have anything for him. The next thing I know his head is lying on my breast. It was a turn on and at the same time I felt as though he was enjoying it also. Then I woke up
Dream comments: I did end up emailing my choir teacher and asking him if he was gay, bisexual or straight and such. He told me he was a homosexual.
Dream title: Run Away
Dream date: August 24/25, 2005
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I was chasing my sister in a very big room, and everywhere she went I followed. Then she made a right turn and I didn't see her anymore. The next night I dreamed that my sister came to me and told me that she's okay and for me to get some rest.
Dream comments: My sister who was diagnosed with colon cancer was given 2 weeks to live in mid august. From that point on I couldn't sleep. When I woke up from this dream, I received a phone call that she had died.
Dream title: A crumble of dust
Dream date: 5/7/05
Dreamer name: Anonymous
Dream text: I was in a building and all of a sudden loud noises came shattering over me. I walked outside and it was dead silent; then a bright figure appeared above me. A white flash flew in the sky and suddenly it struck the moon head-on. This happened numerous times and I wish I kept count. The light beams stopped hitting the moon as it become deformed and later vanished into dust as white particles crumbled to the surface.
Dream comments: I don't know, I just started meditating and along with that and ever I kept close to my dreams because they seem to be more clearer than before
Dream title: Can't save 'em all
Dream date: 5/1/05
Dreamer name: The bat
Dream text: A very close friend of mine is taken away by someone, but I could not see who it was. I gave chase and was attacked by people, all of whom I knew and did not like. While fighting them, it occurred to me that I was dressed like Batman. After I took care of them, I continued to give chase until I reached the rooftop. There was my friend, and the captor. He had his face painted like the Joker but I knew it was the person I hated the most. We began to fight. Midway through, he pulled out a gun and shot at me several times. When he ran out of bullets and I tackled him and knocked him out. I turned to my friend, she was dead - the bullets had hit her and killed her and I could not save her.
Dream comments: I have had this dream many times, but have never saved the girl.
Dream title: Rape by friend
Dream date: Don't remember
Dreamer name: Anonymous
Dream text: I was raped by my friend in some place that was supposed to be my school but looked nothing like it. We were against the wall and I don't remember much else. After he raped me I went around telling everybody in school that he had raped me but nobody would believe me.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Cinema with old friends
Dream date: 5/3/05
Dreamer name: Aghory
Dream text: We entered a cinema and the lights go out. We find seats and we have to climb over back to sit down. We're sitting at right angle to screen on my right and we have a poor view of 40s style film. An old girlfriend & friends from schooldays are with me including one who committed suicide when he was 34 (8 years ago). I'm braiding my girlfriend's blonde hair (she never had braids, don't know anyone who has). Rest of friends go to get food, strangers come and sit in their places (friendly but now view is even worse). We get up and go outside... Dream ends
Dream comments: Don't normally have dreams like this, usually ones I can theorize on such as conflicts with my boss at work.
Dream title: Vatican Dream
Dream date: 10/05/2004
Dreamer name: Crazy Dreamer
Dream text: I dreamt that I was actually in the Vatican in Rome (actually I was in the cathedral-I don't know what the time of the cathedral is). I think I was at an Easter or Christmas mass. It felt so real, and I was standing so close to Pope John Paul II.
Dream comments: I don't know what the significance of the dream was. I'm not Catholic, but I do attend Mass occasionally. I have mixed feeling about the Catholic Church, but I do enjoy the ritual of mass. I'm dream traveler, but I've never had such a profound dream like this before.
Dream title: Horror
Dream date: 5/3/05
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I saw snakes in my dreams
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Baby
Dream date: 5-01-05
Dreamer name: Anonymous
Dream text: I dreamed that I was at the store and I just kept on walking. Then I started to hear a baby crying.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Code
Dream date: 5/1/05
Dreamer name: AM
Dream text: I kept seeing the alphabet scroll quickly in front of my eyes. A certain letter would highlight and get a bit larger, but it all happened too quickly to read the letters. They were green and highlighted ones were fluorescent green. It seemed like a code and it was terrifying enough to wake me up.
Dream comments: It felt like it was supposed to be a premonition but a horrifying one
Dream title: My grandmom
Dream date: 2-07-05
Dreamer name: Soulchild
Dream text: I had a dream that my grandmother died. I didn't attend the funeral but everyone else did. I was looking at her after she died and we were in her house. She was mad at me but I didn't know why and she was supposed to be dead.
Dream comments: What makes this so strange my aunt had the same dream that my grandma died.
Dream title: Sniper in the family
Dream date: 4/10/05
Dreamer name: Forever Wellness
Dream text: I was training to be an astronaut but I was struggling and then I gave up. At home, my grandfather was behaving very strange. He had a sniper's rifle. I told our friend Jackie to make a coffee when Grandfather told me I had better hide or I would be shot.
I ran from the house as quietly as possible so that I would not be heard. When I was outside, I ran as fast as possible to my mother's. Once there, my grandfather had almost caught up with me and tried to shoot. After much banging, I forced open my mum's door and found her curled up on the floor on the phone as usual.
When all was calm once more and Grandfather had calmed down, I returned to gran's, still shaken and sore from screaming. I found the coffee Jackie had made in the road, still hot.
Dream comments: I work from home and business has been slow of late. I feel this may be the message behind the training to be an astronaut... Aiming high but not reaching there yet, I have thought about giving up lately but do not wish to... Maybe that is where this fits in.
Grandfather: My Grandfather was prone to strange actions due to Alzheimer's during his life. How this relates is beyond me.
Mother: My mother was well known by all members of my family to have no time for people, particularly myself and still has no time to this day. There are suspicions that this may be due to "Family Secrets" which I do not wish to discuss at this time.
Dream title: Scorpion
Dream date: 4/6/05
Dreamer name: Eim
Dream text: I had a dream that a scorpion was clamped on my right big toe, and my older stepson tried to get it off.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: Alon
Dream date: 05/13/05
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream text: I am in the ocean all alone and I am on a little float toy. Everything just passes by me - boats, sharks. No matter how close I get to an island I can't reach them. I am in the ocean, can't reach anything no matter how close I get to them, and no one even notices me.
Dream comments: I have this dream a lot.
Dream title: The Girl
Dream date: 5/13/05
Dreamer name: L20
Dream text: The dream started out with a phone call from a freaky Asian guy. While he was talking about Thursday, a girl's hair started to creep out from underneath a cabinet. I was confused about what the heck the hair was doing creeping out from under the cabinet so I reached forward to touch it. As my hand grew nearer an arm fell down from right beside the hair, and there was a moan of pain, anger, and hunger. I screamed, dropped the phone, and then ran from the room and into my bedroom. My bedroom was different: it had two beds instead of one. A girl I've never seen before was on the extra bed reading. Then the Asian people, who were, I guess, supposed to be my parents walked in asking why I screamed. I started to open my mouth to tell them why, but instead of an explanation, out of my mouth came a bloodcurdling scream. Standing in the doorway was the scariest girl I've ever seen. She was just standing there, looking at me with blank eyes. As I stood there screaming, my life flashed before my eyes. Then I heard my Asian parents telling me to wake up and they asked if I was ok. I wanted to ask them if they saw the girl, but before I could open my mouth to talk, the same moan as before rang from the hall. This time however it was louder and more menacing. My Asian father went to the hall to see what it was and he screamed.
Dream comments: This was supposed to be scary. In fact it was the scariest dream I've ever had. I don't know why everyone was Asian though.
Dream title: The Chair of the Brown Bear
Dream date: none given
Dreamer name: AnimalGirl
Dream text: One day my brother sat in the chair in our living room.
Nothing happened. The next day my sister sat in it. Nothing happened.
The next day I sat in it and suddenly a brown bear jumped from behind
it. I struggled to escape but I turned into a baby! I crawled away and
away until I reached the sea. The bear disappeared and I was sitting in
the chair again...
Dream comments: none
Dream title: The Conformist
Dream date: 6/06/01
Dreamer name: Anonymous
Dream text: In my dream I publish a small book entitled "The Conformist Way." It becomes an instant success with the populations of North America. In the year of 2009 we reestablish the death penalty here in Canada to decrease the growing problems of crime. I am at my brother's house celebrating my birthday for the year of 2012. We are having a very good time. Suddenly the door kicks inward and the private police force called NSC is there to arrest me for my publication. As they drag me away I am yelling, "I am not a conformist. I am not a conformist!" My brother tries to resist them, but is detained. The trial proves to be very swift and it is over before it even begins. The sentence is death. On July 07, 2012 I am beheaded in front of the gathered public. It ends here.
Dream comments: 1. this has been recurring over the last few years.
2. This dream is edited for content. 3. Notes for the conformist way has been transcribed. 4. Key dates have been omitted.
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