The Dream Cyberphile

by Richard Catlett Wilkerson

The Cyberdream Zeitgeist

In this issue, the Cyberphile takes you to the horizon of consciousness in online dreams and dreaming. Topics covered include new technologies in dream sharing with Robert Bosnak, new eLists for dream topic discussions, the Dream Arts Newsletter, tips for Web site owners, and some ASD Web projects. Peggy Coats returns with an update on the Computer Cafe for the ASD conference in Santa Cruz. Also included is a section on dream sharing with Serbia.

Dream Arts Newsletter

The ASD Annual Art Exhibits are world renowned. Since 1996 selections from these exhibits have been made available between conference times on the ASD Web site. To further encourage and connect the dream inspired arts community between shows, there is now a Dream Arts Newsletter provided by Dawn Hill. In the newsletter you will find interviews with dream inspired artists, tips on getting your art into galleries and shows, how to contact regional dream arts groups and all the latest news from the conference coordinators. You can read the newsletter online or have it sent directly to you via e-mail.

http://www.asdreams.org/asd-arts/index.htm

Leading Edge Dreamwork: cyberdreamwork.com

Voice and Bio-feedback dreamwork groups are about to enter Cyberspace. Robert Bosnak, Dutch Jungian psychoanalyst and author of A Little Course on Dreams and Tracks in the Wilderness has a full program ready to launch online. "Our goal is to do intercultural dreamwork through voice with people in various parts of the globe," Robert reports, and "to build community in cyberspace around our common curiosity about dreams."

Cyberdreamwork.com uses voice programs to conduct in-depth image oriented group dreamwork. A voice program has a maximum of five participants in a conference call.

"We have presently put up a matchboard to find others who want to do voice cyberdreamwork. In the future cyberdreamcoaches will assist the dreamgroups. We are taking applications for a free training of cyberdreamcoaches."

At the 1999 Santa Cruz ASD conference Robert and his team will give a demonstration of cyberdreamwork. Four dreamworkers will work live on a dream of Robert Bosnak to show the potential of the work. They will also show the working of the biomonitor which registers the emotional patterns of the dreamer over the Internet.

The dreamwork itself is described as a form of non-therapeutic clinical dream re-entry, where trained coaches will assist the dreamer in exploring the dreaming environment through careful non-suggestive questioning. Of course, dreamwork via the telephone has been going on for years and is considered effective because the human voice helps to keep the dreamer focused. Cyberdreamwork expands this idea into conference calling that is free wherever you are connected to the Net in the world. This makes inter-cultural dreamwork possible, which is also an idea that Bosnak has been interested in and explored in his book Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreaming. Now these ideas are entering Cyberspace:

" Cyberdreamwork groups are based on their close affinity with the dream world and cyberspace. Dreams are lands of pure imagination. They are the life we live beyond the day. Cyberspace is created by imagination as well. Dreams and cyberspace are a perfect match."

Be sure to watch for more developments, and to stop by the Santa Cruz 1999 Conference Computer Cafe for a demonstration.

For more info http://www.cyberdreamwork.com.


Free eLists: Start your own discussion on dreams.

Dream Sharing online is just beginning to open up from a few streams of pioneer dreamworkers into an alluvial fan for all dreamers. The explosion of free Internet mail lists now provide the resources for small, intimate groups of people wishing to share dreams, as well as communication groups for teenagers, lucid dreamers, psi dreaming and a host of other dream related activities.

Unlike postal mail lists or lists where advertisers get your name, these Net mail lists are both useful and available only if you subscribe by sending in an e-mail request.

Electronic Mail Lists (what I will be calling eLists) are a simple way to communicate with a group of people with a common interest through e-mail. On eLists, one subscribes and unsubscribes at will. A special common e-mail address is used by the subscriber and all mail sent to that address will end up in everyone's e-mail box that is subscribed to the group. What?

An image: Normal e-mail is like a circle of individuals. The message is like a ball that someone makes and tosses to someone else in the circle. Each person in the circle is an Internet e-mail address. Now imagine we add a Magician to the group who duplicates the message balls s/he receives. The Magician is the eList address. In this instance, let's say this person is the list name address for the eList discussion group called "Dreaming in Later Life." Every time you throw this eList Magician a ball, s/he will duplicate the ball and throw it to everyone that is signed up on the "Dreaming in Later Life" discussion list. The overall effect is that a group discussion over days, weeks or months can take place between individuals located all over the globe.

Owning an Internet eLists used to be only for the techno-savvy eLite few who had special deals with their Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The lists were a nightmare to maintain for the host/owner and required continually changing scripts and parameters though coded messages to the server. These lists still exist and are great for those who like to have a lot of control over the options available to the subscribers, but the new free eLists have made all this very simple and automatic. Just like the new sites that offer free e-mail, the eLists sites allow the list owner to create a discussion list in minutes.

Here are a few places you can start your own free eList:

CoolList http://www.coollist.com/

eGroups http://www.egroups.com/

Listbot http://www.listbot.com/

Netscape WebSite http://www.websitepostoffice.com/

VPMail http://www.list.to/



The groupleaders eList

Is it ethical to share a dream that someone told you in a dream group? How do you handle a member in a dream group that is intentionally disruptive and hostile? What is ethical dreamwork and who gets to decide? Tom Goad of the Nashville Dream Awareness Circle has been exploring these and other questions in groups for sometime in Tennessee. Now he has provided a forum for their discussion via e-mail. Dreamworkers from California join in with authors from England and psychoanalysts from New York. If you are interested in joining, contact Tom at e-mail Dreamgroup@webtv.net

For more information go to:

http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/library/ethics.htm

Dream Web Site Owners: Tips on Increasing Visitors.

Whether you are trying to sell a book on dreams, or have an extensive online collection of your own dream inspired art , you are probably online to get more attention for your projects. Dream related products and projects are not the most sought after commodities in our culture, and so dream sites that want visitors need to be sure you are doing everything reasonably possible to get the attention you deserve. Since marketing online is an enormous field that changes monthly, I will try each issue to include tips that I find bring the most visitors to dream sites. This issue I will cover:

Networking, Networking, Networking

How did Jody Williams, a lone individual, win the Noble Peace Prize for her work in getting the nations of the world to ban clear anti-personnel mines? E-mail. And I don't mean spamming or sending out annoying junk mail. She networked with others with the same values and similar goals. Simply write up a scoop page about your project, what you have to offer, what you want to exchange and contact information. Think of it as a large business card. Be sure that all dream related organizations, clubs, archives, web sites and individuals have an updated copy of this information.

Of course, this requires that *you* also receive and pass on information that other people send.

If you are not sure where to begin sending your information, here are three good starting points:

1. Check the ASD links page.

2. Send regular updates to the Global Dreaming News. (Peggy Coats pcoats@dreamtree.com)

3. See the online article on Dream Research Online at the CyberDream Library http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/library

Next issue: Secret words you can add to your Web pages so people searching can find you!

Dream Sharing with Serbia

Recently on our grassroots cyberdream network, Electric Dreams, we had the chance to share dreams with a woman from Serbia. In offering her our projections of the dreams meaning, found a way to enter into the soul of the international crisis in a new way. I've reprinted the dream here with her permission. If you are interested in a transcript of the whole group, it is online at

http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/serbia/

I you have a chance to think to yourself, "If this were my dream...", watch for those inner spots where making the dream your own and trying to push this meaning back on the dreamer takes place.

'Radioactively Contaminated Uniform' by Branka

I have entered the building in which my father lives. In this place where elevator is supposed to be, I see this military uniform on the hanger. In the pocket of a uniform, I see photos of Nikola Kojo's family. Just as I get them out of the pocket, I become aware that uniform is radioactively contaminated. Huge wave of fear grabs the hold on me. I'm desperate. I am convinced I will surely die.

Note: Nikola Kojo is a famous Yugoslavian movie star.

Along with global awareness comes global conflict. The civil war in Yugoslavia has drawn a large number of nations into an international crisis that could well be the first war of the 21^st Century, or the last war of the 20^th Century. Either way, the temptation to polarize the conflict can lead to an artificial categorization of "us" and "them". As we found with the Cold War, the way around this is an increase in communication. This has been especially efficient at a grassroots level. As dream sharing continues to spread across the globe via the Internet, the chance to dissolve this and other black and white boundaries continues. Of course, propaganda proliferates across the Internet. But there is a feeling that the truth finally gets through, not in-spite of the extra information, but because of it. Dream sharing in Cyberspace is unlikely to change the crisis in Kosovo. But dream sharing and other forms of international communication have now made it nearly impossible to dehumanize and demonize the Other. In many ways, this has always been one of the impacts of dreamwork.



ASD Web Notes

• Volunteer to help the Web Site. If you can e-mail or browse the Web, you can be an online volunteer.! We have several projects and many are quite easy and only take a few minutes. Others projects include transcription, graphics, visiting newsgroups, dream news editors and more. contact Richard Wilkerson rcwilk@dreamgate.com

• ASD Bulletin Board. The number of questions we are getting has tripled in the last year and we could really use your help. Although the meaning of personal dreams are not discussed, the basic questions about dreams and dreaming occur over and over. The ASD bulletin board is becoming one of our most interactive faces with the world and a great place fulfill the educational mission statement.

• ASD Journal Dreaming Online. One of the top requested pages from visitors to our ASD Web site is the online articles page. Now, thanks to the combined efforts of all the editors in chief, past, interim and present, our site has several publically available articles. http://www.asdreams.org/subidxjournalarticles.htm
  
  
  
  

ASD 16 Computer Cafe - From Host Peggy Coats pcoats@dreamtree.com

The Computer Café is a drop-in place for conference attendees, offering a menu of dream-related educational opportunities available on the Internet--including resource centers, websites, software demonstrations, dream chats, remote presentations, self-directed exploration, and much, much more!

Educational and Interactive Opportunities......

Dream Related Websites: links to a profusion of websites, demonstrating the diversity of dream projects and organizations on the Internet, including (but not limited to):

Dream or Dream-Related Organizations, such as the ASD, Bay Area DreamworkersGroup (BADG), ONIROS, European Association for the Study of Dreams (EASD), Lucidity Institute, C.G. Jung Society, and other similar groups.

Dream Projects on the Internet, such as dream-sharing, dream resource centers and libraries, bibliography collections, dream magazines and publications, dream films, dream studies and education, dream travel, dream research, etc.

Dream Software Demonstrations: Various kinds of dream software will be available for attendees to explore, without ASD endorsement of the products. A separate table will be set up to contain literature for software products provided by vendors or authors without accompanying marketing materials. Vendors or authors may also be available at scheduled times to demonstrate software for interested attendees.

Internet Presentations: ASD-approved conference real-time or designated presentations or projects via the Internet that have proper URL or Internet addresses.

Dream Chat Room, in which attendees can meet and "chat" in real time with other online dreamers via the Internet from around the world..

Watch for updates and schedules at:

http://www.asdreams.org/asd-16/asd16_cyberidx.htm

This article may be slightly altered from its original form on the ASD Newsletter to conform to Web Format.

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