E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s Subscribe: electric-dreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: electric-dreams-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Subscribe Online: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electric-dreams o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s Volume #12 Issue #10 October 2005 ISSN# 1089 4284 o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Download a cover for this issue: http://tinyurl.com/bpyjm o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o C O N T E N T S ++ Editor's Notes Richard Wilkerson ++ Global Dreaming News Harry Bosma ++ Column: An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange Dream Characters and Reality Checks Part Two: Validation and Practicality Linda Magallon Editor, Lucy Gillis ++ Column: The View From the Bridge September Snapshots Jean Campbell ++ Dream: "Porpoise People" Stan Kulikowski II ++ Special Section : Nightmare Resources ++ Article: Becoming Nightmare, the Rhizomatics of Dreaming Richard Wilkerson ++ DREAM SECTION: Dreams from September, 2005 Host Kat Peters-Midland XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX D E A D L I N E : October 19st deadline for November 2005 submissions XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Post Dreams and Comments on Dreams to: http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple Send news, events, workshops, conferences& reviews to Harry Bosma Send Articles, news and other items to: Richard Wilkerson: o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Editor's Notes o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Welcome to the October 2005 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal to dreams and dreamwork online. If you are new to dreams and dreamwork, there are a few e-lists where Electric Dreams people seems to congregate that might interest you. 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 The 2005 PsiberDreaming Conference was a great success this year, thanks to Host Ed Kellogg, PhD and the many contributors and participants. From the mathematics of non-sensual perception to ethics of psi dreaming to using lucid dreaming for healing and art, this extreme dreaming group pushed the edges of practice and theory to create one of the best PDConferences to date. Fortunately for those who missed, you can still discuss these topics on the IASD bulletin board. www.asdreams.org Special Nightmare Issue. Along with all the regulars, I also re-run some of the past article on nightmares in preparation of Halloween. For those who can't sleep because they are having nightmares, try the Nightmare Hotline: 1-866-DRMS911 This month in Electric Dreams: Lucid Dream Exchange editor Lucy Gillis offer ED readers an excerpt from her Lucid Dream Exchange, this month an article from Linda Lane Magallón is the author of Mutual Dreaming. Linda explores the status of a reoccurring personality/character in her dreams and how she and others connected through this personality. Be sure to read "Dream Characters and Reality Checks Part Two: Validation and Practicality." Jean Campbell updates us their latest projects of peace and connection to people around the world. From the devistations of war and weather to the hopeful peace rallies, she will connect you directly to the projects on the World Dreams Peace Bridge and the soul of the world. Find out what is happening and how you can join the Bridge in"The View." Stan Kulikowski II is here this month with a dream selection uniquely recorded in his own dream narrative style called "Porpoise People." Our NIGHTMARE area (Halloween tradition at ED) has some resources for beginners, and challenges for advanced dreamers. Besides the basics, I'm including a re-run of "Becoming Nightmare, the Rhizomatics of Dreaming." This is NOT for beginners, but a YOU MUST BE THIS HIGH to RIDE type of article that looks into the possibility of actually conjuring nightmares as part of a larger Transgressive Dreamwork project. Booo! Thanks to Janet Garrett , ED articles from past issues are 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 searches around the world for news on dreams and dreaming, which you can read about 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 Stabbing someone repeatedly and chopping them up in little pieces, flying in a car, having a baby, and making love with the devil….some fascinating dreams in our latest Dreams section of Electric Dreams! From Kat Peters-Midland. 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) -------------------- For those of you who are new to dreamwork, be sure to stop by one of the many resources: http://dreamgate.com/electric-dreams http://dreamgate.com/dream/library http://dreamunit.net/news-en/ http://www.dreamtree.com Electric Dreams in PDF: (thanks to Nick Cumbo) http://electric.dreamofpeace.net/ -------------------- From Planet Dream, -Richard Wilkerson o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S October 2005 o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o If you have news you'd like to share, simply email Harry Bosma at his special ed-news@alquinte.com address. G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S October 2005 If you have news you'd like to share, simply email Harry Bosma at his special ed-news@alquinte.com address. Online: - International guide to lucid dreaming - Intuitive Gateways website - Podcast about dreams - Dream Art Journaling Workshop Physical world: - San Francisco: The Practice of Active Dreaming - Oakland and Berkeley: Yoga and Dreams - Savannah, GA: Brian MacGregor's dream art - Berkeley: The Dream Institute - New York City: Montague Ullman Books, movies, research: - Working the Nightshift - Request for Dreams Involving Animals and Insects Recurring events: - Ritual DaFuMu for Peace - Auction at Dreambay.org * * * ONLINE * * * --- - International guide to lucid dreaming --- Russell from the Lucid Crossroads website has taken the initiative to create an international guide to lucid dreaming. The guide is already available in many languages. The guide has been designed to make translations as easy as possible. Russell would like to translate the guide in as many languages as possible. Perhaps you can help him out. International guide: http://lucid.atspace.com Crossroads: www.lucidcrossroads.co.uk --- - Intuitive Gateways website --- I work with dreams using a method developed by Jungian Analyst Robert Bosnak. I am also a writer and the site offers mentoring in dreamwork or writing. I have several articles on the site. www.intuitivegateways.com Deborah DeNicola --- - Podcast about dreams --- My Podcast is a half-hour format show in which I interview interesting people in and around the world of psychology. I have already interviewed 2 dreamworkers. What is a podcast you ask? Well, it is an outgrowth of blogging. First, there was blogging, then there were audio blogs as people figured out they could attach sound files to their blogs. Now there is podcasting. Something called RSS (don't worry about the technicalities) allows you to "subscribe" to podcasts so that your computer is automatically updated with the latest episode of whatever podcasts you are subscribed to. If you have the latest version of iTunes, for example, you can go to the music store (podcasts are free), click on the podcast button at the left, do a search on Shrink Rap Radio, and my show will come up and you can then subscribe and each week you will get the latest half-hour episode of my podcast, Shrink Rap Radio. Another way to think of podcasting is Tivo for your radio. You get to listen to the content you are interested in, commercial free, when you want to listen to it. Most people are listening to podcasts using an mp3 player, like the iPod, in their car, while working out, or on the airplane. By the way, you don't have to use iTunes. You can listen to the show right on the website using the streaming audio by clicking on Listen Now. And,in terms of subscribing, in addition to iTunes, there are other "podcatchers" or RSS news aggregators for Mac and Windows, alike that can be used. You can find one with a Google search. The fact that iTunes added the podcasting feature to iTunes was another brilliant move on Steve Job's part which should further strengthen the iPod franchise. David www.shrinkrapradio.com shrink@shrinkrapradio.com --- - Dream Art Journaling Workshop --- I would like to have another group begin the journey the first week of November 2005. In order for it to be really fun, it works best with 5 or more participants interacting in the program. Basically the Dream Art Journaling workshop works like this: 1) You will receive in the mail a "art care package" filled with goodies and tools to use, and the workbook that is used in conjunction with the online portion. The interaction of the participants has an online component, so you you will need access to the internet. 2) Support material and threaded discussions on the "dream goals" are conducted via a free Yahoo Group. 3) We do not go as far as digital media. The art part of the workshop is pen, paper, and other basic mediums, etc. 4) Previous participants might join the group as "dream art mentors". Most importantly ... the workshop is especially designed for "non-artists" or anyone who wishes to connect artistically with dream imagery. To those who are interested, please email me and I will supply the weblink again as soon as it becomes available, and provide detailed information. >From the instructor standpoint, I was simply amazed at how quickly the dreamers connected with their dreams, and began to produce beautiful works of art. Sincerely, Laura A. ArtThatGlows@cox.net My website is www.arthatglows.com (when the website server is back up and running) * * * PHYSICAL WORLD * * * --- - San Francisco: The Practice of Active Dreaming --- A 4 Week Class in San Francisco I am offering a 4 week class on dreaming based on the work of Robert Moss (www.mossdreams.com). It's exciting work and I am inspired to share it with others. If you know anyone who might be interested, I'd greatly appreciate it if you passed this flyer on. The class starts on September 29. Thank you so much for your support. Blessings & sweet dreams, Elizabeth Lombardo elizabeth_lombardo@yahoo.com --- - Oakland and Berkeley: Yoga and Dreams --- My first yoga-dream course was quite remarkable. Using some exciting new techniques, we look at your body and what your dreams have to say about it. Your dreams are actually making a running commentary on your body -- how you are using it, what it needs, where it is hurting. Once you start to see these references, a whole new dimension of dream work opens up. We initiated this 4 week course in consultation with Judith Hanson Lasater, as yoga consultant. Two yoga teachers and three serious yoga practitioners spent a month looking at how their dreams connected with their body and their practice. They uncovered a remarkably different perspective on their yoga - sometimes confirming and sometimes suggesting quite new approaches. As an added benefit, they also acquired basic tools for working on their own dreams. You can read some of their feedback below. The time for the group meeting is somewhat flexible, depending on the needs of participants. Please call -- (510) 644 2369 -- or e-mail me -- davidj@dreamreplay.com -- with any questions or to let me know you wish to participate. You can also read a course description at http://dreamreplay.com/yogacoursedescription.htm . Namaste, David Jenkins, Ph.D. --- - Savannah, GA: Brian MacGregor's dream art --- Brian MacGregor's art work will be shown at A.T. Hun Art Gallerie's Annual Show, the costume party and show will be Friday and Saturday Oct. 21 & 22. All day and night at 302 City Market Savannah, GA. MacGregor's work is also on display at Jazz'd, Bistro of Savannah, in April at The Mansion on Forsyth Park, and he has a six page article featured in SAVANNAH MAGAZINE'S November issue. www.brian-macgregor.com --- - Berkeley: The Dream Institute --- Events sponsored by The Dream Institute of Northern California 1672 University Ave Berkeley, CA 94703 1-510-845-1767 - Deepening Your Dreaming: Integral & Shamanic Approaches - October 14-16 Four Springs Retreat Center, Middletown California This retreat demonstrates the potential of dreams as a source for personal growth, problem-solving, and creativity. Participants will learn about extraordinary dreams, lucid dreams, mutual dreaming, and dreams of the deceased. In her shamanic approach in dream work, Dr. Bogzaran will lead the group through various practices with dream re-entry with a drum, dream incubation, poetic/automatic writing, and personal mythology. $385 includes workshop registration, cabin or lodge room, and meals. Send $100 deposit to hold a space. Fariba Bogzaran, Ph.D. Associate professor and founder of the Dream Studies Program, JFK University; co-author, Extraordinary Dreams; Director, Lucid Art Foundation. Besides her extensive background in teaching and research in dreams, lucid dreaming and art, she is also trained in shamanism, East-West philosophy, somatic psychology and has been a practitioner of Taoist energetic systems and Ta'i Chi Ch'uan for over twenty years. For more information contact bogzaran@svn.net - Dreams within the Dyad - Oct 28 & Nov 11 2005 3-6 PM $75 6 CEU Meredith Sabini, PhD Dreams that refer to the therapist, the client, and the therapy provide especially valuable information and insight. Examples from clinical literature and practice will illustrate. --- - New York City: Montague Ullman --- "DREAMING AS A NATURAL HEALING SYSTEM," WITH MONTAGUE ULLMAN ** Download Flyer in PDF format at - http://asdreams.org/2005ullman/ - ** Montague Ullman, M.D., is one of the best-known names in the field of dreamwork. For three decades, Dr. Ullman has devoted himself to extending dreamwork beyond the consulting room, out into the community, where ordinary people can help each other understand their dreams. Dreams are intensely private, intrapsychic communications, Dr. Ullman teaches. They focus on unresolved issues from our past, and in doing so repair our connection to others; dreams require socialization to deliver their message to the fullest. The Ullman Method of dream-sharing is a powerful structure within which group members both help and benefit, while the dreamer remains the final authority on the dream's meaning. The four stages of the Ullman Method are sequenced to provide the dreamer with a sense of safety so the dreamer may "spark across the metaphoric gap between dream image and waking reality." Dr. Ullman's career spanned an early period in the practice of neurology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, followed by a transition to community psychiatry. In the 1960s, he was director of the psychiatry department at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he also founded one of New York's first sleep laboratories and conducted groundbreaking experiments in dream telepathy. He is clinical professor of psychiatry, emeritus, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A Web site of Dr. Ullman's writings is maintained at http://siivola.org/monte/ . Thursday, November 10, 2005 "" 6:30 refreshments, 7 p.m. program The Community Church (downstairs meeting room) 40 East 35th Street (between Madison and Park avenues), Manhattan $25 suggested admission, pre-registration encouraged "" (212) 741-2207 * * * BOOKS, MOVIES, RESEARCH * * * --- - Working the Nightshift --- News of a book I've just had published. Full title: "Working the Nightshift, How To Understand Your Dreams" Trafford Publishing (2005) ISBN 1 4120 5546 6 May be of more interest to those who are still exploring different ways of analysing their dreams as it includes 10 analysis techniques. You can check it out (and make a secure purchase) on my website www.docdreamuk.com or order direct from www.trafford.com Jo Harthan --- - Request for Dreams Involving Animals and Insects --- The dream animals seem to have struck a cord of connection in many of us, so I am continuing my research of dream animals and insects and need your help. Any dreams where they are present are of interest. At this critical time in our environment, I think dream animals may be an important source of information we are overlooking. If you are interested in participating in this research and have a dream to share, please go to my website at www.graygoosedreams.com . It is not fully operational yet but you can go to the "about us" page and then to the dream survey page where you can input your dream. Thank you for any dream you care to share. Bitsy Broughton * * * RECURRING EVENTS * * * --- - Ritual DaFuMu for Peace --- 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 . --- - Auction at dreambay.org --- The IASD online auction has its own website - Dreambay.org! Every month it has new items to bid on, and opportunities to donate your books, services etc to support the IASD! http://Dreambay.org If you have any questions or would like to donate an item to the auction, you may contact Kat Peters-Midland at IASDauction@comcast.net . ---END NEWS o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange By Lucy Gillis o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o ***************** An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange By Lucy Gillis Back in May, Linda Lane Magallón tackled the subject of dream characters in part one of her four part series. Are dream characters real people? Do they have a will, or a consciousness of their own? Are they all the same, or could some be lifeless projections? Join Linda as she takes us on a journey through her own thoughts and intriguing dreams. You may not look at your dream characters in quite the same way again! Dream Characters and Reality Checks Part Two: Validation and Practicality (c) 2005 Linda Lane Magallón Water is quickly filling the glass stall in which I am standing. Higher and higher the water level rises as I stretch desperately to keep my head above. As it reaches my neck, I begin gasping for air. Suddenly, a black woman clothed in a black shirt and pants appears next to the shower door. She puts her shoulder to the thick white bathroom wall and gives a mighty shove, breaking a huge, jagged hole. Through the hole is an upper story view of a city plaza. The woman swings open the shower door, grabs me by the arm, and slings me across her shoulder. She leaps through the hole into the air. Looking down from her back, I can see we're far above street level. "You're flying, we're flying!" I exclaim in amazement. This is the beginning of my breakthrough dream, my first lucid dream. It started as a nightmare, as usual. Up to this point, I'd remembered only nightmares and anxiety dreams; it never occurred to me that a dream could be any different. To have it suddenly change because a dream character rescued me, then took me flying through the sky? Talk about astounding. Nightmare Resolution The resolution of nightmares: this was the first practical reason to pay special attention to my dream character, Willie. Soon after the first dream of her, I had a second. I am on the rear porch of an old-fashioned frame "farm" house. In the distance are hills and barnlike buildings. Willette and a dark male stranger come up to the porch with a wooden pushcart. She asks me for refuse, like what she has on her cart: lettuce leaves, vegetable peelings, etc. I give her my leftovers. When I woke up it seemed that Willie had been asking me for my fears, guilts and problems. I spent the rest of the early morning hours "giving away" all my anxieties. I felt grateful that someone else was willing to shoulder my burdens. My dream theme was very like Sigmund Freud's theory of "day residue" which posits that dreams are the product of troubling daytime events that haven't been resolved prior to sleep. Garbage in, garbage out. It's now quite common among the lucid dreamers to suggest that you become lucid in order to resolve your nightmares. I certainly have taken advantage of that advice, with good results. But such a solution only works if you become aware as you dream. What if you are so deeply entranced by sleep that lucidity is light years away? The deep unconscious is where most of my slumber takes place. Was it my good fortune to have an in-dream companion to haul away the refuse of non-lucid dreams? It would have been nice to lay back and let Willie take care of me. But that's not what the dream was about, although I didn't realize it until years later. I now believe it was implying that I clean up my act before I go to sleep: to set aside day residue and make the way clear for the production of positive dreams, uplifting dreams, lucid dreams. In other words, to put after-the-dream work out of business in favor of before-the-dream work. Isn't it wiser to stop a problem before it starts? And suppose you don't have a problem to process? Do you stop dreaming? The Play Back Game Besides "day residue," the psychoanalytical field has also contributed an idea called "Doctrinal Compliance." This is the observation that whatever dream context you take to heart, well, that's the sort of dreams your sleeping mind will produce. Freudians will dream Freudian dreams; Jungians will dream Jungian dreams; Sethians, Buddhists and hip-hop artists will dream dreams that reflect their outer and inner environment. None of these dreams are "proof" of any particular dream theory; they are just your psyche playing in whatever sandbox of the mind you happen to occupy during the day. Initially, I had doctrinal dreams that were knee-jerk reactions to whatever book I happened to be reading. But as time went on, I realized that, instead of complying with other people's dream ideas, my dreaming psyche was commenting on them, describing true emotional reaction, not slavish devotion. I call this the "play back game." Consider the Jungian idea that a black woman is an African divinity like Oya, a black madonna like Sophia or a dark version of Persephone/Innana who traveled to the underground. Put the images together and they spell "earth goddess." Oh, really? I never knew an earth goddess who could thumb her nose at Icarus and take to the sky. Or consider the time I asked for a dream about that archetype the Jungians call the "animus." Although the animus is defined as the unconscious male element in a female's psyche, I didn't get any males at all. I dreamt of four dancing females. Four of women go up on a stage and stand in a row. The two Caucasian women step out in front (I'm one of them). Two Black women (Willie and one other), line up directly behind them. All four of us are wearing tap shoes, straw hats and canes. In unison, we begin tap dancing to a tune. As I wake, I recognize it. The name of the song is..."Me and My Shadow." I start laughing. The shadow is supposed to be the unacceptable or unknown aspects of the personality. In dreams the shadow appears as someone evil, immature, troubled, conflicted, deformed, insane, sick or otherwise handicapped. It's a person of the same sex, similar but inferior to the dreamer. Did this fit Willie? In my first dream, she had felt superior. But as her dreams continued to multiply, I discovered she wasn't always. A couple of times, I had to go rescue her. And sometimes we flew, together, to rescue other people. I also dreamt that she and I were comparing balance sheets, trying to see that they came out equal. So, not inferior, not superior. An egalitarian and reciprocal relationship. Where's the archetype for that? Exploration of Altered States I doubt I would have spent so much time practicing shifts into altered states, if I weren't so curious about Willie. Not only did I teach myself to go lucid in the depths of slumber, I learned to hold onto consciousness on the way into and out of sleep. In doing so, I came to understand that, while consciousness is a spectrum, there are discrete states, each with unique properties. There were definite shifts between waking and sleeping. I had no electronic equipment to gauge the changes. But I had Willie. Take hypnogogia, for instance. While watching pictures flash on my inner screen, I'd sometimes get quick glimpses of her. I'd ask a question and see her move, pick up an object, gesture or grin. If I pictured her in the waking state, then moved into sleep, her image would suddenly disappear and I'd know that I had entered dreaming. Conversely, if I imagined another person who suddenly switched to Willie, I knew I had fallen asleep. Chimeras and Creativity Nightsun golden glowing nickel Neither malleable nor fickle Willfulness Winter wonder, fix'ed mark Centered in the piercing dark Of questing capsulated heart Shaped at sunset, amber sight Ebony encircled light Bondageless ("Nickelsun," 12/14/83) Depending on which version of Willie's existence I might consider to be true, I was motivated to continue the search for her essence by the promise of riches at the end of the rainbow. I might find knowledge about myself, or perhaps the secrets of the universe. Most of these promises would turn out to be chimeras, but a few proved worth their salt. As I've stated, resolution of nightmares, commentary on new ideas and illumination of altered states were true benefits from Willie dreams. But since I was doing reality checks, I had to admit that all was not equally worthwhile. Some dreams seemed very random and pointless, such as when Willie handed me a rat and a vegetable or when she pointed to a computer screen and asked, "Where is number seven?" Often she didn't even get that close to me. I'd see her at a distance: seated, standing, in silhouette or walking away. She acted like a spy and had a "scary closet." Once, a man even came to warn me about her. Willie was not a good guide to health of body, mind or spirit. I had several Willie dreams involving money that never came true. In fact, I received no verifiable information about physical reality from her. But there was one bright star in the waking state. Because of her, I experienced a Renaissance in creativity. Even though I'd received an English award in high school, I hadn't done any writing in decades. Recording dreams was my first step back. Automatic writing, poetry and newsletter articles soon followed. I'd never had any coursework in drawing human anatomy, but that didn't stop me from trying to sketch Willie. My musical talent was minimal, but after I dreamt that I was playing piano, I managed to capture the tune and record it using musical notation. "Play something simple," Willie had told me in that dream. So I did. Communal Willie Early on, I realized that Willie was going to be a sociable dream character, which meant I became more social, too. There were some interesting synchronicities along the way. For instance, when I read Rick Stack's book, Out-of-Body Adventures, I was flabbergasted to discover that one of his dreams, about a singing performance with a huge audience, was so similar to one of my Willie dreams, it was creepy. My interest in psi lead me to facilitate mutual dreaming projects and dream telepathy experiments with other people. During several, Willie guest-starred in my dreams. At first, I said nothing about her, just wrote down "Willie" as casually as if I were mentioning the name of a character based on a waking state counterpart. I was hoping that someone would pick up on her telepathically. When this didn't happen, I decided to tell my dreamworkers group about her. In response, Melinda Nelson suggested, "Why don't we try to dream about Willie?" The suggestion both surprised and delighted me. Since I wasn't having much luck in contacting her in the lucid state, maybe somebody else would. Purposely, I did not share any particulars about her appearance or personality characteristics beyond her race and sex, but I did reveal her full name: Willette Nicholson. That very night Melinda reported the following dream: Before sleep, I repeat the induction phrase, "Willie Nicholson" over and over, focusing my attention on hooking up to this being who has emerged with such clarity in Linda's waking and dream states. As I internally feel a bodily sensed "click" - a linkage, I drift off to sleep. Immediately the face and upper torso of a young Black woman looms overhead, as if looking down on me, the dreamer, a few feet over my sleeping body. She leans forward, as if to peer into my space, smiling and waving. She is an attractive, sophisticated woman in her mid to late 30's. She is slim, with a worldly way about her, a sparkling smile, and a knowing glint in her eyes. Her hair is pulled back with a kind of saucy topknot, perched on an angle on the right side of her head. It juts out in a sophisticated version of a "punk" style. Her energy is focused, and lighthearted. She obviously sees me, gets a kick out of waving to me, and seems to want me to recognize and receive the connection in a spirit of playfulness. An accomplished artist, Melinda had soon sketched her vision. She entitled it, like her dream, "Willie Nicholson Drops In" and presented it to me at our next get-together. I was thrilled to receive such a precious gift. At home, I photocopied two pictures I'd previously clipped from some magazines, as the closest representation I could find of my idea of Willie, and sent them to Melinda. She quickly wrote back: "I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw the comparison of the drawing to the photo clippings. Every time I look at them my jaw goes into automatic "hang open". The similarity to both my dream and the drawing is eerie." I picture Willie with an Afro hairstyle, so the topknot that Melinda drew seemed totally out of sync. Eventually, two other folks would dream up Willie with a ponytail. But the rest of her perception was right on. Clear, straightforward, slender, intelligent, with just a hint of humor and wise-ass sassiness. Yep, that's how I imagined Willie. A few months later I attended an Austin Seth Conference. One night I had the opportunity to do one-on-one dreamwork with some of the conference attendees. A woman came and sat down with me. As she shared her dream, part of me was listening to it and chuckling over the similarities with my own career path and with the symbols in my current life. But another part of me was trying hard not to stare at the woman. She was Black, and while she had no topknot, her hair was brushed back and to one side, as in Melinda's picture. It was her bright, wide-open, honest eyes that struck me so forcibly. Her nametag read "Charlotte Nelson". The names whirled and echoed through my head splitting and recombining in multiple permutations: Willette, Charlotte...Linda, Melinda... Nicholson, Nelson... Another dreamer was waiting her turn, so I decided to delay further conversation with Charlotte. The next night would be a party that was the conference finale, and I was planning to come in costume as Willie. Using a photocopy of Melinda's drawing, I had created a hand-held mask. I could show it to Charlotte then. Somehow or other, though, we just didn't connect with each other during the party. The morning of the following day, I overheard Charlotte say she was going to leave in an hour. "It's now or never, kiddo!" I admonished myself. "There's someone I'd like you to meet," I began. Charlotte responded by suggesting we go upstairs to her room so she could finish packing. We entered and rode the ascending elevator as I gave a brief synopsis of Willie's story. When we reached her room, Charlotte put her key in the lock, then paused and asked, "What did you say the name of your dream character was?" "Willette Nicholson," I replied. Charlotte looked at me. Her face took on a funny smile. "You know," she said slowly and distinctly, "when I was a girl, I used to have an imaginary playmate named Nichole. And I think her last name was Wilson. Yes, that's right, Nichole Wilson." Nichole Wilson! Contact Finally, about a month later, I again made face-to-face contact with Willie, in a lucid dream: I am gazing down a narrow hall filled with women, who all seem to be variations on a theme: Caucasian with dark hair. Being lucid, I decide to take advantage of the situation. Gathering my energies with determination, I let loose a bellow that penetrates to the depths of the corridor. "WILLIE!!!" One of the women winces because she was directly in line with my vocal blast. There is a distant response: "Coming..." Suddenly she's there - Willie's there - her face directly in front of me, looking me straight in the eye! The first words out of her mouth are: "Well, it's been a long time since we've seen each other." I stare in astonishment. I can't believe she's finally here! She continues to talk rapidly as I watch her look one way and then the other. I note her hairstyle is at first a frizzy medium-length bouffant with the bangs brushed to one side but still sticking out above her forehead. Her Anglo-American features metamorphose, becoming lighter except for her dark brown eyes. Her hair changes to a smooth Caucasian light brown, but still in a mid-length style. She reaches over to hug me. This is awkward because I am seated as if in bed. We shift position slightly so my head is resting on her right shoulder. As we squeeze each other, I ask in wonder, "Are you who I think you are?" She replies, "Oh, about ten percent." WILLIE THROUGHOUT THE LUCID FREQUENCIES OF DREAM Besides regular dreams, I had a lot of Willie dreams on the borderlands of sleep: hypnogogia and hypnopompia, mental and aural states of consciousness, initial awakenings, plus astral projection and out-of-body experiences. I never knew where she would show up. A mental impression dream has no imagery to speak of. It's a case of dreaming in the dark. I can become aware of cognitive process or have a sense of what can't be translated into a visual picture. This was basically a mental impression dream, although I did get a brief glimpse of Willie. Willie moves from theory into practice, like transferring from one computer file into another. During the dark period before the dream scene appears, I can sometimes hear voices. The statements are quickly spoken and just as rapidly forgotten, unless I make a special effort to retrieve them. A couple of times, I actually got a short conversation going between my voice and another's. I ask, "Willie, are you aware of me?" and hear, "Linda, I am aware of you." When spontaneous images do appear on the borderlands, their duration tends to be quite brief. Willie is furtively carrying a package or carton like Pandora's Box down a dark hallway. When she becomes aware I am behind her, she rotates to look at me. "Let's turn it all to good!" I think/say of her mixed bag of blessings. She grins in agreement. Several times, my consciousness moved from waking hypnogogia right into the dream state. In hypnogogia, I remember the "Magic Journeys" movie I saw at Disneyworld. I picture the scene of a boy flying over a ski slope. As I enter the dream, I find myself flying with Willie on my left. Hand in hand we fly down, around, and back the way we came. We are seen by the skiers below us who shout exclamations into the air. The term "initial awakening" was coined by dreamworker Linda Reneau. It's the lucid equivalent of a false awakening. When I am aware this altered state is not waking reality, I can go along with the story willingly. The initial awakening state is the launching pad for the conscious out-of-body experience in the dream state. I become aware of movement at the tips of my fingers and that I am sleeping on my front. It seems as though there is a moth under the covers at my left fingertips. It also feels as if my arm is flung over Willie. If she's not disturbed by the moth, neither will I be. I begin to have floating sensations. Now I realize I am in the initial awakening state, so I try to push up out of my body. As I do, I hear a slight bubbling sound, which increases somewhat as I push. "You can do it kid," I admonish myself, "You can do it!" Realizing that I'm not getting anywhere this way and fearful that I'll fully wake, I decide to "back off" a bit. I stop pushing forward and seem to change direction to the back right. I allow myself to reexperience the floating sensation and let the picture cease. It seems as though I rise back and to the right about 5-6 feet above my bed. I will to open my "astral" eyes to see where I am. But - oops - I open my physical eyes and see the fern pattern on my pillow. I quickly close my eyes again and will myself back into the same conscious feeling state. This time I succeed in rising, again to the right and back, while viewing most of the trip. There is much color. I rise up, past the sewing machine, over the aisle and dresser. I am aware of distortions in the environment. For example, there are two windows on my right, instead of one. As I arrive at the top of the room, I turn over on my back to look at the ceiling. It's of acoustical spray and has a mid-beam, just as in physical reality. The view starts spinning. I decide I don't like this angle so I turn so that I am standing up in the air. I spread my arms and start turning around. After two revolutions, I call out the name of a dreamworker in an attempt to go where she is. The effort nearly wakes me. I let the view mist. Next, I am aware of looking at a Black woman with an Afro dressed in a brilliant yellow sleeveless top and pants. I wonder, "Is this Willie?" and we seem to move closer. As this happens, her features change: the nose elongates, the cheekbones become flatter. Then I find myself looking at a red-haired young man in an elevator with green rippled wallpaper. He disappears and the background starts spinning like a pinwheel. After I wake, my daughter Teresa comes into my bedroom and reports her first out-of-body experience. And, of course, there's the full-on lucid dream. I call for Willie and walk into a room where a woman is seated at a table, her back to me. As I round the table, she smiles, her eyes following me. But when I address her, I get no response. Her hair is close-cropped and curly, but her tan is very light. Her spacey attitude and appearance lead me to conclude that this isn't Willie, or at least not the vibrant Willie that I'm looking for. Next in the Series - Create Your Own Character: Incubation and Fantasy ******************* See LDE 36 due out in September, for part three. ******************************** 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 o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE September Snapshots October 2, 2005 Jean Campbell o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o What can one possibly say about a month which began with the largest hurricane ever seen on earth, and ended with the largest worldwide demonstrations for Peace since the beginning of the war in Iraq? It would be foolish to say that I have captured even a fraction of the events of September, but I can at least speak about the events which have deeply affected members of The World Dreams Peace Bridge...and there have been many. Hurricane Relief When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast of the United States, The World Dreams Peace Bridge responded immediately with a People to People Hurricane Relief effort. Although no members of the Bridge lived in areas hit by the devastation, several members lived in areas to which hurricane refugees were being evacuated. And most of them were working directly with people affected by the hurricane. So not only were we collecting funds for hurricane relief (You can learn more about this ongoing effort by going to our Hurricane Relief page at http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/hurricane.htm), but members of the Peace Bridge discussion group were talking about Katrina, asking the questions which were being echoed around the world: Why did the U.S. at first turn away assistance from people in other countries? It reminded her of when the Russians refused help in raising their submarine, Kathy said from Australia. And why, once they had finally allowed some "foreign" aid, did they insult the other countries by destroying the goods, calling them unfit for human consumption? Why, when it came to hurricane relief, Ilkin asked from Turkey, did the Peace Bridge create a special fund, when huge destruction was being created by Mother Nature in other parts of the world? One example she sent comes from India, where a cyclone on September 22 brought enormous destruction. Here is only a part of the news report: Powerful storms in the Bay of Bengal have left a trail of destruction across India and Bangladesh killing at least 64 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh bore the brunt of the storms, which killed 58 people in the region, said provincial Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy. Six more people have died in storm-hit Orissa state which adjoins Andhra Pradesh. "The situation is very grim and so far we have evacuated 150,000 displaced people to 473 (emergency) relief camps in 10 of the 23 districts hit by the storms," Mr Reddy said in the state capital of Hyderabad. Mr Reddy said 9,747 houses were completely destroyed by the storms and another 82,353 homes partially submerged in the coastal districts.... The airport in the port city of Vishakapatnam was closed for the third straight day Wednesday, the air force said, adding that military helicopters were evacuating marooned people. In Orissa the administration evacuated 12,000 people from low-lying areas in 10 of the state's 30 districts, said revenue secretary Tarunkanti Mishra.... Storms and cyclones which form over the Bay of Bengal in September and October every year kill hundreds and destroy cattle and crops in India's eastern states and in Bangladesh. Questions and responses flew around the Bridge. And meanwhile, people from the United States, and many other areas represented by the Peace Bridge sent donations so that hurricane victims could be helped. In Austin, Liz bought school clothes and underclothing for children who would start school with nothing but what was given to them; in Virginia Beach Stephen collected stuff toys to be sent to Valley in Dallas; Janice and her friends collected a truck full of essentials to be sent to families in Mississippi, and May advocated for the animals who were left behind in the rising flood waters. One example of the generosity of the friends of the Peace Bridge comes from Cincinnati, where one family arrived with nothing but the clothes they wore and an air mattress. Bill, (Peace Bridge member Jody wrote to the man collecting items for this family) I can gather some things this afternoon too and I have $100 given me from my friend Jean's sister (from the Peace Bridge) that may help. I'll put in a call again on the car seats, need to know the weight of the kids. I also have my grandson Simon's little blue bed which should work for the three year old. Jody Altogether several hundred dollars have been collected and distributed in hurricane relief. ===+++ Dreams and Hurricanes +++=== Another hurricane-related incident came at the end of the month, which a second hurricane, Rita, threatened the Gulf Coast. This one involved both dreams and the storm. As Rita moved through the Gulf of Mexico during the week of September 21st, it appeared that she might create a repeat performance of Katrina, hitting exactly the same area with another huge storm. The IASD PsiberDreaming Online Conference began that week, so I suggested that as an experiment, people might try to dream down the winds of Hurricane Rita. The invitation was sent across the Internet, to people on the Bridge (many of whom were participating in the conference), to several IASD study groups, and to various other online dream groups. There was a lot of conversation about this experiment, questions about whether we had any right to interfere, either awake or asleep, with God or Mother Nature. Some people felt all right with the idea of creating an energy wall for the hurricane to bounce against. Some felt all right to try to hush the storm. Three days after Rita had blown herself out to a Category Two storm, still significant but much less destructive than Katrina's Category Five, one of the people who participated in the experiment, Roger, had this to say: Hurricane Dream news from New Mexico, Jean, to catch you up, I went to lead a small workshop/dream group up in a small community up in northern New Mexico this past Saturday.... At the end of the group, and everyone had shared their thoughts and such, It was obvious to me this group was ready to do something more for "homework." I asked them if they would join in on the Hurricane Relief Dream Project. They were interested, but decided they didn't feel comfortable to stop Mother Nature, but chose to spread the wealth, ie, make it easier for them to handle. This by spreading the storm to other areas that need the moisture, ie, northern New Mexico. It has been raining here for two days straight all over northern New Mexico, Taos, Santa Fe, Espanola, Albuquerque, and I am not sure how far it is going, but dream on, its a prayer of its own. The Middle of the Month Of course, by the time that the monthly DaFuMu Dreaming for Peace arrived in the middle of September, things on the Bridge, as in the rest of the world, were completely stirred up. We had been dreaming of water, water for the world, and water arrived by the bucketful. Should we slow down? Should we revise our dreams? In response to Olivia's DaFuMu dream for September, Kathy replied in a way that defined the boundaries of group dreaming, peace dreaming, for all of us. "IF I were to think of your dream as a dream about peace," Kathy wrote to Olivia, "I think it is about the need to see the world and our actions in it as REAL - to focus on what we do and on what the consequences are, for if we don't we will end up hanging ourselves. Especially - imagine if we were to treat fighting with seriousness - if we didn't think of it like a movie with no consequences - then I think we'd have peace much much more often. BUT if we continue to treat fighting as a movie then we harm/kill ourselves (just like that little boy did). No wonder Mark said he "hung" him. Mark seems like FATE. That is our FATE if we behave like that. Imagine if all the soldiers and politicians and mercenaries and "insurgents" were to see what they are doing in Iraq IN FOCUS (not as a movie where they have "no awareness of danger"). And the middle of September also saw the realization of a long-term dream for Peace Bridge member, Dr. Ali Rasheed, and the entire Peace Bridge, especially May Tung who has worked very hard from California. Utilizing part of the funds raised by the Silent Auction at last summer's IASD conference, Dr. Ali was able to host several interns and staff members from other hospitals in Baghdad for a day-long seminar on Post Traumatic Stress. The miracle was that though the days prior to this seminar saw the worst violence Baghdad had experienced in months, still the seminar was held. This was also the day of the Chinese Moon Festival, an event that the Peace Bridge has celebrated with dreams and candles for the past two years. Around the would that night, Peace Bridge members dreamed and lit moon candles for the success of the Baghdad seminar. === +++ The Peace Train Travels to Washington +++ === When Jeremy Seligson of Seoul, South Korea, dreamed in July of 2002 that he was riding on a Peace Train across the United States to Washington (See the full story of the Peace Train dream and the worldwide movement it has created at http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/peacetrain.htm ) he could not have imagined that one day he would do just that in waking life. But just days before the March on Washington on September 24, Jeremy flew from South Korea, boarded a real Peace Train in Atlanta, and rode across the country to Washington. He sent several emails to the Peace Bridge on the way, describing the ride. This is one of these posts: "At one of my rest stops, an old man was sitting near me talking to a guard. I realized he was Indian and soon we were talking. He had worked for the oil industry for many years around the world including three and a half years in Maputo, Mozambique, where the people are very nice. He is visiting his daughter in Atlanta.... "The India friend also told me the American gun manufacturers are supplying both sides of the conflict now, as the longer it goes on the more money they make. He left but later we met again and he shared with me the India dinner of rotis and veggies his daughter had made for him. "I viewed the exhibit of Primitive Black Art and walked a lovely mile to the little red brick Amtrak station. My friend and classmate, Melvin a Black, Attorney, drove down and spent an hour with me until the delayed train came. He asked me to call him if needed from Washington Also I called Madelyn a 75 year old friend who was a playmate with Martin Luther King and she blessed our journey. "The Peace Train arrived at 8:30 pm, and the engine, like the one in the dream, was painted with black --this one with silver and was a diesel not a locomotive. But in the dark it had the same impression on me as in the dream, the same time of day, the same long silence. I got on and was assigned to a car --on the way inquired about the other peace trainers and was told by a porter they were in another car and that later he would connect me. "I had two seats to myself, and soon the porter came over as the train was moving through the night and led me through three cars. There I met several people dressed variously and all ages, friendly and warm and soon was sharing my material, wearing a Vietnam Vets for Peace Peace Train Button, writing a peace poem for a banner and talking poetry with a contemporary from Washington State. In my dream I had joined another Peace group and was told that it was good because they were better organized than mine, that together we could get more done. This was apparent here. I had shared food in the dream with others, and here the man Joe shared sweet green Washington State apples. "Another woman from a group Democratizing with 70,000 members on their site, said she would add word of our world dreams site to theirs. "After a few hours of sharing, a conductor sent me back to my seat as new people were getting on. A very nice Black lady of 65, Gloria, sat near to me, but fortunately I had been able to sleep a little first. She was a gentle, charming soul, a former school teacher there in Greensboro North Carolina.... "Through the night they hated many times, and the engine whistle would sound 3 or more times ahead. That was a beautiful sound. Our Peace train was moving on, calling out to all ahead, "Here we come Here we Come!' When day broke the beauty of the natural day, all that green and blue broke through. We stopped at Charlottesville, and a large group of Peace Demonstrators were at the stop, greeting us with placards and sending in cakes and fruit for us to eat. We rode on through the mountains, by rivers and streams and hills full of trees. It was wonderful, lying there on roomy seats just a few feet from the trees, peering down over bridges and streams and listing to that whistle blow. "At last we pulled into Union Station. Some pictures were taken with the group and a few warm farewells and then we parted. I was exhausted. First I went to the P.O. and sent a package of detox herbs and seaweed my daughter who has been in Iraq for a week now. Then I called my friend Ed, who wasn't in. What to do with the rest of the day? I remembered another friend Ed Richardson, an 86 year old American Indian Child Psychologist, told me in a recent phone conversation to visit the new American Indian museum. So half awake I wandered outside, following a map. and came to a newsstand where I asked for directions. A woman nearby said she was going there with her son and to follow her - I looked at her and asked if she was an Indian. She was. She had come to demonstrate for protection of her homeland on the northern coast of Alaska from a bill in congress, hidden in the budget, for oil drilling on their sacred land. She said there is only enough oil there for 6 months, and this land is the breeding ground 120,000 caribou and also for species of birds from all 50 states. I asked if she was carrying a drum in the round case on her back, and she was. As we walked I realized the Capitol Building was right there next to us looming high, just like in my dream. In my dream the Peace Train stopped right in front of the Capitol Building where I was greet by Al Gore and Congressmen...." Several members of the World Dreams Peace Bridge went to the Washington March, and stayed on to celebrate Jeremy's birthday on Monday. No words could do justice to the entire event, but here is a post I wrote to the Bridge when I returned home: Dear Dreamers, I didn't carry a camera with me this weekend at the March, because I was traveling with only a back pack. That being true, I thought I would write down some of the impressions I had of the kaleidoscope of events and images of the weekend before they got squeezed out of my mind space for other, more immediate things. Saturday morning at 5:30a.m., I boarded the bus in Norfolk for Washington, one of two that went from this area. The bus dropped us off right at the corner of 15th Street and Constitution, which made me happy, because my pack was heavy. I even called Jody and told her I wasn't going to walk all the way up to the Corcaran Gallery since I was already on the Ellipse, which was the center of the action. After a few minutes of searching for Camp Casey, which was easily visible from the bus window with its rows of white crosses representing fallen soldiers, but not so visible inside the throngs of people coming from all directions, I told Anne that I needed to go find Valley. I walked across the street, walked about fifty feet more, and there she was, crossing the field toward me. (It's really true that I find telepathy better than telephones in situations like these :)) "I needed someone to hold the other end of the Crawford Peace House banner when Hadi speaks," Valley told me. So I ended up spending the day backstage at the main stage, with a unique view of all the people: old, young, and everything in between. Even though reported numbers varied widely from one source to another, everyone seemed to agree that there were over 150,000 people there, even the conservative Washington Post. And that did not include the thousands of people from Boston south to Philadelphia who probably never made it to Washington due to a reported electrical problem in the train lines that stopped all the trains for hours. People were demonstrating in Penn Station, chanting "Bring the troops home now!" I discovered that I've fallen in love with Hadi Jawad, the founder (along with Valley and another friend) of the Crawford Peace House. Hadi has the same soft eyes and twinkling smile I remember from my teacher and friend, Hector Kuri, who taught me Bioenergetic therapy. Hadi, being a Sufi, spent the weekend telling us stories about Nasruddin, the cosmic jester of the Sufi oral tradition. (For more on Nasruddin, here's an article http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/world-religions/sufism/nasruddin-mulla.asp ). More about this part later. For me then, despite the acknowledged horrors we all know about, the weekend was full of magic...the magic of being with good friends, and the magic of multiple synchronicities. Because I was back stage, I got a first hand view of speakers like Cindy Sheehan, Ramsey Clark, Jessica Lang and others. And I know I was able to listen with more attention than I would have surrounded on all sides by the crowds. Later, at Camp Casey, I was able to help put out the food (donated by a friend who recently opened the Poets and Busboys Cafe on V Street) for the Camp Casey reunion before Jody, Jeremy and friends of Jody's joined us...and shortly after that, hot, tired and dusty, we left for the hotel. Jeremy and Jody's friend Mike joined Jody and me at dinner in (catch this) the New Orleans Restaurant in Arlington. Now, Jody and I not only decided to share a hotel room, but we had each independently decided to do neither civil disobedience (Thank you for thinking of me, Diana :)) nor lobbying, but instead to spend some time with each other on Sunday, which we spent by walking in the gardens at the Smithsonian, visiting the National Art Gallery, and (yes) eating lunch at the Water Wall which is part of the sculpture which separates the gallery of modern art from the rest of the building. Talk about dreams of water. I always make a point to eat at the cafeteria near this wall whenever I visit the Smithsonian Mall. Jody encountered three members of Code Pink, women who HAD been at the civil disobedience training that morning, when she went to get some coffee. They told her they were taking a "beauty break"...which is what I felt I was doing too. Somehow, for me, finding the balance between horror and beauty seems essential. Plus, it gave Jody and me time to deepen our friendship, the kind of deepening that also seems essential to me. In many ways, I went to Washington as much to see Jeremy and Jody and Valley and Hadi as I did to demonstrate against the war...or maybe they are the same thing. There is a powerful magic in these friendships. For dinner on Sunday, the five of us met at the Lebanese Taverna on Connecticut Avenue, one of my favorite restaurants. It was the first time we all had to actually sit down together and talk. And oh, the stories! In addition to stories of Nasruddin, Hadi told us the story of going out with his friend Johnny with detailed maps of the Crawford area before they decided to buy the Peace House. With the same twinkle that he told the stories of God's fool, Hadi told about how he and Johnny drove around the area, locating every tree and dip in the road, thinking (several years ago now, right after 9/11) about how to deal with a crowd of 5,000 or more in Crawford. Near dark they were not very far at all from the Bush ranch. Johnny asked Hadi to locate something for him on the map. Hadi said he could barely see, let alone see what was on the map. So they stopped the truck. Because the dome light wasn't working, Hadi took a flashlight out of the glove box. The two of them sat looking at the map. Then, Hadi said, it occurred to him to wonder what might happen if the Secret Service found them there, two men in a truck, one of them of obvious Middle Eastern descent, looking at detailed maps of the area by flashlight. His smile lit up his face as he told the story, and he gave a little shrug. On the bus trip to Washington, one of the organizers of the buses, a member of Veterans Against the War who had traveled to Crawford gave a little pep talk, in which he mentioned that the Peace House. The month before Camp Casey began, he said, The Peace House hadn't even been able to pay the phone bill. It now had received enough in donations to be able to pay off the mortgage on the house. When I asked about this, Valley and Hadi both nodded. "It's a miracle," Hadi said. I felt such pride in the two of them, how hard they have worked over the past two months, and how much they've accomplished. It was Hadi who had earlier said that this antiwar movement needed its own Rosa Parks, and it was Hadi who encouraged Cindy Sheehan to begin the vigil in Crawford. I was proud too when I heard Valley interviewed by a journalist, how articulate and knowledgeable she is. Like Hadi said when they met us for lunch on Monday after several hours of lobbying, "Valley is good. She really kicked butt!" At the end of dinner on Sunday, Jody worked her own magic by asking us all to reflect for a moment on what our deepest wish might be, and then to tell the rest of us. Mine was (and is) that all children in the world be allowed to dream, and be supported in their dreams. You have already heard from Jeremy the story of his Peace Train travel, but here's the story of his birthday party which, at his request, we held at lunch time on Monday in the new Museum of the Native American at the Smithsonian. There were many magics. Jody and I missed our subway stop. (I'm convinced that the Smithsonian stop simply didn't exist that day. :)), and got out at Federal Center, a stop on the line I've never made before, only to discover we were just two blocks from the museum, much closer than we would have been if we'd gotten off at the Smithsonian stop. On his Friday meanderings at the museum, Jeremy had located a quiet lounge (if you can imagine this in one of the most frequently visited locations in the world) where we could meditate for half an hour before lunch at the museum's cafeteria. The cafeteria there serves Native American foods from North and South America, some of the best food I've ever encountered. I left Jody, Jeremy and Jody's friend Mike still meditating when I went out to pay tobacco tribute. I returned to find them standing in a circle with Hadi and Valley, softly singing, "Peace is Flowing Like a River." Now, when we asked Jeremy on Saturday night what he wanted for his birthday, he said, laughing, "An Indian Maiden to sing Happy Birthday to me." Sure enough, just as we finished eating, one of the cafeteria staff came by "her" table, and asked how we were doing. Hadi told her it was Jeremy's birthday. She recited her Native American lineage back before slavery, and said that in Louisiana where she grew up, the saying was that a person's age should be measured not in years, but in the number of friends he had. This woman simply radiated joy. And of course she stayed to sing the birthday song with us. We spoke often of you other Peace Bridge folks during the weekend. Jeremy told about visiting with Olivia. We talked about missing Gina and Wendy. We wondered how May was doing at the demonstration in San Francisco, and how Liz was doing with hurricane Rita in Texas, and about how Kotaro had sent Jeremy a birthday flower. And mostly we allowed ourselves to feel the deepening, which is so much a part of creating Peace. Love to all you world dreamers. I know I will catch up with the rest of the mail eventually. Jean A final note, and a funny story about the March came from Gina a few days after we returned: "One of the most impressive things about the peace march was the huge number of people who took time out of their regular lives, incurring expense and inconvenience, to go to Washington DC, many traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles. All the media I've checked out so far is grossly underreporting the number of participants in the peace march. Maybe that's because no civilian aircraft are allowed to fly close enough to the White House or Washington Monument to get an overhead view of the crowd. My own estimate is at least 400,000. "I got my undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, which is notorious for large class size. I had a several classes in a big double room in the Common Facilities Building (now called David L. Lawrence Hall, I think). That space seats about 400 people -- I used to count them during boring classes -- so I'm pretty good at gauging clumps of 400 folks. There were at least 1000 of those clumps at the peace march -- no way were there just a few 10s of thousands, or even 100,000. People were walking 10 or more across, filling those wide streets by the White House. At one point, I got out of the march, went into one of the Smithsonian buildings, stood in line for the bathroom for about 20 minutes, used the bathroom, went back outside and, because my sore knee was bothering me, sat on the base of a lamppost to rest my knee for 45 minutes. People kept coming past that whole time - new people that I hadn't seen before (unless they were changing signs, costumes, and props while out of my sight -- not likely). Then I saw a friend from Pittsburgh who had gotten separated from the people she'd come with, and I walked with her for awhile. Then my knee started hurting again so we both sat down on a bench for 20 minutes and watched more people go by -- different people -- including a large group carrying full-size flag draped "coffins" that neither of us had seen before. Whoever is providing the counts to the media is either lying or should go back to grade school and learn how to count!" A busy and wind-blown month on the Bridge. o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Dream: "Porpoise People" Stan Kulikowski II o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o DATE : 4 sep 2005 04:30 DREAM : porpoise people =( yesterday was saturday. mother and i watched videos from blockbuster as we usually do. three b-list horror movies was all i could find in the store that we have not seen yet. went to bed around midnight and got to sleep without any difficulty. )= i am driving east on route nine out of amherst massachusetts. it is early spring before the buds on the trees open, the air is crisp and cold but not unpleasant. i have driven further out than i usually do, coming into a part of the state that i do not see all that often. i am on my way to visit some the family of an old friend from high school, porter welbourne. they have a small vacation house on the edge of small lake known as cold water pond. when i get there, i have to drive down a dirt lane through a bit of forest. porter comes out of the small wooden house to greet me when he sees my car come down the lane. i am glad to see him as i have not seen him in several years. a young boy comes out with him, his son i presume. i get out of the car and soon he takes me into the house. after i put my bags down, we go onto the back porch overlooking the beach just beyond. porter fixes me a mixed drink and we sit in comfortable deck chairs to talk and catch up on how our lives have been since we last knew each other. while we converse, i keep looking out at the cold gray water. it seems somewhat odd. i know that there are porpoises that swim in these waters, but that is difficult to understand because the pond is many miles inland not connected to the ocean. it also way too small to support wildlife as large as porpoises. observing my contemplation of the water, the young boy asks his father if it is alright to show me. porter thinks a bit then tells me, "don't get freaked out." the boy runs off the porch into the shallow water. wading around, he keeps looking into water. finally he makes a quick grab and wraps his arms around a blue porpoise and hauls it up onto the beach. the creature is almost as big as the boy, but he manages to beach it without too much difficulty. it must not weigh very much given its large size. "come over here and watch this one while i look for another." he tells me. i leave the porch and go over to calm the beached porpoise. i pet its head, hoping this will comfort it while the boy goes back out into the water. as i pet the porpoise, i discover that instead of smooth blue skin that i expect, it is covered with deep soft fur that separates as i touch it. as this fur dries, it begins to stick to my hand and comes away in major shedding. i recall how cats like to be petted and shed their heavy winter coats in the spring and i assume this must be the same process for the porpoise. as i pet and more and more fur comes away, i see its body shape change and grow smaller and smaller. i have to spit some of the finer hairs out of my mouth that float in the air. porter comes off the porch. "how's it going?" he asks me. "it seems to becoming a gray fox." i say as the large porpoise is becoming pathetically small. "exactly." porter says somewhat mysteriously. i have to shake large amounts of the fur off my hands and wipe it off my face. the air is thick with floating hairs. finally the little fox gets up and scampers away into the forest. as i watch the departing animal, two more porpoises beach themselves nearby and quickly transform into human shape, one a full grown man and the other a younger boy. they come over to us, and porter greets them as if they are friendly neighbors. "you are probably wondering how we do this." the metamorphic man tells me. "i will show you." he and the boy go back to the water and change back into cetaceans. swimming out into the pond water, they submerge but soon surface again having captured something in their teeth. they start throwing some other creature into the air then to catch it and throw it up again. i can not see whatever they have caught very clearly. it has spindly legs like a spider or crab but a thick body like a smaller dolphin. i assume that these crab like animals have something to do with the shape shifting of the porpoises. after a little more display of the legged creatures, both porpoises come back to shore and change back into human form. when he starts to explain something irrelevant about living in the sea, i interrupt him. "i have about ten questions i want to ask you." the porpoise man does not like me asking, but i start in anyway. "when you are in your marine shape, your tail fin is quite slim, but when it changes into a foot, it becomes quite thick and heavy. where does this extra mass come from? for that matter, tremendous amounts of matter had to disappear when the other one turned into a small fox and not much of it could be shed as hair. just where does this matter come from or disappear to?" the shape shifter mutters something, obviously uncomfortable with interrogation. "what do i know about mass?" he says to me, looking around everywhere but at me. i want to ask him some general questions about his knowledge of physics, but while this would be interesting to me, i think this would be too far afield from the central issues of interest here. "how long have you been able to transform like this?" i ask him. "i can not say." the merman replies. "in the sea, we do not recognize time as you do." porter asks me why this is important. "well, if they could do this for two million years or more, they could walk to any body of water anywhere and should basically rule the earth, both land and water well before we humans would have evolved." =( awake at 04:10. one of the movies i saw last night, _the thing below_, was about an octopus sea monster who could make itself look like people, so the that seems a pretty obvious association with the porpoise people. porter welbourne was a friend in high school and is usually a symbol of someone more successful than me in life. he was class president and we were in several teenage social groups together. he was generally better than me in everything we tried. i have been hoping to see him again at our class reunion scheduled later this month, but apparently he is not registered on the attendance list. we lost touch after college, but he has been in my dreams once in a while. often when i am feeling unsuccessful at something, he seems to show up as a contrast, perhaps telling me that i have aspects of myself that can achieve more than i have? i have certainly made decisions in my life that are at variance with accomplishment and now that i am winding down in old age i suppose i should reconcile with mediocrity. it seems that most of us never find ourselves to be what we imagine we could be. only a few celebrities seem improbably lucky to exceed what is expected, and that is why we celebrate with them. these simple porpoise people seem to be very nontechnical, yet can transform themselves magically at will into something else, perhaps better. )= --- stankuli@etherways.com o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Nightmares - An Introduction Richard Wilkerson o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Updated from Electric Dreams 5(10). There are a wide range of events during sleep and wake that are often referred to as "nightmares" and it is wise to learn to distinguish between them. Most of what we call nightmares are simply extreme reactions and fear that accompany uncomfortable dreams that occur from time to time in most everyone, usually towards the end of the sleep cycle. Often we are awakened by a nightmare and there can be strong feelings of sadness, anger or guilt, but usually fear and anxiety. Often we are being chased, and it's not unlikely for children to be chased by animals and fantasy figures, while adults are often chased by male adults. Night Terror vs. Nightmare Night terrors usually occur during the first hour or two of sleep. Screaming and thrashing about are common. The sleeper is hard to awaken and usually remembers no more than an overwhelming feeling or a single scene, if anything. Children who have night terrors also may have a tendency to sleepwalk and/or urinate in bed. The causes of night terrors are not well understood, though it appears that night terrors are from a distinctly different stage of sleep. Children usually stop having them by puberty. They may be associated with stress in adults. A consultation with a physician may be useful if the night terrors are frequent or especially disturbing. Why do we have nightmares? Nightmares may have several causes, including drugs, medication, illness, trauma or they may have no related cause and be spontaneous. Often they occur when there is stress in one's waking life, and when major life changes are occurring. What can be done about nightmares? The International Association for the Study of Dreams notes that "It really depends on the source of the nightmare. To rule out drugs, medications or illness as a cause, discussion with a physician is recommended. It is useful to encourage young children to discuss their nightmares with their parents or other adults, but they generally do not need treatment. If a child is suffering from recurrent or very disturbing nightmares, the aid of a therapist may be required. The therapist may have the child draw the nightmare, talk with the frightening characters, or fantasize changes in the nightmare, in order help the child feel safer and less frightened ." Nightmares also offer the same opportunity that other dreams do, to investigate the symbols and imagery for life enhancement. The challenge in the last few decades for the dreamwork movement has been to teach a variety of methods that replace the old phase "It was just a dream." In American schools, people like Jill Gregory and Ann Wiseman teach children coping mechanisms that allow the child to come into relationship with the dream monsters and fears in a novel and related manner. Alan Siegel, PhD, Kelly Bulkeley, PhD and others teach parents how to handle their children's nightmares. Ernest Hartmann and other researchers are finding that those who have "thin" personalities, or sensitive, receptive individuals, are more likely to have nightmares than "thick" personalities. Pioneers like Linda Magallón, Stephen Laberge and Jayne Gackenbach are teaching people to take control of their dreams and have the outcomes they wish rather than becoming the dream's victim. The International Association for the Study of Dreams website offers a Nightmare Hotline, as well as articles and books about nightmares on its Nightmare Page. Nightmare Hotline: 1-866-DRMS911 Here you will find among its members the top researchers in the field. http://asdreams.org/nightmare/index.htm NIGHTMARE BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY IASD Special Issue of Dream Time, with many researchers articles on Nightmares and Children. Much of the work is applicable to adults. Volume 15 numbers 1&2 Winter/Spring 1998 Available via ISD www.asdreams.org Garfield, Patricia (online) http://www.patriciagarfield.com/idx_library_childs.htm Nightmares and what to do about them. Wiseman, Ann Sayre (1986, 1989). Nightmare help. A guide for adults and children. Ten Speed Press. Krakow, Barry, and Neidhardt, Joseph (1992). Conquering bad dreams and nightmares. Berkeley Books. Hartmann, Ernest (1984).The Nightmare: The Psychology and Biology of Terrifying Dreams. Basic books. Dreams and Nightmares: The New Theory on the Origin and Meaning of Dreams. A new book by Ernest Hartmann, M.D. is now available for ordering through Plenum Publishers. Siegel, Alan; Bulkeley, Kelly (1998). Dreamcatching: Every parent's guide to exploring and understanding children's dreams and nightmares. Three Rivers Press. MORE ON NIGHTMARES Cushway, Delia, and Sewell, Robyn (1992) Counseling with dreams and nightmares.Sage publications. Kellerman, Henry (Ed.) (1987). The Nightmare: Psychological and Biological Foundations. Columbia University Press. Lazar, Moshe (Ed) (1983). The Anxious Subject: Nightmares and Daymares in Literature and Film.Undena. Downing, J., and Marmorstein, E. (Eds.) Dreams and Nightmares: A Book of Gestalt Therapy Sessions. New York: Harper and Row, 1973 Ok, that was the basic stuff. Now for very advanced players… o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Becoming Nightmare, the Rhizomatics of Dreaming Richard Wilkerson o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o This article was originally published (2000 Oct).Electric Dreams 7(10) as a kind of preliminary exercise in the exploration of horror and developed later in Transgressive Dreamwork (see http://dreamgate.com/pomo/ ) but I feel that it begins to create alternatives to fleeing from nightmares, or abolishing them. In this sense, it's more in the tradition of Jungian Shadow work, but with some postmodern twists. There is a lot of jargon in this file that may be cleared up if you read my article on Deleuze and Guattari's postmodern philosophy, http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/articles_rcw/deleuze98.htm I. Signs and Subject, all well greased and in place. All social/familial taboos in operation. All tasks of production and consumption completed and finally Brian goes to sleep. Some time later that night Brian awakes, too frightened to scream, heart pounding and he is on some kind of roller coaster ride in a land without gravity. Brian just had a nightmare. There has been a break in the flow and the insertion of a nightmare machine in the factory of the unconscious. It shreds its way through signification (what is what) and subjectification (who is who). The usual codes have unraveled, and the flow of de-coded signs circulate in things that are only themselves. Brian' ears are red and buzzing, and he wonders why they are on his foot. He hears a old voice of a therapist asking what he thinks the ear on the foot represents, and now he knows the therapist must be mad, speaking about what the falling mast might mean symbolically as another wave pushes his ship under the swell. Both a breakthrough and a breakdown of a world that revolves around the subject. Now the subject is whirled around. Around may not be the right word, as around implies a center and there is no center here. Standard wisdom dictates that we move away from offensive and frightening scenes. These reactions keep us out of trouble, keep our hands from being burned by the stove, keep germs off our food, keep our bones from being broken by cars and cliffs. However, this aversion reaction also keeps us in line and in alignment with early training that may no longer be valid. Taboos may be said to function in the same way. There are boundaries we are taught not to transgress, or there will be Hell to pay. But were these boundaries put into place by a perfect parent, guardian or teacher? Unlikely. And in a society whose parameters and values change at an unparalleled pace, one's value programs need to be upgraded more than once a generation. In fact, this is the classic definition of the neurotic. The neurotic is a person who encounters offensive, frightening scenes and backs away. But they keep backing away until there is no further back to go, becoming deeply compressed within themselves, and no longer venturing out the front door, no longer touching anything without washing their hands, no longer peering over steep cliffs. Societies too become neurotic, become paranoid, and then begin trying to control everything, the media, the way children are raised, what we eat and drink, who we talk to. Modern societies have tried to do away with these tyrannical systems, but in doing so have not replaced them with anything, and so our values have become confused, conflicted, fickle. One group tries to save trees, and tries to save the jobs so they can feed their family. The higher, synthetic truth that will bring together opposites is harder and harder to find. When people don't have an inner value to call on, they look around, see what the neighbors are doing, and follow suite. There is no real inner status, so outward signs of status become important. Dreamworkers have always been aware of this condition of the retreating self/society and the machines that keep it in place. Spiritual dreamwork discusses these issues in terms of enlightenment and salvation. That is, there is a veil of illusion we call our lives, and the paths that allow us to transcend these illusions. Psychological dreamwork discusses these illusions in terms of neurosis and psychosis, and the appropriate level of challenges and supports are set up to allow the individual to make choices from places other than overwhelming affective/emotional states. Postmodern dreamwork addresses these illusions more as social constructs and looks for ways to subvert repressive forces and open up creative lines of escape. In this view, the nightmare is not something for the subject to escape from, but a path to escape the neurotic subject. II. What are those gaps in the dream, those shifting scenes of the dream? The self passes through various states as it (they) rolls around the body without organs. Some of these states are quite discontinuous. Freud and Jung both addressed this discontinuity. They knew it was more than a lapse in brain activation. Interestingly, recently, the REM theory of dreaming collapsed. In 1953, Aserinsky, a grad student of Nathaniel Kleitmann, found that when you waken a person whose eyes were moving rapidly during sleep, they tended to recall dreams. Eventually the REM cycle was found to be fairly regular and that it activated parts of the neo-cortex through fairly random neural bursts. Since then, Alan Hobson and his friends have insisted that dreaming is simply the sleepy mind dealing with these random firings and gaps are times when there are pauses in this activation. Over the last few years, a whole new picture began to emerge from the studies of a neurosurgeon who followed the dreams of patients with brain damage. Mark Solms noted that the activation sequences that the brain needed to dream (or more accurately, to recall dreams) was *independent* of the REM activation. Oh, REM brain stem activation got this new Dream-On sequence going at times ( a spiral like activation that cycles through our motivation centers, our spacio-temporal-imaginal centers, our higher visual centers) but so did other things, and once activated, it follows its own independent activation. But all these notions seemed dated, or limited, when considered within a Deleuzio-guattarian engagement. Molar aggregates scrape and fight about territory all the time, and when this occurs over millions of years, brain structures get pushed to the limit and turn into revolutions. Dream discontinuity here becomes more a matter of intersecting lines disrupting the subject of the conjunctive synthesis. At least from the point of view of the body without organs. The body without organs. Imagine a body that has not been organized into brains, hearts, genitals, legs, arms, skin. A body like this has no real interior, there are just flows, almost a perverse polymorphic distribution of intensities that offer a smooth surface around which the dynamics of the subjects, the objects, the affects, the cognitions, the forces of production and consumption travel, not in paths where the end is known, but in partial paths, in trajectories. An egg, crisscrossed by forces, dynamics, vectors. As we approach the surface of this egg, the intensity drops to zero and everything begins to slide. In waking life, the ego uses narrative bridges to compensate for this discontinuity. Even when we wake up, the technique for learning dream recall is journalling. But when sleeping, the access to the neurotransmitters that allow identity structures to rigidly hold together and produce grids, thereby reterritorializing dominate cultural axiomatics, disappear. That is, the dream state is full of narratives and subjects, feelings and thoughts, repressions and productions, and these work in a way that is unfamiliar to the subject, who upon waking may recall a "dream" but in fact is only recalling the last slice, the one it can identify as a story. Disjunctions appear as gaps between dreams because the subject relates to them from its experiential story-frame. Deterritorializations may be experienced as apocalyptic or may be seen as loss of consciousness. Each dream story, while it is being produced, is like a child playing on a train track, and a track at the intersection of an infinite vortices. The subject consumes the dream as narrative, but can only rarely use that narrative structure to reterritorialize its identity. Again, probably due on the bio-chemical level to the dissolving or wavy grid of control that occurs during dreaming. (Interestingly activated first by the very spot that leucotomies -earlier called lobotomies - are performed, ie dopamine, active-producing, connecting, interest-producing, action-producing, desiring centers). Gaps in the Dream. Freud saw them as a cover-up, but one in which a sharp mind could follow back by association, to a source. Oedipus gouging out his eyes, then retracing his steps of the crime. Whether one goes for the theory of being able to recover authorial intention or not, the process, free association, did emerge as a skill by which the subject could begin to produce his/her own streams and lines of escape. Jung, in his charming Hegelian way, saw the gap as a portal being held open by two unreconcilable opposites, two things that the ego just could not let go of, yet could not have, two horrors, two beasts in eternal struggle for one reality they could never both inhabit. Through this portal held by the struggle emerged the uncanny transcendent. OK, perhaps its just another tyrant awakening in the desert and slinking off to Bethlehem, but when the dream becomes one of many sites where the intolerable may first occur to us, where the molar limit produces molecular cracks and bleeds the brood of the night, then here is a factory that produces the un-containable rupture across which the nomad may skate. III. Like desire (and madness) dreams seem to be the most powerful when they bring us into contact with radical otherness. Daniel brings Nebruchanezer into contact with a dream that transforms the religions of Babylon. Joseph brings Pharaoh into contact with a dream that alters the state of Egypt. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is written after a Robert Lewis Stevenson encounters his own Hyde in a dream. Freud and Jung encounter desire and madness in dreams and create and alter the course of psychotherapy. This radical otherness is better characterized as a continual process of becoming other, which begins in the desire to escape bodily limitations. These limitations can be both cultural as well as natural. To regress back to representations for a moment, in dreams we often find ourselves up against our own cultural and psychophysical limit-expectations. We stop at red lights in our car in a dream. We open dream doors. We walk upstairs and eat meals. Yet in other dreams we fly, we breath water, we walk through walls, men become women, we can be several identities at once, we become animals and crooks, we have sex with taboo people and inanimate objects. And perhaps most radically, we stop being we. I am not the center of my dream, but just one trajectory intersecting the dream. *zzzzz* Desire as productive, creating breaks in the flow and connecting one desiring machine to another. *zzzzz* Dreams/nightmares as productive, and what they are producing and how does this work? Careful, does each dream produce a singularity, or can we abstract and generalize since we have all been caught in the same habits of western culture? *zzzzz* Dreams/nightmares in their different phases of deterritorialization of subjective space, their territorialization of brain space, the teterritorialization of ? *zzzzz* If you must remain psychoanlaytic, how about a slight shift? Instead of seeing nightmares as a failure of the censor, what happens if we posit that the nightmare is a deflection of something so ungraspable that it can only be said to be a successful censoring of that experience. *zzzzz* Dreams/Nightmares as ruptures between the binary thinking of conscious/unconscious, wake/sleep, aware/not aware, here/not here? *zzzzz* What might have young Felix or Gilles have thought to themselves when they first had to tackle Descartes Dream problem about reality and knowing? *zzzzz* How might the dream/nightmare be seen as a co-patriot of disfamiliarization? In ancient Delphi, people would sleep on the steps of the temple of Apollo, seeking (incubating) the dream that would allow them access to the oracle inside. Mythically, this access to the truth was a later imposition of Apollo on a pre-Greek people who practiced dance and rites that were assigned by the Greeks to Dionysos. Pan is one of his entourage and was said to have taught Apollo dream work at Delphi. In the Dionysian groups, the questions or problems, if that is what they really were, were danced along the hillsides and meadows and involved transformations in ecstasy. This moving-into may be distinguished from Apollo's seeing-from afar. With the dominance of Apollo, the dramas were all contained in the amphitheater and the ecstasies relocated to the dream (and the one oracle, who was imprisoned in the center of the temple and surrounded by the priests who did all the interpreting of visions and dreams). This same set-up was found in the cult of Asklepios (Aesculapius in Latin). At these popular dream healing sanctuaries the amphitheater was ever near the spa. The patients would be cured when they encountered Asklepios or one of his family or animals in a dream. The becoming other, so to speak, was limited to particular containing vessels. Still, Dionysos is seen as Apollo's dark brother and has his own months where he is still the god at Delphi. Like Dionysos, the nightmare remains nomadic subject, the free autonomous subject which exists momentarily in an ever shifting array of possibilities as desiring machines distribute flows across the body without organs. ------------------ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Dream Section is edited by Kat Peters-Midland from the Rocky Mountain Dream Journal Stabbing someone repeatedly and chopping them up in little pieces, flying in a car, having a baby, and making love with the devil….some fascinating dreams in our latest Dreams section of Electric Dreams! Dream title: none given Dream date: 8-28-05 Dreamer name: LB Dream text: I am having a baby and each time it's always a boy. It is for my boyfriend, and it always looks like him. Dream comments: I've had these dreams several times more than (3x) and the dreams always occur in front or in my house. Dream title: Over the bridge Dream date: 07/2003 Dreamer name: MM Dream text: I was driving down the street with my son in the car with me. We were talking & laughing. It was sunny. I bat my eyes & when I opened my eyes, I was going up to the sky. My son was crying and asking me not to die. I just started to go up to the sky with the clouds all around me. It was so real that I could feel the air & sun on my skin, the clouds were so white the sky was very blue (the colors were brighter the ever). Dream comments: When I woke up I had the feeling that I had been flying. Dream title: Making love-----I think! Dream date: 11/1979 Dreamer name: MA Dream text: I was making love to someone. The person's body was so hot it was burning me. I couldn't open my eyes, I tried to but I just couldn't. It hurt it was like I was on fire. I was helpless and I couldn't move or get away. He was hurting me, burning me. Finely it was over I could open my eyes now, but did I want to know who it was-----yes, I took a deep breath & opened my eyes, & oh my GOD it was the devil himself. Dream comments: This dream stays with me & will always be on my mind. Dream title: They Stole My Car! Dream date 8/ 31/05 Dreamer name: SA Dream text: I went to work in a fast food place. All was upbeat and I liked the people. I hated the work but was glad to be working. One day some of the employees were gathered around a window in front of the store, and I went to see what they were looking at. There were two vehicles parked on either side of my vehicle, one was a black 'dooley' pickup and one was a green regular pickup. Two black men were arguing with someone as if they were being asked to leave. I was afraid for my car. But they left. When I got ready to go home, my car was gone. This isn't the car I'm driving now, but the car I had a while back, a brown Mustang. I didn't have the registration with me, and the police were not trying very hard to find it. I had called Mother to get my VIN number off the registration because she had it. I was talking to a policeman, and was showing the screen to the policeman to see if the info it pulled up would help him. He seemed to be more interested in looking since he had more info to go on, then I woke up. Dream comments: none Dream title: Snakes Dream date: 1-9-05 Dreamer name: Bec Dream text: I saw one small snake and it bit me. I had to pull it off me. I then saw another small snake and it tried to bite me, I cut its head with my finger nail and it bled. Then an Aboriginal man approached me with some snake to eat; it was red black and yellow. I didn't want to eat it but I managed to put some in my mouth and chew because I thought it would do me good. There were also people from high school there. Dream comments: What do you think? Dream title: My Battle Dream date: 9/ 2/05 Dreamer name: Ka-ban Dream text: I was some kind of a journey with 4 people who at first were a few friends, and then it only ended up being one friend (whom I really care about and had a falling out with a few months ago) and 3 strangers. I can't remember much of what we did except I know my friend was being attacked by someone and I had to get to him quickly. So I jumped on a big black horse to gallop to where he was, and on the way I stopped and had one of the others jump on the back of the horse with me. Once we arrived where we were going, the other person got off of the horse. I continued to ride, at which point the horse kept trying to buck me off. I kept falling off, and getting back on. I remember specifically saying I wasn't going to let him win. The owner of the horse kept telling me what to do to handle him, but it wouldn't work, so I eventually ended up not riding him anymore. (I don't remember if I gave up or he did.) After that, I saw a white (grey) horse, and got on his back bareback, and rode him around. He was very calm and quiet. I was showing a girl how to ride, and came to realize that she was my friend's new girlfriend, and I felt a sense of loss of him. I was very sad. He was leaving to go somewhere, and I remember hugging him, and asking him how long he'd be gone. I woke up after this. Dream comments: Dream title: A Haunting Tale Dream date: Sept 05/05 Dreamer name: SJ Dream text: I am in an old house with a very musty smell. I am a young girl, with my sister and parents. Night has fallen and there is an ominous feeling in this place. Things begin to move along the walls as if the walls themselves were pushing pictures and books about like leaves. I am in an old bedroom at the top of the stairs. Something is in the room with me. I sense it is dark and unfriendly. My parents enter the room. They believe the house is haunted. They want to leave but they cannot organize themselves. I am told by my mother to gather some things and we will leave in the middle of the night. As we depart the house, I look up at the exterior. What a grand old house this is. I have no fear of it. I return to the house many years later with my daughter who is a baby. I put her in a crib in a small upper room and go back down a flight of stairs to my bedroom to sleep. (I awaken at this point looking at my clock which reads 2:22 a.m.) As I go back to sleep, I am again in the bed in this room. A drop of water hits my head and I turn the light on to see where there is a leak in my ceiling. It is not a leak. There are thousands of tiny water droplets, amber in color, that are hanging from my ceiling. My daughter cries and I must get to her. Something is rocking her bed. I take her out of the bed, and hold her close to me. When she has calmed down, I lay her back down to sleep. I return once again to my room to explore the water phenomena more but it is gone. Now there is a trap door above a hall closet and I see my small daughter climbing through it. She is terrified and needs me to catch her fall. I run to her and take her down safely from an upper shelf that hides the door. My daughter has now changed to a cat and I am holding this tiny animal, protecting it. It begins to cough and I am worried that it will be sick so I put it outside, downstairs on the back porch. As l look through the back glass door, I see the cat cough up a fur ball larger than its own body. The fur ball becomes another cat, then transforms to a vulture, then to a man with a tall black hat. His eyes are completely black and he smiles and walks towards the door. I close the door quickly and say "Evil will not pass through this door" He smiles and tells me that I will be visited again. I watch him back away and then he turns into a woman with dark shoulder length hair. She is dressed like a char woman and has the same black eyes. I walk away from the door but her face appears simultaneously in every window of the house. I begin to pack unusual things from drawers all over the house. I am leaving this place. Time has past now and I am bringing a friend with me to explore the house during the day. I am still going through drawers filled with old clothes, books, spoons etc.. A small kitten plays in the room while we search. We leave on a small motorbike and drive up a hill. I realize that the kitten is still back at the house and I must return. We turn around and begin to go down the hill until we come to a tunnel. Inside the tunnel is a Chinese/Asian guard. He stops us and wants to know how to dance. He is lonely but he has a weapon and is also threatening to not let us pass. There is a guy there also who states he is from California. He says that he knows important people in Hollywood. I don't know him but I am thinking that he should not be in this situation. There are large boards with mildew on them and behind them are flowers planted in the tunnel for food. I must escape this place and free the kitten from the house, but I cannot leave here without a fight. The California man wants to hit the guard over the head with a shovel. I tell him not to do anything that would harm the man, unless there is reason. My friend is dancing with the guard now to old phonograph music that seems to resonate from the walls of the tunnel. I am plotting my escape but I see no door. I visualize the house now and the kitten and the man with dark eyes. I am looking for a reason that this man is around this house. Now I see myself trapped in this tunnel, underground and I am not going anywhere. Another man is there now, also trapped. He is being friendly with the guard but still no door has opened to release us from the tunnel. Water begins to drip from the ceiling. As I look up, I see the ceiling of the bedroom all over again. Water droplets are everywhere. I am now in the room again, alone. The woman with the dark eyes floats past my window and I wake up. Dream comments: Crazy visuals in this one. This was one lengthy nightmare. During this dream, I woke up several times but oddly at the hours of 12:22 2:22 4:22 a.m. I kept falling back into the dream exploring aspects of the evil of this house. The drawers were significant as they never emptied, but were full of useless things. I left out a lot of visual stuff because there was just too much to mention. Dream title: none given Dream date: 9/7/ 2005 Dreamer name: anonymous Dream text: I am with my grandmother eating and my boyfriend calls me. He tells me that he's leaving. He didn't tell me that he swallowed a whole bottle of pills but somehow I knew. I started to cry then I woke up and called him. The crying woke me up, then I went back to sleep thinking I won't dream anymore. But the dream continued with me being in school and him being dead. I kept crying and holding his picture in a frame in school and no one would comfort me. Dream comments: I've been going out with my boyfriend for two years. I love him to death. I can't live without him. The weird thing is that I start school today and as of yesterday he completely changed his life around. Dream title: none given Dream date: 9/7/05 Dreamer name: Unicorn Dream text: I was a prostitute at a nice spa. I walked up to the client and he handed me a glass pipe full of speed shards. I started burning the pipe and melting the shards. I was so anxious to inhale that I didn't melt it all the way. So I inhaled a thick chemical hit but was excited to be getting high again. We finished the bowl and I knew fucking this guy would be easier. With numb feelings we did it. I remember being horny as hell in my dream. A few more things happened after that but didn't remember it as much as this part of my dream. Dream comments: I am a recovered meth addict but never a prostitute. This is about the average dream I have at least once a week. I have been clean for almost a year. I don't want to do drugs anymore. I know it's a dead end road but it is my first love. Dream title: The Giant Tree Dream date: 09/08/05 Dreamer name: Nog Dream text: In this dream there is an enormous tree. The tree is so large that I seem to have been walking past it without realizing either its sheer size, or even the fact that it is there. One of its immense roots is visible by the side of a sloping path. This path is somehow reminiscent of, or associated with, the road with leads to the bottom of the incline, opposite Father Deiniol's church. But this path is much longer, and I think has a fence between it and the tree. I am at the top of the path when I begin to notice the tree. Upon reaching the bottom of the path I meet my father, who then begins explaining things about the tree. We cross the fence and begin walking around or toward the tree. I look up with awe at the sheer immensity of it its bulging roots and magnificent trunk. I seem to recall there being a restaurant or a café carved into the bottom of the actual trunk, which we enter. There is also an elevator which travels up inside it. I think I ride the lift to the top of the tree (I don't recall if there is anyone with me as I do this) At the top of the tree is a small street, with what may be shops. I seem to recall everything being very white, giving it a decidedly innocent feel, perhaps reminiscent of Christmas, although I do not recall the white being snow. The following scenes are very hazy, although I am sure that an immense amount of time passed. In one of the buildings in the street there lives a fairly old couple, perhaps in their sixties. It is in this building, and with this amicable couple that I live with while up there. I think the building has a large single pane window at the front, like a shop, and I also recall there being a spiral staircase at the back of this same room. I have little sense of time regarding how long I spent there, but I'm sure it was quite a while. My relationship with this couple was at first very warm. I develop particularly strong feelings towards the woman, either of sex or love, or maybe both. At one point I present this woman with a gift a drawing I think (of her?). There is a small group of children gathered around and watching excitedly as I present it. But I become very uncomfortable when the man appears close by; as I am sure the gift is designed to draw her towards to me. I cannot recall what happened after this, but things became very sour between us, and the couple begins to show their dark side, or at least the man does. I think he begins to attack me, or otherwise behaving in a very cruel and punishing way towards me. I recall at one stage that I have died, but my existence continues in spirit or ghost form. The man, who has also died and continues to exist in the same form, is throwing fire balls at me which connect very painfully, and I am amazed that he is able to continue punishing me even beyond my death. I am standing inside their shop as he punishes me. Soon after, he encourages a young boy, who is standing down the street with some other boys, to throw things (stones or bottles) at the front of the building. I think the boy is his son. He is reluctant to begin with, but eventually he joins in, and from where he is standing begins to throw rocks, which hit the front of the building with the sound of breaking glass. I cannot recall what happens after this point. Dream comments: This is quite different from the dreams I usually have, and seems much more magical or mythical. After much thought, I am aware that the older couple may well represent my parents, which I guess would fit with Freud's Oedipal theory. Dream title: A Cheating Husband Dream date: 9-1-05 Dreamer name: anonymous Dream text: I was at my mother's house, and I woke up and walked down the hall. I went to open the door to the laundry room, when my husband opened it first from the other side. I asked what he was doing, and he quickly tried shooing me away. I put my knee in between the door and the jam so that he could not shut it. I was getting scared at what he was doing. Through the crack, I saw his ex-girlfriend in the mirror on the wall, with no top on. All the sudden I was trying to hurt her with all my might but just could not; it was almost like I was in slow motion. Then I awoke. Dream comments: I would really like to understand what this means, but it is very detailed. Dream title: Haggard Dream date: 1955 to1960 Dreamer name: LL Dream text: I am running down the hall because my mom is at the door or window. When I let her in, she turns into a Haggard or Witch, which scares me so much that I wake up not breathing Dream comments: Dream title: Small, hairy dog Dream date: 9/10/05 Dreamer name: LZ Dream text: Suddenly I was the owner of a small, hairy off-white dog, something which I have never owned before. I believe the dog was a female dog. I really did not know where it came from or who gave it to me. In other words, the dog was there and it happened to be mine. The dog was mostly friendly and active, running and walking around the house. Most of the time, the dog was also beside me as if trying to play. However, it gave the impression that the times when the dog was not after me or following me, I was looking for him as if feeling a little concerned for him and concerned about what he might be doing. My mother was present at the same time. She looked a little depressed and afflicted. It looked as if she did not want to be home. At one moment she mentioned a desire to be with and to take care of her ill mother, who is really sick in another state (actually, in reality my mother left to take care of her). Dream comments: Overall, these things were happening at the same time; the pretty, hairy dog that I owned and my afflicted mother, thinking about her sick mother as if wishing not to be present. I acknowledged that the dream is a bit complex and probably confusing, but I found it to be strange and at the same time interesting, therefore, I had a strong desire to have a logical idea regarding the meaning of its content or if it is trying to tell me something important or meaningful. Dream title: I'm a murderer Dream date: September 11, 2005 Dreamer name: PA Dream text: I dreamed that I had stabbed someone repeatedly and chopped them up in little pieces. This had happened past tense, so the dream was all about creating a good alibi. I feared that the police would see through my alibi, so I kept thinking of ways to improve on it. I also considered confessing and going to prison, but this was just too depressing to seriously consider. That's when the dream ended -- when I considered confessing. Dream comments: I am a 56-year old divorced mother of three grown kids. I have NEVER dreamed such a thing and I'm dying to know what this means! I consider myself a really nice, kind of passive, quiet person, and work as a copywriter contractor for a credit card company. Dream title: Watchdog Dream date: 9/7/05 Dreamer name: anonymous Dream text: I come out of my flat and go down the stairs to the back door. I notice there is a bed by the door and that one of my cats is lying on it. I shoo her off as she is not supposed to be there. I go out into the garden down a leafy path, at the bottom of it there is a stream which I have to jump over to get the gate, which is in an archway. On the other side of the gate there is a kind of man-man stream. I decide to get in and see where it leads. After a while there is a huge pool area off to the right and the stream also carries on ahead. I look in at the pool area and in the middle there is a bar area (like the sort you get in the posh resorts) with people round it with drinks. On the edge closest to me there is a line of men and women taking part in some sort of singing competition. This is not for me and I decide to carry on. Eventually the stream leads to the local hospital. For some reason I decide I should walk around the outside of the building to see how easy it would be for older people to get around. Once I start to get round the back there is a narrow path with overgrown bushes on either side that scratch my arm as I go past. The hospital is on the left hand side of me (which I guess means I was walking counter-clockwise?). There is a large drop between the path and the hospital (the path is not right next to the building) which is protected by railings. There are large stone steps that lead to the bottom of the drop and there is a gate by where the top of the stairs should be, but there is a gap too big to jump. I decide not to risk it and carry on down the path. I don't remember much about the building itself, other than the fact it was quite an imposing building, possibly Victorian. The path eventually veers off and ends up at a private hospital, which is a much smaller, more modern building. There is something in the back of my brain telling me that something is wrong there and I should investigate it. I go inside and walk around - from what I can see it is more like an old people's home. I come to a long narrow room with a long table in it. There are lots of people in it and there are lots of people sitting at the table, having a board meeting. They are all sat along the same side of the table with their backs against the window. The only two people I remember there are the matron (who is every inch the old-fashioned type of matron you used to get) and a Sir somebody-or-the-other who is the one in charge of the place. He stands up to speak, I can't hear what he is saying but I know it is damning. I walk behind them and they don't see me. I go up some stairs and I see young nurse who is upset about something. The matron is there tearing into her. She sends her away and I see this as my opportunity to confront her about what is going on. She is standing in a room with windows looking into the corridor and behind her the door is open to another room in which there are lots of elderly people sitting in chairs. I don't wish to upset them so with the magical powers I suddenly seem to have I put them into a sleep without moving. That done, I summon up a steel door to close the room off and another one in the doorway between me and the matron. Now that she is trapped and I demand to know what is going on. She says nothing so I keep asking her over and over. Then I hear her voice start to tell me what I want to know (although I can't remember what it was.) I look away from her and down at my hands to see that I am holding some sort of device that can change your voice and it is actually me saying the words....... Dream comments: none -------------------- END ISSUE ----------------- -===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===- =---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---= ELECTRIC DREAMS ACCESS INFORMATION =---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---=---= -===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===- Subscriptions: The Electric Dreams E-zine (issn 1089 4284) is *free* and distributed via email about once a month. You can have Electric Dreams delivered right to your email box by sending an e-mail Subscribe: electric-dreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Online: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electric-dreams Unsubscribe: electric-dreams-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ================= SUBMITTING DREAMS and Comments about Dreams: EASY! Electric Dreams will publish your dreams and comments about dreams you have seen in previous issues. If you can, be clear what name you want or don't want. Most people use a pen name. 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See http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z= The Electric Dreams Staff (Current) Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z= Harry Bosma- Global Dreaming News E-mail: ed-news@alquinte.com http://www.alquinte.com Nick Cumbo - Electric Dreams PDF Archive http://www.dreamofpeace.net/community/electricdreams/ Phyllis Howling - Dream Wheel Moderator (eDreams list) E-mail: pthowing@yahoo.com Lars Spivock - Research and Development Director E-mail: lars@dreamgate_remove_to_email_.com Dream Section Editor Kat Peters-Midland http://www.rmdjournal.com/ Archive Specialist Janet Garrett http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/index.htm Richard Wilkerson - General Editor, Publisher, Articles Editor Subscriptions & Publication E-mail: rcwilk@dreamgate.com http://www.dreamgate.com o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o All dream and article text and art are considered (C)opyright by the writers, artists and dreamers themselves. 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