articles.jpg (7423 bytes)ARTICLES

DREAM TREK By Linda Lane Magallan
A Call To Expand Dream Interpretation

Watch Your Dreams with Nancy Huseby Bloom

Nightmare Awake! Oh
by Nora Leonard


Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Dreams -Harry Bosma

At Home with Strange Dreams
William C. Burns, Jr


DREAM TREK

By Linda Lane Magallan

The Safe Universe of Dreaming

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Is dreaming dangerous? Lucid dreaming? Out-of-body dreaming? Psychic dreaming? Shamanistic dreaming? Jungian dreaming? At the beginning of my trek, I would have answered a unilateral "No" to the question. Now, older and wiser, I would revise my reply to say, "I don't believe that dreaming is irreparably dangerous, but I have learned there are certainly approaches that are user- unfriendly to me and now I avoid them."

Human beings are not perfect. We're not all built the same, physiologically and psychologically. We don't all come to dreams with the same belief frameworks and personal support systems. We aren't all equal in natural talent and we certainly aren't equal in the time and effort we've taken to develop our dreaming skills. What we need to learn and the pace at which we learn it differs, one from another.

I consider most dreaming to be like playing in a mud pile or wading pool. Some neophytes to unusual (for them) types of dreaming might dip their faces into the water, freak out and start sputtering and gasping for air. But this is a temporary situation, due to lack of experience. As you acclimatize yourself to the nature of the dream, as your dreaming self practices using her latent abilities, your reaction to strange dream events will transform from knee-jerk fear to confidence in your ability to find resolution. And please understand: courage does not mean that all fear goes away forever. We still need it as a warning mechanism. Courage means that we face discomfort and don't give it the power to stop our growth.

If I really stretched my imagination, I could suppose that I could picture that a few people might engage in substance abuse and wind up face down in the wading pool water. But they'd have to be awfully drunk to stay there. For the great majority of us, common sense makes the dreaming experience at least tolerable and even fun.

Actually, I think most problems don't stem from the nature of the water-dream itself. A few have roots in the field of dreams. Some of us are allergic to the grass around the pool (we have different reactions to the ideas in the books we read). We need to pay attention when strange notions make our dreams hiccup or sneeze.

It's the other kids in the wading pool who can muddy the water the most. I've decided to steer totally clear of.

Dream guides who take you on a trip straight into those nightmare worlds of dream (which they think is a universal reality, rather than endemic to their personal belief system).

Intruders who poke their nose into your business without asking permission. Intrusive dream guides might be dreamworkers, psychics, medical doctors, shamans, sorcerers, channeled entities, the author of the book you just read or (unfortunately) your dreaming colleague.

And I also find highly problematical, those folks who claim to heal but don't do the psychic equivalent of washing their hands. I mean, really digging deeply to dredge up their own shadow-influences, rather than gloss over problems with the phrase, "I'm a light worker."

Most people with muddy hand or dirty boot "vibes" are simply ignorant when their influence tracks through your psyche and shows up in your dreams. It can be uncomfortable, even distressing to have to deal with inner or outer- generated garbage, but environmental clean-up is part of the dream hero's journey. (I just wish other people would do their fair share!)

The real question is: Is there safe dreaming? Is there a safe, sane, comfortable, even pleasurable universe in dreamland? Yes there is, if you want to affirm, seek and co-create it. There's lots of dreaming-friendly approaches. I suggest the Jane Roberts/Seth material be one of those you try out. A good place to start: "Dreams and Projection of Consciousness" by Jane Roberts (Walpole, New Hampshire: Stillpoint Publishing, 1986).

Then, come visit the Fly-By-Night Club web site and you'll have the opportunity to practice what you've learned.

http://members.aol.com/caseyflyer/fbnc/fbnc01.htm   (Fly-By-Night Club)


Watch Your Dreams with Nancy Huseby Bloom dream@icehouse.net 

Week of October 18, 1998

Dear Nancy,

I have had this recurring dream since I since I was 5 years old. As a child, sometimes I would sleep walk and physically move heavy furniture in front of my bedroom door to keep this dream intruder out. As the years have gone by I find I have these dreams less often but they still upset me tremendously. Tamara

I am in the home where I grew up. (I still live there.) I am being hunted down by an evil and violent man who is trying to kill me. I run away to the house next door but he finds me and kills my neighbors. I keep running. There is no one to help me. I try to call 911 but no one answers the phone. I wake up terrified.

Dear Tamara,

Nearly all of us will experience nightmares at some time in our life. Sometimes they are so disturbing that they play havoc with our waking life, causing anxiety and exhaustion due to lack of sleep. When they are recurring, it is especially important to pay attention to them. Whether these dreams are addressing a particular situation in the life of the dreamer or reliving past events, they always come to teach us. Knowing the truth about ourselves and our lives is always healthy.

When we spoke on the phone you shared that although you were close to your father, he was an alcoholic and often had friends over. Since these dreams started at such a young age, possibly something happened in those early years that really frightened you. Nightmares are often the result of past traumas that have been consciously forgotten.

Bob Coalson, a therapist specializing in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder states, A nightmare may be a re-enactment of an actual experience, a total fantasy experience, or an actual event portrayed in combination with fantasy. A marked increase in nightmare activity may be more prominent around anniversary dates.

In other words, if you had a traumatic experience in the month of July, you would tend to have nightmares about it each year during that time.

Nightmares can also be a signal that some issue or situation has become a serious problem. Is there an extreme conflict or a great amount of stress in your life? In your dream, Tamara, you are always running, trying to get away. What do you want to avoid in your life? Is there someone who is cruel to you, who is murdering your spirit or could you be running from a part of yourself that you don t want to face?

Tending our dreams requires questioning our lives, values, and beliefs. Nightmares demand our attention, especially recurring ones. One of the most frustrating problems with nightmares is that usually there is no resolution- we just wake up screaming and terrified. I would suggest a technique called dream re-entry to bring some resolution to this dream, with the hope that it will stop. Before you do this, be sure to ask yourself the questions that I have asked above. For your own understanding, it s important to glean as much insight about yourself from the dream as you can.

Then sit quietly and visualize yourself going back into the dream. Stop running, turn around, and face that man. Ask him who he is and what he has to teach you. Create a new ending, one that takes you out of the role of victim and into one of strength.


 

leonard.jpg (8993 bytes)"Nightmare-awake!...oh

by Nora Leonard

Nightmare-awake!...oh Moonbeam on my windowsill banishing the dark


Nightmares have many purposes-at the time the primary one seeming to be to frighten the bejezzus out of us. Many dreams are scary, but we don't necessarily consider them nightmares; there are also dreams which depict real-life dangers to the psyche which unfold without attending emotion, only to become truly terrifying when we begin to consciously understand them. Some nightmares are evidence of internal "spoilers", attitudes which seem to rise up to knock us down just at the moment when we are finally beginning to make progress. And then there are repeating nightmares in which an actual trauma is relived in all its gory detail-until, that is, we are able to consciously confront it and deal with its repercussions.

The nightmarish dreams I wish to address in this article are those I call "visitations". These are dreams when a door seems to open in the psyche flooding us with dread and heralding the arrival of a most unwelcome guest: a ghost, an intruder...an alien.

A few years ago, when I was working in an administrative position at a London university, I arrived at the office one morning to find my co- worker in a state of considerable agitation. She had woken in the night to find a stranger standing by her bedside. She was absolutely terrified, but all he did was eagerly proffer to her one-half of a golden spiral notepad.

Knowing my interest, this woman had often discussed her dreams with me, and so I was aware that one of her recurring themes was her failure to fully develop her potential. She had not had the opportunity to go to college, and now, at the age of 55, she was taking an extramural course as part of an adult education program. Although her financial situation was not particularly strong, if she applied to do a degree course and got accepted she would not have to pay the fees because she was a member of staff of the university. I asked her about the stranger-what he looked like, etc.-and the way she described him suggested that he represented her intellectual potential. I suggested to her that perhaps the "half" notebook might mean that he was attempting to meet her half-way, e.g. to merge the unlived intellectual potential he represented with her desire to study; not only that, the notebook was gold, suggesting, perhaps, a golden opportunity. I encouraged her to apply for the university course (instead of extending her extramural course for another year, which was also a possibility), as it seemed to me that the eagerness of the stranger suggested she was more than ready to do this.

When she had first described the apparition, the dread surrounding his appearance had been palpable. But by the time we had talked it through this had gone; not only that, she marched straightway to the Registry Office and picked up an application. Even though it is one of the most sought-after courses, her application was accepted; I am happy to say that she is now in her second year of study and is enjoying it immensely.

It has long seemed to me that certain incursions into the inner circle of the ego's realm bring with them a measure of dread regardless of their content-like the goddess Inanna arising from her stay in the underworld surrounded by the demonic minions of her sister Ereshkigal. Thus any potential that we-for whatever reason-have banished to either the basement or attic of our own psychic domain can become a bogie or a madperson.

Or even a species of zombie. A zombie is a person who has been deprived of their will and their power to speak-and the silent screams of the dispossessed can often be the most haunting.

I am with some man who I love, a man called Will? We are out and we meet Bill Hunter, who recognizes me. He's with his wife and all his children, and he introduces me to all of them. I forget to introduce my lover, and I apologize for this afterwards. Will and I are going back, he to his place, me to mine. I get to my flat and >realise I am wearing Will's soft leather coat, a kind of reddish suede. I'm touched that he made me wear it because I was cold, but then I realise I've got his keys in the pockets. I'm thinking I can't even get into my flat to phone him (somehow I assume he has my keys). It is a bit unclear, the next bit, as I may then find I do after all have my own keys. Nevertheless I decide to go out and meet him, as I know he'll be coming my way. I'm out on this bit of wasteground, and I see him rush past getting way ahead of me. Then I bump into this zombie woman. She is quite threatening, and I'm flooded with dread. I am trying to push her away, and trying to scream his name for help. But I can't seem to speak. And then I wonder whether the zombie has got to him, and that really puts me in a panic. I wake up, absolutely terrified.

The day I had this dream I had managed to overcome inhibitions that had previously kept me from enquiring about the possibility of teaching an adult education course on astrology; I had called the local council, spoken to the relevant department and arranged to send in my CV and a course proposal. On a roll, I then phoned a local Positive Living group to see about giving a talk on dreams; the moderator wasn't there, but I left a message on his answering machine.

My subsequent nightmare pictures the terrifying threat of finding one's willpower only to lose it again. In this instance, my dreamweaver heightens the horror by using the real-life figure of a childhood schoolmate (Bill Hunter); although undoubtedly chosen for the symbolism of his name, his presence might suggest that the part of my psyche predatory to my ability to assert myself is both known to me and someone I was once comfortable with. Not only that, he now has a large family.

In the dream I assume that it is the zombie who is the threat to my "will", but it is far more likely that she is a portent of what I might become in the absence of will. There are many ambiguities surrounding this dream, but I cite it as an example of my ego being visited by a side of the psyche-the zombie-that I go to great lengths to defend against; I needed this dream in order to confront the fact that it is not the outcast zombie but a more familiar part of my psyche that stifles my determination.

The story of the Annunciation as told in the book of Luke is another example of a visitation; someone experiencing a similar scenario of inspiration/impregnation today would perhaps be more likely to perceive it as a form of alien abduction. The author of the gospel describes Mary responding initially with the fear and dread typical of such an appearance-the angel Gabriel actually tells her not to be afraid. That Mary goes on to listen and then willingly submit is all to her credit-regardless of whether you take the story literally or as a myth.

Forget for a moment the human Jesus and think instead of the archetypal image of the Christ which Jesus carried. This "chosen anointed one" brought with him the type of new world view that the tarot card of the Ace of Swords represents. It takes considerable courage to nurture and protect the type of radical vision symbolized by such a child, and there is a whole genre of nightmarish dreams which deal with the trials of looking after such creative-but potentially dangerous or threatening-offspring, and their occasional abandonment.

That this is not a straightforward "moral" issue can perhaps be illustrated by the following dream sequence.

There has been an alien invasion which may be a great threat to all of us. There is much panicking and trying to escape. Something about June Ackland. One of us may have a bomb hidden inside a leg. The person may or may not be arrested,   but it appears that no bomb is going off.

On the day of this dream, I had spent the afternoon collating haiku to send to some poetry magazines. Later I had gone for a walk, and at sunset I was near some allotments. Seeing two women digging in their plot, I had an inspiration for a poem about the burying of dead year gods. I had also been thinking about a meeting I had had with the owner of a nearby bookshop. I had asked this woman about the possibility of giving a seminar in her shop on dreams. She had replied that she was interested, but that there was a powerful contingent of Methodists in the area who were bound to object. This encounter had brought back my childhood experience of being discouraged to question anything regarding my family's Presbyterian upbringing, whether at home or in the church to which we belonged.

I woke up from this dream just flooded with dread. But then I remembered having had the idea about the poem and I decided that I needed to sit with these feelings at the computer. Which I did, working first on the dream and then on the poem (which eventually came to be called "an unforseen planting").

In the dream, June Ackland-a police officer on the British television series "The Bill"-represents the side of me who is still concerned with "keeping the peace". There is also this fear of a bomb in a "leg", which perhaps we can translate as a fear I have that the standpoint I want to present in the poem may be explosive.

The dream has no tidy conclusion; its ending is ambiguous. Sitting at my computer, I realized that, although there had been enormous fear, the alien invasion had not, in fact, been portrayed as harmful. Because of this, I worked determinedly on finishing the poem. In this instance, the feelings of dread that the nightmare left with me proved to be a kind of alchemical "prima materia", a chaotic mass out of which I was able to extract the inspiration to produce a poem.

But that wasn't the end of the story. Several months later, I had the following dream:

I'm in an advanced state of pregnancy, but I realize I haven't felt the baby kick in some time. I'm worried it might be dead, but another woman insists she's felt it kicking. I start to give birth. There is a young girl there also giving birth: we are somehow jointly birthing the same baby. The labour pains are intense and it is a great struggle to push the baby out.  Contrary to my fears, the baby is still alive, although there do appear to be some things wrong with her. There are sores or gaps in her skin, as if she hadn't quite finished her development. The blood hasn't been wiped from her eyes, so it isn't clear whether there is something wrong with her vision-at the moment, all I can see is the blood. They've put her in this ziplock bag, but I can touch her. Her skin is hot to the touch, almost as if she were "cooking", and I make sure she isn't being suffocated. Everyone leaves and I see the child sitting on a shelf in the ziplock bag.

This dream woke me up with such a fright, and a sense of being shocked at the state of the infant and her being left in the baggie. I found myself wanting to comfort her; I also remembered reading the day before about finding a way to reconnect with the creativity of the inner child, and wondering whether this was indicated by the girl in the dream who was giving birth in tandem with me. I had many thoughts about what this nightmare might signify. But it only became clear several weeks later when I came across an entry form for a poetry competition. At first I thought I had nothing to enter, but then I remembered the poem I had written the day of the "alien invasion" dream.

I got out that poem, along with two others, and started to revise them. The child in the above dream was bloody, unfinished and hot, and I imagine that she is contained in the ziplock bag so she can keep on cooking. This was certainly the state I found myself in for the next couple of weeks. Working on the three poems as a group, I came to realize that they embodied my experience of what is often casually referred to as the return of the Goddess [1].

This was a hugely intense period, during which I struggled with my entire religious upbringing. Here is the dreadful "divine" child who carries as big a threat to my inner world view as any other sword bringer; contained in the finished poems is the passionate standpoint pictured in my earlier dream as potentially explosive.

The Mexican god Tezcatlipoca occasionally manifests in a particularly nightmarish form as a bogie known as the Night Ax: "a headless man with a dreadful wound in his chest which kept opening and slamming shut, each time with a spine-tingling thud like that of an ax hurled into a tree" [2]. Anyone confronted with the god in this form seems to have had two choices; either to die of fright on the spot or to reach into the monstrous wound and grab hold of Tezcatlipoca's beating heart, in which case it was incumbent upon the god to grant the person a boon.

This, to me, sums up the essence of nightmares. At times we merely "die of the fright of them", which is to suggest that perhaps something might have lived, had we been able to stand firm to the fear. And then at other times we do seem able to grab hold of their boon-giving component.

In the summer of 1976 I returned to my family home for two months rest and recuperation following the trial of writing up a PhD dissertation. During the preceeding year I had suffered from a combination of insomnia and night terrors, which culminated in a series of life-changing death dreams. These dreams led me to the works of Carl Jung, and also to a complete change in direction away from an academic life of scientific research into a lengthy private study of dreams, shamanism and comparative religion.

In the two months I spent at home, I was plagued by a procession of ghostly visitations. My mother's Siamese cat had grown senile, and as frail as a will-o'-the-wisp. Yet she was possessed by an uncanny voice that would caterwaul through the night at unbelievable intensity and volume.

One night I lay in bed in stark terror, listening to Pookie out in the hallway fighting with a poltergeist. It was only many years later, after years of work on myself, that I realized that this had been a visitation experience, that the spirit in the hallway "scaring the cat" had been an ancestral madwoman-a numen of creativity that had been outcast and locked away by generations of my family inhibited by societal constraints.

 

A banshee prowls our house at night-
            She wakes the dead
            sleeping behind
            the photos yellowing
            on the wall-
                    I can hear them muttering in the hall
   

    She howls at all the battened doors
            that will not let
            her anguish in,
            that shutter out
            her tourquoise rage
                    bewildered by the crunch of age
   

    A creaking hinge lets in this fetch:
            she glides along
            the sword of light
            cutting the dark
            enfolding me-
                    Who gave this ghost the coffin's key?
   

    A Siamese cat leaps on the bed-
            all fur, and bones
            as frail as birds
            who cannot fly
            the height they knew-
                    her sightless eyes of shattered blue...
   

    A velvet paw across my face-
            a warmth so brief
            fluttering soft
            within my heart-
                    it draws the tears
                    that mourn the loss of stifled years
   

    A banshee prowls my dreams at night!!
            As wild as wind
            that bears the dead
            beyond their pain:
                    their silent screams find voice in me
                    and now, at last, the cat goes free

All Hallows Eve (October 31) is traditionally a time when the boundaries between worlds buckle and bend and all manner of uncanny visitors attempt to cross the ford into our so-called "reality". Perhaps the side of us attuned to the needs of these outcasts-and possibly even dimly aware of our intimate relationship to them- developed the rituals of laying out food and other offerings to welcome these "visitations from the dead".

So perhaps now would be a good time to look back at some of our old nightmares, and to reconsider what-amidst the dread and terror- they might have been trying to bring to us.

[1] For a real sense of what the return of the Goddess might feel like, I encourage you to read "Descent to the Goddess" by Sylvia Brinton Perera, Inner City Books, Toronto 1981.

[2] "The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World", Burr Cartwright Brundage, U of Texas Press, Austin1983, p 84.

Nora Leonard (nleonard@vatamoen.u-net.com )

 

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Dreams Harry Bosma

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The Dream Healing Room: http://www.xs4all.nl/~hbosma/healing_dreams/drmwelc.html  

Note from editor: I received the following note from "K" a man suffering a sleep disorder and forwarded this to Harry. His response was so generous I asked him if we could publish it on Electric Dreams. - Richard

From "K" Constant Dreams and Sleeping Disorders I've been interested in dreams for a very long time, as I usually remember them in great detail, and have had precognitive dreams. I have health problems, and have been diagnosed as having a sleeping disorder. I have problems falling asleep, then seem to dream constantly, I'm often exhausted when I wake up. I may have fibro myalgia, and have read that sleeping disorders may be a cause of the condition, or just a factor of it. I would like to know if anyone has any research studies or information on people who dream too much. I don't seem to do very much deep sleep, my husband says most the time I appear to be dreaming. Any info or feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

Reply from Harry Bosma:

I'm a CFS patient who initially got diagnosed with a severe case of mono in 1994. Like you I've been interested in dreaming for a long time so when I finally had some energy returned I published a homepage called Healing Dreams, looking for other CFS patients also interested in dreaming.

Sleep problems are a factor in CFS and especially in fibro myalgia. From what I hear from other patients there isn't just one single type of sleep problem, but all kinds of problems: sleeping over 12 hours a day, barely sleeping at all, interrupted sleep and more or less normal sleep that however isn't refreshing at all.

Two years ago somebody published rather preliminary research results that suggested that fibro myalgia patients have a flaw in the quality of their sleep similar to eldery people, skipping the parts of the sleep that produce growth hormones. I never heard anything from it since.

I think you have to be very careful with experimenting. Some people suggest to use melatonin. Recent British research suggest that CFS is caused by too high levels of melatonin. At the Dutch CFS mailinglist this naturally upset quite a lot of patients who thought it was a innocent miracle drug. At my homepage I also warn patients complaining about vivid dreams for melatonin, because this same melatonin is used by (aspiring) lucid dreamers to get more vivid dreams.

To prevent sleep problems I can only give the usual advice: don't be overactive just prior to sleeping. By the way, "just prior" can mean hours to most of the day for us because it takes so very little to get our bodies stressed and so very long to calm down again. Use some kind of bed going ritual, etc. You probably know all these things already.

As to too much dreaming, I doubt if that is really a problem. It is sometimes suggested that too much dreaming can be exhaustive, but I have never seen any research results to back that up. (I've sent Richard a CC so perhaps he will correct me here). Actually, I personally tend to see it as a good sign because during the early period of my CFS history I went straight into a black coma, only to come out of it 10-14 hours later and even then with great difficulty. It was more like the stories you hear about near-death experiences, but then without the tunnel, the lights and everything else.

You say you're interested in dreams. You could consult your dreams for more information on your current state. Though usually dreams volunteer information when it somehow seems necessary to correct your daily view or approach of your situation. If you're interested in this I could tell you a bit more about it. In the meantime I hope I've answered a few of your questions. If you want to take a look at the Healing Dreams homepage, you're welcome. The URL is in my signature.

Regards, Harry

http://www.xs4all.nl/~hbosma/healing_dreams/drmwelc.html  

 

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At Home with Strange Dreams

William C. Burns, Jr.

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Try as I might
To set my hand against the sky
I could not stop the sun
I could not hold back the darkness

Silent
The gathering dusk
flows into the room
Pooling on the floor

Flowing beneath
and around the familiar
Furniture
Filling the nooks . . .

Silent
In a silent house
Relenting at length
Fuzzing along the edges
I relinquish the Day

The scrunched pillow
The flowered throw
knitted by Mom
I reach into the cool dark water
and draw a handful into my mouth

The night air opens
the bow of my dream ship
slices through the hours
in search of dawn

Strange dream angels
come softly across the lake
The lights in their eyes
dance like tiny fires
upon the water

A breeze breaks the reflection
into a field of rubies

Night follows day
Day follows night
I am dreaming
Or am I waking?

I'm screaming through the night
at the speed of sound
Lost somewhere between the Earth and Sky
in a dream of steel and glass

The clouds water colored
in hues of pewter and white
The city lights sparkling
like diamonds strewn on black velvet

I am falling
I am swimming with

Fishes

Fishes in hobnailed boots
Stomping the cobble stones
In the harbor mists

Gasping
Cursing their foul luck

The whirling ebb of the tidal waters
carries many things onto the sand
Leaving them like offerings
leaving them like verses....

A shell
incomplete and broken in places
A piece of coral
a piece of leaf
A bottle without a note
Driftwood rubbed smooth
by the hands of time and tide
Sea weed flecked with foam
Rocks and sand

Streams of light
pierce the draperies
Is it morning already?

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An Interview with Kris B. Kendrick, creator of
the dreamsproject http://www.gobox.com/dreams/ 

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Richard C Wilkerson (RCW): When I log onto the Dreams Project http://www.gobox.com/dreams/  I have to slow down to see what's going on, like when I walk into a dark room and have to let my eyes adust. This seems a perfect mood an pace for dreams and sharing dream images. Was this intentional?

Kris: Well, in the beginning, I wasn't really sure what kind of imagery I was looking for with this site. I found a scan of my own hand that I had done a few months before, and fiddled around with it for a while. The result was a diembodied hand, which seems to be touching the surface of some type of thick, clear liquid. It really affected me, in a disurbing way. I'm always intrigued when my own artwork disturbs me. The sepia tones came later. I was worried, at first, that they might be too oblique, and sleepy looking -- but I just kept coming back to that blurry, low-intensity amber and black look. I couldn't get away from it.

RCW: What gave you the idea or inspiration for a site involving dreams?

Kris: In the 6th grade I did an extensive term paper on REM sleep and dreaming, and I've been fascinated since then. Of course, I have my own, bizarre dreaming history to fuel that fascination. The site was born from a fresh dream, emailed to me by my good friend, and mentor, Steven Champeon (this dream, 'undone', appears at The Dreams Project). In turn, I responded with 'shoes'. I started thinking about how well written accounts of people's dreams were such an interesting mirror of their personalities, and that this might be an interesting thing to focus on.

RCW: There is often talk about the "Dream Movement", which as I understand it, includes bringing out the significance of dreams in all fields of study, in clinical and non-clinical settings and in the general populus. It also includes dream inspired art, writing and other forms of dream inspired creativity. How do you see yourself in this view of the dream movement?

Kris: Dreams are very powerful, and I sincerely believe that there is much of our emotional makeup that can be revealed, and altered in a positive way, by a consciousness of our dreamstates. As for a movement, I have no feeling about that. I am merely publishing people's written accounts of their own dreams in a visually pleasing manner.

RCW: Your Web presentation tends towards depth rather than clarity. Is there a particular theme you are heading towards, or are you allowing things to evolve organically?

Kris: Oh, I like the organic method for this project... I've designed websites for years. I'm going to let this one design itself. Be aware that I've been known to redesign on whim, however...

(RCW): The issue of who the authority is on a dream's meaning has been prevalent the last few years. When you approach dream interpretation, how do you decide who the authority is?

Kris: I never try to interpret the dreams I publish, and feel that this would be an invasion of privacy, somehow.

(RCW): In Gestalt and much Jungian dreamwork, the images are subjective, about the dreamer himself/herself. Other explorers feel the imaginal realm is independent of the ego and these personal dream images are only cloaked in personal garb, but really live in the imaginal realm independent of the ego. Do you have any thoughts the ownership of the dream image?

Kris: I don't buy the theory that all dream imagery is an ego trip. Obviously, a great deal of what happens in our dreams revolves around the dreamer, but there is pretty strong evidence that dreams are as necessary for our mental health as physiological processes, like digestion, are for our bodies. We use dreams to work out conflicts and traumatic events. I think dreams are very often like waste products from our minds.

RCW: There has been more than a little concern within the Association for the Study of Dreams on the issue of dream sharing in cyberspace. Some feel that cyberspace is not the place to share dreams, that sharing dreams leaves us too vulnerable to those who might take advantage of us for their own purposes. Do you have any thoughts on dream sharing and the Internet?

Kris: I think that the Internet is the perfect tool for publishing or continuing ones' studies of any subject. Whether publishing dreams on the Internet leaves people open and vulnerable is clearly a personal decision for each dreamer.

RCW: Do you have some favorite books on dreams and dreaming?

Kris: I don't read about dreaming. I don't really persue what people are saying about dreaming as an activity.

RCW: Do you have a favorite dream?

Kris: <smiling> Yes, but I can't, and won't, discuss it in an interview.

RCW: How has this dream influenced you?

Kris: <smiles silently>

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Nightmares - an Introduction Richard C. Wilkerson

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from the cyber-dream Library, topics area. Www.dreamgate.com/dream/library/ 

nintro.jpg (21959 bytes)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 its not unlikely for children to be chased by animals and fantasy figures, while adults are often chased by male adults.

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 occuring.

What can be done about nightmares?

The 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. 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 Magallon, 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 Association for the Study of Dreams offers some advice and books on nightmares and you will find among its members the top researchers in the field.

NIGHTMARE BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY ASD

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 ASD www.asdreams.org $7.00

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. (New - I haven't reviewed this yet): 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.

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.

 

Do you have some favorite Nightmare Books? Send them to me! Richard Wilkerson rcwilk@dreamgate.com.com