articles.jpg (7423 bytes)ARTICLES

DREAM TREK By Linda Lane Magallan

Watch Your Dreams with
Nancy Huseby Bloom

Interview with Dream and Nightmare Authority, Ernest Hartmann, M.D.
Richard Wilkerson

A Westering Sun The Dream of an Old Man William C. Burns, Jr.

Dreams and Meaning in Science: Neural Nets   Richard Wilkerson

Interview with Habib By Victoria Quinton


DREAM TREK

By Linda Lane Magallan

Dreamers Are Couch Potatoes

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Dreamers are couch potatoes. Well, I suppose we have to be...we focus so much attention on sleep! So, in general, we are not a very physically active bunch, but boy, oh boy, do we like to talk. And talk. And talk. Talk about dreams, especially our own dreams, and expand that talk through dreamwork techniques. But we'll also listen to other people's dreams and read their dream reports.

So here I come to my dream group, talking about active dreaming. And they nod, yes, in theory. But actually get up and do something? Well, maybe, if it doesn't take too long or is very much effort...

What gets dreamers out of their seats? Two sure things that I know of (well, three, if you include going to the bathroom). First, food. Dreamers will eat, maybe because mastication is so similar to talking. Besides, you can talk and munch, talk and crunch. But how can you bring that kind of food to the land of dreams?

Second, role play. They'll act out a dream. They'll pretend that they are a dream symbol, a dream character or (rarely) dance the entire dream. They'll do it alone or with their buddies. Dress up in costume and have a party. But, in general, those methods apply to the dream of the past. The one they had last night or last week or even last year. Not to a future dream. Not to the one they're going to have tonight.

Ah, incubation, they say. Yes, we know about that. That's when you suggest to yourself that you're going to have this, that or the other type of dream. And then sometimes you have it, and sometimes (most times) you don't. But they never say, "Teach me how to dream..."

So I have to trick them. We're going to have an experiment, a project, a game, I say. And maybe they'll dream along and maybe they won't. But if they do dream, they sure want to know how other people did.

Dreamers are couch potatoes. But they do have active imaginations. Talk to them, and their minds can be rolling like a camera, producing inner pictures. Maybe they aren't even looking at you, because the inner play is so engrossing.

The same applies to dreams. It's rare to read a dream that's a still picture shot. No, more likely, the dream will be a moving picture. The dreaming self is an active self.

So I share my active dreams and I tell stories about active dreams. I pretend that I'm talking to the dreamers, but I'm really speaking to their dreaming selves. And then, next time we meet, the dreamer will say, "You know, Linda, after we talked I had this dream..."

Thank goodness the dreaming selves aren't couch potatoes.

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

 


 

Watch Your Dreams with Nancy Huseby Bloom dreaming@omnicast.net  

Dear Readers,

Here we are again at the end of another year of dreaming! But ask yourself, have you been a "passive" dreamer, merely allowing the dreams to come to you as they choose or have you been actively pursuing the knowledge and insight the dreamworld can provide through asking for answers to specific questions through your dreams?

I have found that special days such as birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and New Years are perfect times to "incubate" dreams. Asking for special dreams on important days of the year seems to add significance to our requests.

watchdrm.jpg (10640 bytes)Dream Incubation is a key method you can use to connect with your authentic self where your creativity and intuition are waiting to be discovered and used. We are usually so caught up in the day to day life struggles and challenges that we rarely look into these deeper levels of ourselves.

The New Year is a perfect time to ask your inner being, your guardian angel, or God (whichever is most comfortable for you) for a dream that will guide you through the coming year. Believing in yourself or your higher being is important.- You do have the ability to do this! As Patricia Garfield states in her book, Creative Dreaming, dream Incubation "has been a part of every culture and every faith and every time. Belief is what makes dream induction possible."

Take your time in forming a question. Do you want to know about a specific person, career, or creative project? Think about what you are asking for. Do you really want to know the answer?

When you feel that you are sincere about the question, write it down on a piece of paper and put it by your bedside. If you need privacy, slip the question into your pillowcase or some other safe place. This is an important step. It has been my experience that dreamers often forget their question or how it was worded.

Spend time during the day thinking of your question and asking your dreaming self to provide you with an answer. Absorb yourself in the question. Have faith that the inspiration or answer will come. The more energy you put into your request while you are awake, the more likely you are to receive new insights and perceptions during sleep. If you can, spend time just before going to sleep looking at your written question. Repeat it over and over in your mind. This will strengthen your request and signal that you are ready and willing to listen.

Here are a few questions I have used in the past. You may want to modify them to fit your own particular situation or needs:

-What is the state of my health? How can I best create and maintain a healthy and energetic body?

-What is my deepest desire and how can I make it happen?

-What do I need to let go of?

-How can I deepen (improve, reconcile, complete, etc.) my relationship with my husband, (my children, my parent, my boss).

-What will this year bring? Should I marry? What is my true vocation? What should I be focusing on? The questions are as limitless as we are.

Look at every dream you receive as if it is a response to your question. Have fun experimenting with this and if you don't get a dream the first night, don't get discouraged. Keep asking!

 


Interview with Dream and Nightmare Authority, Ernest Hartmann, M.D.
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 18:09:37 EST
Interview by Richard Wilkerson

hartmann.jpg (10373 bytes)Ernest Hartmann, M. D., is a pioneer and world renowned authority on sleep and dreaming. He has published eight books and 250 papers. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton-Wellesly Hospital in Massachusetts. A practicing psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and sleep-medicine specialist in the Boston area, his research and clinical work span over 30 years. Among his books, The Biology of Dreaming, The Functions of Sleep, the Nightmare and Boundaries of the Mind are considered classics in the field and have been praised in the New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World and the Lost Angels Times Book Review among others. He has served as President of the Association for the Study of Dreams and was the first Editor-in-Chief of the professional journal Dreaming. Thanks to his father Heinz Hartmann, one of Freud's best know students, Dr. Hartmann actually met Sigmund Freud. However as Hartmann says, "Since he was eighty and I was two, it was not the a great meeting of minds." He resides in Newton, Massachusetts.

Dr Hartmann has been influential in the dreamwork community by providing a bridge between clinical and non-clinical practices. The Association for the Study of Dreams, one Hartmann's favorite organizations, provides a forum for scientist and clinicians to meet with pioneering researchers from grassroots and non-clinical settings. In his recent book, Dreams and Nightmares: The New Theory on the Origin and Meaning of Dreams, Hartmann provides views and images that may turn out to be the unified field theory in dreams and dreaming.

In a recent online interview with Dr. Hartmann, we discussed many of the issues in his book that are relevant to all those interested in the deepest meaning of dreams and dreaming.

Richard Catlett Wilkerson [RCW]: Hi Ernest and thank you for joining in this electronic interview and sharing your time with us.

Ernest Hartmann, M.D. [EH]: Hi Richard. Glad to be here.

[RCW]: You have published hundreds of articles and written so many books on sleep and dreams over the years, including classics on biology and nightmares and advanced theories on personality. Why another book?

EH: Well, this is not just "another book". My articles have usually been on very specific subjects -- often reports on a study. My books have appeared when I thought I had an answer to something important. For instance my early book "The Functions of Sleep" proposed exactly what it says: a new theory on what sleep does for us". MY book "The Nightmare" was chiefly a detailed answer to "Who has Nightmares, and when?"

The book just published "Dreams and Nightmares... The New Theory" is my overall attempt to make sense of the nature and function of dreams. It's a book for everyone interested in dreams .... it's not written especially for psychologists or psychiatrists. In fact I think non-professional lovers of dreams will find it useful and will find themselves agreeing with most of it. My clinical work as well as research work leads me to disagree strongly with the "dreams-are-random-products" biologists, and also to disagree with much of Freud. However the view I come up with is compatible with what most people who love dreams believe anyway. In a few words: Dreams make connections in the nets of our minds more broadly than does waking thought. Not randomly, however, but guided by the emotion or emotional concern of the dreamer. Dreams "contextualize" emotion. They do this in the form of "explanatory metaphor". And the process is functional (useful) in several ways.

[RCW]: Everyone I have talked to who has read your book finds it very accessible. This is especially nice as you tackle some of the more difficult issues in neural theory, dream science and psychoanalytic thought. What made you decide to write about these topics this way?

[EH]: Well, I wrote about dreaming the way it makes sense to me. I'm very happy that people find it accessible. Though I write about things like "nets of the mind", I don't try to get into a mathematical treatment of nets -- in fact there's no math at all in the book. I do it in a very rough "common- sense" way, because I believe that's all we have at present ( or maybe I mean "that's all I can do"; I'm waiting for someone mathematically inclined to tell me just how it might be stated in math terms. Maybe in the future.)

[editors note: see Dreams and Meaning in Science for more on Neural Nets]

I do discuss psychoanalysis, or at least Freud's main views on dreams, but I think I do it in very simple understandable terms.

Overall I have a belief that anything important can be stated simply. I really want readers to understand just what I mean, and either agree with me or disagree. In fact disagreements are especially important. I hope readers who feel I'm just plain wrong on some issue will let me know!

[RCW]: You have shown in your book that cases of trauma and stress dreams further many of the notions of the New Theory by providing strong evidence on how key images contextualize emotion. What kind of reaction do you expect from those who (read your book and) feel that dreams are meaningless or primarily hiding latent thoughts?

EH: I don't know, but I'd really be curious. Take my Paradigm dream. Someone who has just been through a fire, or some other terrible event dreams "I was overwhelmed by a tidal wave". This person is picturing his/her emotional state. This cannot possible be called random. And I don't think there's a wish being fulfilled ( even after lengthy free associations in many persons.)

[RCW]: The New Theory you talk about has been developing for sometime among a large group of researchers. Yet people still seem to entertain the same old notions about dreams. Why do you feel the culture been so resistant to accepting a new view of dreams and dreaming?

[EH]: I think this view ( which I call "The Contemporary Theory" in the book; it's not just my theory) will catch on. It has already caught on, in one form or another, among the dreamloving, or dreamworking community.

[RCW]: You have a very alchemical approach to dreaming, dreamwork and therapy. (Metaphorically). The alchemists often talked about lead as naturally turning to gold, given enough time. By consciously entering into the transformation, the process is quickened. You have mentioned that dreams are already doing what they need to be doing, (making connections, contextualizing emotion) and through cooperation and attention to this we can have a very fulfilling experience and understanding of them. What's the highest value you feel dreams and dream studies will be able to achieve?

EH: I like the say you put that. I hadn't thought of "alchemical", but I can see it. However, I'm worried that some will misinterpret your question, since Alchemy has an aura of magic and weird-wonderful-wizards about it. I think of dreaming as simply allowing us to make connections a little better,... climb your dreamtree and see a little farther. Sometimes this leads to new insights, or discoveries, new art or new religions. Sometimes not. The highest values achievable will be whatever your highest value IS.

[RCW]: I'm guessing that a notion that dreamworkers will often draw on from the New Theory, is working with emotion and how it is contexualized in the central image. You mentioned several people working in this area already in both clinical and personal exploration groups, such as the Gestalt work, as well as Bosnak, Gendlin and Ullman's work, among others. Do you have your own special approach for locating and working with the central image?

[EH]: Not really. I'm perfectly willing to use Amplification, Free Association, whatever seems to work for a particular situation. I do feel, however, that when time is limited (as it usually is) it makes most sense to start with the central or most powerful image of the dream.

[RCW]: You mention a possible limit in the use of central images. That is Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome which you characterize as trauma where the person has so emotionally withdrawn that no new useful connections are being made in dreams or therapy. Do you foresee these PTSD sufferers ever being helped by dreamwork?

[EH]: Yes. But it's a complicated Q. They will usually need some other form of treatment first, or in addition.

[RCW]: This ability to make connections in a safe place is compared with psychotherapy. Do you see therapists picking up more of a cooperative approach with dreamwork? I'm thinking here again of therapies that might follow your suggestion in bringing out the central image and interweave these concerns with waking life.

[EH]: Yes. Yes . Yes. I see dreaming itself as very like psychotherapy ( see chapter 8). Both are "making connections in a safe place". This occurs, I believe even when dreams are not remembered. When they are remembered, the dreamer has a chance to make further connections, and if s/he's in therapy, perhaps even more. For therapists I think it is very useful to think, somewhat humbly, of helping the dreamer make further connections, rather than to insist on finding THE WISH underlying the dream, or an Archetype or whatever.

[RCW]: One of the pieces of research & theory you have been involved with that is followed widely in the dream movement has been the thick vs thin boundary personality type. My understanding of this is that these are either natural or early learned styles that produce, as you say, dream people and thought people. The thought people maintain thick boundaries between contexts, are very focused and can shut dreaming memory out altogether. Dream people have thin boundaries, are more sensitive, have a wider, softer focus and tend to recall dreams very easily, sometimes too easily in the case of nightmares. Where do you see this notions being applied most effectively?

[EH]: You put it very well. I believe the "trait" or "personality" continuum running from very thick to very thin boundaries, is perhaps the same continuum as the "state" continuum running from focused waking to dreaming. This needs to be explored in terms of functioning of the mind and brain. Where it will lead, I'm not sure.

[RCW]: The Dream Movement seems to have contributions from many fields, but has never really had a unifying image. Do you see the notion of dreams contextualizing emotions as creating such an image?

[EH]: Could be. I'd like to think so, anyway. For those who think of dreams made up of bits and pieces -- thoughts, images, emotions etc, all mixed up or all playing equal roles -- then there's no unifying image. But if you believe, as I do, that the basic stuff or substance of the dream is IMAGERY, and the basic underlying force pushing or guiding the imagery is EMOTION, then I hope my view of the imagery contextualizing ( providing a picture- context for) the emotion makes unifying sense!

[RCW]: You mention that despite you differences with Freud, he has been a large influence on your dream views, both in your professional more personal connections with the psychoanalytic movement. Is the Interpretation of Dreams you favorite dream book?

[EH]: I did meet Freud (when he as 80 and I was 2) so I'm prejudiced. I don't know about "favorite" but it's a book that has had so much to do with shaping the 20th century, I believe everyone -- certainly everyone interested in dreams-- should read it.

[RCW]: I am told one of the worst interview questions to ask an author is what they plan to write next, but the temptation is too much. What does the dream movement have to look forward to with new Ernest Hartmann projects?

[EH]: Wish I knew! It depends on the reaction to the present book and present projects.

[RCW]: Ernest, again thank you very much for taking the time out from you work to talk about these new and exciting developments in dreams and dreaming. I'm hoping our many readers will be able to get a hold of you book and read more about your work and thought.

[EH]: Thank you, Richard. Pleasant dreams!

END Thu, 12 Nov 1998 18:09:37 EST

If you would like a copy of Dreams and Nightmares: The New Theory on the Origin and Meaning of Dreams, please use the following Association for the Study of Dreams address to order from Amazon.com. By ordering through ASD you support dream and dreaming research. http://www.asdreams.org/subidxshopbooks.htm  

 


A Westering Sun The Dream of an Old Man

William C. Burns, Jr.

My tyeer
battered and sluggish
I reach and it nestles into my hand

"You're looking a bit worn, old friend?" I offer
"How was the day's energy spent?"
The speaking mechanism is breaking down

"We won some
we lost a few
on the whole, I'd say we made a difference."

"Who can ask more . . ."
One last flicker and my tyeer passes
With weathered hands
I remove the seed pack from its belly
and discard the remains

I place the seeds in the stream
under a rock
they will prosper through the night

My hands do not warm
after I pull them from the water

I lift one of the dream crystals
so treasured early in the day
now hopelessly clouded
I throw it into the stream

I find the sonic drill
search the hillside for another deposit
Yes
there
right there . . .
I find the geode vein
I painstakingly carve the humanoid geode figure

With failing strength
I wrestle the inanimate form into the stream
I lift the instrumentation
and place the stimulators

The work done toward midnight
I light a fire
wrap the rags of the day around me
Yes
on the balance
a good day.



William C. Burns, Jr.
Millennium Artist
sunhawk@greenville.infi.net
http://members.tripod.com/~Rukesayer/index.html

 


Dreams and Meaning in Science: Neural Nets Richard Wilkerson

It was hoped that with the discovery of REM sleep that soon all the questions about the meaning of dreaming would unfold. But with the discoveries of dreams occurring outside of REM, not only in NREM but in hypnosis, daydreaming and waking dreams, the hope faded.

A shift was made away from the content analysis to the process of dreaming itself. The gist of the thinking behind this is as follows - If you want to study muscle functions, its not really necessary to know if a person is using his muscles to pick up a can of tomato soup or chicken soup. And so why focus on the particular dream to understand dreaming? The general question was how dreaming might function to help the biological organism.

REM dreaming has been found in not only non-humans (most all mammals have REM sleep) but also in new infants and pre-natal infants. How might this be adaptive to the survival of a mammal? The current thinking on this is that REM might be used at different developmental times for different purposes. In infants, REM might be stimulating associate neural development while in adults it might be functioning a little this way but also serve other functions, such as allowing the brain to be prepared and stay oriented in sleep. All these theories are still quite distant from any proof.

Another track that has developed is the case for dreaming having to do with learning and unlearning. Earlier suggestions and research focused on dreaming as processing the residue of the day and coding it into long term memory.

Hobson and McCarley found that dream activity in cats begins after random firings in the brain stem. They feel that the sleepy brain gets stimulated by these random firings and tries to make sense out of them and the memories that are initiated. Flying and paralysis, for example, would simply correspond to periods of brain stem activity and inactivity. They do suggest in the Activation-Synthesis model that there is some synthesis by the higher brain functions and thus the dream does contain some higher cognitive actions.

Crick and Mitchison combined this research with a model of neural networks to suggest that the brain is actually unlearning during dreaming. They suggested that the neural networks that the mind loads during the day get saturated with information and create false links between neural nets that produce what we see as bizarre dreams. The random firing cleans these out during the night. Thus, they hypothesize, remembering dreams may be counter productive to the unlearning process.

The mistake in all these theories, according to Harry Fiss and other, is in our model of science. They way it works now, science ignores all meaning and value. All the tools and methods of science work outside the realm of meaning - they work on quantity, not quality. To use such a method from the beginning and then conclude that dreams are meaningless, is to go beyond what the tools can offer us.

One solution, on the edge of the edge, is a re-vision of neural networking. Gordon Globus has suggested that the brain works not only with stimulus-response and chemicals, but with models of whole worlds. He uses a similar model to Crick and Mitchison, but points out that there is a complex interactive brain system best described as neural nets that *produce* as well as respond to events. In waking life there is feedback and corrections from a more concrete world. In sleep we continue to produce models of worlds, but they have their own rules and we then interact with these.

Crick, Francis & Mitchinson, Graeme (1983). The function of dream sleep. Nature, 304(14), July, 111-114. Crick, Francis & Mitchinson, Graeme. (1986). REM sleep and neural nets. Journal of Mind and Behaviour, 7(2&3), 229-50. Fiss, Harry (1986). An Empirical foundation for a self psychology of dreaming. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 7(2&3), 161-192. --------. (1984). Toward a clinically relevant experimental psychology of dreaming. The Hillside Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 147-159. Globus, Gordon G. (1993). Connectionism and sleep. In A. Moffitt, M. Kramer, R. Hoffman (Eds.), The Functions of Dreaming. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. --------. (1991). Dream content: Random or meaningful? Dreaming, 1(1), 27-40. --------. (1989). Connectionism and the dreaming mind. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 10(2). 179-196. Hobson, Allan J. (also see articles in Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal. March 1994, volume 3, number 1. Special issue: Dream Consciousness: A Neurocognitive Approach.) --------. (1988). The Dreaming Brain. New York: Basic Books, Inc.


Interview with Habib By Victoria Quinton November 1998

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VQ: Hello Habib.

Would you like to describe The Garden for the Electric Dreams community?

H: The Garden has many levels to it (kindof like dreams, I suppose!). My stock answer is that The Garden is a community of people who care for our planet and each other, and support each other as we grow. We use the Internet and other ways of doing that. From another perspective, The Garden is a spiritual family or "tribe." The way many of us feel about each other is like the way you might feel about a friend that you have just met, but feel you have known for years, and you end up spending all night sharing with that person. From yet another perspective (since this Interview is about dreams!), The Garden is based on a real dream I had that the Internet could become a place of love, peace, beauty, and understanding.

VQ: So, in this dream were there many other people, or other strong images?

H: Basically, the dream went as follows:

I descended to an area which was extremely noisy, with lots of flashing lights etc. The place was filled with video games. I felt this place was Hell. Then, as I walked past, a beautiful plant or flower appeared in one place, then another, and another.

I woke up and immediately realized that I had just discovered part of my life's work -- that the Internet (and our high tech world) could be transformed into a "garden" of love, peace, beauty, and understanding.

VQ: How do you personally regard dreams?

H: Since The Garden, which is a major part of my life's work, came from a dream, I would have to say that I regard dreams as rather important!

I have had several other dreams that have made an extremely big impact on my life, offering me critical insights into myself and my life's work. My perspective is that life is largely about learning, and dreams allow me to learn about things in a different way, on different levels, than my waking life. Partly this is because I have so many control issues that it is only when I'm asleep that I'm able to be fully open.

I keep paper beside my bed and write down my dreams immediately (or else I forget them), and since I wake up frequently at night, I write down a LOT of dreams. Since it is dark, however, I can't always read what I have written the next day!!!

VQ: Do you often discuss your dreams with others?

H: Rarely. I have never shared The Garden dream with anyone except my wife, and was rather hesitant to share it here. My feeling is that dreams, in most cases, are lessons meant for us as individuals. The meaning of those dreams, symbols and so forth, are based on our own experience and perspective. In general, I don't feel it's useful to share my dreams with others, since those dreams weren't meant for them, and may be interpreted in a dramatically different way, which may not be useful for me or them. As I just wrote those words, I realized that my perspective (on sharing dreams) is based on certain assumptions of who I am as an individual, and what type of relationships I have with others. I would be open to reconsidering the value of sharing dreams with certain people, under certain circumstances, with certain intentions, if appropriate opportunities arose.

Yours,

Habib Host of The Garden Web:
http://www.thegarden.net  Email: habib@thegarden.net  ICQ: 7649155