Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Volume 5 Issue 9 Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams OCTOBER 1998 Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams Electric Dreams To subscribe to Electric Dreams Send from the address you want to subscribe to electric-dreams-request@lists.best.com And put in the body of the e-mail only: subscribe your-email To unsubscribe from Electric Dreams Send from the address you want to unsubscribe to electric-dreams-request@lists.best.com And put in the body of the e-mail only: unsubscribe your-email 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=Z=Z E L E C T R I C D R E A M S Volume 5 Issue #9 OCTOBER 1998 ISSN# 1089 4284 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=Z=Z Electric Dreams on the World Wide Web USA www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams 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=Z=Z Send Dreams and Comments on Dreams to: Bob Krumhansl Send Dreaming News and Calendar Events to: Peggy Coats Send Articles and Subscription concerns to: Richard Wilkerson: For back issues, editors addresses and other access & Staff see ELECTRIC DREAMS ACCESS INFORMATION at the end of this issue 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=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z C O N T E N T S ++ Editor's Notes ++ Dream Airing: Notes, letters to the editor ++ Column: Dream Trek: A Call To Expand Dream Interpretation Linda Lane Magall›n ++ Q&A: Watch Your Dreams + Tips Nancy Huseby Bloom ++ Special Section: edited by Richard Wilkerson ===> A Short History on the Rise of Dream Sharing in Cyberspace ===>A Transcript from an Online Dream Group 'Coins of Life' August 1998 DreamWheel G L O B A L D R E A M I N G NEWS If you have news you'd like to share, contact Peggy Coats, pcoats@dreamtree.com. Visit Global Dreaming News online at http://www.dreamtree.com/News/global.htm. This Month's Features: NEWS Nightmare Workshop in Portland, Oregon - Spiritual Direction and Dream Training in the Jungian Mystical Tradition RESEARCH & REQUESTS - Life-Altering Dreams for Television Pilot Male Bereavement Dream Series - Dreams, Visions and Their Effects on Art WEBSITE & ONLINE UPDATES -Dreamwork on AOL -Sol y Luna Voyager A Lucid Dreaming Dreams: -The Bridge Between the Ego and the Subconscious - New Additions to the ED Dream Links Site DREAM CALENDAR for October 1998 D R E A M S SECTION (For ED V5 N9) Editorial BY BOB K. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX OCTOBER 16, FRI deadline for submission FOR Next Electric Dreams vol 5(10) Send in Nightmares and Articles on Nightmares! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Editor's Notes +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Its been a couple of years since we have published a full transcript of an online dream group, and so most of this issue will be devoted to this. But first... Have we been missing out on much of dreams significance by our focus on psychological interpretations? Linda Magallon calls for a new approach that will take a wider group of perspectives into account in her Dream Trek Column, A Call To Expand Dream Interpretation. Nancy Huseby Bloom gives a healing interpretation to a dream in her Watch Your Dreams Column, and includes dream tips. Peggy Coats has an extensive network of dreaming news which is kept at the DreamTree.com and shared each month with Electric Dreams in the Global Dreaming News. Here you can find conferences, online events, new web sites and other resources. There is a last minute note I wanted to mention for those of you who are members (or would like to be) of the Association for the Study of Dreams: There is a special members deal from Patricia Garfield. In October, the membership price will go up, so get in now! www.asdreams.org Need a cover for your issues of Electric Dreams? You can visit our Electric Dreams Covers Gallery and download the cover of your dreams. Acutally, we have several galleries. You can access them via www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-covers/ You may have noticed that the art for Electric Dreams sites has improved dramatically in the last few months. All thanks to Bryan Smith. Be sure to visit his site and see even more wonders. www.thinkpiece.com Bob Krumhansl bring you this last month's dreams that have come into the Electric Dreams community as well as notes on dreaming and comments. Be sure to read the Dream Section and Bob's editorial. By the way, the dream section takes a lot of time to put together and Bob would love some help. If you can devote a few minutes each month and would like to join the Electric Dreams Staff, drop Bob a line at The Online Dream Groups. A few years ago we started the DreamWheel and it has been a pleasure for everyone who has participated. What is it like to have a group of people focus on your single dream for two weeks? Quite intense, very insightful and always a delight. This month on Electric Dreams we are reprinting a full transcript of a dream group (anonymously) that took place this August. Be sure to read "The Coins of Life". Besides satisfying your curiosity about what goes on in these dream groups, we also would like to open them up for other to join, or for you to try out your own groups online. We have no desire to possess the process and are more interested in the best ways to use the Net for dream sharing. An so the instructions are also included, though I would recommend you try out one session with us. Where did these groups come from and how did they evolve? I am including a short history of dream sharing on the Internet. If you have had groups and meetings online, we would be very interested in publishing your accounts here. Send them to Richard Wilkerson rcwilk@dreamgate.com Also, if you would like to join a DreamWheel, drop me a line. NEXT MONTH: Halloween! It's time again for a focus on Nightmares and Scary Dreams. So get out all those night frights and send them in for publication. I'd also like to see the online FAQ's on Nightmares expanded and some book reviews. There will also be a annual Halloween Swarm, where we travel around the Internet, visit old dream haunts, update with friends and deliver our scary dreams! Watch on Usenet alt.dreams and other places for more information on the Swarm. See you all online, Richard Wilkerson rcwilk@dreamgate.com +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Dream Airing Notes, letters to the editor Send to rcwilk@dreamgate.com +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Review of Electric Dreams. www.disobey.com/low/listings/electric_dreams.htm Reviewed by Patrick M., [09/10/98] I've been an avid admirer of Electric Dreams for about two years now. Having worked in a Sleep Lab for 2 and a half years, and being interested in the whole area of altered states of consciousness all my life, I looked long and hard at the various "associations" out there on the web and I can tell the first time visitor that ANY question you have, from helping interpret a puzzling dream, comparing dreams with others and discussing similarities/differences, to visiting others while in REM, to even those experiences that fall into the "paranormal" category, you will find your answers here. R. Wilkerson and the rest of the staff and participants in Electric Dreams have no motivation other than helping each other (and you) with understanding this fascinating aspect of our lives more fully. 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=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z Want Electric Dreams Illustrated? Get this issue with graphics by subscribing to edreams-web-request@lists.best.com Put in body of email only: subscribe your-email -------------- ---------------- --------------------- --- Greets, I experience "Awareness during sleep", and "Old Hag" (paralyzing nightmares). I wonder if you could give me any info on "Hynogogics"? Thank you, Banshee Reply from Keith The word "Hypnogogic" comes from the Greek word meaning "leading into sleep," and occurs right before sleep onset. During REM sleep or when you are dreaming, the body becomes temporarily paralyzed to prevent movement. Sometimes a person can awake, and the paralysis continues. This "sleep paralysis" can be frightening, and the person can experience things like "attacks from spirits," "UFO abductions," "vibrations," and other strange feelings. Keith Garcia ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- The Lucidity Institute, Inc. * tel: 650.321.9969 * fax: 650.321.9967 keith@lucidity.com * ftp://ftp.lucidity.com * http://www.lucidity.com Hi Richard, A while ago you had sent me an email asking me where my online webzine column "Sea Of Dreams" was located. A couple weeks ago, my editor/publisher asked me to return again, and this time I decided to return and we are also offering a contest for people to submit their dream entries to win a free dream interpretation. I thought you might enjoy the update. G21 Webzine: http://www.g21.net Sea Of Dreams: http://www.g21.net/seanew.html Thank you, - - Cyndi Russell - - *<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<> *Dream Interpretations Nightmares Sleep Disorders* ~ Dream Emporium ~ ~~ http://members.tripod.com/~ZenCyn/ ~~ *<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<> =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= DREAM TREK By Linda Lane Magall›n A Call To Expand Dream Interpretation =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= My husband recently had a dream. In it, he was driving a large black foreign car through the corridors of a large building and out into a parking lot. He eased the wheels past a set of metal spikes and thought that he had managed to avoid them. But as he continued down the road, suddenly all four tires went flat. What does this dream mean? To unlock its significance, dreamworkers might use the method called "if this were my dream." Using free association, they could quickly hone in on the Jungian shadow inherent in the foreign and black-colored automobile. Freudians could have a field day finding sexual metaphor in the flat tires. It doesn't matter if dreamworkers amplify the metal spikes into the archetypal Pearly Gates, play punning games with the parking lot or have a Gestalt dialogue with the wheels. The end result highlights the personal psychological parameters or spiritual explanations for the surface imagery of the dream. And that's not enough. In this case, the usual interpretation approaches leave out three crucial underlying elements: the physiological, the out-of-body and the psychic. Let me continue my story. First, please review the dream, paying close attention to the car, the corridors and the spikes. Physiological: My husband awoke from the dream with the sharp pains of indigestion. Yes, in this case, the old saw that "a dream is the result of what you eat" had some truth to it. Personally, I think the sharp pains initiated the image of the metal spikes. Out-of-body: As he finished telling me the dream, my husband commented, "I was the car." This comment requires a bit of explanation. Many traditions support the idea that we go out-of-body during the night. For astral projectors, their traveling vehicle is an astral body similar to the physical version. Remote viewers are more apt to travel without a body, as a spark of consciousness. Shamans hitch a ride on another body, whether it be fish or fowl. They travel empathetically, as the other body. They become one with the bird or beast. The common idea is that consciousness travels beyond the physical body. But the truth is, consciousness can travel anywhere...outside or inside. My husband recognized that the foreign car winding its way through the corridors of his dream was equivalent to the foreign matter winding its way through his intestinal track. "I was the car," he said. His consciousness was an empathic spark of awareness taking part in the events driving through the innards of his body. However, this was not a literal view of the inner event. He did not dream the interior of his intestine. The actual activity was overlaid with fanciful imagery. Why? One reason could be witness inhibition. When direct awareness of the literal event is too disturbing, the psyche creates an image buffer. (Yes, Dr. Freud, I agree that the psyche can be a censor, but rarely for the reasons you thought!) Another reason is virtually the opposite: the literal event is too boring, so the psyche creates a more exciting and creative variation on the original theme. My husband is an artist. After consideration, he agreed that both "cover-up" explanations were plausible. And why would his psyche choose that particular set of cover-up symbols? First clue came from day residue known to him. The night before, my husband had been a guest at the house of a married couple. There, he was witness to an argument between them over what car they would purchase. It was the strongest emotional event of the evening and "set him up" for the use of whatever car imagery would most closely resemble the indigestion event he was bound to experience later on. The imagery could have been a memory pulled from his past. But it wasn't. Psychic: Second clue came from day residue unknown to him. When my husband told me his dream, it felt like a replay of the Action Jackson movie I'd seen on TV the day before. At the climax of the movie, Jackson drives a car up a flight of stairs and through the hallways of a mansion. Both he and his car are hit by gunfire. That sequence was the strongest picture of the day for me. I had not told my husband about it; I was nearly asleep when he returned home from his visit. This is not the first time that my husband has "picked up" MY day residue and translated it into HIS dream. Our psychic auras "rub off" on each other continuously. Maybe because we sleep in the same bed. There are plenty of interpretation techniques that honor the psychological and spiritual. But do they routinely ask, "Is this dream psychic? Is this dream an out-of-body (or in-body) experience? Is this dream the result of physiological influence?" No. I know of no such method. How about we invent one? And if so, what would we call it? =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Watch Your Dreams with Nancy Huseby Bloom dream@icehouse.net =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Dear Nancy, Week of October 4, 1998 This dream felt so real that I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I had it over a month ago and still think about it daily. Can you help? Marie "I am a member of a group called 'Freedom Fighters.' My people are being persecuted and we have to be very careful about the resistance. I am building two bridges over a river or crevasse. I am using strong, new lumber. These bridges will lead my people to safety and freedom. I have completed one bridge. I enter a cafe and order a cup of coffee but the waitress is afraid to talk to me because of the persecution all around. I whisper to her, 'The second bridge is almost complete.' I head back to a small room in the back of the cafe where all the planning has taken place." Dear Marie, The purpose of dreams is to give us healing and insight into our lives. When we are making major life changes, dreams often show us where we are in the process. Are you fighting for freedom in some part of your daily life? How are you being persecuted? When we spoke on the phone you shared with me that your husband can be extremely demanding and controlling and that you have been in an ongoing struggle with him for years regarding your own personal freedom to honor your own thoughts, ideas and creativity. The strong new bridges that you are building in your dreams are very positive symbols. Bridges often represent transition, of movement from one way of being to another. Your bridges will lead your people (all the different parts of yourself) to freedom. Is there a need for you to be building these bridges in secret? What are the bridges in your waking life? A plan of escape, shelter, perhaps money stashed away? Are there two bridges because you are hoping your husband will find his way to freedom too? The need to control is just as oppressive to the spirit as being controlled. Your dream shows that this planning is all going on in "the back room." Perhaps you are just now willing to consciously face this situation and make this change. Your bridges are nearly complete. Freedom is at hand. Good luck, Marie. Tip Although nightmares and other disturbing dreams that show oppression or cruelty can illustrate the people and situations around us, often they show us how we are treating ourselves. It is easy to blame others for our pain but when we look at ourselves honestly, we can often see that our abuser or jailor is inside of us. By exploring your dream with this idea in mind, you can ask yourself questions to uncover the essence of it. Is your dream 'bully' an oppressive spouse or boss or your own inner critic? Is your dream 'jailor' someone in your life or are you holding yourself back? 'Shadow' characters who show up in our dreams as tormentors, thieves and thugs are usually the parts of our personalities that we have disowned and swept under the proverbial rug. When they show up in our dreams it is time to face up to them, to bring them out into the light of consciousness. Often we find that they have their place and purpose for being there. It is a humbling experience to see these images as parts of ourselves but it is also incredibly valuable as a tool for inner knowledge and growth. Nancy Huseby Bloom dream@icehouse.net The Electric Dreams Dream Groups: A special report +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ A Short History on the Rise of Dream Sharing in Cyberspace Richard Wilkerson +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ (For a transcript of a group, see below 'Coins of Life') When USENET became popular among the USA University crowd in the late 1980's, the idea of the Regional Bulletin Board was expanded nationally (and in some cases, internationally) and the discussion of dreams could be found in various Usenet Newsgroup topic boards. Usenet was organized like a real bulletin board, where one could post a note and others could read and post replies. Group discussions may them develop over time. Because of the popularity of BBS's, the Usenet bulletin boards were called "Newsgroups". By the 1990's all but the most wild of the Newsgroups were accessible via the Internet, and it was clear that dreams needed their own Newsgroup. "alt.dreams" was formed (3). The Newsgroup alt.dreams was originally suggested by Jack Campin as a way to study contemporary culture. He wanted a snapshot of dreams in the late 20th Century much in the same way that The Third Reich of Dreams (4) gives a snapshot of the society in Nazi Germany. But it was soon apparent that the real appeal of alt.dreams was to share dreams and discussions about their significance and meaning. Although alt.dreams provided a global gathering spot and spawned other related newsgroups like alt.dreams.lucid and alt.dreams.castaneda, the un-moderated venue lacked something essential for those used to face-to-face dream sharing. Individuals that did want more formed smaller private e-mail groups away from the alt.dreams newsgroup. Electric Dreams and other Dream Communities One of these groups distributed a collection of the dreams and comments between the subscribers and then published the comments and replies in a weekly format. When I found the community in the fall of 1994 they had grown to about 60 members and the dreams and comments were shared in a bi-monthly E-zine, (an electronically distributed magazine via E-mail) which they called Electric Dreams. Interest in this format grew and Electric Dreams grew from 60 to 500 subscribers in the following year and added news, articles and experimental dream events, but remained primarily focused on dream sharing in cyberspace. Concerns about this free speech forum now include a). the potential abuse of interpretive authority (anyone can comment and pretend they are someone they are not and some feel that *any* comment is abusive), b). lack of support for dreamers who submit dreams (what if a dream interpretation unlocks psychological instability?) and c). context or set & setting confusion (5) (What if someone thinks this is psychotherapy, what if children joined a group with adults? ). Another of the problems faced by the Electric Dreams community was the two week delay in the dream being presented and the return comments. A solution was found when I met John Herbert and participated in his ALL SeniorNet Dream Bulletin Board. John Herbert's groups used a variation of some of the Ullman/Zimmerman techniques (10), which he had worked out on the WELL and AOL. A dream was selected, the group asked non-interpretive questions, then each person took the dream as their own. During the process, the dreamer could respond or reply as he or she chose. The process was modified for e-mail and the first Electric Dreams Dream Circles (6) were created. A dream was passed around in round-robin style from one e-mail address with questions and replies added by each participant. The ED Dream Circle was great for sharing dreams, but an administrative nightmare. Jay Vinton suggested we use a Mail List style approach and the problems seemed to disappear. In a Mail List approach, all the members send all comments to everyone in the group, even if the comment is directed to just one individual. This process creates a feeling of group identity and cohesion. These new mail list dream groups, the Dream Wheels (No connection with the Ramsay Raymond Dreamwheel), have evolved in several new creative directions. Generally the process has been refined and newer sharing and distribution methods have improved (For more on the technical aspects of Mail Lists, see the Dream Cyberphile pg 26 in the ASD newsletter 1996 13.1, 26-27.). However, while the technical & methodological procedures have developed quickly, the resolution of concerns about the safety and appropriateness of dream sharing online seems to be taking a little more time. Cyber-Dream Sharing Goes To School and Gets International Attention Both Jayne Gackenbach and I felt that combining education with the experiential groups represented an advance over just offering experimental groups. Several projects followed. Jayne developed a program with Grant MacEwan which now includes e-mail classes and bulletin board dream sharing.(8) . When I expanded the DreamGate classes to include the community beyond Electric Dreams subscribers, we incorporated many of the safety features that Jayne created and implemented in her classes including the post-session questionnaires and the pre-session clarifications about the context and rules of group.(9) But the best safety-net seems to be education itself. Armed with a wide array of interpretive techniques, and individual is less likely to fall prey to an harmful single approach or person. I suggest finding classes and books with a full array of information. To correct the modern bias, studies of aboriginal cultures from around the world and from various ancient civilizations are recommended. The effect of axis religions on dreams is important. The full range of psychological schools from Freud to Jung, to Gestalt and Humanistic Existential approaches need to be explored. Many of the new trends, such as lucidity and mutual dreaming are recommended as well as the history of investigations into psychic dreaming. I feel that dreaming science should be included as well, to give the person a perspective not often included with most dreamwork but essential for an eclectic understanding of the field. When the Dream Cyberworld Project for the ASD XIII conference was proposed, the ASD executive board foresightedly accepted and supported the project. The only concern was that dream sharing via computers at the conference might be confused as promotion or endorsement when in fact we were all still wondering as a group just exactly what it really was. The Conference XIII programs thus provided no online dream sharing, but did provide plenty of examples and samples, giving interested individuals a chance to see the spectrum of possibilities . During the Berkeley Conference XIII, I asked Sarah Richard's to bring together in a panel the many of the more active of individuals involved in online dream sharing, including Jayne Gackenback, Jeremy Taylor, John Herbert and myself. Fred Olsen and Linton Hutchinson also participated in sharing their collective experiences. Not one of these people reported any problems with online dream sharing in any of the groups or sessions. There were some who were confused about the procedures at times, and some who didn't participate who didn't like the *idea* of what was happening, but no reports of unhappy participants or incidents requiring crisis intervention. In fact, everyone was wildly excited at the time about the possibilities of the Net and Dream Sharing. Still, the concern persisted about people confusing dreamwork with psychotherapy and being vulnerable to abuse. The idea of dream sharing on the Net continues to bring to peoples' minds a myriad of possible disasters. Why haven't these disasters shown up? Herbert's study suggests that online dream sharing provides more insight than face-to-face dream sharing. His results were not statistically significant but reveal an observation that in the cooler, non-confrontive atmosphere of writing e-mail at one's home computer, the responses and questions to and from the dreamer are more reflective and less emotional. This also points to a weakness in e-mail dream sharing scheme for those who like more emotional interplay. It appears then, that while dream groups online may not yet be appropriate for many psychotherapy, they do provide a safe and anonymous venue for adults to meaningfully explore meaning and value. As these dream sharing groups evolve and more studies are done, we will have a better picture of the scope, range and relevancy of e-mail and bulletin board style dream sharing. Peggy Coats will be the Chair for an ASD panel discussion of these topics again in Santa Cruz, 1999. In the meantime, DreamGate, Electric Dreams and other organizations continue to educate the public about the variety of approaches to dreams and dreamwork that can take place outside of the therapeutic container. It is recommended that these groups make it very clear from the beginning that they are not offering psychotherapy and rather focus on the peer or partnership paradigm. Richard Wilkerson rcwilk@dreamgate.com References: (1) Dream Phone services have been used, for example, by the Delaney & Flowers Center for the Study of Dreams, Fred Olsen's Reentry line and the Hotline of Tony Dubetz, among others. (2) Herbert, J.W.(1991) "Human Science Research Methods in Studying Dreamwork: Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Face-to-Face and Computer Dream Work Groups" Unpublished Manuscript, Saybrook Institute, San Francisco, (25 Nov. 1996) (3) Herbert, J. W. (1991). "Notes on the creation of alt.dreams." In "Human Science Research Methods.. (see above) (28 Oct. 1996) (4) Beradt, Charlotte (1966). The Third Reich of Dreams. Translated by Adriane Gottwald. Chicago: Quadrangle Books (5) Richards, Sarah (1996, April 22). "RE: Dream Interpretation: The significance of set and setting." ASD Web Bulletin Board. (25 Nov. 1996) (6) Wilkerson, Richard C.. (1995). "Dream Circles: A Sample Session of Dream Sharing using E-mail Round Robin.". Electric Dreams. (28 Nov. 1996) (7) Wilkerson, R. & Hicks, C. (1996). "Dreamwheels: a Sample Session of Dream Sharing Using Mail List Formats." (28 Nov. 1996) (8) Gackenbach, Jayne (1996). Unlocking the Secrets of your Dreams. Grant MacEwan Community College. (25 Oct. 1996) (9) Wilkerson, Richard C. (1996). From Ancient Thrace to Cyberspace: The History & Practice of Dream Sharing. DreamGate Classes. (28 Nov. 1996) (10) See Herbet's paper for the similarities and differences between Ullman and Herbert. -------------------------- ---------------------------- ---- -------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The Coins of Life: Transcripts of an Online Dream Sharing Group Richard Wilkerson +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Electric Dreams has been experimenting with dream sharing online since the spring of 1994. Many of us have tried various forms of dream sharing online before that time. We still have several forms, from direct publishing, to informal comments to special projects. But the process that has made the deepest impression on the participants has been the DreamWheel. Included below are the full transcripts from an Electric Dreams DreamWheel dream sharing group that accord the summer of 1998. I was the moderator for this group and though the participants will remain anonymous, I want to thank them all for their generosity in opening up this group for the public. It is our hope that others will be able to use this dreamwork process in their own groups. For an more extended history of the evolution of the DreamWheel, see Wilkerson, R. A Short History on the Rise of Dream Sharing in Cyberspace. (Above) The following group formed from announcements in Electric Dreams, alt.dreams Usenet Newsgroup, and also included students from the DreamGate 'History of Dream Sharing' Class. All members subscribed to the Electric Dreams dream group email list and each member was asked to send all e- mail to the group list, and not to send private notes. The process followed should be clear in the moderator's notes. ---------------------------- ------------------------------- --- ----------------------------- MODERATOR'S NOTES Dream 'The Coins of Life' by Tom For those of you who are already familiar with the process, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and read the new dream, and send in your questions to tom at (the group address) If you can, put in the subject line something like " Questions on 'Coin Dream' " I'm estimating we will be exploring this dream for about a week- week and a half, then move on to the next dream sent in. You can still send in a dream for the group to explore at rcwilk@dreamgate.com Richard OK for those of you who are ~new~ to the dreamwheel, here is the short and long of it: The moderator, (rcwilk@dreamgate.com) picks a dream at random and sends it to the group. The group may ask *clarifying* questions only. (see below for more on this). Then the dreamer may or may not reply to these quesions. They may answer them individually, or wait and answer then all together, as the dreamer chooses. Then the participants get to take the dream as if it were their own, and comment. I'll have more instructions on this when that time comes. If you are interested you can see a sample session at http://www.asdreams.org/asd-13/2lb12.htm ASKING QUESTIONS of the dreamer In this phase of the process you may ask the dreamer questions about the dream that may clarify the image of the dream. Do not ask questions that call for interpretations. Example: DREAM: "He turned around and grabbed Bill's jacket away from me" Questions: Hi Dreamer, thanks for sharing your dream with us. I was wondering: 1.Who is "he" that grabbed the jacket - did you know him, what did helook like? 2.Are you related to Bill or is he a friend? 3.Were you scared when he grabbed the jacket away? 4.What kind of jacket was it? Dark leather, green raincoat...? Some questions you *DON'T* want to ask: Why do you think he grabbed your jacket? (though you might ask if any reasons went through your head *during* the dream.) Did you know that Jackets represent symbols of appearance issues? Do you often have men grabbing your clothes in dreams? What does standing behind someone mean to you? And to the Dreamers- If and when you reply to the questions, do so only to clarify the dream. Try to avoid interpretations at this point. If it is not clear from the dream how to answer a question, simply say it was not clear. Usually the dreamer waits until several members' questions have been mailed to the group to begin answering. ============================================= The Dream Dream 'The Coins of Life' by Tom Dad has come home from the hospital from heart surgery. I go to hug him and welcome him home, but I must do so very carefully and gently, so as not to hurt him by accident. We are living in a split level house, and this scene is taking place in an upstairs bedroom. The entrance hall to this house is elevated, and I must go up a short flight of stairs (about 5 stairs) from the den to reach it, and the attached living room. We have recently put new floors in the house, and they have been placed right over the old ones. As a result we are somewhat nearer the ceiling than before. The new floors are a blonde hardwood, and heavily acquered - almost plasticized in appearance. I think they are very attractive, in their way, but feel uncomfortable walking on them to avoid marring the all-too-perfect surface. In the entrance hall, the bottom half of the door is evidently blocked by the raised flooring. Likewise the bottom half of the windows are below floor level, and as such, invisble to me. In this second scene, I am in the den. I hear a loud sound in the living room, and go there to discover the cause. A young asian woman in chinese style black silk pajamas is digging at the floor with a staff she holds in her hand. The floor is deeply scarred and the wood is coming apart and turning fiberous. She has dug into the floor about five or six inches deep. Although the woman appears real, she resembles Mulan - from the Disney film that I have not yet seen. I rush at her and shout that she must stop and go away. She lashes out at me with the staff to keep me away. Presently, she runs away. I don't know why, I feel as if I finally frightened her away. I am very smugly satisfied with myself, as I watch her flee. From the window I can see her running away from the house. Suddenly the scene changes, and I see thousands of Chinese coins with holes in the center. They are all floating in air before me - a curtain of beautiful coins. They are not strung together by string or wire, although in such a curtain they would be. They are simply floating and individually revolving from "heads" to "tails" . The whole effect is very beautiful and delightfully unexpected. A man's voice comes from "above", but not like the voice of God, more like a narrator in an educational film. The voice says "There is only one life, and it is lived in many simultaneous, but brief periods." This is the end of the dream. _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Questions on 'Coin Dream Tom, I only have a few questions. 1. Did your father have surgery in reality? (if this is too personal you don't need to answer) 2. How did you feel when you saw the woman digging? 3. What did her staff look like? 4. Where were you when you saw the coin "curtain"? dana _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Hi Dana. Thanks for the questions. 1. Yes, my father did have heart surgery, he passed away in the "recovery" room. That was in '91. 2. When I saw the woman digging, I felt both panicked and outraged. She was ruining the floor, she was an intruder, and her motives were unknown. 3. It was an ornately carved staff of a golden colored wood. It's kind of like the one Mulan has in the previews of the movie, and like the Mulan - Secret Warrior doll has. 4. When I saw the curtain, I was watching the woman through one of the windows in the living room. She was running across the lawn. Suddenly the curtain descended before my field of vision. It was not part of the decor of the room - I don't know where it came from. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Questions on 'Coin Dream Hi Tom...here are a few questions... 1...Is this a description of an actual house or one created within your dream?. 2...Do you live alone in this house with your Dad or are there others?.. 3...Are you the age you are now through out the dream?.. 4...What time of day did you notice the Asian woman?... 5...Were you outside or inside during the curtain of coins?.. 6...In retrospect was the voice familiar?.. Thanks Tom.....Don _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Hi Don. 1. The house was a pastiche of three houses I lived in while I was a child. In the first scene, the house was like the one in which my mother still resides. I lived there from 6th grade through a couple of years after college. The second scene was like a split level house we lived in briefly when I was in 5th grade, except for the bit about the stairs and the floor, and the view from the window was similar to the first house I remember, the one in which I lived from birth through the 4th grade. 2. Mom, Dad and I live in the house. Mom and Dad are not in the second scene. There are several visitors in the first scene, to welcome Dad home - my sister, brother-in-law, assorted neices and nephews. 3. Looking back on the dream, I wasn't really aware of being any particular age, so -- yes, I guess I was the same age as now - 40, 41 next month. 4. It seemed like early afternoon. The sun was shining, and when I looked out the window everything was bright. I don't remember any long shadows. 5. I was inside when I saw the curtain. I was looking at the fleeing woman through the livng room window. 6. No, the voice was not especially "familiar" it was more "generic" like a TV or radio news person. It really reminded me of one of those out-of-date Black & White 16mm. "educational" films I watched in school in the 60's and 70's. (but the films were from the 40's and 50's.) It was male, but neither high nor low pitched. No accent was discernable. It wasn't like a Divine Announcement, it was dry, factual and "informative". Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ By the way, Dana, thanks for asking if the question was too personal. Obviously, it wasn't, but thanks for your courtesy. I think it's important that the person sharing the dream be allowed to determine the level of engagement, and should be periodically reminded that it is their privilege and also their responsibility to do so. Thanks again for extending this courtesy to me. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Questions on 'Coin Dream Hi Tom Thanks for sharing your dream. i was not able to pay too much attention to the last one, but here I am. I have some questions. 1. Do these Chinese coins seem familiar to you? 2. Do you have any contact with ancient Chinese culture? 3. Do you know the I Ching and the way you ask questions to it? Greetings, Emiliano _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Hi Emiliano. Here are the answers to your questions. 1. In waking life I have few associations with the coins except, as noted below, as a way to consult the I Ching. In the dream, the coins have no further meaning to me, except as they seem to relate to the girl in the dream, and also vaguely to the concept of "Eastern wisdom". When I look at them in the dream, I am primarily aware of their beauty and unexpectedness. The main emotion I feel is one of delight. 2. No, I have no contact with Chinese culture, ancient or otherwise. 3. Yes, I know of the I Ching. One of the tasks I performed in connection with my initial work with this dream was to consult that oracle. The lower trigram was Chen, and the upper trigram was Li. The hexagram seemed to relate to some aspects of the dream. I do not customarily consult the I Ching, and did so only because of the curtain of coins in my dream. I hope these are the answers you need. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Hi dreamwheelers, Usually this process takes much longer, but with so many people and the dreamer being on top of the questions, we are zipping right along. Let's start the comment phase! I've included the dream below, as well as instructions for those not familiar with the process. - Richard DreamWheel - Comments Phase <----------------------------------------------> COMMENT PROCEDURES In this part of the process, you may comment on the dream. While you are welcome to make any comments you wish, what we are teaching in this group is non-defensive style developed by John Herbert (Montague Ullman stage II variation) modified for email. This segment is the one in which each group member takes the dream as if it were his or her own and shares feelings and thoughts about the dream and what it might mean in each members life situation. Making the dream your own: 1. At the beginning of all comment files or e-mail we generally write : "If this were my dream..." This sets up the general subjective attitude and works as a reminder to the commentor that they are not telling the dreamer what they think the dream means to the dreamer, but rather what the dream might mean if we had that dream. 2. To further this point, use 1st person singular, present tense. "In my dream..." EXAMPLE: Dream: "I'm looking at my mother walking down a long hall towards an open window." I might comment "In my dream the nurturing mother has found a new way to escape me." In my comment, it is *my mother*, *my hallway* and *my dream*. This may or may not provide insight to the initial dreamer, but its surprising how often this non- defensive approach does lead to new insights for both the dreamer and the commentor. 3. Send the comments in to the whole group. 4. The DREAMER may or may not respond as they wish. _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' P- Hi Tom, Thanks for sharing this dream with us. If this was my dream, the house would represent the many aspects of myself. The raised flooring has made it impractical yet beautiful. I can't see out the windows as much as I'd like to , not enough light comes in and I am inconvenienced by the doors. I have to walk so carefully because I don't want to mess it up. This represents my self-image...perhaps I am too focused on my appearance and not what's inside. In my dream the Asian woman represents a part of myself that is searching. She uses a staff-- a symbol for me of the spirit, the search for something divine. Perhaps I don't want her there because I fear the answers. I f this was my dream I would focus on the words spoken at the end of the dream. They seem to explain so much. They give me comfort, knowing that my father will always live. The words also explain the coin curtain. Each coin represents the the lives of loved ones, past and future, turning, changing. When I can't see one side there is another to take it's place as it revolves. Life is cycle within cycle, and we are all interlinked by unseen bonds like with this curtain. _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Hi Dana. It's been several days since your reply, and as no others replies have been forthcoming, I would like to take the opportunity to respond to your comments. You wrote " If this was my dream, the house would represent the many aspects of myself. The raised flooring has made it impractical yet beautiful. I can't see out the windows as much as I'd like to , not enough light comes in and I am inconvenienced by the doors." This is true. I think it's significant that the action of the second scene takes place in the Entrance Way and the Living Room. Because of the odd construction of the split level house (inwardly divided self) not only is it burdensome for others to enter, but it is crowded in the "living room". In my house there is insufficient "living room" or room for living". Again, you wrote "I have to walk so carefully because I don't want to mess it up. This represents my self-image ... perhaps I am too focused on my appearance and not what's inside. " When I think of the first scene, I realize that in it, I must curb the expression of the "inner me" in order to keep from injuring my father. Because he is coming from heart surgery, perhaps I am afraid to let myself be known to him because I will "break his heart". This is a pattern that repeats itself over and over in my life - I find myself living up to other's expectations, simply because I assume that the "real me" is rather hard to handle for other people. I find it much easier to be authentic and "real" with people I don't really know (such as the people in an internet dream sharing group) than with those most close to me. This is what I think the steps and the raised floor in my dream are about. Dana, you wrote "In my dream the Asian woman represents a part of myself that is searching. She uses a staff-- a symbol for me of the spirit, the search for something divine. Perhaps I don't want her there because I fear the answers." Years ago, I took a shamanism workshop led by Michael Harner (The Way of the Shaman). At one point we were to partner with another person in the workshop and each do a "journey" to identify the "power animal". In my journey, I encountered a white bull several times, and as the instructions given were "once an animal presents itself three times, come back to normal waking state and tell your partner the name of that animal - it will be their power animal." So, it transpires that my partner's power animal was a bull, and as a result of her journey, I was assigned an American Indian maiden, as in the Disney film Pocahauntus (spelling). Over the years in my dreams and personal meditations, this maiden has appeared several times -- usually to let me know that I currently had the support and power I needed at that time, all I needed was to avail myself of it." I really think the young Asian woman is an aspect of this image, just as in the two Disney films - Pocahauntus, and Mulan. After the dream, I went to Wal-Mart to find the doll of Mulan that was in the commercial I suspected of being my dream trigger. I found the doll, and on the package she was identified as "Mulan - the Secret Warrior". Pretty apt, I think, for someone who is really doing a service for me by ripping up my floor, but whom I perceived during the dream as a threat. Finally, Dana, you wrote" If this was my dream I would focus on the words spoken at the end of the dream. They seem to explain so much. They give me comfort, knowing that my father will always live. The words also explain the coin curtain. Each coin represents the the lives of loved ones, past and future, turning, changing. When I can't see one side there is another to take it's place as it revolves. Life is cycle within cycle, and we are all interlinked by unseen bonds like with this curtain." In a sense, my father does live, since I continue to keep my real self buried under an unimpeachable surface to avoid hurting those near me. I think I learned this habit in childhood, and it will take a lot of courage to CHANGE. I capitalized the word CHANGE in the previous sentence because I just became aware _today_ that the coins could carry that meaning. We speak of small change, loose change, making change. It makes sense that I symbolized the concept of "change" with the images of coins. Why Chinese? Perhaps I am carrying through the Eastern theme from the young woman all the way through the dream. Perhaps, since I did not recognize her in the dream, but later she seems to be the same as the corn-maiden in other dreams, the Chinese theme could be representing my own "inscrutable" nature that I take pains to keep under the floor. The Chinese coins are utilized in consulting the I Ching, the Book of Change (see, there's that word again). As part of my initial work on the dream, inspired by the presence of the coins, I consulted the I Ching and generated the Hexagram #21 - in the book I have it is labeled "Reform". The text for this hexagram is: "Reform will bring progress. It is advantageous to let justice be administered. Aroused consciousness forms the condition for Reform. The ancient rulers, therefore, put forth their laws and clearly defined the penalties." The commentary in the book says: "The time calls for energetic Reform. A situation has developed that is at cross purposes to your life and is interfering with the attainment of your aims. This obstacle must be _dug out_ reforemd, and thereby eliminated. Success will come through the enforcement of laws and the administering of justice. There is neither possibility of compromise, nor hope that the problem will vanish. It cannot be rationalized or ignored, and you cannot maneuver around it. It is tangible, real, and a self-generating force in your life and must be severely reformed before it causes any permanent damage to you. There could not be a more appropriate time to examine your character and determine the extent to which any rationalizations, habits, etc., have usurped control of your judgement. Know what you want, know what makes you feel good about hour Self, know what brings you into harmony with others. These are your guidelines and principles. Other factors that assume control of your behavior, or that create inner discord are the obstacles that must be overcome." The words at the end of the dream seem to mean that I, myself, have only one life -- and it is too brief to allow all this fragmentation in it. If I can begin in some small way to heal that fragmentation, then I can begin to live simultaneously in more aspects of my life - not only the practiced, perfect surface persona - the "perfect" floor that diminishes my room for living, and limits other's access to me, as well as my access to them. Thank you very much, everyone, for your questions and comment. I apologize for being so long winded, especially since it's about my own dream, and my personal concerns. Thank you again for allowing me to share the dream with you all. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Two more very brief notes, then I will be through. After writing the previous message, I turned on the TV and Brian DePalma's film Phantom of the Paradise was on. The first thing I heard were the lyrics to one of the songs "To work it out, I let them in - all the good guys and the bad guys that I've been. . . all the devils that disturb me and the angels that defeated them somehow -- come together in me now. This was so appropriate to what I was writing with regard to the fragmented self buried under layers of plastic wood that I was struck by the coincidence. The other note had to do with the power animal journeys. The power animal I found for my partner was a bull - and her sun sign turned out to be Taurus. The power "animal" she found for me was a maiden, and my sun sign is Virgo. I have thought about this "coincidence" many times over the years. The word Coincidence means co-incidence, or two things happening simultaneously. In my dream the word "simultaneously" is accompanied by an image of Coin, the first four letters in the word Coin-cidence. That probably doesn't have any meaning, but it is an interesting ..., well, coincidence. Now I'll hush. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' Hi All Thanks Tom for your beautiful dream. It is undoubtably a special one. If this was my dream: In my dream my father is recovering from a heart surgery. I welcome him home. My father is the symbol of some kind of masculine energy. That energy was not working well, so my father having a heart surgery means that this masculine side of me had a poor heart (this is, some problem to face and express my feelings). This problem has been corrected (the surgery). Now some changes wait for me. These changes are symbolized by the new floors in my house. My house is the symbol for my inner psyche. There is a new presence in the house. A Chinese woman in her pajamas. She means a new way to express my femenine energy. A more spiritual way. She's in her pajamas because she just "woke up". Those energies were "asleep" but now are working. She runs away. I don't know the reason. I feel she must be afraid of me. Maybe I'm afraid of her. Maybe my current state of consciousness is not the right one. Thjis woman remembers me of Mulan.I didn't see the film, but I know that Mulan is a kind of feminine hero. She does extraordinary things without giving up her feminine identity. Then, I see the courtain of coins. These are the coins I use for the I Ching, and the ritual of making a question to this oracle implies that you have to connect to your higher self. My higher self seems to be present in this scene, and It gives me something to think about. "There is only one life and it's lived in simultaneous but brief periods". I don't really know exactly what this means, but I have some associations. For instance, life is always changing. (Everything is mutating, like the I Ching says). Nothing is forever, so we have to learn to let things go. We have to learn to change ourselves. Etc. This is a very fine dream. Greetings, Emiliano _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' Hi Tom Some comment about hexagram 21 on the I Ching (from memory, I don't have the book here). Hexagram 21 (and I'm not an I Ching freak!!) is sometimes seen as a mouth that must bite an obstacle that keeps both sides of the mouth separated. This means: bite, which means: ACT. Sometimes the book tells you not to act at all. Sometimes it tells you that you are wrong, or lying yourself, or searching for something that it's not for you. This sign is telling you: you are right. Go on. Act. Change things. your life is not forever. Bite hard. Thought it may be interesting greetings, Emiliano _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' If this were my dream, welcoming my father home would be related to my missing him. I hug him gently because he is fragile just as my relationship with him has been fragile at times. I love him and feel love from him but often our relationship was not what I wished it could be. But I pretend everything is okay. The all-to-perfect wood floors represents this pretending, this wanting things to look good. I don't even want to walk on it to mess it up, I only want to remember the good things about my relationship with my father. This false floor though prevents me from going places (blocked doors) and seeing things (blocked windows) as they really were/are. But there is this wise, strong, beautiful part of me (young Asian woman) that knows that this floor is false and there is another floor, other aspects of my father and my relationship with him. But I cannot deny that these other aspects exist(ed) and it is okay. The curtain of coins is one you can easily see through, it does not hide anything, and it is beautiful. It is telling me it is okay to see both the good and the bad in my father and my relationship with him. Life is lived in many simultaneous periods. Myself and my relationships are not all one way or the other but have many aspects to it, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Tom - Thanks for giving me this wonderful dream. I will continue to ponder its meanings for me. Matthew _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Thanks Emiliano. I was confused by some of the images I ran across in various editions of the I-Ching. Most of them had to do with chewing off various body parts. Until your message, I had no idea at all as to what they meant, they were simply disturbing images associated with the Hexagram. Thanks for this insight. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Thanks again, Emiliano, for your response. You wrote: "In my dream my father is recovering from a heart surgery. I welcome him home. My father is the symbol of some kind of masculine energy. That energy was not working well, so my father having a heart surgery means that this masculine side of me had a poor heart (this is, some problem to face and express my feelings). This problem has been corrected (the surgery)." This is an interesting approach, and one which I had not previously considered - owing to the image being so "personalzed" as to resemble my actual father. I can see how that fits in, though. I tend to be very "approach/avoidance" with regard to solving my personal problems. I'll go hammers and tongs at it for a day or so, then backslide for a week. I have often felt that this was due to either the "puer" nature of my shadow, or to an actual energy imbalance. Thinking in terms of masc./fem. energy interplay is therefore convenient shorthand - something my dreams are apt to use. I would say not that this aspect of myself has been "corrected" but rather that I find myself convalescent, but on the road to recovery. Overcoming that shadow aspect is something I am working, struggling with - and it's not easy. For every two steps forward it's a step back. Even so, I feel that at least "some" progress has been made. Again, you write: "Now some changes wait for me. These changes are symbolized by the new floors in my house. My house is the symbol for my inner psyche. There is a new presence in the house. A Chinese woman in her pajamas. She means a new way to express my femenine energy. A more spiritual way. " I have been going through a paradigm shift (hate the phrase, but it's the only one I know that expresses what I mean) in my spiritual life. I have been for some months now moving from valuing "knowledge about" to valuing "knowledge of". I won't go on and on explaining what I mean, my friends and I have discussed this topic till we're blue. I will simply note that the way you express the underlying meaning of the Asian woman rings true with reference to that shift of values and perceptions. "She's in her pajamas because she just "woke up". Those energies were "asleep" but now are working. She runs away. I don't know the reason. I feel she must be afraid of me. Maybe I'm afraid of her. Maybe my current state of consciousness is not the right one. " I am afraid of her - she's wrecking the life I've carefully built up layer by layer, step by step. Your suggestion that she is just waking up is very striking. Thank you. "This woman remembers me of Mulan.I didn't see the film, but I know that Mulan is a kind of femenine hero. She does extraordinary things without giving up her femenine identity. " While that is true, factually, I don't really see the connection. Perhaps you would care to amplify and lastly, you write: "Then, I see the curtain of coins. These are the coins I use for the I Ching, and the ritual of making a question to this oracle implies that you have to connect to your higher self. My higher self seems to be present in this scene, and It gives me something to think about. "There is only one life and it's lived in simultaneous but brief periods". I don't really know exactly what this means, but I have some associations. For instance, life is always changing. (Everything is mutating, like the I Ching says). Nothing is forever, so we have to learn to let things go. We have to learn to change ourselves. Etc." I agree about the importance of connecting to the higher self, and my desire to live under it's guidance. That's why, after all, I'm so focused on dreams. Change is eternal, it's the only thing that is. Perhaps my dream is telling me it's time I changed too. I hope I have the courage, as well as the humility to listen attentively to my higher self. Thank you, Emiliano, for your very helpful comments on my dream. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Matthew, you wrote: "If this were my dream, welcoming my father home would be related to my missing him. I hug him gently because he is fragile just as my relationship with him has been fragile at times. I love him and feel love from him but often our relationship was not what I wished it could be." I do miss Dad. Oddly enough, he and I were not that close when he was alive. When he passed away, though, I plunged into deepest mourning. My reaction really surprised -- and disturbed -- me. I just didn't know where it was coming from. Only now do I realize it was because I was mourning for the relationship that "could have been". At the time, I simply grieved, and then judged myself very harshly for my grief, because it seemed so out of proportion to our actual relationship. The grief was bad enough, but my own judgement of myself for feeling it was even more awful. I kept telling myself how selfish I was to grieve. How what I was going through wasn't about me - it was about Dad and his passing, but I had twisted it around so that it "seemed to be" about me, myself. It's difficult to describe the hell I put myself through for over a year. You also write: "But I pretend everything is okay. The all-to-perfect wood floors represents this pretending, this wanting things to look good. I don't even want to walk on it to mess it up, I only want to remember the good things about my relationship with my father." I also think it has to do with feeling I had to be "the perfect son" to my parents, and not to admit my failures, or my doubts, or anything, really, to them. If I had to ask for help, or even advice, I felt as if I had failed to live up to that perfect image my parents seemed to have of me. I was my father's youngest child, and my mother's only. Therefore, they lavished attention and praise on me -- it was horrible for a young child to go through that, and left me with a lifelong problem with perfectionism, judgementalism, and hypercriticality. Dad passed away in 1991, and I am only now finding a way to address these long standing life-issues. "This false floor though prevents me from going places (blocked doors) and seeing things (blocked windows) as they really were/are." When you put it like that -- "false-floor" -- it makes me think of the false foundations on which I seem to have built much of my life. Seeing things as they really are is sometimes a strain for me, because I find I frequently confuse reality with "realism" in the sense of "pessimism" and "doing my best" as doing a "better than perfect" job. I knew of these tendencies before, of course, but didn't see them addressed in this dream. Thank you for your insight. "But there is this wise, strong, beautiful part of me (young Asian woman) that knows that this floor is false and there is another floor, other aspects of my father and my relationship with him. But I cannot deny that these other aspects exist(ed) and it is okay." The last sentence, I guess because it starts with "But", confuses me a little. Could you clarify it? I agree that "Mulan" represents another part of myself - primarily I see her as representing the courage for change and "revolution" that I lack. There are other "floors". I suspect, judging from the actual structure of the split level house in which, as a child, I briefly lived, that there are actually five or six "floors" as there are five or six steps from the den to the entrance hall and living room. In that "real-life" house, the entrance hall, living room, den, kitchen, dining room, etc., were all on the same level. One task I need to perform is to attempt to name each "step" that leads to the final, very high floor. Then I might be able to formulate an action plan to address each one in turn -- literally dig beneath each successive floor until I reach the original one. Possible trigger: At the time I dreamed this dream, I was having a new roof put on my house. I was concerned that the roofers were working during the day when I was at work and unable to "supervise" them. I even formed the theory that, under those conditions, they could simply slap a few shingles over the roof and call it new, but doing nothing to address the real, underlying roof with it's real problems. After all, who would know? I'm happy to say I was wrong, but at the time it was a concern. Lastly, Matthew, you write: "The curtain of coins is one you can easily see through, it does not hide anything, and it is beautiful. It is telling me it is okay to see both the good and the bad in my father and my relationship with him. Life is lived in many simultaneous periods. Myself and my relationships are not all one way or the other but have many aspects to it, good and bad, beautiful and ugly." I had not considered it's relative transparency before. If I had the curtain of coins with holes in them hanging before me, people could still see me through the curtain, and I could see them. (Holey (Holy) curtain - makes me think of the Veil of the Temple concealing the Holy of Holies. Also brings to mind the word "whole") The curtain does not conceal, it reveals. Change (the coins) does not conceal, it reveals. The coins are revolving, freely showing both sides of themselves. The presence of one side of a coin implies another side, in the same way that the "perfection" implies it's own opposite. The coins, the curtain are beautiful. If fact, they are so attractive (change is attractive) that I forget to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of them (the changes that need to occur in my life). During waking time, the though of so much to do just fills me with dismay. I need to remember the lesson of how beautiful the coins were -- in other words, take one step (there's that word again) at a time and keep the end product, a new life for me, firmly in mind. One of my favorite movies (speaking of golden coins) is the silent movie GREED. I had forgotten that earlier that week, I invited a number of my friends over to see it. Maybe it too was a trigger. Originally running in excess of 12 hours, this 1924 film was to all accounts, an astounding masterpiece. Nevertheless, the film was ruthlessly cut by the studio to a running time of just over two hours. The negatives of the excised material were destroyed. After this "hack job", miraculously, the film was still a great masterpiece. An essay on the film begins with this quote from "Three Dialogues" by Samuel Beckett: "Total object, complete with missing parts -- instead of partial object. Question of degree." Hopefully, because of this dream, and the work you all have done on it, I can find the courage to be such a Total "object", complete with flawed or missing parts, instead of a partial object. Thank you, Matthew, for your insights. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' Hi Tom, Thanks for the wonderful Coins Dream -- it gave me a lift. I'm sorry not to have responded to you earlier with questions, but I was out of town for several days at the end of last week and was busy the first part of this week at work. Anyway, I'll go ahead and give you my comments now on your dream. Preliminarily, let me say how strongly I am aware that I will be projecting, as your dream is so mysterious to me and I don't know you except from this Dream Wheel. I know that's what we we're supposed to do (i.e., project), and to acknowledge, but I wanted to say so anyway. So, if this were my dream, this dream is first of all about what time is and means in my life. My life (particularly, my psyche) in this dream is represented by the house, and the floors especially represent layers of my psyche. The latest layer, the blonde hardwood, has just gone down, and although I like it, it also seems a little too perfect to live on, as if it became a part of my life because of its appearance rather than its functionality. I sometimes am attracted to things because of the image they present rather than what they are (and I've always had a thing about blondes, ironically, including a mad crush on a blond in high school that left me dizzy for years after). I soon find out, however, that I can't necessarily live with what I thought I wanted. The most striking thing to me about my version of this dream is the "moral", i.e., that "There is only one life, and it is lived in many simultaneous, but brief periods." In my dream, this has several meanings. First is the most esoteric, that is, that my life from the moment of my birth to the moment of my death could be conceived of as existing all at once, with time being the vertical dimension. So, everything exists at once -- past, present, and future -- and every moment of my life is actually a brief period linked to the next by my karma (the Buddha said that there are 450,000 mind moments in every moment). Second, it is lived simultaneously because the past influences the present, the present influences the future, and, I believe, the future influences the present and past, too (and so on). The first two are obvious, but the second is so in my dream ("imd") because my life wants to become something, i.e., it wants to become the deepest essence of me, so my future creates my past and present. Interestingly, imd, there is a triptych of scenes/periods. In the first, I am welcoming Dad home from heart surgery; in the second, I confront an Asian woman; in the third, I see the Chinese coins. Could these be past, present and future imd? To me, it is important that the house is a pastiche of houses where I lived as a child but in the reverse chronological order of the order you dreamed them. So, I see causation and sequence running in multiple directions here, indicating, imd, multiple levels of meaning, and underlining the mysterious influence that different parts of my life have on one another regardless of when they occurred chronologically. One thing is clear imd: as I grow older (I will be 39 soon), more of the plot of my life story is revealed (and more "floors" are laid down), creating the need for me to constantly reassess and revise and let go, as well as adding and growing new things (see below). When my Dad comes home from heart surgery, I feel sadness and tenderness towards him and his vulnerability now that he is older. So achingly melancholy how life slips by, how someone who was once strong is now fragile. And I identify myself strongly with him -- in a sense, I have incorporated him into my soul, and now I feel it is my heart that is wounded and that I must rest in my sanctuary, in my bedroom, with support from my family. Time has had an impact on me as it has on my father, and I need to accept that in some ways I too must be more gentle with my heart and my body. In my dream, too, I feel a sense of claustrophobia in the first scene, because the floors seem to be growing higher towards the ceiling, leaving me less room to live, making it harder to see outside, and making it harder to get outside too. I find as I get older that I accumulate more, both more memories and more things, and it cramps my energy and my freedom to live. So, in my dream, this leads me to the second phase of the dream, where the young Asian woman has begun the task that must be undertaken -- digging the wood so that I have more head room in my house and more room to walk, and scarring it so that I can feel comfortable walking on it rather than thinking I must maintain its perfection. Imd, "Mulan" is heroic -- and an unlikely heroine, because she is a woman who takes on a man's task, and must hide her true nature from all except her dragon/guardian. Why is she an unlikely heroine? Because she has come to help me, and yet at first I reject and fear her -- I don't recognize her for what she is -- someone who has come to help me remove some obstacles to the energetic flow of my life. I am identified with my attachment to the unsullied floor and my fear of her as well as power to frighten her, rather than impressed with her beauty, her diligence, her magical staff, her courage. She is a part of me I haven't fully come to terms with, because I am focused her foreignness, youth, and humility as a woman. But her work bears fruit in the third part of my dream, the Chinese coins, which imd are liberated energy and wisdom. The I Ching has told me that "the time calls for energetic reform, [because] either an inferior person ... is working against [me] or a situation has developed at cross purposes to [my] life [and is] interfering with the attainment of my aims. The obstacles must be sought out, reformed, and thereby eliminated. ... [I need to k]now what I want, know what makes [me] feel good about [my] Self, know what brings me into harmony with others." Shih Ho -- Reform (Biting Through). So, imd, my life is trying to heal itself from a wounded heart, and once the work is done, I have the energy and ability to see things more clearly and with greater joy, I.e. I see the magic curtain, the veil of mystery that hides the totality of things. And, eventually, imd, I can see through the curtain to the totality of things -- my whole life included, a magnificent vision indeed. Thanks again Tom. Paul _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' Hi Tom About The Mulan paragraph: I meant that a woman can accomplish things without turning herself into a man. Femenine doesn't mean passive. Your inner woman can do great things for you if you let her do them. But she'll do them in a femenine way, approaching the situation in a way that your masculine side may not consider. This asian woman may be capable of helping you somewaht, just let her act and don't be afraid of her way of acting. She's a hero, too. _________________________ ______________________ __________________ Comments on 'Coin Dream' Greetings Tom, Thank-you for sharing your dream with us. I offer just a couple of comments.....if I have repeated any ideas presented by other dreamworkers, I apologize. It is not intentional. If this were my dream my father would represent a part of myself...the patriarch perhaps. And it is the patriarch who rules over society at large and the inner community on a more personal level. The patriarch generally does not rule with his heart, but does so with his mind. That is why, in my dream he has just returned from having heart surgery...to "fix" it, repair it...in an effort to get it functioning properly again. Perhaps at this point in my life it is becoming clearer to me that I need to be able to rely on my heart in important matters more often and less on my thinking ability. Perhaps I am moving into a period of trusting my feelings more. Because my dream presents to me an image of my psyche/self as a split level house, I am tempted to regard this image as a message that some part of my psyche has been split off from the rest of my conscious awareness. It may very likely be related to my feeling function which is only now getting some attention. The floors in my dream are a "blonde hardwood". Immediately I get an image of a woman - attractive in a collective sense because she is blonde. But underneath she is hard......perhaps hard-hearted and un-feeling. She is the public feminine self I show the world. I receive praise for this part because it is in keeping with collective standards....but the heartwood is not soft. (am I confusing anyone here?)It almost feels like the layers of new wood over the old are like the layers of makeup some women carry on their faces - a mask (or the persona). These women (to me) do appear plastic or insincere to me....not in touch with their own feelings or their authentic selves. But, oh...don't they look great (!) on the runways and in media. I find it interesting in my dream that I am in the den while the Asian woman is in the "living" room. I am in the room typically regarded as a man's private haven away from female influence. Again, often a place filed with shelves of books....which of course exercise the mind and thinking......while the woman occupies the living room. The name of this room alone speaks volumes to me. Living/Life Affirming, a gathering place that does not exclude the Feminine/Feelings. Non-exclusionary. Embracing all parts of the psyche...which, of course, means the Shadow parts...or dark, hidden aspects of my personality, as well. The Asian woman in my dream is dark-haired, dark- eyed, olive-skinned. For me there is no question she is a repressed part of my psyche. She even wears black silk pajamas. Dark and sensuous......the "feel" of silk is inviting and pleasant. She digs at the artifical "face" of the floor trying to get at what is old and real...maybe not very pretty, but definitely solid and still there. No amount of covering it up with layers and layers will make it disappear. She digs in an attempt to get closer to the ground level......for me, signalling an attempt by my Inner Feminine to get more "grounded" and bring me to a level of awareness that is deeper and lower and not so much in my head. As far as the coins in my dream, I am only getting phrases like "doesn't know heads from tails". If they are gold then they may represent the treasure that lies at the bottom of the pit dug by the Asian woman, or more personally, the gifts that lie waiting for me if I have the courage to look deeper within and uncover some of the layers that hide my deeper Self from view. Living a more authentic life, one that may not be collectively acceptable or "beautiful" certainly has its rewards. Thank-you so much for letting me project my own symbols onto this dream. I find it a wonderful gift of the psyche and once again am grateful to the Unconscious for providing such treasures as guideposts. This is a lovely dream. Michelle _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Hello Paul, and everyone. I have been having problems with e-mail for several days. I'm very sorry for my delay in replying. The downside of living in a technological age such as ours is how dependant we become upon the technology. Paul, you wrote: "Preliminarily, let me say how strongly I am aware that I will be projecting, as your dream is so mysterious to me and I don't know you except from this Dream Wheel. I know that's what we we're supposed to do (i.e., project), and to acknowledge, but I wanted to say so anyway. " All we can know of the world is our own projection. Objective reality, if it does, indeed, exist is beyond our ability to know it, since all such reality is mediated - not only by our nervous system but by our interpretation of those "biobytes" of information. Who it is who "knows" is as little understood as who it is who "dreams". It's all conjecture. So, if this were my dream, this dream is first of all about what time is and means in my life. My life (particularly, my psyche) in this dream is represented by the house, and the floors especially represent layers of my psyche. The latest layer, the blonde hardwood, has just gone down, and although I like it, it also seems a little too perfect to live on, as if it became a part of my life because of its appearance rather than its functionality. I sometimes am attracted to things because of the image they present rather than what they are (and I've always had a thing about blondes, ironically, including a mad crush on a blond in high school that left me dizzy for years after). I soon find out, however, that I can't necessarily live with what I thought I wanted." That last sentence is to me the most resonant. I can't necessarily live with what I thought I wanted. What i (ego mind) consciously wants is probably miles away from what "I" (the whole me) wants. What is needed for greater self-integration is more reliance on "source" -- that small voice inside that I know I should heed, but dare not. Again, Paul, you wrote: "The most striking thing to me about my version of this dream is the "moral", i.e., that "There is only one life, and it is lived in many simultaneous, but brief periods." In my dream, this has several meanings. First is the most esoteric, that is, that my life from the moment of my birth to the moment of my death could be conceived of as existing all at once, with time being the vertical dimension. So, everything exists at once -- past, present, and future -- and every moment of my life is actually a brief period linked to the next by my karma (the Buddha said that there are 450,000 mind moments in every moment). Second, it is lived simultaneously because the past influences the present, the present influences the future, and, I believe, the future influences the present and past, too (and so on). The first two are obvious, but the second is so in my dream ("imd") because my life wants to become something, i.e., it wants to become the deepest essence of me, so my future creates my past and present. " There's a high level concept. Wow. Yes, I am the product of my past, but am I also the product of my future? Yes, I think, because my higher self continually pulls me toward my ideal future self. Yet at the same time, each present choice influences my future and reshapes my past - in that I get to choose which of my memories influence my present behavior. "Interestingly, imd, there is a triptych of scenes/periods. In the first, I am welcoming Dad home from heart surgery; in the second, I confront an Asian woman; in the third, I see the Chinese coins. Could these be past, present and future imd? To me, it is important that the house is a pastiche of houses where I lived as a child but in the reverse chronological order of the order you dreamed them. So, I see causation and sequence running in multiple directions here, indicating, imd, multiple levels of meaning, and underlining the mysterious influence that different parts of my life have on one another regardless of when they occurred chronologically. " I had never discovered this, Paul. And I'm still a little unclear as to how practical this awareness is, but it IS true of my dream, and fits in very well with my vision of the cosmos. Thank you for this unexpected, and inspiring gift. "One thing is clear imd: as I grow older (I will be 39 soon), more of the plot of my life story is revealed (and more "floors" are laid down), creating the need for me to constantly reassess and revise and let go, as well as adding and growing new things (see below). " Again, right as rain. I read recently of an order of . . . well . . . monks (although they aren't really monks) who are expected to take their received teachings, and improve on them. They are forbidden to pass on anything the same way they got it. Reminds me a little of the parable of the talents. I intuitively feel that there is a great truth here. "When my Dad comes home from heart surgery, I feel sadness and tenderness towards him and his vulnerability now that he is older. So achingly melancholy how life slips by, how someone who was once strong is now fragile. And I identify myself strongly with him -- in a sense, I have incorporated him into my soul, and now I feel it is my heart that is wounded and that I must rest in my sanctuary, in my bedroom, with support from my family. Time has had an impact on me as it has on my father, and I need to accept that in some ways I too must be more gentle with my heart and my body." And, I'm not, Paul. I'm not gentle with myself at all. And for that, I am continually skirting the edges of depression. Again, a lesson I need to take to heart. "In my dream, too, I feel a sense of claustrophobia in the first scene, because the floors seem to be growing higher towards the ceiling, leaving me less room to live, making it harder to see outside, and making it harder to get outside too. I find as I get older that I accumulate more, both more memories and more things, and it cramps my energy and my freedom to live." I had never connected the cramped feeling with actual things, but it's true. I am totally awash in things that crowd me, but which I worked so hard to obtain that I hesitate to let them go. Great insight - thanks. "So, in my dream, this leads me to the second phase of the dream, where the young Asian woman has begun the task that must be undertaken -- digging the wood so that I have more head room in my house and more room to walk, and scarring it so that I can feel comfortable walking on it rather than thinking I must maintain its perfection. Imd, "Mulan" is heroic -- and an unlikely heroine, because she is a woman who takes on a man's task, and must hide her true nature from all except her dragon/guardian." I still haven't seen the film, but the way you describe "Mulan" makes me think of how ill-fitted I feel I am inside to be doing the work (both my job and otherwise) that I find myself doing. It is cause of great frustration and gnawing self doubt. I had never thought that the fact that I was actually doing it, and doing it well, as being heroic -- until now. "Why is she an unlikely heroine? Because she has come to help me, and yet at first I reject and fear her -- I don't recognize her for what she is -- someone who has come to help me remove some obstacles to the energetic flow of my life. I am identified with my attachment to the unsullied floor and my fear of her as well as power to frighten her, rather than impressed with her beauty, her diligence, her magical staff, her courage. She is a part of me I haven't fully come to terms with, because I am focused her foreignness, youth, and humility as a woman." I don't like messy, I despise disorder and try never to create "waves" because in the first part of my life, I have learned that it's not the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, it's the squeaky wheel that gets replaced. Mulan is making a mess of my floor, my life, and I really hate it - but now there is this big ugly gash and it must be dealt with. I currently miss the curiosity and sense of adventure of digging that deep - what I really see in the dream is a great deal of time and work. I need to "focus", to use your phrase, on other aspects of the situation - the opportunities it presents, the curiosity and adventure, etc., etc. "But her work bears fruit in the third part of my dream, the Chinese coins, which imd are liberated energy and wisdom. The I Ching has told me that "the time calls for energetic reform, [because] either an inferior person ... is working against [me] or a situation has developed at cross purposes to [my] life [and is] interfering with the attainment of my aims. The obstacles must be sought out, reformed, and thereby eliminated. ... [I need to k]now what I want, know what makes [me] feel good about [my] Self, know what brings me into harmony with others." Shih Ho -- Reform (Biting Through). So, imd, my life is trying to heal itself from a wounded heart, and once the work is done, I have the energy and ability to see things more clearly and with greater joy, I.e. I see the magic curtain, the veil of mystery that hides the totality of things. And, eventually, imd, I can see through the curtain to the totality of things -- my whole life included, a magnificent vision indeed." And now I see through a glass darkly, but then, face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. "Thanks again Tom. Paul" Thank you, Paul. Pleasant Dreams, Tom ______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ Thanks, Emiliano. One real quality I associate with the Feminine is patient perseverence - the ability to persevere, and to do overwhelmingly huge tasks a little at a time in spite of the odds. This is something I definitely need in my life. In my life I'm always first out of the starting gate, yet the first to fall along the wayside because I rarely take the time to see things through - growing discouraged less than half way through. The ability to, say, carry a child for 9 months and to lie in labor for hours and hours is simply alien to me, and it's something I desperately need in my life. This is only one of several similar examples I could name. Pleasant Dreams, Tom Hi Michelle. Thanks for your comments. You write; "If this were my dream my father would represent a part of myself...the patriarch perhaps. And it is the patriarch who rules over society at large and the inner community on a more personal level. The patriarch generally does not rule with his heart, but does so with his mind. That is why, in my dream he has just returned from having heart surgery...to "fix" it, repair it...in an effort to get it functioning properly again. Perhaps at this point in my life it is becoming clearer to me that I need to be able to rely on my heart in important matters more often and less on my thinking ability. Perhaps I am moving into a period of trusting my feelings more." That is a correct assessment. I AM moving into such a period. I am much more practiced in utilizing my intellect than my feelings, but am trying to learn. Part of the reason I do rely on my mind rather than my heart is because my heart has gotten me into trouble before. I have a friend, also named Tom, with whom I have been having a similar dialogue for the last several months. He is convinced that, to use the ad-line from "The X Files", the truth is out there - and to that end has taken to studying all kinds of ancient texts to discover in them what he, himself, believes. In him, I can see myself of several years ago, and though I feel I have attained a more complete view of things than I previously had, still "old habits die hard". Now I am "logically" convinced that the "truth" if there is any, is "in here". Still, practice lags behind espoused belief. "Because my dream presents to me an image of my psyche/self as a split level house, I am tempted to regard this image as a message that some part of my psyche has been split off from the rest of my conscious awareness. It may very likely be related to my feeling function which is only now getting some attention. "I also feel that it represents a fragmentation of my psyche - and agree that feeling is one part of the whole - but I can't shake the suspicion that it represents a whole spectrum of inauthentic being, learned from a very early age as I had to deal with my: 1. admittedly authoritarian father who prided himself in having the right "answer" for all of life's difficulties, and expected me to agree -- whether or not I did, 2. and my mother whose alcoholism made my formative years very unstable from an emotional standpoint. I find I have denied these feelings for years, and prided myself on "bootstrapping my way through", and that it was all in the past - over and done with and no good to anybody to stir it all up again. Over the last several months, though, I have become aware of how much work there still remains to do - I had never put these things together though -- my dream and my specific early childhood experiences together until your comments on my dream. Stirring all this old bad stuff is very like digging under the floor. No wonder I became so alarmed in my dream. Major Major Insight - thanks. "The floors in my dream are a "blonde hardwood". Immediately I get an image of a woman - attractive in a collective sense because she is blonde. But underneath she is hard......perhaps hard-hearted and un-feeling. She is the public feminine self I show the world. I receive praise for this part because it is in keeping with collective standards....but the heartwood is not soft. (am I confusing anyone here?)It almost feels like the layers of new wood over the old are like the layers of makeup some women carry on their faces - a mask (or the persona). These women (to me) do appear plastic or insincere to me....not in touch with their own feelings or their authentic selves. But, oh...don't they look great (!) on the runways and in media." I agree with your observations, Michelle, but I'm afraid you lost me a little. I do resonate with the feelings of hiding behind the perfect surface. "I find it interesting in my dream that I am in the den while the Asian woman is in the "living" room. I am in the room typically regarded as a man's private haven away from female influence. Again, often a place filed with shelves of books....which of course exercise the mind and thinking......" My association with the den is that that is where the TV is kept - This is the place where the family can be together, and usually only family or very close friends of the family are allowed there. The den can be seen as the place for the family secrets, as opposed to the living room which is reserved for "company" and is more formal (and less comfortable) - - a place where children are not allowed to play, and the only room in the house in which we have to "dress up" and behave like "grown ups". "while the woman occupies the living room. The name of this room alone speaks volumes to me. Living/Life Affirming, a gathering place that does not exclude the Feminine/Feelings. Non-exclusionary. Embracing all parts of the psyche...which, of course, means the Shadow parts...or dark, hidden aspects of my personality, as well." My living room today is the "heart" of the house, mainly because the room I would consider my den is now, for reasons too complicated to go into, is now the junk room. It used to be my favorite room, and now . . . I rarely enter it except to pass through it on my way to the laundry room. Quite a reversal from when I was young. "The Asian woman in my dream is dark-haired, dark- eyed, olive-skinned. For me there is no question she is a repressed part of my psyche. She even wears black silk pajamas. Dark and sensuous......the "feel" of silk is inviting and pleasant." The black and other dark colors in this scene contrast vividly with the floor and the sunlight. It's as if my darker, more unknown self is a dark blot against the other colors I chose for the living room. I do think she is a repressed part of my psyche, but not the shadow per se' as she is differently gendered. The word that comes to mind when I picture her is "Ninja", but a very special sort of Ninja. "She digs at the artifical "face" of the floor trying to get at what is old and real... maybe not very pretty, but definitely solid and still there. No amount of covering it up with layers and layers will make it disappear. She digs in an attempt to get closer to the ground level......for me, signalling an attempt by my Inner Feminine to get more "grounded" and bring me to a level of awareness that is deeper and lower and not so much in my head. " I agree with this, except your characterization of the floor beneath as solid. Because of some damage to my home, the same damage that turned the den into the "junk room", there are places in the floor that have grown soft beneath my feet. I am reluctant to rip up the carpet to see what is underneath, because I suspect that the damage is worse than it appears to be. At the same time, my health has started deteriorating, due to years of neglect I guess. If, as Jeremy Taylor suggests, there are a number of areas in life that every dream is always about - and if health is one of those -- perhaps digging up the floor points to an unsuspected health problem beneath the surface. This has already occured to me, and I have made an appointment with my doctor. "As far as the coins in my dream, I am only getting phrases like "doesn't know heads from tails". If they are gold then they may represent the treasure that lies at the bottom of the pit dug by the Asian woman, or more personally, the gifts that lie waiting for me if I have the courage to look deeper within and uncover some of the layers that hide my deeper Self from view. Living a more authentic life, one that may not be collectively acceptable or "beautiful" certainly has its rewards." I think several people find the coins a bit puzzling. I'm one of those people. The work the group has done, though, has gone far to open the symbolism for me. "Thank-you so much for letting me project my own symbols onto this dream. I find it a wonderful gift of the psyche and once again am grateful to the Unconscious for providing such treasures as guideposts." As am I. Thank you for sharing your insights with me, Michelle. Pleasant Dreams, Tom _______________ ___________________ __________________ ________________ The last message here I have left out, it was just a thank you note from the moderator. Usually we like to send a questionnaire here to all participants to check whether or not they felt abused or misled by the experience or process in any way. The questionnaire is being revised and was left off of this group. update. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S September - October 1998 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< If you have news you'd like to share, contact Peggy Coats, pcoats@dreamtree.com. Visit Global Dreaming News online at http://www.dreamtree.com/News/global.htm. This Month's Features: NEWS -Nightmare Workshop in Portland, Oregon -Spiritual Direction and Dream Training in the Jungian Mystical Tradition RESEARCH & REQUESTS - Life-Altering Dreams for Television Pilot Male Bereavement Dream Series - Dreams, Visions and Their Effects on Art WEBSITE & ONLINE UPDATES -Dreamwork on AOL -Sol y Luna Voyager A Lucid Dreaming Dreams: -The Bridge Between the Ego and the Subconscious -New Additions to the ED Dream Links Site DREAM CALENDAR for October 1998 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< N E W S <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>> Nightmare Workshop in Portland, Oregon Dr. Gillian Holloway is conducting a day long class called "Understanding Nightmares: The Gift Behind the Terror." , Saturday, October 3, at Marylhurst University in Portland Oregon. Undergraduate Credit Available, Non- Students Welcome. To Register by phone Marylhurst University at: 503- 699-6241, Outside Oregon call: 1-800-634-9982 >>>>>Spiritual Direction and Dream Training in the Jungian Mystical Tradition. The Haden Institute offers a two-year certification program for therapists, church & community leaders (but open to all), including the history of dreams, symbolism, supervision and case studies, individual & group exploration, individuation. Methodologies include, Senoi, Gestalt, Taylor, mystical, lucid, prophetic, and relational dream work. Next Entry Times: February 1999 & August 1999. 1819 Lyndhurst Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203-5103 to register call 704-333-6058 or via web www.hadeninstitute.com contact Bob Haden bob@hadeninstitute.com <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< R E S E A R C H & R E Q U E S T S <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>> Life-Altering Dreams for Television Pilot I'm looking for people who have had bizarre, fascinating, or life-altering dreams for a television show pilot I'm producing. These are dreams that woke you in a cold sweat...dreams that frightened you, shocked you, or had a lasting impression on your life. The show will re-enact your dream with actors and give you the opportunity to meet with dream experts and find out what those dreams really mean. Please visit my web site at: http://home.earthlink.net/~davegardner/ or e-mail me at : davegardner@earthlink.net >>>>>Male Bereavement Dream Series Men who have suffered a tragic loss by death of a child, spouse, or lover and were recording their dreams at the time, are being solicited for a publication in progress on bereavement dreams, transcendence and the healing process. The recorded dream period should be 6 months or longer following a death that occurred at least two years ago. Research is being conducted by Geri Grubbs, Ph.D., Jungian analyst. She would like to work closely with the participants, which will involve gathering the dreams together, copying or recording them with associations, and some telephone discussions. If you think you may be interested in participating, please contact Geri Grubbs by telephone at (408) 867-9019, or through e-mail at gegrubbs@compuserve.com. >>>>>Dreams, Visions and Their Effects on Art My name is Margo and I am a year twelve student at Cardijn College, South Australia. As part of my Art course I am required to complete a year long study to acquire the necessary marks. The topic I have chosen to research for my special study is "Dreams, Visions and their effects on art." My study involves collecting as much information as possible on the topic, research, conducting surveys, questionnaires and to become an "expert" on the subject. I need as much information as possible. I would be most grateful if you could send any information on any thing that links dreams, visions and art together. An interview, if appropriate would also be very helpful either by phone or in person. If you are unable to help me maybe you could to refer me to someone who could. Any information on anything to do with art, dreams or visions would be of great use to me. Thank you for your help Margo Clark, 14 Geoffery Ave., Pt. Noarlunga, S.A. 5167. Telephone: (08) 8384 8317. Email: mclark@cardijn.net.au <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< W E B S I T E & O N L I N E U P D A T E S <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< Do you know of interesting new websites you'd like to share with others? Or do you have updates to existing pages? Help spread the word by using the Electric Dreams DREAM-LINK page www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/online97.htm. This is really a public projects board and requires that everyone keep up his or her own link URLs and information. Make a point to send changes to the links page to us. >>>>> Dreamwork on AOL The Alternative Medicine forum on America On-Line has now opened a new area on dreamwork with the help of the cyber- dream pioneer, Richard Wilkerson. The focus of this area will be on the relation to heath and wholeness through dreamwork. Be sure to stop by, check out the articles lists and leave your questions on the Alt-Med bulletin board. Some of the articles include: - Getting Started with Dreamwork - Predicting illness with dreams - Revival of Ancient Dream Healing techniques - Carl Jung and Wholeness Live Chat to be scheduled! (KeyWord: AltMed > Therapies > Dreamwork) or KeyWord: aol://4344:1679.ALTdrem.13664900.588132320 >>>>> Sol y Luna Voyager A Lucid Dreaming Website www2.cruzio.com/~solyluna The goal of the site is to gather dream workers who are artists and technicians to co-create on the web. Dreamers meet for Dreaming of Lucid Freedom In America Circles to do dreamwork and creativity work in Santa Cruz. >>>>>Dreams:The Bridge Between the Ego and the Subconscious http://www.flinet.com/~lolie/dreams.html A personal journey site with reflections about dreams and their meanings. >>>>>New Additions to the ED Dream Links Site www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/ Electric Dreams has been collecting information about dream related sites since the Web first appeared. Our collection now includes dreams and science, dreamwork, anthropology, lucidity, personal journals, magazines, schools, and much more. Here are some new sites added this month to the Electric Dreams Links Collection Gifford Dream & Mythology Site jgifford@bellsouth.net free dream interpretation. jungian dream psychology. joseph campbell http://www.angelfire.com/tn/MythsDreamsSymbols/ Sandy Ginsberg http://members.aol.com/sjginsberg A personal page describing Sandy's connections and affiliations to dreams and therapy. Awaken 98 Bill Kudrle's Awaken 98 Dream Journal Software www.awaken98.com Awake Software www.awake-software.com Dan's Online Dream Journal http://www.math.utah.edu/~c-wdj/cloud_9.html Dylo toltec Dreaming Mailing List home page. The TDML is a list started up by a group of Dreamers that are interested in the subject as presented by Carlos Castaneda and Cronies. Many subjects are discussed all related to Dreaming, Group Dreaming is also a thing some of work on. http://www.mindspring.com/~newseer/tdml.html The Obsidian Society Dream Network: an up and coming webzine, chat and more. http://dreamnetwork.com/html/table.html Sirley Marques Bonham's Dreamers's Page This is a site where you will be able to find articles that are principally about experiences of awareness during sleep, or awareness during the sleep or awake onsets. I have learned that there are several labels for these experiences. They include the following: Lucid Dreams, Astral Travels, Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs), Projections of consciousness,Experiences of awareness during Sleep Paralysis and Nightmares. http://www.eden.com/~sbonham/dream.htm Stanford Sleep & Dreams - William Dement http://www-leland.stanford.edu/class/humbio11/ The Journal Sleep http://www-leland.stanford.edu/dept/sleep/journal/ American Sleep Disorders Association http://www.asda.org/index.html <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< D R E A M C A L E N D A R October 1998 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< Oct 2-4 in Redding, CT The Unitarian-Universalist Society of Northern Fairfield County presents a weekend with Jeremy Taylor. For more information call: Nancy Weston 203-744-6823 (InnerKid2@aol.com) Oct 3 in Portland, OR Dr. Gillian Holloway is conducting a day long class called "Understanding Nightmares: The Gift Behind the Terror." ,To Register phone Marylhurst University at: 503- 699-6241, Outside Oregon call: 1-800-634-9982 Oct 3 in Santa Clara, CA "Working With Dreams in Analytical Psychology", 9:00am - 4:00pm. Santa Clara University, Division of Lifelong Learning . To register, call 408-551-1981 or 551-1845 Oct 16 in Chicago, IL "Self-Exploration Through the Dream". The Jung Institute of Chicago, 800.697.7679. Jung@jungchicago.org http://www.Jungchicago.org Oct 16-18 in Flintstone, MD "The Healing Power of Dreams Retreat" with Earl Koteen, at the Rising Phoenix Retreat Center. For more information or to register, please contact Margee Iddings at IddingsM@aol.com. Oct 23-25 in NY Ione's Third Annual Dream Festival, a Kingston City and Hudson Valley wide celebration of Dreams and Dreaming. For more information, visit or contact: http://www.deeplistening.org/ione Iodreams@deeplistening.org Oct 31 in Sebastopol, CA Bay Area dreamworkers Group (BADG) Halloween Party, 2pm 7pm. For more information, contact Eric Snyder or Randi Farkas at 707) 824-9121. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ == D R E A M S S E C T I O N == ED V5 N9 == ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** D R E A M S SECTION INDEX BY BOB K. (For ED V5 N9) Hi there! Welcome to ELECTRIC DREAMS - DREAMS SECTION for Vol. 5 Number 9 - October 1998 Hello dreamers! This month we have shared stories with a concentration on repetitive killing related dreams. Four common classic fears dreams: being chased, being approached by spirits, being lost, and being betrayed are shared. A dreamer asks if there is an omen about a wedding in a dream, a relationship slips away in a vehiclular metaphor, and a dream poses a question about dreaming. A buffet of many animal related dreams emerged this month also. Stan Kulikowski's intricate relationship themed dreams reappear, as do several Nutcraker adventures - a couple demonstrating some skill at problem solving. Comuter references are sprinkled throughout with a floppy disk gift which flops in it's purpose, and a Lucid dream tale. Enjoy your journey. NEW CATEGORIES: [NONE] EDITORIAL: THE HURRICANE GEORGES This past week was a rough one back on the island I grew up in. Puerto Rico was just one of the many populated areas that were in Hurricane Georges path. It even spawned a phenomenon very rare on the island - a Tornado! Very unusual for hurricanes, it took a direct path right through the islands of the Major Antilles, those the border of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Though every year brings hurricane danger to the Island, until the devastation of Hugo on the Northeastern side of the island several years ago, many years had gone by without major impact. Fortunately, the human casualties were few. My family and friends awoke to fallen trees and misplaced objects after the storm passed, but they were safe from harm. The impact of the hurricane highlights the great force of nature playing games with homes, power lines, and years of natures growth. It reminds us of the fragility of our lives before mightier forces, and that as much as we like to think we control our destinies, we are need to adapt to greater forces from time to time. Dreams help us focus on those storms which sweep through our inner lives, sometimes producing much turmoil and concern. Like hurricanes, the major dream events in our lives leave an imprint that is hard to forget. Thanks to those who have shared their dreams and commentary with our community. Enjoy your visit to the pages of Electric Dreams. Bob Krumhansl FEEDBACK FROM THE DREAMERS == Question by Mark Gerard (980925)== == Response by Wilkerson to Dreamer Anonymity (980925) == COMMENTARY ON DREAMS FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES ** Dream: Tornado man by ? (980625) ** == Commentary by RobLweis on Tornado Man (980910) == ** Dream: "Is it a sign?" By Brazilian (980816) ** == Commentary by rcwilk on Daniel's dream (980821) == NEW DREAMS: PRECOGNITIVE/FUTURE DREAMS [Stories from past experiences, or send them in before it happens, if you can] REPETITIVE DREAMS [Significant by nature] ** Dream: "The Little Brown Bat Comes Back" by dragonflybaby (980904) ** ** Dream: death by stranger by ? (9809922) ** ** Dream: Never ending dreary dream by Kos (980924) ** DREAM TRACES IN WAKING LIFE [The effects of external stimuli on our dreams or is it the other way around - our dreams leaving a trace on our physical reality?] DEFYING CLASSIFICATION [Your stumpers may not be so mysterious to others] = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = LINKS TO STAGES OF LIFE BIRTH [Starts] CHILDHOOD [Early development] ADOLESCENCE [Maturing, testing] ADULTHOOD [The main event for most] OLD AGE [Wisdom, Approaching the Journeys end] DEATH [Endings] See the REPETITIVE DREAMS and SOLUTIONS sections COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD [Beyond our terrestrial limits] ** Dream: randy tmcphee by ? (980902) ** See RELATIONSHIPS ========================================== ========================================== AGGRESSION [By us or against us- crossing others paths] ** Dream: Rape & Catastrophe by ? (980914)** ALIENS [Visitors or visited - creatures from other dimensions] ** Dream: 'The Creators' by Nutcracker (980528) ** AMUSEMENT PARK [A place to relax and enjoy, another reality] ANGELS [Visitors from Spiritual dimensions] ANIMALS [Basic Instincts- This month brings us dogs,cats, bats, hamsters,assorted rohdents, bears, an alligator, a calico tiger, snakes, lizards, parrots, a baby seal ... ] == Commentary by Heratheta on Alligator Dream (980906) == ** Dream: a talking cat by stan kulikowski ii (980907)** ==Commentary by Heratheta on Bat,Cat& Dog dreams(980907) == ** Dream: 'Animal Morphing' by Nutcracker (980720) ** ** Dream: 'The Swan Maiden' by Nutcracker (971206) ** BATHROOMS [Maintenance, Cleansing and Elimination] BELONGING [What we are associated with or wish we were] BOOKS (Extensions of our memory and imagination, our permanent records) BRIDGES [How we get across an obstacle or go from here to there] CELEBRITIES [The well known - famous and infamous] CLOTHING [What we wear tells us about ourselves and the events we participate in] COMEDY [With an accent on puns, funny situations or jokes] COMMUNICATIONS [From telepathic to devices to signs & symbols] COMPUTERS [Extensions of our minds, mind tools, communication] See if you can find the not quite floppy disk and the DEC Rainbow Computer in this issue. CULTS [Somewhere out there ...] DIRECTIONS [Ever stop and ask for directions? North, South, East, West, up, down, ahead, behind, straight, turn, right, left, make a circle, cross, go through, open, close, mix, add, boil, cook, simmer, but most of all - follow these instructions carefully...and don't be shy about asking someone else down the path, except, of course, for the Big Bad Wolf!!!] == Commentary by Heratheta on Vacation's (980824) == == Commentary by Heratheta (980829)== == Commentary by Heratheta on Disertation and Coming Catastrophe Dreams (980919) == == Commentary by Heratheta on Ship Dream (80919)** == Commentary by Heratheta on big house (980919) == ==Commentary by Heratheta on Shadow,James & Stan (980926)== DISCOVERY [New insights and unexpected developments] ** Dream: 'A Dream Vision' by Nutcracker (980530) ** DREAMING [Dreams about dreaming] ** Dream: the dreamer and the dreamed by anon (980709)** DRUGS [Healing or Hurting?] EATING [Getting nourishment for maintenance, growth and pleasure] ELEVATORS [Going UP or DOWN - Push the right button or else...] ESCAPE [Get me outta here!!!] ** Dream: 'No Lions, No Tigers, But Bears, Oh My' by Nutcracker (980908) ** == Commentary by Bob K. On Bears...by Nutcraker (980927) == EVENTS [The activity defines or dominates the story - a convergence of people at a place and time for a special purpose] EYES [The organs of sight...the window to the soul...] FEAR [What scares us] ** Dream: 'Flying Killer' (980823) ** == Commentary by Heratheta on several dreams (980826) == ** Dream: 'scared tammy'by ? (980903) ** ** Dream: "Transference" by kidoobird (980925) ** FOOD [The source of our physical nourishment] FIRE [Flames bring light, heat and destruction/transformation] FLYING [Confidence, Power, Freedom & Perspective] GIFTS [Offerings to or from others] ** Dream: 'The Digital Gift', by dreambat (980821) ** HOBBIES [Our interests and desires]- COLLECTING THINGS HOLIDAYS [Time off to ...] HOSPITAL [A place for treatment, healing and repair] HOUSE [Where our lives take place] ** Dream: The Big House by ? (9703XX) ** ** Dream: 'Tree of Life' by Nutcracker (980803) ** HOTELS [Temporary Dwelling or Special Event location] JOURNEYS [Missions away from our home base -explorations] ** Dream: elfin healer, by jan (980909) ** == Commentary by Heratheta on Elfin Healer (980909) == LOST [Disorientation or abandonment] LOTTERY DREAMS [Sudden Wealth - Randomness favors the dreamer] LOVE [All around us, yet so hard to find and keep] LUCID DREAMING [Knowing you are Dreaming when you are Dreaming] ** Dream: ron's pet shop by stan kulikowski ii (980923) ** MEMORY [Remembering ...In dreams we often struggle with the issue of memories and remembering a dream which by definition involves the process of recollection.] MIRRORS [Reflection of Self] MUSIC [Melodies of the land within] NUDITY [What you see is what you get] PERFORMERS [Entertainers] PROBLEMS [Situations or difficulties sometimes present choices] POLITICAL SCENE [Public issues through positions of power] RELATIONSHIPS [Other parts of ourselves including family which constitutes the first and earliest of our relationships, often influencing how we relate to the outside world] ** Dream: lost friend by maurin (980916) ** ** Dream: Betrayal? By Penelope (980916) ** ** Dream: cindy timko's dissertation by Stan Kulikowski ii(980914) ** ** Dream: 2 x James by ? (980924) ** RELIGIOUS RELATED [The Ritual and the Spiritual] ROMANCE [Thrills and Chills, lost in another] SCHOOL THEMES [Learning and learning related trials] SOLUTIONS [The answers to problems or quandaries] ** Dream: Mobsters-R-Us' by Nutcracker (980730) ** STAIRS [Bridges between levels, between the upper and the lower] STRANGERS [Who and what we don't know yet] TEETH [Ok, losing teeth is one of the top ten dreams people have questions on. Theories on what they mean range all over the spectrum of possibilities.] TORNADOS [Pretty well defined destructive power of nature] TRAPPED [Temporarily helpless- Sometimes we are paralyzed or imprisoned by jobs, relationships or expectations] ** Dream: Dream about marriage by fidors friend (980914)** ** Dream: 'The Surrogate' by Nutcracker (980810) ** VEHICLES [Means of transportation, reflection of lifestyle] ** Dream: almost lost my daughter by ? (980918) ** WATER [A magical earthly fluid, nourishment, cleansing] ** Dream: ship at sea by mermaid (980916) ** WORKPLACE [Where we make a living] WRITING & WRITERS [Communication and creativity] = = = = = = = = = = = == DREAM SERIES (None this month) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FEEDBACK FROM THE DREAMERS == Question by Mark Gerard (980925)== From: mgm21@juno.com (Mark Gerard) Subject: Names Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 09:12:12 -0400 Hi, everybody. For some reason, the program that sends the dreams to the list cuts off the identity of the dreamers. I would be very interested to see the names of the people who send in dreams, and if not that, then at least their Internet handles. Can this be arranged? Thanks! Mark Gerard mgm21@juno.com == Response by Wilkerson to Dreamer Anonymity (980925) == Hi Mark, Yes, as a rule, the dreams are send with pen names only. However, rules here are just guides, not meant to rule us. Anyone who wants can send directly into the list. those wanting anonymity send to me or others with that request. - Richard rcwilk@dreamgate.com COMMENTARY ON DREAMS FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES ** Dream: Tornado man by ? (980625) ** To start out, I've been having repetetive nightmares about tornadoes for about five or six years. I'm 16 years old. I've never been in a tornado in real life. Usually, in my dream I am aware of a tornado coming, and my biggest dilemma is getting all of my family into the basement. For some reason they don't come right away, and keep saying things like "wait just a minute until I finish my coffee." I wake up in a total panic. A few nights ago, I dreamt that I was eating lunch with some friends outside and saw a tornado coming. I Hurried and pushed most of my friends into a windowless bathroom. I went back outside to get the last girl, but the tornado had turned into a man who said he was hungry. I offered him my plate of macaroni and cheese, and he ate it. Then he looked at my friend Tessa and said "But she's full of blood" and he tossed a broken plate like a blade, straight through the middle of her skull. I woke up knowing that I was the next one to have my blood sucked by the tornado. It's confusing, but I knew in my dream that the tornado WAS the man, and I feared him accordingly. Comments by Dreamer: I am really curious why I keep having these repetetive tornado nightmares which change every night, but always with a tornado about to get me. == Commentary by RobLweis on Tornado Man (980910) == Tornado Man Dream - additional comments Greetings Bob: Your analysis triggered a thought which I'll ask you to communicate to the author of 'Tornado Man' dream. It could be that if this were my dream(s), the same I've been having for the past five years, since the age of 11, I might be refusing to face the fact that as I mature, I am unwilling to see my parents and some friends as they really are: self-destructive in some fashion (possibly life-style related) -- not wanting to be saved from the tornado. As an 11 year old, it's only natural to revere one's parents, to 'unconditionally' accept their life's choices. The dream is telling me I have been suppressing my natural faculties of judgement by stubbornly refusing to hold them up to the light that would expose them as they really are. If this analysis is correct, I predict the moment I come to terms with them as they are, the tornado dreams will stop. Keep me posted Tornado Man. Rob Lewis robertl@core-net.com ** Dream: "Is it a sign?" By Brazilian (980816) ** Hi, I'm brazilian and I've got a dream very different to me, because I'm thinking very much about it. Before speak about the dream, I need to give you details. I love very much a woman and, when I spook to her, she speaks to me: "I don't want". It was about 1 year ago. In this time, I've got very many dreams with her, but nothing different of normal. But, last week, I have a dream and I'll speak about it below. The dream: In the afternoon, Loana (her name) and me was watching TV in my mother's bedroom: I had sit down on the floor and her sits down on the my mother's bed. Suddenly my cousin (Isabela is her name) arrived and she kisses my mouth. When Loana saw it, she stands up and ask me: "Who is she?". When I answered "She's my cousin", Loana leaves running. Well, if you may help me I'll say "Thank very much" everyday. My dream can be a sign about a fact? If it's true, what? I acknowledge beforehand, Daniel. == Commentary by rcwilk on Daniel's dream (980821) == If this were my dream.... In my dream my girlfriend is sitting in my mother's room. This is significant for me. To sit in my mother's room is kind of like saying this scene is about what my mother might think about all of this. (not my real mother, but my inner mother, that nurturing but sometimes clinging part of us all). So, she sits on the bed, but there is not enough room for me there. The metaphor, to be in bed with someone is also the same as being in the room of someone, only stronger. That is, that there is something about Loana and my mother that are, in this instance, very, very similar. I can't get that close. I have to sit on the floor, as if in my real life I hold myself above them, and now have to give way or suffer or be held below them. I am kept apart from them both by this attitude. It worked for my mother, I need to keep her at some distance. But I want to share the bed with my girlfriend. So things are stuck. Me on floor, Girlfriend on the bed. A new character comes in the advance the situation, my cousin. My dream cousin is not so close as my mother - I can even be a kissing cousing with her at times. But not around my girlfriend. She seemed repulsed or driven away by this close connection I have with my cousin. This concerns me. Will my girlfriend ever be able to get really close to me, or will she be repulsed by my inner most desires? I desire both. I want the girl, but I also want to be myself. Can the two be reconcilled? Thanks Daniel for sharing the dream. I can't say if it is the sign you want or not. For me it was more about my own concern that Loana will in fact turn out to be more like my mother than a person who can deeply love me. However, the attraction to her needs to be acknowledged somehow in my own dream-take, its not clear to me how this will get worked out. - Richard NEW DREAMS: PRECOGNITIVE/FUTURE DREAMS [Stories from past experiences, or send them in before it happens, if you can] REPETITIVE DREAMS [Significant by nature] ** Dream: "The Little Brown Bat Comes Back" by dragonflybaby (980904) ** I am in a wooded area, people around but no one significant. A small brown bat flies at my head and sets me off balance so that I fall flat on my bum. The bat has gone inside the back of my trousers and has sank his teeth into the base of my spine at my tailbone area. I know that I have to get him out at the risk of being bitten again but I reach in with my left hand and wedge a finger in between him and me and yank him out whereby he starts biting my hands as I try to get him free of me. He finally flies off and I am left with these marks that look like mosquito bites after you've itched them. I am worried about rabies so I consult an online medical journal to determine whether or not it's severe enough to merit a shot. I am not in pain, nor am I upset/afraid. It was like lucid dreaming in the sense that I knew I was in the dream, and right away i started wondering why the bat had come back to me. Comments by Dreamer: This same, cute, little brown bat has come to me about 3 or 4 times before. Always flying right at me. Always biting my hands. I think this may refer to relationships because there are always events related to them that have occured recent to the dream. Permission to Comment yes_share_comments Permission Comments Please feel free to comment/etc. I can provide more details as this is a condensed version. Unfortunately my dreams are never short or vague. ** Dream: death by stranger by ? (9809922) ** I have this recurring dream that someone is in my house and all I can see is a black shadow of a man. I kill this man and burry him in my basement of the house. I dig up the cement and re-cement him into the ground. I have been having this dreams for 30 years now. Can someone help me to understand what it means? ** Dream: Never ending dreary dream by Kos (980924) ** My dream started when I was a teenager. It has been with me for 25 years now. I have lived a very good life, I'm married with children and grandchildren. My dreams goes like this: I am in my house alone, suddenly a black shadow stranger appears. I dont know who he is, nor what he wants of me. I attack him . I kill this person (who is a man), well not only do I kill him, but I bring him to my basement and dig a hole, put the body in it and fill it with cement. This dream is so traumatic to me, that when I awaken I am about to vomit. It has me upset for the next 2 days before I feel better. I get an awful feeling in my stomach that will stay with me for a day. It's almost like a feeling of deep fright. I feel that after the dream I actually did this to someone. This is weird. If any one can help me to understand this dreams, please feel free to email me. thanks, please help........Kos DREAM TRACES IN WAKING LIFE [The effects of external stimuli on our dreams or is it the other way around - our dreams leaving a trace on our physical reality?] DEFYING CLASSIFICATION [Your stumpers may not be so mysterious to others] = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = LINKS TO STAGES OF LIFE BIRTH [Starts] CHILDHOOD [Early development] ADOLESCENCE [Maturing, testing] ADULTHOOD [The main event for most] OLD AGE [Wisdom, Approaching the Journeys end] DEATH [Endings] COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD [Beyond our terrestrial limits] ** Dream: randy tmcphee by ? (980902) ** 09/02/98 2;30 am randy was dreaming he was on the street walking and he had some apples with him off in the distance he saw a man heading towards him he knew it was his father who was coming towards him his father has been dead since he was 10 months old [40 years] he knew he had to get ride of the apples before he reached him so he threw them he had stolen the apples when his dad reached him he never spoke to him but his curls stood out very prononced on the top of his head Comments by Dreamer fathers mother has just passed away week before the dream only know what dad looks like is though very old pictures See RELATIONSHIPS ========================================== ========================================== AGGRESSION [By us or against us- crossing others paths] ** Dream: Rape & Catastrophe by ? (980914)** well I was sleeping in this old house, when suddenly I was awaken by a loud noise. A man without a face appears and rapes me at gunpoint, then all of a sudden a world catastrophe occurs. Comments by Dreamer I think the lust that i have within is starting to stream out, like urine coming down the crotch down on too the floor. ALIENS [Visitors or visited - creatures from other dimensions] ** Dream: 'The Creators' by Nutcracker (980528) ** It's dusk. That part of the day that covertly turns into night. The sky is not black yet, but more of a medium shade of blue, where the stars are just barely visible. I'm in town, walking down the middle of the street (headed east) when suddenly, I look up into the sky. Am I to believe my eyes? Do they deceive me? I blink, then open my eyes again. No. I see what I see. They're still there. Hundreds, no, thousands of alien spacecraft. They are near translucent (like jellyfish); the most visible parts being any edge or outline of a part. The only way to describe them is to say they have the shape of styrofoam cups. The main, outer body, looks like a 'soup' cup, short and squat (upside down) with five smaller 'drink' cups inside it (right side up). The five parts are spinning counterclockwise. They must be the propulsion mechanisms. I still can't believe what I'm seeing. Just to be sure, I stop a man in the street (he's about 45-50, sandy hair, wavy and he's wearing a blue and white stripped shirt). I ask him if he thinks they're alien spacecraft. He more or less agrees with me. They are what they are. I'm worried -- fearful even. I guess I was hoping he wouldn't agree with me and that that alone would allay my fears. Now the spacecraft have all disappeared (is that a good sign?) and instead, there appear (moving at a moderate speed) four planets looming in the heavens. These too are translucent. One of them has rings around it, like Saturn. Now I'm in my car. The sky has turned pitch black. Suddenly, in the sky and on the streets, is projected what appears to be an alien movie (a movie about the aliens by the aliens). The alien in the movie has a large bulbous head, is white and pasty in color and he/she/it's wearing a black nehru jacket (gives me the impression it's a doctor - like Frankenstein). I'm driving in the opposite direction (west) of the way I had previously been walking. With this projection being shown, it's difficult to see the road. I can't see the stop signs or tell if there are any cars ahead of me. Next, I go to attend a seminar on the aliens. All the attendees are seated at individual desks. The desks appear to be a Frank Lloyd Wright design. Very simplistic, clean in form (line). The top of the desk is approximately 4' x 2.5'. There is a shelf (for books and such) beneath the desktop. It's 8" deep. The shelf part consists of .5" slats and the rest of the desk has 1.5" wide, straight legs. I'm not sure what type of wood it's made from. It's refreshing to see something so simple and uncluttered in design. I sit down at a desk (second row from the back, on the aisle to the left). A crowd is gathering. A few seats away there is a (cordial) woman. Now the room is nearly full. I'm feeling antsy. I get up and look around. I'm not sure I want to stay for the seminar. I look for an exit. I peer in one door that is half open. This is the room for the speakers. I see another door, open it and go inside. There are even more people waiting in here. These people have a better position because they arrived early and/or paid more to get in. This disgusts me and I decide to leave. That and the fact that I see a copy of the manual being given to the attendees. It's entitled, "The Creators," which leads me to think that the people giving the seminar are the 'creators', not the aliens. I go back to my desk to collect my things. A lady comes and sits at the desk next to mine. She has two magazines in her arms. One is LIFE. At first I believe they are my magazines, as I had bought two also, but then I see mine are still in the shelf of my desk. I grab them, along with my copy of "The Creators". The new woman tells me that I can't take "The Creators", but the cordial woman (in her 50's, strawberry blonde, short, thick hair, great tan and flawless skin) says, "Yes, she can. She paid ($7.95) for it, just like the rest of us." As I prepare to leave (it now appears my car is the seat of my desk), a middle-aged couple comes and sits behind me. I wonder how I'll have room to back out without hitting them. They read my mind and make room for me to leave. (98/5/28) AMUSEMENT PARK [A place to relax and enjoy, another reality] ANGELS [Visitors from Spiritual dimensions] ANIMALS [Basic Instincts- This month brings us dogs,cats, bats, hamsters,assorted rohdents, bears, an alligator, a calico tiger, snakes, lizards, parrots, a baby seal ... ] ** Dream: Go West-dog and Alligator by ?(980904) ** 3am Sat 5 September 1998 My family and I were upgrading our house by putting up a new wooden fence and painting it green. Soon neighbours began painting their fences green too. We went to investigate more closely, when a little white poodle ran past, over a doormat and said "GO WEST!" then ran west itself. I began to walk in a westerly direction, and could hear the Village People singing GO WEST as I walked. An academic friend (not someone from "waking life") - a female PhD - had fallen into a pool in which lived a large and treacherous alligator. She had some blood on her temple where she had fallen onto a concrete platform. The little dog reappearedand barked, because we had to save our friend in the water. I could see the alligator advancing. The dream ended abruptly. ==Commentary by Heratheta on Alligator Dream (980906)== see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ alligator dream suggests smell the fresh air of peace to the north or south and avoid becoming (large and trecherous) couch dream suggests smell the fresh air of freedom to the right or left of where the little girl was coming from & avoid (coming at) people father dream suggests smell the fresh air of freedom to the right or left of where father was coming from & and avoid becoming (had to) all dreams suggest above action until the subsequent dream ** Dream: a talking cat by stan kulikowski ii (980907)** Stan requests that his name and email be kept with this dream: stan kulikowski ii < (sunday night: mom watched movies on television and i worked on some web sites for the courses i teach. went to sleep around 02:00 after reading for a while.) the journey has been long and tiring as i have had to drive an extra long time today to get home, but that was preferable to staying in another motel just a few hours from amherst. even tired as i am, it feels good to get back at last. no matter how interesting the place you visit, it always feels right to come home after an absence. i am walking across the empty lots and parking areas next to the large house where my apartment is located. i have let agamemnon out of the car, so he can run a bit and do his dog things around the neighborhood to get resettled in the locale. normally i do not let him rum free as his large size can startle the naturally timid, but this time, for a while, he can go sniff and pee on whatever he pleases. we need to stretch after so long in the car. as i approach my building, the next parking lot is partly filled with rusting hulks of derelict cars. not really abandoned, they belong to a nearby garage, mostly collected for parts or curiosity of the owner. just before i leave the broken concrete with low clinging vines growing through the cracks, my eye is attracted to a new auto carcass, less rusted than the rest. =20 it is shaped like a low racing car, much smaller than expected. perhaps two meters long at best. it has no rust on it, and is painted mostly a silver grey with pale brown lettering and designs over its chassis. i can not make out any of the words which i presume are the driver's name and sponsors. it may not be rusted but it is slightly bent in the middle so it folds upward in an awkward way. and how does any one ride in the thing? the top which ought to be the open cockpit for the driver is covered over with a solid cover of metal. reaching down i discover that the race car is ridiculously light weight. indeed, it is not a car but a toy like a child would have, except it is so large. i easily pick up the hollow aluminum toy, put it square on the pavement and give it a slight shove. in spite of its bent frame, it surprisingly travels very well. my small push sending it gliding across the lot into the next where if finally stops. it does seem like a satisfying toy to roll so well in spite of its huge size. well, now i have to backtrack and go retrieve the toy to return it to its place here where the owner left it. when i go pick one end of the race car by its bumper to drag it back, i notice a police car cruising down the street. i hope he does not assume that i am stealing this from this lot while i am taking it back to the next. when i get to its original spot i put the toy car down and proceed on toward my apartment. the policecar does pull into the lot behind me, but the officer does not yell out to me. i continue on. coming up to my house i whistle for agamemnon, and he comes bounding up from some bushes out in the yard. he is glad to be home, panting and slobbering from his excitement. i open the back door on the side of the building to let us in. as we cut across the empty garage and laundry area, i notice that the door to sue alexander's apartment is open. she has moved out so i go in to see what was left behind. there is usually an odd stick of furniture leftover in rentals. maybe i will find something of interest. inside there is a table and a couple wooden chairs. i go through the empty rooms, marveling at the hollowness of the place which had such a warm feeling when she lived here. still, the floors are rather clean waiting for the next occupant. i wonder for a moment if i might move over here, but i dismiss the thought quickly. this apartment is too interior of the building and mine is an added extension with more windows and light. as i am leaving a see a piece of exercise equipment that i did not remember seeing sue ever use. between our apartments was a common room, really just an overlarge hall that we used as a shared gym area. i drag the slanted back board out into the exercise area. my soloflex is there with all its pieces lined up on the bench seat. i put the back board over near the wall. with my key i open the door to my apartment and i can tell right away that people have been inside rearranging things. i now recall that the landlady had told me they would be refurbishing part of the building this summer, but i did not know it was going to be so extensive a task. i can see that the entire floor of my place has been ripped up and the replacement is not completely in place, so there are large gaps where i can look into the basement. the floor did have a soft sag to it, but i had grown accustomed to it like a worn but comfortable shoe. still, i suspect that the sagging wood could have broken through at some point, so a new solid hardwood floor will look nice. my apartment was a late addition, stuck on a much older building. a long straight series of rooms. in the second room, with the door that opens directly on the sidewalk, i see a lot of unfinished masonry exposed where the floor is unfinished. this is my sitting room which had the old square fire place. it looked so nice to step in from the snow outside to the fire going in this room. the old fireplace has been removed and a new one is partially complete. the fresh red bricks are shaped in a rounded circular opening rather than the square rectangular mass of traditional ones with mantles. under the flooring there lies exposed a lot of tube like air passages, apparently to transport heated air to other rooms when the fire is lit. that has always been one of the drawbacks of fireplaces, they draw cold air into the neighboring rooms by sending the hot air up the flue. i can not quite figure out how these air ducts are to work, but the whole mass has good organic look to it. more like blood vessels and capillaries, grown rather than built. there is a ladder through one of the holes in the flooring and i go down into the basement, looking for samantha, my cat. she remained here while the dog and i went travelling. she hates to ride in the car, and neighbors fed her while we were away. samantha is a small siamese, white and grey rather than brown. but rather than find her, i see two then three of the neighborhood wild cats curl up in the beams near the water heater. these are very large, fat cats in spite of their feral nature. many of the local people leave out food for them, so they do quite well without docility of house cats. their fur is a rather shocking red color with tawny brown tiger stripes. they are quieter than usual as i approach. i wonder if the nearest one will let me pet him, as on rare occasions they will tolerate a human touch. samantha, being a civilized domestic cat does not like these, so i know she will not be in the basement. as i reach over to first of the three wild cats, a loud voice says "are you always so rude as to fondle your guests?" i look startled. it came from the furthest cat, a fat female. "what? you can talk?" i ask looking at the creature. "apparently. do you doubt your own senses now?" she replies. "i lived once with your kind before my maturity and picked up the manner of your speech." she has a rather distorted, flat nose face with overly, bulging large eyes. must be some persian in their breed. the irises are blood red, rather spooky looking even for a cat eye. and her lips do not move as you would expect to articulate human words. the sounds come out when she sort of wheezes, but i do not see hardly any motion of the lips or tongue. her voice is really a little too loud, almost like a shout. "do these others also talk?" i ask. "no," she replies. "my companions are quiet, thoughtful cats. only i have this useless ability to make so much noise of so little value." i notice her syntax is rather ornate. "would you like to live here? i would like to converse with you more often and i will fix you only the finest foods. i am good with food." "you can leave out the food like the others in this area, and we will eat what we want if we like it. i can not imagine why we would want to come inside your building like that unfortunate withered cat who lets you live with her. not to mention that stupid huge dog." i look closely at her long matted fur. it is very dirty and tangled. "well, for one thing, i could give you a bath and groom your fur until it is clean and healthy." "get all wet? it sounds uncomfortable." "i suppose it is for a short period of time. but you get wet on rainy days anyway, and this bath with some shampoo kills all the itchy bugs in your fur and gets rid of the dead hair so you do not have to cough up hairballs so often. it feels really good to have clean fur. the withered cat does not enjoy the baths either, but she loves having clean fur." "hairballs are part of the natural process and does not hurt at all. just leave the good food out and be content with the fact that we will think about eating it if it pleases us." she looks away in disgust. the male cat looks at me with its weird distorted red eyes: dumb, not understanding a word but sensing the intent. poor humans, all the time fussing and fidgeting with things and so rarely content. he really is the master of his situation and does not need to speak at all to pity us overbred primates. ( i wake at 09:30 quite well rested. this dream was easy to recall. i did know sue alexander in amherst, she worked in an admissions office for one of the local universities. the building of the apartments was completely novel, like none i ever lived in, but the neighborhood was east amherst where i lived for several years.) ==Commentary by Heratheta on Bat,Cat& Dog dreams(980907) == see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ bat dream- avoid becoming"no one of significance" this dream suggests and smell the peace down from where you dreamed this dream cat dream-this dream suggests avoid becoming "ridiculous" and smell peace to the right or left of where the cat was all dreams suggest action until the next dream Diet & Smelling - now following my previous talk of smelling dreams, let us continue with a potato restricted and beer restricted diet especially for women especially those not taking an iron supplement. men, the potato and beer along with oysters and crab can diminish your ability to smell your dreams in a lucid fashion unless you also are taking iron supplements in a vitamin complex. i am hesitant to mention these foods for all are high in tryptophan which helps memory so moderation is at least the suggestion here for men and abstinance more for women if there is no iron supplementation. i liked the dog goin west dream because dogs' sense of smell is much better than the human's but can animals put their other senses in to action by way of the nose when they are deprived? perhaps someone has heard of the phantom limb effect in amputaion cases in humans and can tell if such an effect is so for dogs. i heard any deprived area can relocate into other parts of the body so i guess that the other senses locate in an undeprived sense like the nose when we sleep. if only humans can relocate sense and since it is supposed humans are more developed in other ways perhaps it is in dreams that we surpass our dogs in sense although we have the sense also to keep dogs for protection. ** Dream: 'Animal Morphing' by Nutcracker (980720) ** I was at home when I got the message that I needed to go to this place to transfer an animal from one location to another. I was with three other females. One was my best friend Barb, the other two, I never saw their faces. Barb was in the front passenger seat, I was sitting behind her. We both had our windows down. I was cold and closed mine, wondering if I should ask Barb to close hers too, but when I closed mine, hers closed automatically. We're driving along, out in the country on a dirt road. Up ahead we need to make a left. As we do so, to my right I see a grungy Mexican guy in a beat up tan truck talking to some young boy leaning against a large tree. I think to myself, boy, get yourself in the house and quit talking to strangers. I feared for the boy's safety. We made the left turn and came to our destination. It seems like it might have once been a small zoo, now abandoned. I walked to were I knew the animal to be. It was a narrow rocky path, sandy and golden in color. The cage was at the end of the path. It was actually a cage inside a cage. The animal, whatever it was, was banging the interior door against the exterior door. I opened the outside door. I don't know what kind of animal this is. It appears to be a small (dwarf size) deer, but the deer face looks more like a Tapir's. It's looks like no animal I've ever seen. The animal is still banging away on the door. There's no way I can open it and try to catch the animal by myself and put it into the cage I brought with me. I close the outer door and then open it again. Now the animal is lying flat on the bottom of the cage and is a white (baby) seal. The seal then stands up on its hind flippers and is hopping and ranting about the cage (acts and looks like the Tasmanian Devil in the cartoons). I close the door and go back to my friends. Now Bruce Willis (Armageddon) has come to help. He and I go back to the cage. He opens the first door then puts his hand inside the second door and pets the animal (which is now lying flat again and is the baby seal, only brown in color now). Then the baby seal nips at his hand, but not seriously biting him. Bruce opens the seals mouth to show me his teeth. It looks like some alien creature's teeth. It has long white teeth and these are covered with green circular, sharp pointy teeth that rotate. There are approximately 6 of the green circular teeth. Bruce leaves and I think that now that the animal is calm, I can get it into the other cage with the help of my friends. (98/7/20) ==================== ** Dream: 'The Swan Maiden' by Nutcracker (971206) ** I was asleep in bed. My bed was made of iron and painted white. My sheets and covers were also white as were the walls and ceiling. Even my nightgown was white. The floor of the room is covered in 2' of water upon which float 3 splendiferous swans; pure white and each with a small black circle around each eye. Though asleep, in my mind's eye I can see everything around me. The swans swim silently about the room. Now my bed is outdoors, floating on a river. I drift past castle after castle. It's dark and dreary. The castle's are all old and decrepit. For all intents and purposes, dead. I continue floating upstream and come to a lovely castle, well tended and inviting. The shore and grounds surrounding it are lush and green. The trees have all budded out. Everything has been renewed. The swans follow as I float around a bend in the river. The bed comes to a stop and I wake up back in my own room. The water is gone. All that remains are 3 white feathers, lying on the floor near my bed. (97/12/6) BATHROOMS [Maintenance, Cleansing and Elimination] BELONGING [What we are associated with or wish we were] BOOKS (Extensions of our memory and imagination, our permanent records) BRIDGES [How we get across an obstacle or go from here to there] CELEBRITIES [The well known - famous and infamous] CLOTHING [What we wear tells us about ourselves and the events we participate in] COMEDY [With an accent on puns, funny situations or jokes] COMMUNICATIONS [From telepathic to devices to signs & symbols] COMPUTERS [Extensions of our minds, mind tools, communication] See if you can find the not quite floppy disk and the DEC Rainbow Computer in this issue. CULTS [Somewhere out there ...] DIRECTIONS [Ever stop and ask for directions? North, South, East, West, up, down, ahead, behind, straight, turn, right, left, make a circle, cross, go through, open, close, mix, add, boil, cook, simmer, but most of all - follow these instructions carefully...and don't be shy about asking someone else down the path, except, of course, for the Big Bad Wolf!!!] == Commentary by Heratheta on Vacation's (980824) == recently, after reading rcwilk's writings on vacations and dreams and as i agree dreams indirectly show us a way to vacate stress if we travel to the right or left of the dreams, last night, i saw the video "phantoms" after reading some discussion of sugar in the body. the experiences above showed me that leucine an amino acid which acts a lot like sugar deflects phenalalanine another amino acid at right angles so lack of leucine along with tryptophane mentioned in other messages here would leave one open to the stress of dreams rather than able to deflect and therefor keep them before us to remember their character. it is quite fine that this leucine reminds me of the lucidity so many seek. it is also quite fine that phenalalanine has the phen of phenomena, what some people call dreams. == Commentary by Heratheta (980829)== continuing the notion that dreams are phenomena related to the aromatic amino acid penalalanine is to further connect to the notion that we sense dreams with the olfactory sense heightened during sleep because all the other senses are deprived to some extent. then dreams are sensed as odors and translated by the other senses as these other senses take on the nose temporarily as their new home like amputated limbs' soul energy takes on other parts of the body when the flesh has gone creating the phantom body effect.. dogs with their superior sense of smell are also astounding in their so called psychicness most recently attested to in the oj case. taking some of the mystery out of precognitive dreaming would be the fact that we pass through an atmosphere whirling on the earth sniffing through odors which have the traces of the rest of the world east and west of us and as the winds have blown north and south in the air to come. there's something rotten in the state of denmark. i smell a rat. that left a bad taste in my mouth (what the nose smells is also passed onto the taste buds).i can almost taste it, ar quotes relevant at this point. considering then that dreams are odiferous but that the information is channeled to the deprived senses during sleep i ask the question, how many of you dreamers remember the sense of smell in your dreams? it is no longer remarkable to me how i cannot remember one. your nose knows what danger lurks in the air and a little aromatherapy can be found encoded at www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ all the dream and psychic experiments to date need to be reexamined with the above considerations for the experiments were not conducted in vacuum. == Commentary by Heratheta on Disertation and Coming Catastrophe Dreams (980919) == disertation dream-indirectly led you toward the fresher air of freedom to the right or left of where it occured and suggested that "little" be not a part of plans for the day coming catastrophe dream-indirectly led you toward the fresher air of freedom to the right or left of the house in the dream suggesting "sudden" be not a part of your plans for the day coming see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ == Commentary by Heratheta on Ship Dream (80919)** ship dream-indirectly led you to the right or left of the ladder and suggested that "had to" not be a part of the day following mom dream-indirectly led you to the right or left of the house and suggested that being someone others have to "keep saying to" be not a part of the day coming see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ thanks to Pacifica for your interest in the dream hot-line and heratheta. i remember this last summer riding the pacific coast highway north toward halfmoon bay and smelling the lemon grass along the way from big sur. check out the corner of northpoint and polk when next in san francisco for a graffitti like dream wall painting. i never got the complete telephone number of the artists included below the painting but i called what i could remember and it was disconnected. maybe it is an old painting. i tried asking other people about it but it is a provocative painting and i suspect it may still be quite a while befor i hear from anyone else about the painting living in or visiting the city. there are a number of these dream paintings, one may be seen if you are heading eastish toward fisherman's warf from the above location. this twin like painting is high on a building wall suggesting to me that it may have been some kind of city funded or otherwise well funded effort requiring either scaffolding or a hanging billboard makers' apparatus. anyway, those paintings were a breath of fresh air in my 21 year jouney along the route of peace along with the works of heraclitus, chuang tsu, yeats, gellis, bulkley, and wilkerson. == Commentary by Heratheta on big house (980919) == big house-dream indirectly led you to the fresh air of "not wandering" which was to the right or left of the house in the day coming betrayed-dream indirectly led you to the fresh air of "not devastating" which was to the right or left of the door in the day coming falling car-dream indirectly led you to the fresh air of " not all" to the right or left of the stadium in the day coming can you remember dreamers, trying the quoted behaviors those days? see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ ==Commentary by Heratheta on Shadow,James & Stan (980926)== shadow dream-peace following this dream was to the left or right of the house while not becoming "all i could see was" to yourself and others james dream-peace following this dream was to the left or right of the player while not becoming "surprising" to yourself or others james dream discussing-peace following this dream was to the left or right of the cafe while not becoming like james to yourself or others big stan-following this dream peace was to the left or right of the house in mass. while not becoming "finally" to yourself or others dreamer and dreamed-following this dream peace was to the right or left of the cherub while not becoming "chubby" to others and yourself see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ DISCOVERY [New insights and unexpected developments] ** Dream: 'A Dream Vision' by Nutcracker (980530) ** Everything was black, the background, the objects, except for some back lighting. Picture an arch (like the Arch de Triomphe...only smaller). The arch is flat on both sides and the top, the arched part is on the inside. I believe the arch is made of brick. Hanging inside the arch is an upside down (wooden) cross (which doesn't touch the ground). The cross is wider on the four ends and tapered in the center. A light emanates from behind the cross (much like you might find coming from God). (98/5/30) DREAMING [Dreams about dreaming] ** Dream: the dreamer and the dreamed by anon (980709)** I am a server at the banquet of the queen, a chubby little cherub all golden from the shoulders down, flesh from the shoulders up. I am standing in a corridor of the queen's palace, waiting to serve and proudly holding my little golden serving tray. I am proud to be a server at the banquet of the queen: it is a good and fine thing to do; it gives me standing and status. all of a sudden the queen comes flying in. she is all golden and has wings like those of a dragon fly on her back. she takes a little golden pitcher, and pours molten gold like honey over my head, making me now gold all over. while she pours she says, "is the source of the dream the dreamer, or is the source of the dreamer the dream?" DRUGS [Healing or Hurting?] EATING [Getting nourishment for maintenance, growth and pleasure] ELEVATORS [Going UP or DOWN - Push the right button or else...] ESCAPE [Get me outta here!!!] ** Dream: 'No Lions, No Tigers, But Bears, Oh My' by Nutcracker (980908) ** I was in a national park. The others I had come with had gone off exploring. I was alone when I noticed the area was rife with brown bear. I had to warn the others and went off in search of them. The land in some areas had been plowed (clear cut) and burned (to promote new growth). (to my left) I began crossing a shallow gulley at one such area when I spied a group of ten bears. I quickly walked straight ahead instead. To my right were about thirty more bears. I kept walking, picking up my pace and trying not to make eye contact with any of them. I glanced back and saw that the bears had noticed me. I began running. As I ran straight ahead, a few bears and some people (not my friends) were running towards me. The people were yelling at me to turn around, saying the bears would run right into me. As I kept on running, more and more bears were coming at me. I veered off to the right through a clearing in the woods and came upon a house. There was one very large bear there harassing an old man and his (30ish year old) son. The son fought off the bear while the old man and I took cover inside the garage. The son jumped inside a car that was outside the garage, but the bear broke the windows and got (killed) him anyway. The old man and I cowered together, holding hands and praying loudly so as not to hear the screams of his son. We said the Hail Mary We said this prayer rapidly, five times in succession. Suddenly all was quiet. Then I could see the bear was after us, trying to stick his paws beneath the doors (the garage had doors on either end), trying to reach us. There was a truck (sport utility vehicle) in the garage. We walked around it at first, then I yelled at the old man to get in just as the bear broke into the garage. The old man started the truck and we tore through the unbroken garage door to freedom. (98/9/9) == Commentary by Bob K. On Bears...by Nutcraker (980927) == When the situation gets "hairy," full of "stress" to the max, when the situation is un-bear-able, escape is the prescription for freedom, at least for a while ;-) EVENTS [The activity defines or dominates the story - a convergence of people at a place and time for a special purpose] EYES [The organs of sight...the window to the soul...] FEAR [What scares us] ** Dream: 'Flying Killer' (980823) ** I don't often remember my dreams....in this one, I am hired for a mob-like person who is very powerfull. At some point I do something to displease him, and he orders me killed. The person he ordered to kill me is a friend. I ask him if he will let me run. He does, but he chases me through rural suburbs. I start out running but I feel like I'm running through molases. My feet don't move fast enough. somehow I decide to start "flying". I still don't move very fast, and I find myself 'swimming' through the air....still not going very fast. panic overwhelms me. I know...somehow that they are right behind me. Then I com across a fair or carnival....then I wake up (or lose memory of the dream). Comments by Dreamer It is unusual for me to remember my dream, however, I have been having several that I remember in the last 4 days. I'm SURE this is related to something going on in my life. == Commentary by Heratheta on several dreams (980826) == flying killer dream-avoiding "molasses" in yourself, your thoughts,and others to the left or right of the rural suburbs was the way after this dream until another dream. digital dream- avoiding "more"to the left or right of the church until the next dream was the way. richard's musical dream-avoiding "but" to the right or left of over your head was the way until the next dream. ** Dream: 'scared tammy'by ? (980903) ** 9/3/98 1am I was asleep on the couch i awoke at least in the dream i did and there was a figure coming at me appeared to be of a little girl but in spirt form i really awoke screaming and kicking at this figure to get away from me. she had a yellow dress on could not see her face, Comments by Dreamer: grandmother just pass on to the other side week before ** Dream: "Transference" by kidoobird (980925) ** At the old house of a family friend, getting ready to go to work, I walk out of the house and halfway down the block when I realize I have forgotten something. Walking back, I cannot find the house. This being a neighborhood I know well, I do not understand how I could be so confused. I retrace my steps and still cannot find the house. I start to get very panicky when I look around and realize that I am not even on the same street and none of the houses are the same. I stop, close my eyes and try to visualize where I should be but when I open them, nothing has changed. I start to really panic now and I feel kind of woozy and disoriented. I begin talking to myself to stay focused, but to no avail. I am afraid to ask for help in that someone would think I was insane. I am terrified because I have no idea where I am. Next thing I know I am inside of this large loft apartment in New York (I live in California and have never been to the East Coast) with a woman who is about 40 or so. She is talking to me and getting ready to go to work. I am silent, because she doesn’t seem to realize what is happening. She thinks I am her live-in female lover. She says something about me resting and getting well then bids me goodbye. I see myself in the mirror and I am definitely not me. Still in a panic, I run to the phone and call my godmother in San Francisco for help. She is not there so I leave a frantic message on her machine; at the same time, I am taking a pee. When I finish, I hang up the phone, immediately waking up. Comments by Dreamer The feeling about this dream is that I had no control whatsoever. Usually I do similar things in my dreams, but it is always my choice. This felt like I was being forced to inhabit another living person's body/space. It was also very present tense. It was very unsettling and I had a time getting back to sleep FOOD [The source of our physical nourishment] FIRE [Flames bring light, heat and destruction/transformation] FLYING [Confidence, Power, Freedom & Perspective] GIFTS [Offerings to or from others] ** Dream: 'The Digital Gift', by dreambat (980821) ** I'm at a lecture, it may even be a sermon, but feels more casual than a church. There do seem to be pews. A few seats/rows ahead of me is an ex-friend I haven't spoken with in years after he backed out of a project, telling me he no longer liked my attitude. He stands up and our eyes meet. I say "Hello, Fred." He stiffly says hello as he gets something out of his pocket, a floppy disk. Its an old large floppy, not quite as large as the 5 1/4 but almost and soft. I take the floppy and say thanks, he stiffy sits down next to a woman who is with him, acting like this greeting and exchange was really hard for him to do. I feel, in the dream, that he is stiff because he is trying to practice one of his self-consciousness techniques and be conscious of what he is doing. I think to myself, again in the dream, it would be more personable if he would allow his attention to be on something other than himself for just a moment. I turn to a friend sitting next to me that Fred and I have in common. I tell John "This is one of the problems with people who focus too much on Unity Consciousness, they lose the ability to hold and act out of places where unity has collapsed and there is tension." I think to myself, in the dream, how cheap it was of him to give me old floppy disks and that they probably have programs on them that are too old to even use. dreambat HOBBIES [Our interests and desires]- COLLECTING THINGS HOLIDAYS [Time off to ...] HOSPITAL [A place for treatment, healing and repair] HOUSE [Where our lives take place] ** Dream: The Big House by ? (9703XX) ** I'm in a large house made up of two sections. One side is old and Victorian. It is mostly empty and there are cobwebs everywhere, cracked mirrors, etc...The other side is brand new, modern style, there are many people wandering around. In the old part, there is a little boy I'm supposed to watch over. There was something either mentally or developmentally wrong with him and I knew he had the power to hurt me and to hurt others. Because of this I was very cautious and gentle with him. The manager of the hotel did not want other people seeing him and it was my job to keep him hidden. Unfortunately he kept wandering off. He kept taking knives from the kitchen and hiding them in the old rooms. I had to find them before he found them (he'd forget where he hid them). At times I had to race ahead of him to get to them before he did. A few times he'd get one and I'd talk him into giving it to me. He wanted to go over to the new side of the house, but I wouldn't let him. The people in the new side pretty much ignored me, they didn't know what my job was or who the little boy was. Comments by Dreamer I had this dream in conjunction with 2 others. Sometimes the boy would turn into a vicious dog, sometimes into a simple man. I believe the child is me, who I was, actually, and that I am afraid of him and don't want others to know about the person I was (and yes, who I could be again). ** Dream: 'Tree of Life' by Nutcracker (980803) ** I had been away from my (birthplace) home (I don't recall why - due to marriage or vacation or something), when by chance, I find myself standing outside of said (my birthplace) home; a glorious tree (something huge, like the giant redwoods in California). There's a doorway (and I believe a door - like a double door with panes of glass in the top halves). I go inside. It's dark and hard to see. There is 'tree' wood strewn all across the ground. I stumble through approximately ten feet of that when I come to the forest. It's filled with life (abuzz with activity). It's like one big party. Being in the forest is like being in a real home - people are sitting in lounge chairs watching TV, except that they're in the middle of the forest. I walk past one guy. He jumps up and asks me to dance. I put up my left hand (as in for him to STOP) and I say (recalling another most recent such encounter), "Gee, I just did this exact same thing yesterday to Troy Aikman (Cowboys). I must have seen the Supremes recently." Then I begin singing the Supreme's song, 'Stop In The Name Of Love'. When I'm done singing, I continue on my way. Next I pass a woman in a lounge chair and stop momentarily to glance at her. It's Kirstie Alley (Veronica's Closet). She leaps out of her chair and asks, "Want to dance?" I say, "Sure, but first let me find a bathroom." (98/8/3) HOTELS [Temporary Dwelling or Special Event location] JOURNEYS [Missions away from our home base -explorations] ** Dream: elfin healer, by jan (980909) ** after the big war, the earth has become a peaceful place. lush forests, golden wheatfields, clear streams. the concrete labyrinths, endless motorcades and barbed wire fences have vanished. human population consists of small, scattered communities. each of them has its individual life style, and people live where they feel they belong. however, I don't know anything about the world at large. I am a wild-hearted, free-spirited, somewhat ragged creature of the woods, dreamy, playful, and curious: a female elf with lots of unruly brown hair. I dunno if I had freckles but they sure would've fit. It feels so good to simply be alive, living each moment to the full! at the moment I am with my human friend (long straight hair, self-control, a warm smile, shining eyes.) I both love and respect her. she lives in a medieval-style community and is "the princess". it's a friendly, romantic game rather than ugly hard-core feudalism. people are so innocent these days! hand in hand, we are strolling down an archway that opens to the right. there's green meadows and a forest in the distance. from the deep blue sky a yellow noon sun bathes the land in her rich golden warmth. we expect a bunch of children tomorrow, and we are "brainstorming" how to make them enjoy the visit. I suggest we take them for a ride down the river, or organize a duck hunt. I explain the basics of duck hunting (in English) suddenly I notice there'pole. I know that raven, and I clutch my friend´s arm. "beware! that raven is a spy of the WITCH! we mustn't do anything we have planned today! she would know!" and yes, there she is: a black shadow, riding along the horizon on her broomstick. she doesn't scare me, but I fear for my loved ones. all of a sudden, we are back in the courtyard. I step inside and almost drown in a flood of noisy kids. I lead them down a stairwell into the cool castle cellar, because that'the girls from the boys. at the same time I know this is a silly human concept. we enter the "reactor chamber". obviously, the castle once had a nuclear reactor. it has been shut down, of course. now it is a museum piece. there is an old man here, sitting on a chair at the wall. the children ask me who he is. "this is Shamino, the last hero," I explain. "he is a museum piece now. we don't need any heroes these days." one of the boys introduces himself as Shamino'older than the other kids, somewhere in his mid-teens. a bit like me: though I'm somewhat "ageless" (being an elf), I'm as much a child as I am a grown-up. he has found a third museum piece: a coke machine. he wants to get a drink out of it, but he does not have any money (no-one has, these days!) as if she'd been lurking all the time, the witch pops up! and believe me, she's no wise old woman, celtic priestess or wiccan, but an "evil crone" from the Brothers Grimm fables. she reaches for Shamino Jr., offering him some rusty old coins. but I slip between them. "no! these coins are CURSED! you mustn't take them!" I give the witch a good shove, and she disappears. yeah! my free, unrestrained "love power" is too strong for her petty schemes! I then turn to the boy, who looks all confused and frightened. I snuggle up to him, whispering: "if you are in trouble, just come to me. I'm an elf!" by this time I was already waking up. Comments by Dreamer ...I could never shoot a duck (or skin a rabbit or slaughter a pig), and I don't have a clue about weapons or hunting. ...it's only in the "happy" dreams that I'm female, and this might've been the happiest of them all! ==Commentary by Heratheta on Elfin Healer (980909)== however-this kind soul, is what should be avoided to the right or left of the world see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ until the next dream LOST [Disorientation or abandonment] LOTTERY DREAMS [Sudden Wealth - Randomness favors the dreamer] LOVE [All around us, yet so hard to find and keep] LUCID DREAMING [Knowing you are Dreaming when you are Dreaming] ** Dream: ron's pet shop by stan kulikowski ii (980923) ** Note: stan requests his name and address be kept with the dream - stan kulikowski ii < ( wednesday night, i got home just before 22:00, tired from teaching the networking course and all day preparation for the java lesson. my mother said i looked really tired, but i had some web work to do getting a newsletter into its archives before i could get to sleep. around 01:00 i got that done and caught up on my evening email. by this time i had regained my alertness, but went to sleep anyway around 02:00 after reading in the final chapter of decline and fall. ) behind his house in massachusetts, ron fussell has finally gotten around to remodeling his garage, expanding it into a large barn into which he has moved his pet supply business. when i knew him, ron raised hamsters in his basement which he sold to local pet stores. he specialized in exotic dwarf hamsters that were difficult to breed. he could better prices for the dwarf hamsters compared to the usual sirian golden hamsters. years back he started this operation to keep a supply of feeders available for a snake we shared. eventually the snake died, but the operation of keeping a population of mice, hamsters and gerbils kept going in his basement. now he has expanded the operation into his brand new barn and he is showing me the set up for the first time. since the barn is new, everything has a new clean look and smell. the hay scattered loosely on the floor is all fresh and all the timbers of the structure, though hand hewn and rough have that raw wood texture to them. very little paint on the interior of the building. the front area where the customers are to come in is mostly small cages and tanks with a variety of small animals for sale. "and here we have our basic stocks, your teddy bear hamsters, black gerbils, and the russian dwarf." he shows me rack after rack of the small creatures, all busy scurrying around, do what ever business rodents do. a lot of constant activity which presumably has as much significance to them as our actions do to us. "oh, here is the new breed i am trying out." ron points to some larger cages mounted on the wall a bit higher up than the rest. inside is a beautiful creature, a little larger than a kitten but smaller than a cat. it has long fur which swishes gracefully when the animal moves. it is generally a golden brown color with leopard spots all over its long fur. it looks and moves more like a monkey with really short legs, but ron assures me it is a rodent of the hamster family. "i don't know how they will breed. i think they will need larger cages than these rabbit hutches." he takes one out and gives it to me to handle. up close i can see that it does have the pinched rodent face with its incisors showing when it smacks its lips. the face is not very attractive up close, but the long shiny leopard fur has a nice smooth feel to it. its legs beneath the shaggy coat are a little longer than i had expected. it looks more like a guinea pig, but i have to take ron's word that it is a large hamster. "can it learn to ride on your shoulder like a parrot or a monkey?" i ask him. "i don't know." he replies. "just got the pair of them in and have not had much time to handle them. that would make for a convenient way to handle them." i put this one on my shoulder and walk around a bit. it does seem to know to hang on there, but since the rodent feet do not have prehensile digits, it has a difficult time keeping its grip as i move.=20 after a little trial, i bring it back to be cradled in my arms where it is more comfortable. i doubt the shoulder ride will be a frequent method of activity for it. "one of the things i have learned about keeping these is that they need a few peanuts in their feed each day." ron points to a large bowl of peanuts over by the cages. i take a few out, giving one to the hamster and shelling one open for me. the nuts inside are a little larger than usual and taste rather bland, unsalted and under roasted. not very good, but the rodent seems delighted. going around the corner from the small animal area, he has displayed some accessory merchandise. i examine a sort of totem pole made of a blonde bleached wood, shaped with various faces but it ends with a large ball that mushrooms out on the top. "that is a monkey totem" ron tells me. there are sashes of cloth attached to the sides which give squirrel monkeys a grip to climb and play on it. i tap the thing to find out that it is hollow and surprisingly light weight. the totem is a somewhat less than two meters tall and less than two thirds a meter thick. it is a thick piece of furniture. i can not imagine them being a very popular item of purchase, but maybe the monkeys like it. as we turn the corner into the larger area of the barn, ron puts out his hand to stop me from going on. "we better be careful here." he tells me pointing to the calico tiger. "she is pregnant and i do not know how she will take to strangers around her litter of cubs." the calico tiger is a large cat, bigger than a german shepard but smaller than a great dane. it is a very stocky animal, but the startling thing about it is its colors. it looks like it is made of a patchwork of cloth. little bits of color in reds, orange, brown and white cover its body in irregular patterns. it looks more like a small lion with a shaggy mane on its neck than a tiger. the colors have a muted look to them like a fabric that has faded with many washings. ron tells me that effect is achieved by a speckle of the white guard hairs in the fur throughout the colored areas. over all it reminds me of the tiger in winnie the poo, larger and more alive. the calico tiger sniffs his hand and looks at me with suspicion. i move very carefully through her area. the straw bedding on the floor is mixed with squares of cloth in the same colors as her coat. apparently her nesting behavior is to shred fabric into pieces which match the coloration of her cubs. they are very difficult to see as they wiggle around on the floor under foot. with earh step i have to move the small cats and rags away until i see a clear piece of wooden floor to put my foot on. i wonder if the mother cat is so touchy about its young around strangers than ron leaves it free about the shop. surely liability would be huge if it bit one of customers. i am finally near enough to the end of the tiger's nest that i can jump out onto clear floor. turning the corner into the larger back area of the barn. there are many more cages keeping animals of all sorts. tanks for the snakes and lizards, perches for some parrots. looking down in my hand, i find a brown piece of dried beef jerky which i should have given to the tiger to make friends. looking down at the piece of beef jerky, i think that i shall have to be sure to get this in my dream log. i then realize that i am sleeping and that i can wake up if i want to start writing this up. now wait a minute, if i am dreaming this, then right now i am lucid, a rare state of dreaming for me. i am aware that this is only the third time i have been lucid that i can recall in my dream records. ok, i stop the process of coming out to wake up and try to get back to dreaming. my sleep starts getting deeper again, this time intentionally. as i walk around the pet shop, i wonder what special use can i put this lucidity to. perhaps i can use this feeling of total control to explore some universal problem of human existence: the problem of self awareness; or the issue of free will; or the existential abyss of mortality; out of body astral projection; the luck of predestined fate; or the wellspring of imagination. anything is possible here. with this rare lucid moment, one foot in ron's pet shop and the other nearly awake in my bed at home, i can tap into these issues and discover something totally new in my experience. now, how can i best benefit with this control and power? as i am thinking about how to use this opportunity, ron's wife debby comes up to me with a game she has invented. their son, lee, comes with her and they want me to play it with them. "it is a lot like cosmic wimpout" she explains. in that moment the lucidity slips away unrecognized and i am back in the dream as an experience rather than control. in the first part of the game the three of us take turns drawing puzzle pieces out a cloth bag to assemble a playing piece for the rest of the game. you don't know what your piece will look like until its done. if the part you draw out of the bag does not fit anywhere on the assembly so far, you have to throw it back in for the next person's turn. eventually you get a complete piece and are ready to begin the movement phase, throwing dice. as is, i am the first one to get a complete assembly. my marker looks like a small rocket ship crossed with a food processor. it makes a buzzing noise when i turn the handle of the processor. since my piece is done before theirs, i can roll dice on my turn instead of drawing more parts from the bag. i roll a three which does not seem to be the number i needed to move my rocket blender onto the felt playing board. debby completes her piece on her next draw. it is a robot that plays a sitar and puffs of smoke come out of its cheeks. lee keeps drawing parts that do not mount on his incomplete assembly. i roll again and still do not get the number to get on the playing felt. debby rolls a three and moves her piece onto the left path and hops inwards two steps. "wait a minute" i say. "i thought we had to roll onto the number one mark by exact count. you went two more hops." she tells me that i have to come by exact count since i was first done with the building phase, but the second one can over roll the first mark in order to catch up with the first. this makes no sense to me since i am not on the board, there is nothing to catch up to. she is ahead of me and i am still trying to roll a one to get on. "that's just the rules" she says with a smile. well, i can tell who made these rules, i guess.it is her game. lee completes his piece on the next draw. it is a pencil that writes with chocolate. i finally roll a one and move my blender rocket onto the first mark of the right hand path of the felt board. unlike cosmic wimpout which has a circular board, these two trails are just linear and i wonder what happens when we go off the end of them. debby rolls a large number and overshoots the lips. at different places on both paths, there are arrows pointing to objects in the middle. debby missed the first arrow that pointed to the clay lips. if you land on them you get to wear them or put them on you playing piece which adds to its abilities in the next phase of the game beyond the felt board. i see other little objects in the path ahead of us: two brass balls, a feather from icarus' wing, some gear sprockets, a puff of a blue cloud, nero's tear for seneca, the emancipation proclamation, a soap bubble, the chicken named rome, antidisestablishmenttarianism, a tooth of a saber tooth tiger, the koorinor diamond (unlucky for men), the keys to karma, the sound right eye of horus, a powderhouse fart and the falling fellatcio (unlucky for women). lee says that i should try to get the lips. ( i wake here about 08:30 and hurry to get the computer on for this dream record. it is true that i have had very few lucid dreams to enter in the log, so i am eager to get this one in so i start typing right away. unfortunately the lucid phase of the dream between the tour of the pet store and playing the game did not last long enough to solve any of those problems. i had wondered what the exit from lucidity was like, being inconclusive on my two prior experiences. this time it was a physical sensation of rising up toward waking consciousness, or sinking back into the dream state. i wanted to keep the balance between the two until i decided what to do, but i could not. i only had a few seconds of control before the people in the dream drew me back into their frame of reference. because i was undecided on what to do with in, it appears that i lost the opportunity to use it.) MEMORY [Remembering ...In dreams we often struggle with the issue of memories and remembering a dream which by definition involves the process of recollection.] MIRRORS [Reflection of Self] MUSIC [Melodies of the land within] NUDITY [What you see is what you get] PERFORMERS [Entertainers] PROBLEMS [Situations or difficulties sometimes present choices] POLITICAL SCENE [Public issues through positions of power] RELATIONSHIPS [Other parts of ourselves including family which constitutes the first and earliest of our relationships, often influencing how we relate to the outside world] ** Dream: lost friend by maurin (980916) ** I dreamed that my friend was at my mom's house with a blonde woman. she came into the house and said he wouldn't talk to me. i kept saying, tell him i just want to talk to him. when she left and i went outside, he was driving down the road and i stopped him with my thoughts. the car was just spinning it's wheels, not going forward. then the thought came, i can't hold onto this relationship. the car then skidded away with his arm around the blonde. this is pretty straightforward, right? just thinking maybe the dream is what i think is happening, but maybe not the reality of the situation. ** Dream: Betrayal? By Penelope (980916) ** Time: early norning I was walking down a hallway (similar to one in the house I grew up in, but not exactly the same) and came to a door. I opened it and inside were my mother (died 9/9/87, age 91) and my husband (divorced 8/87)on the bed making love. I was devastated. I closed the door and started back down the hall. My husband came out and tried to stop me from leaving. My mother also came out, but said nothing. She was dressed in a silvery see-through sheath. Though she was elderly, she looked great (better than she ever did in life), and she was smiling. I was crying and asking him how he could do this to me and with my mother, who is in her 70's. I was trying to remember exactly how old she was, but I couldn't do the math in my head. I was aware that other people (I didn't know who) were watching all of this. I was feeling guilty throughout the dream, because I knew that I was the cause of this happening; that somehow I had set it all up. Then I awoke. Comments by Dreamer My mother was 46 when I was born, and I never knew her as a youthful or sexual being. My husband was a sex addict. I remarried in 1989 & was widowed in 1993. I'm now ready to start dating again. What could this dream mean? ** Dream: cindy timko's dissertation by Stan Kulikowski ii(980914) ** Note: stan requests that his name and address be kept with the dream text. - stan kulikowski ii < DATE : 14 sep 1998 08:09 ( a sunday night, mom and i watched the 50th emmy awards. it was nice to see clips of all the old tv programs we watched when i was a kid. howdy doody, the lone ranger, captain kangaroo, pinky lee and so on. mom went to bed around midnight and i started late grading homework for my programming course until about 03:30. i thought i would just do a few, but ended up doing them all. there were a lot of them, i was surprised they went so quickly. ) it is dark outside and getting rather late. we are sitting in the driveway of somebody's house on folding chairs listening to cindy timko give her doctoral defense. barbara partee is the main thesis chair, asking pertinent questions at the appropriate intervals. the topic is some esoteric bit of physics, i believe. i am there as a guest, not really following the topic all that well. i have been asked to do some of the technical support work with the technology use in the display of data. now cindy has completed her formal talk and has asked that the video be shown. i am a little uncomfortable with this, and try to explain to everyone that the video was too long for the floppy disk and i had to cut a lot of it out, so the work may be missing some crucial parts. i tried to keep the longer dialogs intact, but a lot had to be cut. no one seems to be listening or understanding what i am saying so i fire up the video projector and have at it. let the work speak for itself, if it can. down at the end of the driveway there is a portable screen set up on a tripod. the video begins to roll. it is obviously a bunch of college students who have been press ganged into acting this skit. i try to follow what the thesis is all about, but cannot really tell given the short and choppy nature of the cuts i made. well, i can apologize later if i missed the central point somewhere along the line. the video comes to a quick end. only about three minutes of video could be compressed onto the floppy. cindy says something i can not quite hear and the group breaks up with congratulations all around. i break up the equipment load it on the short yellow school bus parked along the empty highway. there are a couple of these small sized buses waiting to take us back. i get in the one that contains my equipment. the ride back home is long and tiring. it must be two oclock in the morning when we arrive back in the neighborhood of my mother's house in ohio. i am rather tired, but i decide to walk down to daniel dorrough's house as i know that cindy will be staying over there with a few others for the night. i hope to explain to her why her video was cut so short and to suggest that she burn it on a CDr which has more than enough storage space. a floppy disk is much too small. when i get to daniel's house, i can see that his parents have spread spare mattresses over the floor of the living room for people to sleep on. no one else is here yet, and i am tired so i lie down in the middle of the first one. i am not there long before others start coming in from the second bus. i am only about half asleep, but enough so that i do not get up and greet the others. perhaps i will just stay here and talk to her in the morning. to my great surprise cindy lies down next to me prepares to go to sleep also. wow, getting to sleep with cindy timko just like that, no hassles or awkwardness. but the mattress is a large one, and her friend, angelina popovich comes and takes a space between us. hm. much of the thrill is gone. angie was cindy's best friend but never much on the exciting index. oh well, i am truly tired and nothing other than imagination was going to happen in a house full of people anyway. i decide to drift off into deeper sleep, but without much success. i can neither move nor get quit of consciousness. it is that moment of sleep when the normal paralysis has set in, but the mind is only part aware of its surroundings. i am lying on my back with my arms extended upward, taking up more space than i ought to, given the crowded of the facilities. cindy and angie are on my right. angie gets up and goes somewhere i can not see. then a thin black woman crawls up on my left side. apparently i am in the place where she slept last night and she seems determined to get her position back, even if she has to share it with me. through my slightly open eye lids i can see that she is very pretty so i do mind it when she snuggles up on my left arm. she is looking at me very closely as if attracted or making some serious decision. "i think i am is love with this man" she tells someone in a soft voice. no sooner than she has settled down, than she sits up again. this time, turning her back to me, she pulls her blouse off over her head. i can see that her back is well muscled and tight like a long distance runner or maybe a professional dancer. she turns back quickly and snuggles up again into my extended arm and side. i can feel her small firm breasts caressing my side through my shirt, but can move to either accept or reject her nearness, no response at all from me in this half sleep. well, maybe i will wake up later in the night enough to move in closer. with a jerk, i suddenly am awake and sitting up. the bright sun is pouring in the room. it is obviously late the next morning and most of the people have left. only cindy and i remain, she still asleep after her long efforts last night. i wonder what became of the black girl and regret that i never even knew her name though i enjoyed the few moments of furtive contact from her. rather than wake cindy, i go upstairs into danny's small attic bedroom. he is sitting on a bed typing on an old portable. i ask him if he has another machine as i want to type in my dream log before i forget what this dream has been about. he dusts off an old DEC rainbow microcomputer and says that it will fire up if i give it time. i look at the dusty keyboard and wonder if i can remember the qwerty typing pattern well enough any more, so accustomed to dvorak nowdays. yes, i can still get by. ( i wake around 07:44 and cannot get properly awake. no alarm or anything, i just wake and still feel very tired like i felt in the dream. i believe i went back to sleep for a few minutes but wake up again, still feeling very leaden and tired. i suspect that this sleep reentry provided the part about going to type in the dream on danny's computer, as i had thought about putting this dream in the dream log, as it was fairly easy to recall all of it. eventually i force myself up to write this in. barbara partee was on my dissertation committee, a brilliant semanticist. cindy timko was valdictorian of my high school class, a very bright woman, much smarter than me. as i recall, the last time i saw her was a christmas party during sophomore year in college. she had returned early in the term from some college out west. people rumored that she had left midterm because of some difficulty, i presumed of some sexual nature but no one spoke of it directly, at least not anyone who really knew. angelina was her best friend and i think that christmas party was the last time i saw her too. i do not think she went on to university anywhere but was working somewhere local and so was not on the academic cycle like the rest of us. as i recall we did some divination late at night with mirrors and candles, a russian new years practice.=20 create a hall of mirrors with two mirrors face to face and two candles between them, stare down the recursive reflection until the flames mesmerize you enough that you will see your future spouse step out somewhere in the infinite regression. i did not see anyone: prophetic, i guess. cindy never said who she saw. ) ** Dream: 2 x James by ? (980924) ** Thurs 24 Sept 98 3am Over the last 2 nights, I have had dreams in which I have "met" two local (Melbourne, Australia)and famous men named James. The first was a footballer called James Hurd, the second a singer named James Reyne. It is only in retrospect that the James connection occurred to me. I was most surprised in my dream to be attracted to a footy player. In that dream, he had a painful knee and I was massaging it. The James Reyne dream was one in which we were having a discussion about childrens' welfare in this country, while sitting in a bookshop drinking coffee. Comments by Dreamer: Just one name can encompass great variety. RELIGIOUS RELATED [The Ritual and the Spiritual] ROMANCE [Thrills and Chills, lost in another] SCHOOL THEMES [Learning and learning related trials] SOLUTIONS [The answers to problems or quandaries] ** Dream: Mobsters-R-Us' by Nutcracker (980730) ** Me (as a male). I'm being protected by a mobster, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Bernard/GH). One of Sonny's men, Jason (Steve Burton/GH) is supposed to guard me through the night. We're in a huge warehouse. Jason and I will be staying upstairs. I wonder how safe it will be for us to stay here. Now (it seems), I'm one of Sonny's guys and I've double crossed him. I worry that he knows. I go to use the bathroom. As I walk in, I begin unbuttoning my (blue) shirt and then stop. I don't turn on the light. Am I nuts? Surely Sonny will come after me. I hide. Sonny sends some guys into the bathroom after me (the lights are still off). I crouch down next to the doorway and several of them walk right past me. But not Sonny. He puts his gun to my head. I sit there numb, thinking to myself, 'just do it' (and get it over with). This waiting to die is enough to kill a person! Sonny drags me out of the bathroom. I think again, do it, just shoot me. (to myself in my sleep I'm thinking), what if he kills me while I'm asleep dreaming this? Will I really die? To escape my fate, I 'pretend' he's already shot me and I wake up. (98/7/30) STAIRS [Bridges between levels, between the upper and the lower] STRANGERS [Who and what we don't know yet] TEETH [Ok, losing teeth is one of the top ten dreams people have questions on. Theories on what they mean range all over the spectrum of possibilities.] TORNADOS [Pretty well defined destructive power of nature] TRAPPED [Temporarily helpless- Sometimes we are paralyzed or imprisoned by jobs, relationships or expectations] ** Dream: Dream about marriage by fidors friend (980914)** interpretation -please Well, a very close friend of mine ask me to send this messege to Internet. She had a very realistic dream about her marriage , she was late and she was dressed in black (date of dream 13-IX). Could you send back to me an interpretation or give some links / e-mail where i can get it. Thank you Adam Sorry for bad English . I'll forgive you if you translate it back into Polish :-) ** Dream: 'The Surrogate' by Nutcracker (980810) ** I was with another person and a horse in a room (either a hotel or an office). The only piece of furniture in the room is a couch. I am there because I was chosen to be inseminated by the horse so as to bring another of its kind (mystical) into the world (actually, another person had been chosen before me, but they later declined the offer). I think there can only be one such horse at a time. As I sit there on the couch with the other person (who hasn't spoken and who I can't recall whether or not they're male or female), I wonder what I've gotten myself into. The horse is standing in front of us (brown in color). How will this be done? Will the horse climb on the couch and stand over me? I'm beginning to doubt my own part in this. Now I'm sitting on the floor, next to the horse. The procedure must take place at a certain time. Now it seems like we're in an office, in an office building. There is some commotion going on in an office down the hall. I rush over to see what's happening. I'm wearing a lime green suit (skirt and jacket) and I have a 10" screwdriver in my hand (the one I use to fix the water sprinklers). I have a matching scarf on my head which I rip off as I reach the other office. People are looking for Vanessa (I can't remember her last name though it's painted on the door). She's blonde, in her 20's and has long wavy hair. Apparently she's killed her boss. I worry that people will think I did it with the screwdriver and hide it in my scarf. Now I'm back with the other person and the horse. Our room has a glass wall. The (white) couch is next to the wall of glass. It overlooks the ocean. The time is getting nearer. I ask the person (Roma Downey/Touched By An Angel) how I become inseminated, more importantly, where (for some reason, I keep thinking 'the top of my head' and imagine this goop dripping down my face). She says, I can't tell you. I demand to know. She says, "In your ears." I say, "No way. I don't think so." Then I ask her, "will it improve my hearing?" I think at this point, Roma is the horse morphed into a person. Next she tells me that afterward, my feet will get larger. But I love my small feet, I think to myself. She shows me two horses hooves. One is normal size and the other a half size larger. First she shows me the bottom of the hooves. The smaller one has a V shaped groove in it from which she scrapes out some gelatinous type stuff, I believe this to be the insemination material. The larger hoof, that of the magical horse, she shows me the top of; it is brightly colored enamal (cloisonne) in a large abstract (but all rounded curves) design in shades of deep pink and passion purple. It's beautiful. I would be honored to be decorated as such. Roma is now sitting on the couch. I'm standing behind her. There is one tiny area on her hair (like hair coloring) at the bottom, that is rubbing off on her skin. I wipe it away. It's now 3:00 pm. She says, "It's time. It's getting dark." She says 'it's getting dark' twice. I look outside. It appears overcast, kind of like it gets on Good Friday (I think to myself). I'm not sure if I am to become this new magical horse or if I am just a conduit for its birth. (98/8/10) VEHICLES [Means of transportation, reflection of lifestyle] ** Dream: almost lost my daughter by ? (980918) ** There was a 72 lemans type car in perfect condition sitting on some type of showcase high above the stadium all at once the whole thing began to fall in slow motion when it was falling my boyfriend and friend was pretty safe when it hit the ground it almost hit my 17 year old daughter i ran over to her and began to hug her tightly. Comments by Dreamer: No real colors just happiness that she was alright. I would like some feedback on this, It could be a warning. I am not real sure. This was a tough one for me. WATER [A magical earthly fluid, nourishment, cleansing] ** Dream: ship at sea by mermaid (980916) ** 16 Sept 1998 5am I was on board a ship on dark blue seas. There were icebergs to the right of us, but we were steering a straight course which avoided them. I had to climb down a long ladder into the hold, to check that everyone on board was ok. Several of the men felt sea-sick. I could hear Sting singing "Love is the Seventh Wave" but I couldn't see him. A man indistinguishable beneath a druidic robe with cowl came up to me and asked me to draw a pentagram. It was a test to see in which order I drew the lines, and how many points the star had. I "drew" with my right index finger in the air and as I drew each line, it remained visible as red light. The druid said "Wait for the warrant" the vanished from sight. I didn't know whether it was safe to just leave this symbol where it was and leave, but I did. I climbed back up on deck and saw that the seas were much calmer now and the icebergs further away. Comments by Dreamer I had to get up after this dream because I had a full bladder, and was cold as the bedclothes had come off me. WORKPLACE [Where we make a living] WRITING & WRITERS [Communication and creativity] = = = = = = = = = = = == DREAM SERIES (None this month) = = = = = = = = = = = = = Well, that's it for this month. See you next time in ED 5 #10 - November 1998. 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