E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s Subscribe: electric-dreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: electric-dreams-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Subscribe Online: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electric-dreams o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s Volume #9 Issue #5 May 2002 ISSN# 1089 4284 o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Download a cover for this issue! http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-covers o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o C O N T E N T S ++ Editor's Notes ++ The Global Dreaming News Events - Updates - Reviews - More From Peggy Coats - www.DreamTree.com ++ Column: An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange By Lucy Gillis ++ Article: Maslow's Map A New System of Dream Classification Chapter 5: Flying Over the Map By Linda Lane Magallón ++ Article: The Dangers of the Interpretive Approach By Strephon Kaplan-Williams ++ Article: Do Dreams Have Meaning? By Richard Wilkerson D R E A M S S E C T I O N : This issue includes volume # 421 - # 446 D E A D L I N E : May 15th deadline for June 2002 submissions XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Send Dreams and Comments on Dreams to: Richard Wilkerson Send Dreaming News and Calendar Events to: Peggy Coats Send Articles and Subscription concerns to: Richard Wilkerson: o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Editor's Notes o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Welcome to the May 2002 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal to dreams and dreaming online. If you are new to dreams and dreaming, please join us on dreamchatters@yahoogroups.com and we will guide you to the resources you need. To join send an e to dreamchatters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Our news directory, Peggy Coats, from dreamtree.com, has gathered dreaming news from around the world. In the Global Dreaming News you will find the latest dream and dreamwork events, conferences, and seminars. Also you will find research and research requests for subject, updates on your favorite dream websites, book reviews and more. If you have news items about dreams and dreaming for Peggy, send them to her at web@dreamtree.com Lucy Gillis explores the world of lucid dreaming and this month features Linda Magallon's series of (on-line) questions and answers about lucid dreaming. Since the ASD is now involved in producing a new and expanded Dream FAQ for the Internet, I highly recommend that all who are participating in this please read this interview. If you would like to help ASD with the FAQ project, please stop by the ASD site, become a member and join the lucid dreaming discussion group. http://www.asdreams.org/ Linda Lane Magallón, author of _Mutual Dreaming_ and long time dream researcher of outer reaches of human potential, continues her investigation into a neglected area of dreams through the work of Humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow. This month Magallón explores the upper echelons of flying dreams through Maslow's hierarchy of needs. What she found that was that while the lower level dreams prompted her to interpretation, the upper level dreams prompted her to inspiratio n. Be sure to read Magallon's article and make the leap from dreamwork to dream trek. I am often asked, "Do dreams have meaning?" Usually I answer the question in the context that its being asked with something simple like "yes" or quote Avens', "we give dreams meaning and then they reveal their significance to us." But if you stop for a moment and consider the true complexity of the question, simple answers begin to open up into deep complications that involve all our viewpoints, our science, our religion, our hopes and fears and the languages we use to discuss all these things. So I tried a little bit longer answer and am including that here this month under the simple title, "Do Dreams Have Meaning?" And as long as we are taking this dangerous path into the question of meaning, I thought it might be nice to include a short piece by a long time dreamwork pioneer, Strephon Kaplan-Williams. Strephon is well know to the dreamwork community for his contributions to the beginning of the Association for the Study of Dreams and the long time alliance he maintains with self-empowerment and consciousness raising through dreams. His Jungian-Senoi Dreamwork Manual was created for just this purpose and is still in print. Strephon continues educating and teaching dreamwork around the world and in the last few years has brought his work online, offers a weekly newsletter, and even has generously set up his website to display various of his super delightful and magical Dream Cards. In this article below, he takes up the ongoing concern in the field of dreams about dreams and their interpretations. I thought this would make a nice companion piece to the meaning of dreams article. Be sure to read "The Dangers of the Interpretive Approach" and sign up for weekly e-mail essays like this one. -------------------- Our dream-flow Dreams this month come from all around the Net and have been organized by the software developed by Harry Bosma. Be sure to look through the dreams and see what on the mind and soul of dreamers in Cyberspace. Thanks to all who sent in information for the Dream Resources pages. There is still time to get your site updated. You can look through our collected website links at: http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources/ For those of you who are new to dreams and dreaming, be sure to stop by one of the many resources: http://www.dreamtree.com http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/library Be sure to look over the program for the 2002 Dream Conference from the Association for the Study of Dreams in Boston this June. see http://www.asdreams.org/2002 for details. I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream. - Vincent van Gogh -Richard Wilkerson /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< G L O B A L D R E A M I N G N E W S April-May 2002 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< If you have news you'd like to share, contact Peggy Coats, web@dreamtree.com. Visit Global Dreaming News online at http://www.dreamtree.com/ This Month's Features: NEWS - Annual Summer Kaplan-Williams Dreamwork Intensive - 3-year Professional Training on Dreams & Consciousness - Current research on dreaming -- International meeting in Geneva, Switzerland - School of Metaphysics Dream Hotline - Summer BADG Meeting with JFKU Dream Studies Students - ASD Cincinnati Regional Program - The National Nightmare Hotline - An Update - May Bay Area Dreamworkers' (BADG) Meeting - 19th Annual International Conference for the Association for the Study of Dreams RESEARCH & REQUESTS - Dreams of Women with Knives WEBSITE & ONLINE UPDATES - Dream Art of Chris Witkowski - ONIROS and EASD Updates DREAM CALENDAR for April-May 2002 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< N E W S <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>> Annual Summer Kaplan-Williams Dreamwork Intensive http://dreamwork2000.com/ Strephon Kaplan-Williams will be holding an annual summer dreamwork intensive in the Netherlands from July 6 to 12 and any are invited. This will be an international workshop, and people can write for information to strephon@dreamwork2000.com >>>> 3-year Professional Training on Dreams & Consciousness Strephon Kaplan-Williams conducts 3-year Professional Training on Dreams & Consciousness. A new training will start from September 2002 in the Netherlands. For more information contact Ella Boeren: ella@dreamwork2000.com or visit: http://dreamwork2000.com/nederlands/nederlandss.html >>>> Current research on dreaming -- International meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, 3 and 4 May 2002 at the University of Geneva Topics include: neurobiology of dreaming; sleep stages, cortical activation and dream content; dream recall; mnemonic sources of dream content; continuity of waking and sleep mentation; nightmares; and, (In French) Rêves et thérapies cognitivo- comportementales. Speakers include: Claudio Bassetti, George Baylor, Mark Blagrove, Corrado Cavallero, Giorgio Rezzonico, Michael Schredl, Sophie Schwartz, Robert Stickgold, Inge Strauch, Antonio Zadra, Team of the Geneva dream laboratory (dir. Jacques Montangero). Free attendance. Inscriptions to jacques.montangero@pse.unige.ch >>>> School of Metaphysics Dream Hotline www.dreamschool.org The 14th Annual National Dream Hotline will be April 26 - 28. For the entire weekend the School will have volunteer dream experts who interpret dreams and answer questions about dreams by phone. No charge for the service other than the long distance call. E- mails will also be accepted on a daily basis from people who want dreams interpreted, and these will posted on the website. >>>> Summer BADG Meeting with JFKU Dream Studies Students John F. Kennedy University's Dream Studies Program and its students have invited Bay Area Dreamworkers Group (BADG) members for an afternoon gathering to introduce the two communities to each other and to network. Both communities will be encouraged to speak about their work with dreams and support each other in their common interest in dream education. Another reminder will be sent out in July with driving directions. If you are interested in attending and are not yet a BADG member, contact Eric Snyder at esnyder@sonic.net. Please bring a dream or drawing from a dream for our dream tree and our collaborative art installation, and bring something sweet or savory to share. This meeting is dedicated to Dreaming of Peace. When: Saturday, August 10 Time: 2 to 5 p.m. Where: JFKU, 12 Altarinda Road, Orinda Location: Room 201 in Morrison Hall >>>> ASD Cincinnati Regional Program Extraordinary Dreams - From Crisis to Creativity April 27, 2002 http://www.e-dreamdesigns.com/asdohio.htm 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saint John's Unitarian Church 320 Resor Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45220 Meet internationally known dream researcher & author Stanley Krippner, Saybrook Institute, San Francisco, Former Director of Maimonides Dream Laboratory & past ASD President. Dr Krippner will share recent research in his presentation: Extraordinary. Dreams. Learn from Jungian analyst Jane White-Lewis, past ASD president, about dream work in schools & the ASD June 2002 International Conference. Hear featured speakers Roger Knudson, Miami U. & ASD Board, and ASD's Betty Hollin with Wisdom of the Dream, Indianapolis. Engage in creative enactments with New York actress & playwright Sara Ridberg of Dreamplayers. Celebrate at day's end with a premiere performance of Dream Dance: The Crow and the Phoenix, story and choreography by Valley Reed, ASD member & dancer from Dallas, in concert with Cincinnati dancers. The day offers an opportunity for all who love to dream and share their dreams with others to come together as individuals and also as a regional dream network. The theme, Extraordinary Dreams: From Crisis to Creativity, encompasses dreams related to the September 11 tragedy, including premonitory ones, and dreams of help and healing which give rise to transforming creative expression. >>>> The National Nightmare Hotline - An Update The Association for the Study of Dreams' National Nightmare Hotline - 866-DRMS911 - is now in it's fifth month of operation. It has been an important project for ASD, dreaming and most of all, the general public. The hotline is a place for people to debrief their nightmares, an educational tool for those who call for information, and a permanent toll free number that is easily accessible, during any crisis, for those who need the service. This hotline is presently being funded through private donations. If anyone would like to contribute please give the following information. Any amount, however small, would be greatly appreciated. At present, the hotline can be maintained at a cost that is low enough to be quite manageable. For more information on donating or volunteering for the project, contact The Association for the Study of Dreams (ASD), Attn: Susan Moreno, Office Manager, PO Box 1592, Merced, California 95341, phone: (209) 724-0889; email ASDCentralOffice@aol.com >>>> May Bay Area Dreamworkers' (BADG) Meeting Hypnotherapy Techniques in Dreamwork Sunday, May 19, 2002 1 PM to 5 PM, Potluck 335 Beaumont Blvd., Pacifica, CA Dora Hannides, Ph.D., host and presenter (650) 359-8327 dhannides@hotmail.com Dora Hannides shares several of the dreamwork techniques she incorporates in her professional practice. She has a doctorate in clinical psychology with special training in hypnotherapy techniques. Dora will demonstrate how she uses hypnotherapy to extend a dream beyond the point when it actually ends. Another method explored will be interaction with a dream symbol or character through guided imagery utilizing group hypnosis. Participants are initially taken through a relaxation and induction phase and then into the dreamwork. >>>> 19th Annual International Conference for the Association for the Study of Dreams June 15 - 19, 2002 Tufts University, Medford, (Boston), Massachusetts ASD hosts its 19th annual international conference this year near Boston. They have chosen the theme Dreams and Cultures for the 2002 Boston Conference in order to address ways in which dreaming is interwoven with culture, including cross-cultural studies of dreaming, effects of dreams on cultures, and effects of culture on dreams and dream content. In addition, we want to recognize the varied "cultures" which exist within the fields of dream study -- for example, dream and sleep research, dreams and the arts, dreams and clinical practice. For those who have not been to an ASD conference, here is a brief description of what is now 19 years of conferences. A new location is chosen each year for the conference, 2000 was University of California, Santa Cruz, we try to alternate between east and west coasts, and have had two conferences in Europe, at the University of Leiden, and at London University. The conferences now have an attendance of several hundred people from many countries. These include researchers from many academic areas (including psychology, anthropology, history, sociology, film studies), professional psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, artists, dream group leaders and participants, counselors, long-term dream diary keepers, social and community workers, and many other people who also appreciate and are intrigued by their own dreams. The conferences have 3-4 tracks running at the same time, except for when there is an invited speaker. These include a research paper track, workshop and experiential track, and a discussion panel track. For an idea of the wide variety of approaches and topics addressed in the conference, please see the list of proposals and titles received at the end of this page, a list of accepted proposals will be made known in January. All proposals go through a refereeing process so as to ensure high quality presentations. The conference will begin on Saturday evening, June 15 with an engaging and lively invited panel reflecting the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary richness of ASD. Speakers representing the Arts, Research, Clinical/psychotherapy, Cross-Cultural Studies and Spiritual/Religious Studies will address the issue of "Why Dreams Matter". This opening event will be followed by the traditional opening reception that will offer conference attendees an opportunity to greet old friends and meet new attendees, and to continue discussion generated by the panel. The five themes discussed in the opening panel will be reflected throughout the conference. Each day will feature a theme or special focus in addition to a variety of other presentations. For more information, and/or to register, visit the website at : http://www.asdreams.org/2002/index.htm <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< R E S E A R C H & R E Q U E S T S <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>> Women's Dreams with Knives Wanted Dear female dreamers! I am a psychologist and dreamworker from Vienna, Austria, and I have just finished my study about spider dreams. Now I am looking for women`s dreams with knives - knives used as weapons or tools or...? used by the dreamer or other dream figures. If you have knife-dreams or dream series with knives and would like to contribute them to my research, please mail your dreams to johanna_vedral@hotmail.com ! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< 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. >>>> Updates on Oniros and EASD : ONIROS : French Association for the Study of Dreams http://www.oniros.fr/accueil.html Oniros is no longer publishing a Magazine, but the organization continues to explore and use dreams for planetary sanity and peace. EASD : European Association for the Study of Dreams http://www.oniros.fr/home.html Webmaster : Roger Ripert ONIROS Chitry Mont Sabot 58190 NEUFFONTAINES France Tel.: 33.3.86.24.86.41 Fax: 33.3.86.24.04.94 Email: oniros@club-internet.fr >>>> Dream Art of Chris Witkowski http://www.artdreaming.com/Dreams_pastels/Dreams_past.htm In the words of the artist: "I have kept a dream journal since 1987. Within the context of what I call "everyday" dreams, I am visited by the creatures you see in these paintings. Most are birds. But animals, insects, humans and objects also make their appearance in amazingly colorful circumstances and scenarios. Once I choose an image to work with, it begins another life. It is important that they look real, as if you might walk outside and see a pink and turquoise grosbeak. I call this process dreaming the dream onwards. As I give the images form through my painting, they often surprise me with a message or meaning beyond what was revealed by the dream." <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< D R E A M C A L E N D A R April-May 2002 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< Apr 27 in Cincinnati, OH ASD Regional Meeting, 9am-5pm. full day with national speakers and experiential fun. Visit www.asdreams.org for more information. May 3-4 in Geneva, Switzerland Current research on dreaming at the University of Geneva, building Uni-Mail. Free attendance. Inscriptions to jacques.montangero@pse.unige.ch May 4 in Vallombrosa, CA One Day Retreat with Jeremy Taylor, focusing on doing dream work/ Contact Fr. Basil Royton for more information at 408/947.2500 x 4441 May 8 in Berkeley, CA Jeremy Taylor workshop for sabbatical group at Jesuit School of Theology: "The Meaning of Dreams and Dreaming," 9-12noon. Contact Bruce at blescher@jstb.edu or 510/4549.055 May 9 in Danbury, CT "Healing through Dreams", evening workshop and book signing with Robert Moss, 7:00-8:30 pm. For more information call 203.837.8361. May 11 in Palo Alto, CA Jeremy Taylor will address the Bay Area Association for Psychological Types, at Stanford: "Contemporary Dream Work and the Influence of Personality Type on Individuation" , followed by a short workshop: "Discoveirng the Deeper Meanings in Our Dreams: A Practical Group Approach". For more information, contact Tereza at 4tereza@attbi.com or 650/323.6859 May 11-12 in New Fairfield, CT "Dreaming Other Lives and Other Worlds", weekend workshop with Robert Moss. For more information, Contact Irene at (203) 264 – 0319 or umadurga@earthlink.net May 19 in Pacifica, CA Bay Area Dreamworkers' (BADG) Meeting; Hypnotherapy Techniques in Dreamwork, 1 PM to 5 PM, Potluck. Contact Dora Hannides, Ph.D., host and presenter, (650) 359-8327 dhannides@hotmail.com for more information. May 20 in Indianapolis, IN THE WISDOM OF DREAMS, St. Vincent Hospital and Health Services; presented by: Betty A. Hollin, MA. To Register call: 317-338-2273 or 1-888-338-CARE. This program will provide basic and general information about dreams, why you should pay attention to them and what they mean. May 24-25 in San Rafael, CA. "Starting Your Own Dreamwork Practice", a weekend seminar with Jeremy Taylor. For more information, contact th Marin Institute for Projective Dream Work, at 415.454.2793. May 26-3 in Big Sur (Esalen), CA Jeremy Taylor's annual five day workshop on "Letting in the Light: Group Work with Dreams." Find out more about Esalen at www.esalen.org.To register call 831/667.3005 or fax to 831/667.2724. end news --------------------------------------------------- o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange By Lucy Gillis o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange By Lucy Gillis This month, we feature Linda Magallon's series of (on-line) questions and answers about lucid dreaming. ********** QUESTIONS FROM DREAM GROUP LEADERS ON-LINE (c) 1999 Linda Lane Magallon {Q:} What is lucid dreaming? In Western culture, we are currently calling all "sleep" experiences in which someone is aware they are having the experience at the time they're having it "lucidity." Any number of other cultures, current or in history, have named this phenomenon, and others related to it, by different names. {Linda:} And, what folks ARE calling "lucid" dreams very often aren't (per the standard use in the dream community). I've heard the term applied to visualizations in the waking state, to very vivid, coherent, colorful, real-seeming (but non-aware that one is dreaming) dreams. And (this is the tricky one), to lucid borderland experiences, especially when one is a dreamy state of consciousness, purposely making up a story. What I call "imagineering" doesn't occur in a sleep state, because you are still aware of things like the pressure of your body on the bed and can so easily be disturbed by outside noises. Aware imagination, no matter how close to sleep, isn't a "lucid dream," in my book. {Q:} So, are you really "re-entering" the dream when you visualize it again the waking state? {Linda:} In my experience, there is a difference between the context of a waking visualization and that of a dream, even a lucid dream. The waking experience is much more likely to conform to waking ego expectation and sequential flow of logic. On the other hand, the dream might scene shift to someplace totally different and my dreaming self do things I'd never "dream" of doing, even resist doing while awake. {Q:} Is there such a thing as "borderline"lucidity? Or are there "pre-lucid"experiences or near-lucid ones that people could be encouraged to become aware of? {Linda:} Sure. Dreamworker Jill Gregory did a piece in *Dream Network Bulletin* describing various levels of lucidity. I helped her define the terms. Ed Kellogg has his own schema, very similar to Jill's, which has been in use during the last mutual lucid dreaming project. {Q:} Has anyone encountered any information relating lucid dreaming to "non-first-person dreams" - that is, dreams in which the dreamer experiences dream events from the standpoint of another person or persons or animal or non-waking standpoint? {Linda:} I've had plenty of lucid dreams in which I was not-Linda. I might have "seen another" and then "become the other." Or simply started the dream as another. {Q:} Is there any evidence pro or con that introverts are more likely to have lucid dreams spontaneously? Do as many extroverts as introverts have lucid dreams? {Linda:} Ernest Hartmann showed that "thick boundaried" people tend to recall their dreams less than "thin boundaried" people and there is a tendency for "thin boundaried" people to be introverts. Thus, the population that remembers their dreams is already skewed in favor of the introverts. {Q:} Do people of certain MBTI-types have lucid dreams and others not? Or do certain enneagram types? {Linda:} Off the top of my head, I don't know of any Enneagram 3 and 8 lucid dreamers, but I can think of examples from the rest of the pack. I suspect it includes the entire spectrum, because a couple of years ago, LaBerge had his readership take Myers-Briggs exams and discovered that there were lucid dreamers from virtually every one of the 16 personality types. {Q:} What do people want out of lucid dreaming? {Linda:} My observation is that there is a correlation between a person's motivation for lucid dreaming and their personality trait indicators. In general, the Myers-Briggs "NF's" love meaning and significance while the "NT's" tend towards accomplishment (which can include becoming an accomplished dreamworker) and exploration. In general. There are always exceptions to this "rule." {Q:} If you have a heart's desire and then you have the opportunity to obtain it through lucid dreaming, what happens then? {Linda:} I have heard folks tell stories about being satiated by obtaining their heart's desire in a lucid dream and then getting bored by the whole thing. I would contend that whatever they attained wasn't a nourishing heart's desire. In my view, and unlike an addiction (being fed by cotton candy that doesn't really satisfy), a nourishing desire packs the vitamins and minerals that result in growth and change. I would call flying in dreams a nourishing desire. I've never tired of it and engaging in that activity continues to move me towards health. {Q:} Do you know where I might find information about spontaneous lucid dreamers which either demonstrates a correlation between lucid dreaming and visual and/or other sensory disability on the part of the dreamers? {Linda:} When I was reading and analyzing the letters in response to LaBerge's 1984 Parade magazine article, I found 5 people who claimed to use lucid dreaming as a substitute for physical outlet: a paraplegic, amputee, paralytic, a person in a body cast...and one who claimed to have been in a coma! {J:} Linda, I knew you were helping with that (1984 LaBerge) information, but I didn't know you still had the data in your mind. {Linda:}Ah, come on J., you didn't think I actually had that data in memory storage, did you? Me??? But I do have a pretty good filing system. Moon and rising sign in Virgo. {Q:} If lucidity is something like reading - a thing we can learn to do - and it does seem it's a learned sort of thing, then why haven't more people learned? {Linda:} Lack of motivation. No cultural support. Ergo, if you do it on your own, it can be quite a bit of work. Adults do not like to put out energy for something that doesn't have a practical payoff. If they do, it has to have intrinsic benefit for them, personally. Didn't doing something for its own merit go out in the '60s? :-) {Q:} Does recording your dreams help you obtain lucidity? {Linda:} When I take advantage of a warmed-up base of energy and attention to dreams (via recall and recording), then the launch to lucidity from this higher platform takes less energy than from ground zero. However, lucidity still requires an extra jolt during the previous day plus reinforcement during the night. {Q:} So, how do you get lucid? {Linda:} In my experience, the success formula for encouraging the emergence of a lucid dream has three main requirements. 1) The exercise of cognition. Stephen's MILD does this. But I've observed that to ask "Am I dreaming?" provokes you to question whether you actually are or not. As a result, there's an amazing number of false awakenings in the LaBerge lab. I think it's better to affirm "I am awake"...I am awake in the waking state...I am awake in the dream. There are other cognitive approaches to try after you use MILD. 2) The availability of energy. This is why it's easier to achieve lucidity in the early morning hours: you've already gone through delta to recuperate from most of the previous day's toxins. MILD plus early morning wakings and return to sleep is what I call "top-down" lucidity. Given my own depression/fatigue bio- chemistry, this approach is not nearly enough. My trick is to use "bottom up" lucidity instead. Get the cooperation of the dreaming self. Energize the dreaming self. Give her fuel for a rise in consciousness. And her favorite/my favorite dream activity? Yep, you guessed it. Flying. I incubate flying dreams. But, I don't just self-suggest. I nurture my dreaming self by 1) moving around during the day while thinking about flying and 2) "feeding" us with flying imagery, via TV, movies, videos. Flying dreams = movement + imagery. Then, after some days flying, my dreaming self has enough of an energy-base, enough gasoline to go lucid. She just might do it spontaneously. But usually, I still need to add the electric spark, the cognitive self-suggestion. 3. A dream focus that supports lucidity. Here's the big bugaboo for most dream groups. You've spent so much time doing dreamwork on the heavy burdens of life, down in the dumps, and now, you want to rise to lucidity? Good luck. For me, dreamwork and lucidity don't mix...until AFTER you are a skilled lucid dreamer. To go lucid and to do hard psychological work is too much to ask your novice dreaming self...who is first of all, your Inner Child. So, forget dreamwork for awhile. Focus on dreamplay. And, when I say "dreamplay," I am NOT referring to art therapy on dreams-of-the-past. I mean focusing on dreams of the type that Abraham Maslow calls "growth level" or "self-actualization." The playful, creative, active, humorous, colorful, artistic, musical, delightful and peak experience dreams. Like singing a flying song or acting a bird or creating a flying Tarot deck to help INCUBATE such dreams-of-the-future. What, you've never had growth level dreams? Make some up. Remember your dreams of childhood. Listen to group members' dreams. Read other people's examples. Create a new dream reality. {Q:} Who Is Abraham Maslow? {Linda:} A *very* under appreciated American psychologist, who wrote '60s-80's. Unlike Freud, et. al., who fixated on psychopathlogy, Maslow claimed that you can't appreciate the human psyche without including the best case scenario, too. He spent 20 years studying the human optimum. But in terms of dreams, his most important contribution was the observation that there is a correlation between a person's dreams and a person's health (mental health, in particular). I agree: you can take the "temperature" of your psyche by paying attention to the content of your dream and comparing it with Maslow's scale of needs. (Is the dream a cry for love? A worry about safety and security? A response to indigestion? A blaze of illumination?) However, in my opinion, looking at a single dream isn't as important as analyzing a series or group of dreams to determine your average (which requires keeping a dream journal). Further, your plateau of development (your average dream rating) can be raised as you grow towards self-actualization...by nurturing your dreaming self to greater and greater health and actualization of her latent potential. ************************************ The Lucid Dream Exchange is a quarterly newsletter featuring lucid dreams and lucid dream related articles, poetry, and book reviews. To subscribe to The Lucid Dream Exchange send a blank email to: TheLucidDreamExchange-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or join through the Yahoo Groups website at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/ The LDE can be found under Sciences>Social Sciences>Psychology>Sleep and Dreams. o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Maslow's Map A New System of Dream Classification Chapter 5: Flying Over the Map ©1999 Linda Lane Magallón o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o (Psychologist Abraham Maslow created a scale of needs to describe the human condition, from basic existence to optimum potential. The scale can be used to take the temperature of any of your dreams, but it's especially helpful if you select a repeating theme from your dream journal for comparison. As an example, I've used it to classify the sweep of the flying dream.) For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been and there you long to return. Leonardo Da Vinci ---------- The wall shimmers as I slip through it. My breezy body ripples momentarily, caught in the drag of denser molecules. Then the grasp of gravity releases me altogether and I am free! Beyond the wall, an inky blackness awaits. I pause and hover. Because I am awake and aware in dreamspace, I know there is no danger in this dark. Speckled with pinpricks of light, an infinity of open space invites me to venture further out. Since I'm lucid, I remember the goal I suggested to myself before I went to sleep. I want to cartwheel through the night sky. So I extend my arms and legs like the man in the Da Vinci circle. Hands and head first, slowly, I turn over, but wind up just twisting around. Better to go flying, to get up the sensation of movement first. I lay out prone in space, in a Superwoman position and conjure up the feeling of air rushing past my body. A lighted scene springs up. I am flying quickly, just a few feet above the surface of the ocean. Color is happening all around me, bursting through like some chariot sunrise. Above me, a radiant sky mirrors the vibrant waters below. Yellows, greens and browns gleam just beneath the surface of the turquoise sea. Jagged crags of igneous rock poke up out of the clear, calm waters. My altitude's low, so low that there could be a danger of collision. Yet, my direction is being adjusted automatically. I am swept back and forth, over the waves, past the crags, as if I were just missing the markers on a ski slope. The wind beats against my body like a burst of laughter. The brilliance of the light, the thrill of the ride, impels me to exclaim, "How beautiful! Oh, how beautiful!" This experience is too good to keep to myself. "Anyone who wants to come join me...they're welcome," I say, extending my arms in a wide gesture. Suddenly, I am soaring over crowds of people seated on the rocks beneath. "Do you want to fly?" I call. They raise their hands. "Well, come along," I invite them. But no one joins me. ---------- I awoke from this dream, my entire body bathed in the exhilaration and joy of what I had just experienced. I floated on the feeling as if I were bobbing on the surface of that beautiful inner sea. Once again, I had been lucid; awake and aware of dreaming. But this was a special kind of dream. A flying dream. More than anything, I wanted to share the experience with other people. But how, I wasn't sure. So I typed it into my computer. Several months passed. The occasion had been a holiday party with my husband's colleagues. I was talking with a woman across the dining room table. Our conversation had been stilted and formal, bogged in the mundanity of academic life. Then I told her that I was collecting flying dreams. She nodded, rather vaguely, and furrowed her brow, trying to place my words into some abstract context. Finally, her eyes lit up. "I had a flying dream once!" she exclaimed. She leaned forward and related an amazing dream experience. She'd been zooming like Superwoman, not six feet from the ground, up, down and around, following the hills and valleys of the earth. It was all I could do to contain myself from shouting, "Yes, I know what you mean!" Hand gesturing in graceful movements to describe her journey, eyes sparkling, voice vibrant, I could tell she was re-living the event in her mind. And so was everyone else at the table. When she finished her story, we all straightened up and shifted back into our chairs. There was a short silence before anyone spoke again. The Power Of The Flying Dream That's the power of an extraordinary dream. It moves us and we go along for the ride. The flow of the words, the action, they speak, engage us. We don't listen stoically when someone else relates the tale. The story grabs us at the level of emotion and feeling. It draws us in and pulls us along so that we live the story from the inside-out. We are audience and yet also participants in the play. And when we dream such dreams, we do not view from a dispassionate distance. We enter into the drama. We are the actors, the stars of the performance. We are dreaming selves, living life in the dream. But even if we seem to be alone in the dream, we certainly come together in the retelling of our experiences. I've heard, no, *re- lived* many types of dreams told me by dreamers. In particular, flying dreams spark our interest and wonder. "I was sitting in the hot tub one night," a dreamer told me. "leaning my head back on the edge. I was looking up in the sky, trying to find my favorite constellations. And then I just wanted to *be* up there...to be there with all my heart and body. I just wanted to propel myself up into the stars. And that night I had a flying dream." "Flying is my favorite thing to do!" said another. "It's even better than sex!" "And I bet you have *lots* of sexual dreams," I deadpanned. She laughed, delighted. "Yes, I do!" "I don't fly in my dreams," said a third dreamer. "I levitate. Once I had a dream where I was with a group of people. We were all suspended in the air, like statues. Then after a while, we'd shift our arms and legs into another position. It was like a slow, dreamy ballet. It was exquisite." Flying dreams seem to be particularly prone to picture and support our feelings. They seize us at the level of vision, sensation and emotion. They stir up some primal instinct common to us all. How strange that the grounded human species has always had the urge to fly. To reach and experience a seeming impossible dream. So when I talk to people, I consistently find the greatest enthusiasm for the flying dream. It certainly tops the list as "most enjoyable" in any survey I've ever seen. And yes, statistically speaking, it even outranks the sexual dream. The flying dream can certainly be a peak experience type of dream. It's not the only one, just the most popular. The Antipode But the fact is, not every flying dream is a peak experience. There are flying nightmares, flying disaster and anxiety dreams. Not everyone loves to soar to the heights; quite a few people fall instead of fly. Some fail to get off the ground. The least favorite dream is the traumatic nightmare. It's the one rated highest in avoidance. The dreaming self runs away or tries to wake up. The waking ego wants nothing more than to forget the whole thing. Sometimes it succeeds, but it's most frightening when it does not. The low level of consciousness in a nightmare creates an antipode peak experience. But the nightmare occurs in a state of consciousness just as focused as the peak experience. In either state, the rest of the world disappears. One becomes totally entranced, cut off from earthly knowledge, unable to access the other memories of being. Getting "lost" in the peaks means you can become lost in the depths. Fortunately, such experiences are usually short-lived. The positive type can be enjoyed while they last. We can act to shift those on the antipode into a higher gear. These are the dreams at the extremes. Terror and bliss are at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. But because both contain high concentrations of energy, they can also shift directly from one to the other, without the intervening stages. When dreamers count flying dreams as their favorite type of dream, they refer to controlled flights or being propelled through a lovely environment accompanied by pleasurable feelings and emotions. But the tides can quickly turn when the peak experience goes too far, too fast. "We were having sex," he told me. "It was a very intense experience. I was really into it. And then I climaxed and suddenly I was shooting out-of-body into the ends of the universe. I was really zooming forever. And then I freaked. I thought if I went too far, I'd never come back. So I slowed down and stopped. And then–it was like a rubber band–I crashed back into my body. It really shook my up. I'm scared to go out-of-body again. But I *do* have flying dreams." Flying The Map If I had specialized in flight at the basic level of dreaming, I would only have recorded dreams like these: • Escaping from danger • Barely rising off the ground • Struggling to fly at a low altitude • Running into telephone wires • Burdened by packages or people • Wearily climbing the air • Treading water or swimming with exhaustion • Pumping my arms up and down, bird style In fact, for 38 years, I recalled only nightmares. One repeating theme had me trying to fly away from the outstretched arms of the Men in Black. However, as I read about, thought about, dreamt about other sorts of flying, my specialty remained the same, but my plateau of development shifted upwards. In my dream journals are also these flying dreams: • Levitating as if I'm rolling around on an invisible skateboard • Flying arms backward, like Isis • Diving into water and up in a swirl • Floating in a yoga position • Sliding atop ocean waves, like an ice skater • Flying on my back, as if carried by the wind • Soaring through the skies, then doing somersaults and flips • Rocketing through space at warp speed, past stars and planets • Suspended upside down above my bed • Dancing in the air with a friend Flying Range The flying dream is versatile. It ranges from the agony to the ecstasy. That's why I find it to be such a great measure of dream health. Flying–how well, how high, how often, if at all–tracks my health and well-being. It's my thermometer of weather in the underground. While the nightmare is a storm warning, other flying dreams can whisper, "follow me to clear skies ahead." In the long and short run, it's a guiding star that has served me well. The Range of Dreams My dreaming self does not fly in every dream; no one's does. Even if I were seeking only upbeat dream activities, I certainly wouldn't limit myself to flying. The land of dreams is rich in content and experience. What dream content describes the optimal or detrimental conditions of your psyche, the basic or growth level dreams? That, you can only determine by watching your dream tree through all the seasons of dreaming. Set up your dream journal as a farmer's almanac. By tracking themes through a series of dreams, you will find those that indicate problems and those that highlight your potentials. Whatever criteria you use, the process is the same. Discover what helps and encourage it. Uncover what hinders and act to change. There are many images to paint the sweep of your feelings. Your own psyche will select the pictures that best describe the dreams you will have. You might choose a repeating theme to serve as your measure of movement towards emotional maturity and health. Here's some examples and their suggested range: 1. Water and earth journeys: are you struggling up a mountain or surfing across the waves? 2. Relationships with dream characters: are you loving or fighting, trusting or distrusting? 3. Houses, buildings or other boundaries: are you in a shack or a mansion? 4. Car: do you have a new sports car or a junker? 5. Clothes or body: do you have a torn shirt or strong arms? 6. Ability to speak, job or hobby skills: are you performing to an applauding audience or forgetting the answer to a test? 7. Weather or environment in the dream setting: are storm clouds approaching or is it a sunny day? 8. Colors and coherence of dream: are they jumbled images or vivid hues? 9. Lucidity: are you aware or oblivious? Eventually, you may find an example of your dream theme at every level of Maslow's Map, like I did. Below are samples from my dream log that feature the flying theme. You will notice that basic level dreams provoked me to do *interpretation,* while growth level dreams were a form of *inspiration.* One is dreamwork, the other my dream trek. (And creating this chart was a dreamplay experience for me!) ----------- Flying Along Maslow's Scale BASIC NEEDS 1) Physiological Dream: A pack of dogs have been chasing a fox. My back pressed against the side of a house, I levitate above their yappy, nipping mouths. Interpretation: Animal-like conflicts drive me up the wall! 2) Safety and Security Dream: I find Jan at the far end of the courtyard and breathing heavily. "What's the matter?" I ask her. "My leg!" she replies, grabbing it. It seems she has pulled a muscle. A large winged creature suddenly falls on top of me. We fight under the lattice work. I take off flying over the sea with the creature pursuing me. Interpretation: This was a response to a stressful, troubling day. A co-worker had trouble understanding an assigned task (pun on "unable to stand"). 3) Love and Belongingness Dream: I'm flying over flower beds, paths and into a drug store. I land abruptly on the other side of some card racks, saying, "Ooof!" then fall down. I pick myself up and realize that a sheriff is looking for me. I try to put plenty of aisles between him and me. I maneuver to leave the store; he follows. Once out of the store, I try to fly again, but can only rise to his head level. Interpretation: While engaged in phone solicitation by a sheriff's organization, I cut off the man abruptly, then felt a bit guilty afterwards. 4) Self Esteem Dream: A group of reporters demand to know how I can fly. I fly around the hills surrounding my home, but feel heavy due to the pull of their expectations and criticisms. Interpretation: I was worried about an upcoming interview on a radio talk show. GROWTH NEEDS 5) Growth and Development Dream: I bank to the left and soar through the city just above the roof line, following a cross hatch of city streets. I can see buildings several stories high, but no skyscrapers. Beyond is a beautiful, bright colored valley, glowing healthy green. Further on, I over-fly a marshland dotted with windmills posed to draw fresh strength from the sky. Inspiration: After enjoying the aerial view of the dream's landscape, I wondered if I could take flying lessons. 6) Self-Actualization Dream: In unison with three or four other people–men and women–I levitate upward and dance in the air. The auditorium has a high arched ceiling with exposed girders. The audience, which fills the bleachers, can be seen past the misty spotlight. I smile delightedly at the audience, lift up my arms and leap even higher. Standing upright, I swoop around in a circle, like a skater. Another woman joins me to dance at the same level. Inspiration: This dream become part of a published article. 7) Peak Experience I find myself standing at the edge of a bottomless abyss. I decide to step off the cliff. I skate forward across the top of puffy whiteness. I can feel the wind stream past my face and the sun's warmth on my shoulders. The feeling of wonder surges up from inside, straining to meet the expansiveness of the outer scene. I fling my arms wide as the feeling inside my body fulfills itself in ecstasy. The rush of energy brings me to lucidity. Inspiration: When emotional and sensory fulfillment peaked, I became aware of the fact that I dreamed. ---------- I find flying to be a valuable tool from the depths of the underworld to the heights of the upper world. It's a way out of the caverns of nightmare, a tool for healing, an exercise in strength to move over, around, through and beyond trouble spots, through the prison gates and out into the land of freedom. When I follow the lure of the flying dream, I'm more apt to experience a variety of other extraordinary dreams as well. And whatever supports the growth and development of my dream life feels very healthy to me. http://members.aol.com/caseyflyer/flying/dreams.html This Newsletter is sent to you by DREAMWORK2000 Strephon Kaplan-Williams, the only person who writes for this list. Our newsletter list is a closed quality list open only to members. Please be aware that if you re-send a newsletter to someone new that you tell them this was sent by you and they are not on our list unless they want to be by going to dreamwork2000.com and signing up for the newsletters. To unsubscribe send an e-mail to info@dreamwork2000.com. Note that this address is only for unsubscribing. Please unsubscribe with the e-mail address under which you received our Newsletter. For other matters concerning the newsletter you can contact webmaster@dreamwork2000.com. If you want to write to Strephon, see his address below. o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o The Dangers of the Interpretive Approach © 2002 Strephon Kaplan-Williams o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Reprinted with permission from: Kaplan-Williams, Strephon (2002).The Dangers of the Interpretive Approach. CONSCIOUSNESS NEWSLETTER 2002(14). Available Online via subscription at: http://www.dreamwork2000.com/Sitemap/email.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- So many people do it. I have done it myself. We interpret other people's actions, their personalities and the symbols in their dreams. We interpret reality, giving our viewpoint on how things are for another person. Yet, there is an issue. What do we do when someone feels they need help and so goes to consult and expert? They certainly want the expert to give the knowledge they know. As more than one student has said to me, "Why won't you answer my question? You are the dream expert. I am not the expert here!" Yes, there is a need to know. In response I and others have tried to describe for people techniques for working with dreams so that the dreamer him or herself can come up with the meaning of a dream. But there are certain ground rules in approaching dreams and life. - Never interpret another person's actions or personality. You will most likely be projecting your own personal content onto another person. Your personal content is important to you, but why use another person as your projection mechanism? Projections onto others do seem to influence, even unconsciously, those projected upon. The above principle said positively might run like this. - Take one hundred percent responsibility for your own feelings and reactions rather than putting these onto someone else or a situation or event. When we take responsibility then we are integrating and making conscious our content. We are living from ourselves rather than in projection out onto others. We come to know ourselves as we really are. We can project the positive as well as the negative out onto others. The task and the commitment here is to commit to always taking back ones projections onto others and find those dynamics within oneself. The interpretive approach to life and dreams starts from a different viewpoint. The interpreter says to him or herself what I think about things is also right for others. Dream symbol books and software are good examples of the interpretive approach. In this approach the interpreter takes the symbol out of context as in the following example. A writer-interpreter says the number 11 means "intuition, mastery, spirituality." We must ask, who told her this? Did God speak directly to her about the meaning of numbers? As a dream psychologist I suggest that what happens to the uninitiated when they have the number 11 in a dream or other symbolic situation and they see some "expert" telling them how wonderful their number 11 is, then their little ego is going to get inflated and see itself more important than it is. Of course writer interpreting about the number 11 is offensive not only to the psychologist but to the philosopher as well because of its fallacious thinking. What does the number 11 mean then? Far from me to give you an interpretation from God or inflated ego or esoteric lore. We ask instead, How does the symbol function? If you find the number 11 in your dream you can ask yourself, What happened at age 11? Or, How has the number 11 been important in your life? This is dreamwork. This is responding to your own dream yourself and coming up with your own responses. "Mastery" as in the quote example from the interpreter? Does this interpreter consider herself a "master?" She does not seem to lack any reserve in putting out her stuff for everyone to believe in. I hate to think how much time is wasted by beginners in believing in interpretations. Not only wasted time but believing and going down paths in life not right for one. The corrective is to throw the interpreters and interpretations out the window into the garbage heap for re-composting into something more objective and compassionate for the fellow journeyer in life. If you want then to not interpret others or their symbols the following are suggested as commitments to practice: 1. Develop your own wisdom source from both an objective and an inner place. Do not rely on other people's opinions for how you should see things. 2. When someone starts interpreting you or your dream stand up to them and assert your right to your own experience of your own dream and life source. 3. Learn to objectify your reality. Try to take in whatever feedback comes your way as helpful to you to broaden your viewpoint. Not following interpretations does not mean you simply close off to feedback. You can handle any feedback if you also are committed to owning your own reactions to others as your own and not caused by them. 4. Ask questions rather than give answers. The best guides in life try to be mostly objective in helping others with questions that evoke their own wisdom functions and responses. 5. And of course give up gossip, telling stories about others. Every story we tell about someone else is really a story about some part of ourselves not fully integrated. At least I have found this to usually be so. 6. Work with your own life incidents and symbols as your own. Keep taking back projections onto others. You can know you are in projection when you have an overly intense positive or negative emotion concerning someone else or a situation. Ask yourself, what in me is being evoked and how can I own and deal with that in myself? 7. Take feedback from others by opening to them in objective ways. Take in what they have to say about you. Be a non-defensive personality. Do not withdraw but deal with things coming your way. Integrate! Integrate! Taking things in does not mean they are right for you. But open to what feedback can teach you. Do not reject it out of hand! 8. Commit to living an integrative and conscious life. If you are already practicing being honest and open with yourself and others, rather than defensive, then you will be that much more able to operate in life from your own deepest sources. You might even have a chance at becoming wise! A wise person I define as one who has knowledge coming out of direct experience, rather than information coming from others. In closing, some of our readers might find some of my statements as pronouncements of the truth and therefore interpretive for others. While I hold to the proposition that each must develop their own truth function in life I also hold to the practice that to take objective stands on what is important in life is also one of the ways of searching for what is real and what is not. The corrective that I try to practice in stating my insights about life is that I am open to feedback of whatever kind, and believe me, there have been some difficult moments as well as fine and respectful moments. To put myself out in public, as with these newsletters, requires objectivity on my part to then deal with all reactions that come my way. Believe me, I do not close off to any reaction. I do open to the issues there and I do respond. Almost all these newsletters are written in the heat of the moment concerning some issue. So then these words always come out of immediate and direct experiencing in interactions with others. Hopefully these little essays are practices in consciousness and so have relevance for others as well? Strephon Kaplan-Williams Strephon@dreamwork2000.com We dream to wake to life ************************************************************* Strephon delivers messages the public in weekly e-mails. You can sign up through http://www.dreamwork2000.com/Sitemap/email.html Thanks to Strephon Kaplan-Williams for permission to re-publish this article on Electric Dreams. This material is © 2002 Strephon Kaplan-Williams. It may be distributed freely by electronic means, including e-mailing, radio and Television, but not as a collection for commercial benefit. All publication rights, electronic and in print and otherwise, remain solely with the author. Be sure to stop by the Dreamwork2000 Website, which contains the *fabulous* Dream Cards, a tarot like collection of dream themes developed by Strephon Kaplan-Williams. Strephon also offers an ongoing consciousness forum where he and his students give suggestions for dreamwork. http://www.dreamwork2000.com o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o Do Dreams Have Meaning? Richard Wilkerson o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o [an illustrated version of this article is available online]: http://dreamgate.com/dream/library/do_dreams_have_meaning.htm: Do dreams have meaning? Yes, but the question is more difficult than it first appears. If you don't want to think about it too much, you can jump to the end of this text and read the section on "Is the Dream a Message?" Let's try another question first. Is life itself meaningful? People debate this issue endlessly without full agreement. Some are quite sure the answer will always be an opinion rather than a fact. Others feel it is self-apparent that for those who continue to choose living, that life is, for a fact, meaningful. Others don't find the game of fact-finding the most useful way to answer the question. In other words, everyone has his or her own way of addressing questions about the meaning of life, and of course, the many aspects and parts of life as well, including dreams and dreaming. Now we could do this democratically and vote : Are dreams meaningful? [ ] YES [ ] NO ...and tally all the results. But this democratic consensus isn't what people are interested in when they ask if dreams are meaningful. So what do we mean when we ask if something has meaning or not? Generally the answer depends on the ~context~ of the situation. In the context of science when we ask if dreams are meaningful, it often means whether or not they function to help us thrive and survive in some way. Different sciences will approach meaning differently as each operates under a different story/context. A psychologist may want to know how the dream works to show a person a better way to live and experience life, while an anthropologist may be more interested in how the dream impacts the way people in a tribe alter or confirm the way they live and interact with one another. A brain scientist may be more interested in how dreaming and sleeping contribute to the restoration of our health or consolidation of our memories and experience. Artists and writers are more interested in the inspirational aspects of dreaming and how they can carry the images, novelties and creative dreaming process over into their own waking processes and creations. Spiritual and tribal people are often aware of a different meaning of a dream, the dream as a message. The message may be from an ancestor, a spirit or god, or even from one's own soul or unconscious. The same dream may have different meanings to all of these people. Which one is correct, or are they all incorrect in looking for meaning in a dream that has no meaning? Many people in the Dream Movement, a loose coalition of individuals and groups that study and work with dreams, formed the Association for the Study of Dreams (ASD) in 1984 as a "non- profit, international, multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the pure and applied investigation of dreams and dreaming." [1] The purpose of the organization was many-fold, "to promote an awareness and appreciation of dreams in both professional and public arenas; to encourage research into the nature, function, and significance of dreaming; to advance the application of the study of dreams; and to provide a forum for the eclectic and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and information." [1] The overall consensus was that dreams have many levels and layers of meaning, but that the final decision about just what these meanings would be had to be left up to the individual. That is, the individual was to be the final authority on the meaning and value of his or her own life, and this included one's dreams. [2] However, just because a bunch of people get together and decide whether or not something is true, doesn't necessarily make it so at all levels or for others outside the group. If you doubt this, look at the disagreements between what things mean to different religions and the millions of people who die fighting over these meanings. This leads us back to the question of what things we think are meaningful and how they get that way. One way of viewing this problem-of-meaning is through story-contexts. For some scientists, science is not about meaning and value at all, its about quantity and statistics. From this story or context, science can't give an answer to the question of whether or not dreams are meaningful. One can't start with a measure that has no meaning in itself and jump to any conclusions one way or the other about meaning from a statistic or measure. But science is guided by other stories and contexts besides statistics. In biological sciences, the story-context that gives things meaning is evolution. If something fits into this context, it is considered meaningful and if it doesn't involve evolution, it is not considered meaningful. Are dreams advantageous to evolution, or are they an epiphenomena and functionless appendage like the appendix or tonsils? Are they essential to the well-being and continuation of the species and individual, or just something like poop that we excrete and don't need to attend to for survival and passing on of genes? Here are a few areas that science has investigated as to the functioning of dreams: Memory consolidation - moving memories from short to long term memory. Learning consolidation - organizing things we have learned during the day Emotional contextualization - giving context to new emotions. Clearing networks - cleaning up loaded neural networks. Protecting Sleep - allowing imagination to spin stories instead of waking us up each disturbance. Self Maintenance - to maintain our sense of self through sleep. Problem solving - to resolve conflicts during the day and find creative solutions. Hard-wiring during fetal development, soft wiring of neurons after birth. There are scientists who point out that these are theories not proven facts which are clear as saying the heart pumps blood and the lungs process air and carbon dioxide. And so the debates and investigations and research continue. However, like the meaning of dream-content, the meaning of the dreaming process seems to be evolving in some ways to the same theoretical acceptance. That is, the dreaming process has many functions and meanings. Like most of our organs, dreaming seems to do more than one job. Sometimes the word "polyvocal" is used to express the notion of the dream having many voices, or "heterogeneous" to express the notion that dream come from many sources, are many things and have many parts and functions, many goals and desires. But are we getting too far away from the original question of the meaning of a dream? Usually when this question is asked, it's about a specific dream, such as "I was waking down an empty hall and saw an open window," or "I married a woman who turned out to be my mother," or "I started flying across a vast ocean of alien creatures." Do these dream images have any meaning? Here the story-context is different than that of science. Here the question of meaning is more like "Is there a personal significance to me that is held in these dream images or story?" Or, "Is something or someone trying to tell me something through this dream?" Hard science has yet to adequately address this issue, as there is now a kind of brain-mind split in research. Hard science studies the brain and its observable effects. At this time we can't directly observe the imagination and other subtle forces. Thus the hard-core dream sciences are left studying only the effects, impacts and changes that can be observed at this time with our tools for measuring objectively. However, we also have the humanities, which can go beyond the brain and objective behavior to study the mind and its productions. In Clara Hill's research for example [8], she uses statistics to compare different non-statistical feelings of meaning. In one experiment she had three conditions of therapy where people got to discuss their lives through different story-contexts. One used their own dream stories and another used their own life-event, and another used dreams, but they were someone else's dreams. The clients were encouraged to use these various stories to explore the meaning and value of their lives, and then rate the satisfaction they felt in doing this. It was found that exploring one's life through the lens of one's own personal dreams was far more satisfying than using someone else's dreams or using a life- event (usually a problem in one's life). Critics have noted that it's too big a jump here to say that the study proves that dreams are meaningful. We can only say that upon waking, people can ~make~ meaning and give them value, but this doesn't prove they are intrinsically meaningful. Like a rock on the ground, they say, it doesn't become meaningful until it's used. This seems like a rather strict use of the application of meaning that almost creates a tautology. That is, if something weren't meaningful unless a person uses it in a meaningful way, then by definition, that letter I got yesterday from my mom wouldn't be meaningful unless I opened it. It is "Conscious use or function" that seems to be the lurking story-context that is in that kind of science. However, most scientists are willing to admit that life has many story-contexts that give life and its parts (like dreams) meaning and value. One scientist in dream science, Milton Kramer, MD, has stated that "Anything with structure has meaning," and that "dreams clearly have structure." [9] Here the story-context is more inclusive, but perhaps too inclusive. In Kramer's definition of meaning, a loose rock in a rock pile is meaningful. It doesn't necessarily get at the question most people want to know about when they ask if a dream is meaningful or not. For the greater part of our century, the problem was usually expressed in the mind/body problem. The body was seen as material, the mind as non-material. Given this definition, science had little or nothing to say about how the mind and body might connect. If the mind was not material, how could it then act on material bodies? If the body was material, how could it influence and act on the mind? Therefore science decided to ignore the mind and study only the body. Some associationalism was admitted. That is, chains of actions and reactions were observed and assumed to somehow cross the body-mind barrier. The final result of this in psychology was Behaviorism, which attempts to look at all behavior without reference to the mind. However, many 19th and 20th Century scientists and researchers were not happy with the neglect of the mind and simply side-stepped the philosophical problem and looked at ways the mind and brain were influenced by the world and in turn, influenced the material world. The great theorist Sigmund Freud [10] attempted to bridge brain and mind by theorizing that dreams helped protect sleep by partially covering up disturbances, while letting them blow off a little steam. Thus we might feel the need to urinate during sleep, but not strong enough that it would cause damage, so instead of the mind receiving the message from the brain to wake up and pee, it instead got the signal that it was already awake and looking for a bathroom. The dreamer could imagine him/herself urinating and get some relief from this, thus allowing the body to continue sleeping until the need to urinate was truly urgent and not just a little impulse. The same process was then applied to thoughts about topics and situations in the dreamer's past that might arise during sleep, especially the ones that the dreamer might keep repressed when awake. Swiss analyst Carl G. Jung [11] also tried to bridge the brain- mind barrier with his theories of dreaming. One of his theories involved the theory of compensation. Jung felt that during the daytime, the human mind, especially in Western cultures, was very willful and often acted in ways that were not conducive to the maturation of the whole individual. That is, we often decide to ignore the messages of health and wholeness and "damn the torpedoes" and "go our own way." This leads to a psychological imbalance that Jung felt dreams tried to address. During sleep, the unconscious attempted to address and compensate this daytime attitude symbolically by finding reconciling symbols that could hold the rational and irrational together in a way that would further the development of the dreamer. However, most psychological dream theories avoid dealing with the brain-mind connection. Most have story-contexts which don't necessitate bridging this gap. In psychotherapy, for instance, its not so important that the dreaming brain seems to be activated at regular cycles by the brain stem causing rapid eye movements (REM). But it can be important that the dream produced during this REM cycle includes a story about the patient finally asking a clown to smile. The story-context of brain-evolution is superceded by the story-context of emotional healing. The meaning and value of a dream then is found in the service of story-context in which it is told. But wait, is this saying that the meaning of all dreams is just relative to the person and his/her story-context? Don't dreams have a real and true meaning independent of the person that is trying to impose a meaning on them? I feel they do, but not in the way we used to think about real and true meanings. [3] Tribal Meaning and Value. It used to be that we all lived in local zones, less globally distributed, and the true meaning and value of life and its dreams were determined very differently. I live in a very different world now, but pockets of these indigenous peoples still exist. At one time, meaning and value was circulated through one's family and tribe, as well as one's affiliations. Dream stories were circulated and flowed through lines of filiations and alliance. That is, one got up during the night, went to the fire in the village and told whoever was there what their dream was. The people gathered there used the rules, the story-context of the their tradition, to extract various meanings and notice various impacts that the dream produced. Sometimes these needed to be further told to a specialist, a village shaman, and sometimes the shaman called in other shamans to discuss the meaning and value of the dream. The results could change the flow of goods and people, marriages and other events. It was if the dreams came up from the night of the bio-cosmic earth itself, were captured by the tribes, coded, and circulated among them. Despotic State Meaning and Value. There was, and at too many places still exists, yet another form of society that imposes a particular style of meaning and value, the despotic state. Here there is a singular center that draws together all the meaning and value to a central point. The king is one and the earthly servant of the One. All the codes in the despotic state point to this singular accumulator and distributor. Everything flows to and from the Pharaoh, the King, the Despot. All money bears his image or the god he represents. All primitive codes and laws that determine the flow of life are overcoded and redirected to flow through him. The meaning and value of life is rigidly set and any questioning of this is considered a sin and transgression of his law. The first thing to know or find out about a dream in this kind of system is its relationship to the emperor. Does the dream indicate favor or bad omens? Will there be more money and children, or illness and poverty? Dreams can no longer be messages from the gods, as this might challenge the hierarchy and place the authority for revelation and the flow of goods and ideas and people beyond the court. But elaborate systems of interpretation and representation in service of the Pharaoh will proliferate so that no flow of decoded dreams escapes the empire. Capital Economy and the Free Market of Meaning and Value. As Deleuze and Guattari (among others) [6] have pointed out [3] while capital economy frees us from being stuck with old systems of meaning and value, it does nothing to provide us with alternatives. And so we are left to our own devices to encounter forces that shred egos and personalities to pieces and crumble empires that have existed for a millennium. Capitalism both produces this condition of the uncoded and unmediated real and at the same time constantly constructs artificial territories to ward it off. We get caught in a system that on one hand removes all the mediation between things so that the markets are in fact free flowing, but then has to immediately step in and insert artificially created mediations, simulation and forces. We are swamped in a media culture that does its best to keep us from having to directly encounter anything but a shopping mall. We watch all our wars on T.V. and do all our trading online. We haven't a clue to what is real, it seems to us that this is something that is totally lost and un-recoverable. This is my society, anyway, here in the West. Only those things which can be reproduced are considered real. And yet that is just exactly what is not real. That is just a simulation of reality. Models take the place of the modeled. Copies take the place of the originals. As French cultural critic Jean Baudrillard pithily notes, we live in the time of the simulacrum, copies without originals. We get so lost, there is no way back to the original. The joke that is made about Disneyland is not that it's a cover up of reality, but a cover up that covers up that there is nothing left to cover up. People leave Disneyland and go to their cars in the parking lot and think they have moved from the unreal back to the real. What a farce. Dreams are made to serve quick analysis that brings people back into alignment with the culture, to serve to bring the people who can no longer handle it, the decoded flows, back into conformity with the capital economy and its needs. Good little job, nuclear family, and lots of time to watch advertisements for products to consume. So fine, if we are all conditioned to see only the meaning and values that our culture, or some past culture imposes, how can we get to the really real of the meaning of a dream? Jungian theorist James Hillman [7] speaks to this issue of true meaning in dreamwork and creates a bridge to many postmodern theories in his writing about perspectivism and Archetypal Psychology. In perspectivism, one is always coming from at least one or more perspectives. This is the story-context. Even the belief that one can set aside all perspectives, [as in the phenomenological epoche of "bracketing-out"] is itself a perspective. But Hillman is not a relativist, he is an archetypalist. This means that each perspective we put on to see and understand the world is not ours, it is just borrowed. And usually we can't even borrow them, they borrow us. It would be better to use the word 'possession' than 'borrowed'. Consider how young lovers see the world. They don't choose to be in love, they are possessed by this perspective of Eros and more likely than not, to play out the game of love very unconsciously and without much control. Depressed individuals also rarely choose their depression, but are seized by it and dragged down into the underworld and its perspectives. So why not seize control of our own perspectives? This too, Hillman points out, is just another perspective and the world is full of stories and mythologies that speak to this. In Greece, we find the myth of Heracles, who could will his way through most situations. But note what happens when he goes down into the underworld. He doesn't get it. He starts swinging his club at phantoms with no effect. Hillman points out that each time we attempt an interpretation of a dream, we impose upon it a particular interpretive stance, a particular perspective. The way around this, he feels, is to stop imposing structures on the dream images and begin listening to them. Though this too is a perspective, it is one that includes the dream as valid autonomous image that is not *our* image but an existing essence in its own right. When we are asleep we are more aware that we are in the dream, it is not in us. It is only when we are awake and more willful that we take on the notion that the dream is in us. Hillman would rather we see the dream image as living in-between, in the mundus imaginalis, an imaginal world. This is not an imaginary world of an individual, but a world that exist somewhat independent of the individual. This used to be somewhat of a radical notion, but with the advent of the Internet and the growing abundance of virtual realities that exist outside of us, it becomes clearer that there are realms that we participate in, but do not fully control alone. However, the mundus imaginalis is not controlled like computer mediated virtual reality where groups of people contribute somewhat consciously. The mundus imaginalis is more like the world of Greek gods, inhabited by powers that can enlighten us, frighten us, and seize control of us through the parts of our personality that remain forever beyond our control. It's a realm that we continually live in, but of which we are not very aware. The importance for us here is that this view breaks up the mind- body split into a neo-platonic three way split of 1. matter/empirics/concrete ---- 2. imaginal/soul/psyche ---- 3. ideal/abstract/spirit. Psyche in Greek means 'butterfly' and in this system psyche, like the butterfly, hovers between the material world and the abstract sky of spirit. It also connects them. Our minds or imagination interpret the material world and its relationship with the ideal world. And in the other direction, we interpret the ideal world and attempt to create it in the material world though our imagination, our perspectives. This is also how psyche gets a bad name. She operates by taking what is and bending it, twisting it, distorting and folding in, unfolding out. She can fool us and deceive us about the world and our relationship with it. These same procedures can also create new perspectives. But if everything we see and understand is a perspective from this middle zone, how can we ever escape this hall of mirrors? Hillman's suggestions to listen to the forces as they manifest to us can lead us to know more about the realm itself and its inhabitants, but it also sucks us deeper into the soul. For a dreamwork that is interested in exploring the soul, this may be enough. True, Hillman's soul is more a cultural thing, out there and surrounding us as much as in us. However, for a dreamwork that wants to connect with the material world, the political world, the social world, this relation building with images, in or out, though vital, will not be enough. Hillman's attack on using dreams as representations of something other than themselves seems to lead to a kind of theatre of the unconscious which parades itself through all aspects of life, dispensing thoughts, feelings and actions to individuals who no longer can do much but act out the individuation of these powers. At times, this is exactly what is needed. In dreamwork that connect image and body, for example, like Gendlin's Focusing or Arnold Mindell's process psychology, the is an increase in the fluxion or flow of mind/body/emotions. The dreamworker listens to his/her images with the ear of the body, and gives voice and movement to processes that are often blocked. I feel that one of the keys to this work is the shift from representational work to a process of making connections. Not singular connection, not conscious connections, but swarms of connections, multiplicities of connections, connections that break into the normally rigid channels and create disjunctive synthesis, connections that are themselves in-process of making more connections rather than consolidating territorialized representations. I feel that many dreamwork programs can get at this real level of the dream, though their theories cannot, or more accurately, have not. Freud gave us the technique of free association, for example, which allows for the images and emotions remembered about the dream to begin to speak again with polyvocity. And yet, at just the moment he released the dream image, he again theorized its meaning back into a pre-assigned object. Free association is seen as leading backwards up a chain of associations to a singular cause of the dream. Carl Jung was deeply aware of the many voices and trajectories of the soul and knew one didn't have to follow up the chain of associations to get at a profound level. And yet his techniques to bring people in contact with the polyvocity of life get overcoded by the project of the integration or alignment of the Self, a teleological being that guides all the multiple becomings and thus tends to wreck their true freedom. For these voices need a complete indetermination, from the future or the past, to establish legitimate connective syntheses that will provide novel trajectories. However, I don't want to fully develop a postmodern dreamwork here, but rather to investigate the problem with answering the simple question, "Do dreams have meaning?" Is the dream a message? We have learned now that the question is not so simple. When we ask "What do you mean, when you ask if a dream has meaning?", several options unfold that make this question difficult to answer. However, we don't have to be fooled by the legal terms. When Bill Clinton replied "It depends on what is, is", we all knew what "is" was, it was sex with Monica Lewinski. And when someone asks what a dream means, they usually are asking if the dream has an important message for them. This message usually takes one of these forms: Is the dream a message? A message from the unconscious or psyche or myself-to-myself? A message from God or a spiritual entity? A message sent telepathically from a friend or entity? A message from the future itself? [Does this dream indicate that I will have something occur like the dream in real life? It may be an accident, a marriage, or some good or bad fortune.] Again, in terms of science, there are no clear answers. Science is not capable of addressing these questions directly. We can say through survey research that when we look at dreams as-if they are messages that this is often a more satisfying way of approaching dreams than as-if they are without a message. But new, non- representational dreamwork that works with dreams as a process of production, and creative expression, and presentation instead of a message are also valuable ways to work with dreams. We can ask how often dreams actually do predict the future, but this answer will vary widely on how literal one is being and how fixed one feels the future really is after a vision of the future. For example, a wild, ungrounded guy once told Jung that he had a dream of falling off a mountain. Jung told him to avoid mountain climbing. He didn't follow this advice and fell to his death. But most Jungians feel that Jung was not so much looking at the dream as a prediction about the future as indicating the trend of this person to do things which would cause the dreams to show him as falling, or as an careless type. If the person persists in being careless, then these are the kinds of things that will occur. If we take the view that dreams are metaphorically showing us psychological trends, like being careless, being unkind, being generous, being skilled, and so on, then we can say that dreams often predict the future or are a message from the future. However, if a person is not involved in doing their own psychological work, then they may become superstitious about dreams and always worrying about dreams that predict deaths, accidents and bad luck. They can also be used by people who feel the need for power. How many of us have had grandmothers or uncles that claim to see all sorts of bad omens in dreams? Many contemporary dreamworkers feel that one can benefit best by taking these dreams as projections, as views we hold unconsciously about others and don't usually admit, even to ourselves. By "re- owning" these projections (e.g. "O.K., maybe I do that sometimes too.") we create a personal space for ourselves that is larger, more flexible and self-aware. At the other extreme, we can test for the literal truth of dreams predicting the future. That is, science has begun investigating dream psi and the ability of dreams to see the future, to see distant events at all times, to send and receive messages from other humans and beings. For several years, the Maimodides Medical Center in Brooklyn investigated the dream-psi connection. The 50+ published articles are summarized both in a technical monograph (Ullman and Krippner, 1970) as well as two editions of the popular book DREAM TELEPATHY with Ullman, Krippners and Vaughn, (1973, 1989). Although it was very hard to replicate these experiments, the researches found a lot of evidence suggesting that we are more aware and connected during dreaming to events that have no direct physical connection to us. Still, the number of "hits" a person has is either small and few between, or depends on a "wide" interpretation ("Well, ok, I wasn't dreaming about the target which was a blue beach ball, but I did dream about the earth as a globe..."). For those interested in finding out how accurate their own dreaming might be, the key is to time stamp the dream. The best way to do this is to post it to a public forum online such as the ASD Bulletin Board or a Usenet Newsgroup like alt.dreams or alt.dreams.prophecy At this time, looking at dreams as messages from God or other spiritual or divine entities is not something that science has anything to say about. However, many people find great comfort, inspiration and value in doing so. Each religion has had its own struggle with the meaning and value of dreams. They have all had dream sharing at the beginning of the religion, which is later suppressed, and then usually recovered at a later time when hierarchical practice and thinking give way to more liberal inclusiveness. Modern dreamwork in spiritual traditions usually combine psychology with spiritual techniques and belief to explore the divinity of the dream as well as the day to day spiritual inspiration it may provide. For example, books written by Morton Kelsey or John Sanford use basic Jungian principles to elaborate a path for spiritual development Christians. The meaning and value of the dream is then aligned with the spiritual tradition itself. And so the answer here as to whether the dream is a divine message will depend on one's individual or group beliefs and experiences. The "truth" (that a particular kind of dreamwork is valuable) is passed by showing, by example, by demonstration, inspiration, revelation. This leaves the final category, the view that dreams are a message from the unconscious, or the psyche, or from oneself to oneself. Again, it's quite similar to the spiritual path. That is, psychotherapy for the most part is dependent upon how well the therapist helps his/her patient or client. Notions of the unconscious, the self, the ego, the super-ego, the Shadow, and so on, are useful notions and theories that can't really be tested. You probably feel that the psychological self that you have is quite real, but you would have a hard time proving its existence. This comes from a long philosophical tradition as well, where psyche is located in time, but not in space. I am going on about this because I want to show that locating the meaning of a dream by locating it's author is no easy feat. The location of the meaning of the dream by locating the author has a parallel in the history of literary interpretation. In the beginning, one found the truth of the bible or religious text through divining the will or intent of its author, the god who wrote the text. What did God mean by that phrase or this chapter? With the advent of secularization, there was a shift to the human author. Find out what the author meant and you will know what the book means. But over time, people found that there was a surplus of meaning in texts. That is, people could read books in ways the author never intended and derive useful meanings. One could read about Capitalism and Adam Smith from the viewpoint of Marx and derive from the book much about class struggles that Smith never intended. Others found that they could read a book in the context of its times and get meaning from the book the author never intended, but included as part of the historical context from which he/she was writing. Somewhat later more subjective approaches appeared. Here a person could read and book and derive from it any meaning they wanted, regardless of what the author intended. By the late 20th Century, the authority of the author over the meaning and value of his/her book had radically changed. Some even said the author's intentions could never be clearly located, even if the author demanded one meaning for a book. We are in a somewhat similar situation with the dream. The author, the ego, the I, the thing that tells me its me when I wake up in the morning, is more of an imaginal creature than anything else, and much more multiple than I usually sense myself to be. Ask me the meaning of my life at one moment, and the answer will be different than another moment. We say these are just moods and perspectives of the same-self, but saying this is just a conventional way to keep the single image of the self together. Henry Bergson explains how this happens. We hear the tick-tock of a clock and spatialize the event. Each tic-tock sequence is seen as the same, ticking out even beats of time. tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock,tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic- tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock. But in fact, each tic and tock are NOT exactly the same, and form a kind of unique melody that is often beyond our perception. Still, we hear and expect them as the same and create a grid that spreads out across the universe. This grid is useful, but an abstraction of the discreet events. That is, it is produced as only a part of the event, the abstract part, which is then taken back into us as a whole. Like a pearl necklace, we see each bead of time being the same and assume that all of time occurs as regularly as our abstraction of it. But even further, to string all these beads together, we assume a being that is OUTSIDE of this time viewing it all. This second self is quite illusory, formless, indifferent, unchanging, but holds all the (abstracted) experiences together and sees them as one. This ego is a symbolic marker "...intended to recall unceasingly to our consciousness the artificial character of the process by which the attention places clean-cut states side-by-side, where actually there is a continuity which unfolds." [12] Whatever your view of the self and its contributions to the dream, the problem of locating its influence remains. Again, it seems more prudent to use the story-context approach and say that from the viewpoint of self-influence, the dream may (or may not) contain a host of meanings that I have somehow given directly or indirectly. In this way, it doesn't matter so much whether the self is an imaginal being, a fiction or a real entity. What matters are what meanings and values unfold when we talk about the dream as-if it were a message I am relaying to myself. This as-if perspective can also be applied to other notions of dreams-as- messages. What happens when we look at dreams as-if they were messages from the unconscious, from a distant relative, from the body? What many dreamworkers find is that they like to know all these perspective (and continually add more) but that one will be their main perspective, one will be the most profound for them, one will move them the most. In this way, the meaning of the meaning of a dream will be aligned with an individual's values, and yet admit other voices. A summary of the ways we might see dreams as meaningful... Levels of why the recalled dream has meaning: Existential Level - The dream has meaning because I give it meaning. Affective Level - The dream has meaning because it feels meaningful. Functional Level - The dream has meaning because it is useful. Ephiphonic Level - I am overwhelmed by the meaning(s) of the dream. Pragmatic Level - The dream is meaningful as the impact it happens to have. Autonomous Level - I listen to the dream for the answer about its meaning. Spiritual Level - All things have some alignment with the infinite, including dreams. Relative Level - Dreams give people more satisfaction than some other approaches. Testimonial Level - Dreams are meaningful and valued by many people. Note that it is useful at times reverse these hypothesis. One can do this may ways. Obviously one can use contradiction, such as applying the existential level to a dream and saying that its is meaningless because I refuse to give it any meaning. But we can also maintain that dreams are meaningful and still use reversal. "A dream is meaningful because I am personally incapable of giving it meaning, it always alludes and overflows my ability to force meaning on it." Or a dream is meaningful because it doesn't feel meaningful, its different than other things in my life and this it part of its unique quality. The dream is meaningful because it is useless and can't be commodified and used by the ego like other objects in its power and control. And so on. Productive reversal allows for new voices surrounding the dream image to emerge. It is almost as though we should say that dreams are overloaded with meaning rather than lacking in meaning. Or more accurately, that dreams, by not being perfectly clear in their meaning to us upon first inspection, offer us the opportunity to explore a wide range of meanings and value not offered by instant clarity and understanding. It is as though dreams are the process of meaning itself. In their state of being not-yet complete as objects, they are complete as moving processes. Metaphors in motion, as Montague Ullman has said.13 Fluidic processes before the closure of full representation has territorialized and coded the meaning and value of the event. Just slightly ahead of being represented and turned into a slave as a representative, before being spatialized and abstracted across a grid of equal portions and statistical curves. Tickity-tocklolog, tilocity, ocity, ibility- nock, trumble, tic-tockity, smock. - Richard Wilkerson ------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- Footnotes, Bibliography and Citations ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. The Association for the Study of Dreams Mission Statement. Available online http://www.asdreams.org/idx_aboutus.htm 2. The ASD Dreamwork Ethics Guideline. Available online http://www.asdreams.org/idx_aboutus.htm 3. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix ( ). Anti-Oedipus. 4. Baudrillard, Jean (1984). Simulacra and Simulations. trans. by Sheila Faria Glaser. The University of Michigan Press 5. Wittgenstein, Ludwig, (1963) Philosophical Investigations, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. Basil Blackwell: Oxford. 6. Jameson, Fredric (1991). Postmodemism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press. 7. Hillman, James ( ). Dreams and the Underworld. 8. Hill, Clara E. et. al. (1993). Are the Effects of Dream Interpretation on Session Quality, Insight, and Emotions Due to the Dream Itself, to Projection, or to the Interpretation Process? Dreaming, (3)4, 1993 {Clara E. Hill, [1] Roberta Diemer, Shirley Hess, Ann Hillyer, and Robyn Seeman} 9. Kramer, Milton (1993). Private Conversation at the 1993 Santa Fe conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams. 10. Freud, Sigmund. (1965; first published 1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. James Strachey (Trans.). New York: Avon Books. 11. Jung, C. G. (1971). The Collected Works, R. F. C. Hull (trans) Princeton: Princeton University Press. 12. Bergson, Henry (1998/1911). Creative Evolution. (trans. Arthur Mitchell, Ph.D.). Mineola, NE: Dover Publications, Inc. Quote from page 3. 13. Ullman, M. Dreaming as metaphor in motion. Archives of General Psychiatry, 1969, Vol. 21, 696-703. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE Bibliography of generally referenced materials Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1953). Regularly occurring periods of eye motility, and concomitant phenomena, during sleep. Science, 118(3026), 273?274. Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1955). Two types of ocular motility occurring in sleep. Journal of Applied Physiology, 8(1), 1?10. Cohen, David B. (1979). Sleep and Dreaming: Origins, Nature and Functions. New York: Pergamon Press. Crick, Francis & Mitchinson, Graeme (1983). The function of dream sleep. Nature, 304(14), July, 111?114. Crick, Francis & Mitchinson, Graeme. (1986). REM sleep and neural nets. Journal of Mind and Behaviour, 7(2&3), 229-50. Dement, William C. (1976). Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep. San Francisco: San Francisco Book Co. Ellman, Steven J. & Antrobus, John S. (Eds). (1991). The Mind in Sleep: Psychology and Psychophysiology. 2nd edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Fishbein, W. (Ed). (1981). Sleep, Dreams and Memory.(Chapters 7,8,9,11,12,13). New York: Spectrum. Freud, Sigmund. (1965; first published 1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. James Strachey (Trans.). New York: Avon Books. Gackenbach, Jayne (Ed.), (1987). Sleep and Dreams: A Sourcebook. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc (original Pub 1986). Globus, Gordon G. (1993). Connectionism and sleep. In A. Moffitt, M. Kramer, R. Hoffman (Eds.), The Functions of Dreaming. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. --------. (1991). Dream content: Random or meaningful? Dreaming, 1(1), 27?40. --------. (1989). Connectionism and the dreaming mind. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 10(2). 179?196. Greenberg. R and Pearlman, Chester, Wynn, R Schwarts H Youkilis Grossman (1983). Memory, emotion and REM sleep. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 92: 378-81 Hartmann, Ernest (1998). Dreams and Nightmares: The New Theory on the Origin and Meaning of Dreams. New York, NY: Plenum. Hill, Clara E. et. al. (1993). Are the Effects of Dream Interpretation on Session Quality, Insight, and Emotions Due to the Dream Itself, to Projection, or to the Interpretation Process? Dreaming, (3)4, 1993 {Clara E. Hill, [1] Roberta Diemer, Shirley Hess, Ann Hillyer, and Robyn Seeman} Hunt, Harry T. (1989). The Multiplicity of Dreams: Memory, Imagination and Consciousness. New Haven: Yale University Press. Jung, C. G. (1971). The Collected Works, R. F. C. Hull (trans) Princeton: Princeton University Press. Kelsey, Morton T. (1974). God, Dreams and Revelation. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House. Karcan. I, Williams, R. Salis P. (1970). The effect of sexual intercourse on Sleep Patterns and Nocturnal Penile Erections. Psychophysiology 7 338. Sanford, John A. (1984). The use of dreams in psychotherapy with deaf patients. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 12(1), 75-88. Sanford, John A. (1989). Dreams: Gods Forgotten Language. San Francisco: Harper and Row. Ullman, M. Dreaming as metaphor in motion. Archives of General Psychiatry, 1969, Vol. 21, 696-703. Ullman, M., Krippner, S. & Vaughan, A. (1989 2nd Ed.) Dream Telepathy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Pub. Ullman, M., Krippner, S. & Vaughan, A. Dream Telepathy. New York: Macmillan, 1973. Van De Castle, R. L. (1994). Our Dreaming Mind. New York: Ballantine Books. Wilkerson, Richard Catlett (1996). The Science of Dreaming. San Francisco, CA : DreamGate Publications. Williams, R.L.; Karacan, I,; and Hursch, C.J. (1974). Electroencephalography (EEG) of Human Sleep. New York: Wiley. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< Where is the Global Dreaming News? Now at the beginning of Electric Dreams! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<|||||||>>>>>>>>>>>|||||<<<<<<<<<<<< +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ New Series begins with dream-flow@egroup.com Digest #1 09/29/2000 This issue includes volume #421 - #446 Hello and welcome to the DREAM SECTION of Electric Dreams. This section is edited by Richard Wilkerson and the DreamEditor, a software creation of Harry Bosma, author of the Dream interpretation and journaling software "Alchera". (homepage: http://mythwell.com) Please note that we print these dreams as they come to us and that means we do not correct the spelling. Some dreamworkers find these spelling mistakes a great window on the dream and dreamer. The Electric Dreams DREAM SECTION includes dreams and comments from the DREAM FLOW, a project to circulate dreams in Cyberspace. Many mail lists participate, including dream-flow@lists.best.com dreamstream@topical.com DreamsRus@onelist.com The Dream Sack http//www.deeplistening.org/ione Usenet groups (too many to name, search DREAM) If you would like to send in single dreams for the flow, you can leave them at http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple If you have a mail list or would like to contribute dreams and comments on a regular basis, you can subscribe to the dream-flow by sending an E-mail to TO: dream-flow-subscribe@egroups.com You may get a note back to verify the subscription. Simply hit the return or reply key and send the note back. An Archive of dream-flow is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/dream-flow@egroups.com/ Pre-November 2000: http://www.mail-archive.com/dream-flow@lists.best.com/ Pre-November 1998 http://www.mail-archive.com/ed-core@lists.best.com/ Pre-April 1990 Use Electric Dreams Backissues http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-backissues ------------------------- BEGIN --------------------------- 421 -446 [dream-flow] Digest Number 421 ____________________________________________________________ There is 1 message in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. intimate mind From: : stan kulikowski ii ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 21:47:01 -0800 From: : stan kulikowski ii Subject: intimate mind DATE : 21 mar 2002 04:33 DREAM : intimate mind =( yesterday, i woke up for the first time in two weeks feeling like i had slept and rested. i am mostly finished with the pneumonia that has been going around my university. i heard several times each day of someone who has had it recently. it was the last day of lab work for this group of navy sailors who will return to the fleet this weekend. i was glad to be feeling well enough at last, and their work was finished around noon. most of the afternoon i just slept, catching up from the sickness. in the evening i was able to finally prepare something to eat and went to bed early, still getting tired easily. i went to sleep around 22:30 without much difficulty. )= the moonlight dapples across her smooth olive skin as she looks at me without saying a word, without a pause in her deep regular breathing. i smile when i see her look at me. the dark eyes of a greek woman are easy to get lost in, but her frank stare is not seductive and does not carry any hint of invitation. she is shorter than me by thirty five or forty centimeters, but it is not size that is the question here. her dark hair is cut clean short, a little longer than bristle length but not by much. not a word has been said between us, yet the night is slowly passing and she is communicating to me volumes of intention with crystal clarity. i am not exactly a student here, having completed my dissertation thesis. this is my first introduction to scholarship beyond the boundaries of accepted knowledge. only a few individuals worldwide get the opportunity to work in this frontier region of mental activity. my mentors at the university had hoped that i could be accepted by the rare illuminati who labor in these areas. the first hurdle is that of language. traditionally prime expression is refined into greek. it has always been so merely because education was originally developed in that culture and there is no need to translate beyond that. my problem is that greek is not a language that i have mastered. my dissertation used a form of calculus to express its thoughts, and today scholars are attempting to use math as a purer form of knowledge than the traditional language. it is not clear that some elements of human experience will not lose something tangible when translated from a cultural native language to a pure mathematic. this, my introduction to the higher realms of scholarship, is an attempt to assess if this translation is feasible at all. so far, i seem to be understanding the simple postulates. the greek woman moves her eyebrow or tilts her head slightly and i follow her through thesis, hypothesis, lemma and corollary. proof mechanics are never that difficult until the logic starts to cascade. in math we understand this with quadratics and polynomials, unfortunately there is no general solution for these that guarantee a completion. i just have to follow on and see if we come to the same conclusion at the end. time in the real world is moving along in a smooth flow, but here while engaged in this mind lock, it seems to slip and jump ahead episodically. hints of dawn suddenly seem to spurt across horizon. her thoughts have formed an object that i can see now. it is a cluster of metal rods, maybe twenty six of them, that radiate out in a vertical plane from a common source in her mind. each rod seems to weigh exactly nothing and are less than a meter in length. the whole starburst cluster rotates just slightly on its vertical axis. i do not apprehend what this configuration means, but i can see it as she has projected it, and that seems to be enough for now. the first ray of sunlight slants across the meadow we are standing in, a stripe of greens and browns where there had been only grays and darks. dawn brings to an end our efforts. the whole night we have been close to each other, but never actually touching or saying anything. as day brings into focus the various campus buildings and structures of academia around us, i stretch and smile at my companion. we seem neither weary nor cramped from efforts. "i must go to start a class soon." she tells me. it is the first thing spoken since we were introduced early last night. i can tell that she is pleased with the result of this experience. we will try again and perhaps someday soon know if the frantic acquisition of new world knowledge can be completely compatible with the old traditional structures. i am reluctant to leave after what we have shared in the night. it feels like an incredible intimacy to be so close for so long, but i suppose that may just be my newness to the experience. i am rather old to be starting this level of scholarship for the first time. the greek woman i am staring at fondly is much younger than me, yet she is reputed to be the best academic for many years. i would like to share breakfast with her, just a human convention, but i know it is too late. the day is full bright now and we must be off about our obligations and responsibilities. she turns to leave, but looks back just long to engage my eyes in hers again. there is a promise in them that we can meet later after her class work and then we can speak as people commonly do. =( there was a lot more of this dream when i woke at 03:20. i went immediately into an extended coughing fit until i finally got my throat cleared. the greek woman who i was so intimate with during the night does show up at my house across town, but only briefly so. i am not very welcome in my home any more as my estranged wife, sheila, is doing everything she can to personalize the place to herself and push me out. then there was a long sequence of me leaving the uncomfortable house and seeking new living quarters somewhere else in town. at one point i sang part of an italian opera in full tenor voice. all of these dream segments were richly detailed in ornate features which have slipped away from me now. this is sad for me as i enjoyed them once i got clear of the influence of being unwanted in my home which i tried to resist, but without success. i do not know the name of the greek woman, but i may have known it at the time. we said next to nothing to each other with words, so names did not come into it very often if at all. she certainly had a exotic, even erotic effect on me, but it seemed to have nothing to do with sex as people understand it if that makes any sense. )= ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 422 ____________________________________________________________ There are 5 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. dead buss driver From: Anonymous 2. Re: intimate mind From: Heratheta 3. Re: dead buss driver From: Heratheta 4. Pregnancy From: Anonymous 5. Re: Pregnancy From: mara flynn wrote: dream_title: Pregnancy dream_date: 3/11/01-present dreamer_name: anonymous dream_text: I've been having the same dream every nite for a long time now. First it started of with a strange women being pregnant then later on it turned into a friend of mine. As the nights went on I started dreaming that my sister was pregnet then it turned into my mother and now i'm having the same dream but its me whose pregnet now...i know i'm not pregnet but i want to know what this dream means because i keep having it everynite for a long time now...(I checked with everyone i know and no one is pregnant) dream_comments: Is there a possibility that my dream is telling me that i might become pregnant? ___________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 423 ____________________________________________________________ There are 4 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Terrorist Dream From: Anonymous 2. evil spirts From: Anonymous 3. 9/10 From: Anonymous 4. The Crucifixion From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 09:09:01 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Terrorist Dream dream_title: Terrorist Dream dream_date: 032202 dreamer_name: earlydawn dream_text: I was working at my "dream" job, the job I've always dreamed of. I was happy, it was a big company, we were working well together. There was an alarm and we were notified there was a bomb threat in the building. So we all filed outside and they checked but there was no bomb. So we went back inside and were working again. The alarm went off again, and we were told to go outside. This time I was all alone and walking down some stairs to a huge lobby. I noticed the floor was made of tile and that a little area of the tile had been dug and replaced recently. And I knew that's where the bomb was. I looked up and saw a man sitting all alone on a bench, he looked like what you would typically think a terrorist would look like. I started to run, but I turned to look to see if he was behind me. He was a ways back, he pulled out a gun with a silencer and shot me right between the eyes and I was dead. Then the bomb exploded. And I woke up. dream_comments: This dream was very upsetting to me, I rarely ever have violent dreams. But I firmly believe it is not about the obvious. Yeah, we had Sept. 11th, but I have not been very worried. We live in a very small town and I have had little exposure to any upsetting events involving terrorism, except what I saw on TV. Yeah, it upset me at the time (like everyone), but I thought I dealt with it and do have some peace of mind about it. Sidenote - I have been diagnosed with depression and many of my "dreams" have not come to fruition. I think that may be part of the story. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 00:12:10 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: evil spirts dream_title: evil spirts dream_date: 2 days a go dreamer_name: evil spirt dream_text: i had a dream of a execisem one night and the evil spirt thorw me a gents a wall ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 00:13:35 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: 9/10 dream_title: 9/10 dream_date: 9/10 dreamer_name: chrise dream_text: the day before the 9/11 attack, i had a dreaam this is very much true, i told people the day it happened 9/10 in my dream i was i the city and something in my dreams told me there will be 2 exsplosion,(sorry about my spelling)when the first on hit, i remember crouching down in a corner of a shop, then the second on hit, i remember thing's falling all around me and i got up to run, there was a cloud of dust to where i had a hard time seeing, and i remember that i could not breath because of all the smoke, now again believe me or not, but this did happen, and there are people here around me that can prove this dream_comments: the next day, i didn't find out what my dream ment, i live far from ground zero, i am in california, ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 00:14:08 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: The Crucifixion dream_title: The Crucifixion dream_date: 3/19/02 dreamer_name: anonymous dream_text: I was in biblical times and was at the crucifixion. I was all alone and the sky was beginning to darken. Jesus was on the cross yelling and screaming at me in a foreign language(I believe it was hebrew). It all faded to blakness. dream_comments: I have been labeled a nutcase as I have had mnay visions and dreamns of Jesus and others. ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 424 ____________________________________________________________ There are 10 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Re: The Crucifixion From: "Denise 2. Death in the Snow From: Anonymous 3. "The Picnic" From: Anonymous 4. alligators From: Anonymous 5. Clutch From: Anonymous 6. Fire in homes From: Anonymous 7. New Dream From: Anonymous 8. DENTISTE From: Anonymous 9. manoj bhatnagar From: Anonymous 10. broken teeth From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 11:12:56 -0600 From: "Denise Subject: Re: The Crucifixion Don't listen to those who "label {you} a nutcase" because of your dreams! Only you, in your deep unconscious, know why certain figures appear to you. Jesus is a central figure in our culture, and his appearance in a dream should not surprise anyone. I have not encountered Jesus in my dreams, but I have encountered angels. If something or someone recurs often in your dreams, it's a good idea to ask the dream why this is happening. Meditate on it as you fall asleep and try to carry the question into your sleep with you. You may be surprised at how clear the answer will be! ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 16:02:39 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Death in the Snow dream_title: Death in the Snow dream_date: repeated dreamer_name: anonymous dream_text: Sometimes I dream that I am hiding from Nazi storm troopers. The dreams usually take place in late winter...cold,damp and miserable. I usually run and hid in a deep forest, but sometimes I hide in an abandoned barn. The dreams usually ended with me falling through the ice on a frozen river. dream_comments: I was born in 1974.My knowledge of WWII is restricted to history classes and the war movies that my father has a passion for (though I personally detest them). Nevertheless, these dreams are excruciatingly vivid and 'real'.I HATE THE COLD!!! ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:18:03 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: "The Picnic" dream_title: "The Picnic" dream_date: March 14, 2002 dreamer_name: dreamer31 dream_text: I was going to a picnic. I remember walking a couple of blocks were I saw "The Bronx Zoo" sign. It was in the front and there were people dressed in tiger suits and dancing in the front of the sign. I remember going over there and I didn't have a costume to wear. One of the people said that there was an extra one there. I remember trying on the costume and the colors were black and orange and the gloves were purple. I don't know if they fit around my hand or if they were regular gloves that fit. The dream seemed to take place when it was twilight outside. dream_comments: I have no idea what it means. I am currently going to college now so I don't know if it has any bearing on that. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:19:46 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: alligators dream_title: alligators dream_date: forgot dreamer_name: libraphead dream_text: i realized i was in the middle of the everglades following the only road there. it was just me and my brother's mongoose blue bike. as i drove down the only visible road, i see the swampy waters drenched with alligators lurking in the dark waters. then my brother's bike broke... the wheel wouldnt move anymore.i tried to make it move, but before i made an attempt, i see an alligator crawling towards me.i see it aiming for the back tire of the bike, which gave me time to run away from it. next thing i know, i ran into this white efficiency-sized room and inside it there was a dark pool in the middle of it, and the only solid ground i had was a sidewalk around the pool. in that pool, i had this feeling it lurked with alligators, so i quietely walked around the sidewalk trying to look for an exit door. i reached the door and the coast was clear.... no alligators. then out of nowhere...... i woke up. dream_comments: i just want to know what in tarnation was that all about.and i would like my real name: jessie fernandez ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 5 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:18:32 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Clutch dreamer_name: Clutch dream_text: I had a dream that I was standing by my computer and I had sex with a guy, then we switched places and I let him do me. dream_comments: I'm a guy, and I'm not gay, so what does this mean? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:21:51 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Fire in homes dream_title: Fire in homes dream_date: 3/21/02 dreamer_name: anonymous dream_text: I was walking along a path with houses on both sides. I see a fire starting in a top floor deck. the person there does not seem to be bothered that the fire started. Then another building has started to burn. Soon many building are burning, I wake up. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 7 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:19:08 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: New Dream dream_title: TREE dream_date: 16/03/2002 dreamer_name: EAGLE dream_text: I HAVE CLIMBED UP A TREE AND FOUND MY SELF SLEPT ON THAT TREE. HOWEVER, I COULD NOT MOVE IN TO ITHER DIRECTION, LEFT OR RIGHT, BECUASE DOING THAT COULD HAVE LEFT ME FALLEN DOWM FROM THE TREE. dream_comments: .Please use my e-mail (email not given - editor) ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 8 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:22:13 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: DENTISTE dream_title: DENTISTE dream_date: 24/03/02 (NIGHT) dreamer_name: ELISHEVA dream_text: I LOOSE MY TEETH (MY SISTER CACHT THEM) AND I AM LOOKING FOR A DENTISTE BUT I DON'T FINT ONE WHO MAKES ME FEEL SAFE ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 9 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:22:43 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: manoj bhatnagar dream_title: manoj bhatnagar dream_date: 25 march 2002 dreamer_name: Manoj dream_text: I had a dream early this morning betwen 3-4 I dreamt that I was cleaning the rug( carpet on the floor) with a broom. And as I used to stroke with the broom to clean the carpet, I could see the currency coins coming out from the rug and rolling on the floor. It happended with every move of my broom pushing them with the broom to collect but i woke up in the mean time. I have been planning to Visit California, May be in May 2002 ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 10 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:23:06 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: broken teeth dream_title: broken teeth dream_date: almost every night dreamer_name: gumby dream_text: I'm running from people with no eyes. They chase me through town or the woods. When i'm running i can't keep my eyes open, and i run into stuff. Every time i run into something i spit out pieces of my crummbled up teeth until i don't have any teeth left. dream_comments: I had this dream often when i was commuting to college my first year. During the commute i would often fall asleep while driving. ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 425 ____________________________________________________________ There are 4 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. space travel From: Anonymous 2. Mind Cipher. From: Anonymous 3. Re: snakes chasing me From: wendy 4. everynie From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 08:29:26 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: space travel dream_title: space travel dream_date: march 27/02 dreamer_name: Towering Diva dream_text: I was in charge of a herd of baby birds, chicks i think. I came home to find my mother working away at some invention. It was very make shift but she claimed that it was a space machine. So, I am the first one to get tied into this chaotic and within minutes i am in space, looking down at the world from some very small planet or landing pod.I kept having to round up the chickadees and strap them into the space machine to go back to earth. I remember feeling as though we had created something soo incredible and was going to shake the human race. A step forward for the everyday man. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 08:52:50 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Mind Cipher. dream_date: 27.03.02 dreamer_name: e dream_text: I'm talking to Justin (my ex who is the father of Cipher), Cipher is there too we are on my bed Cipher is gurgling away being his happy little self. I nice to Justin, I'm not me, I'm pretending to be OK. Then I tell him I am upset that he did not contact me on Tuesday about not being available to mind Cipher. He turns around and says "So what, I don't care" So I tell him he can no longer mind him on Tuesdays. He gets up and goes toward the door (it's the house I grew up in) Two girls are there, his two girl friends. He dares them to roll down the hill rolled up in a turf of grass then goes away (out the door into the darkness) The two girls: One is blonde, one is asian with glaring lipstick hot pink, I get angry at the asian one - she's jeering at me. From this point on, I only watch what is happening. The asian girl gets herself rolled up in the turf and starts rolling down the hill. (It's daylight outside now!) The blonde girl starts telling her not to because of the danger, she is terrified when the turf/girl starts rolling down the hill (it's on a sidewalk) it's very steep. The asian girl is thrilled, she's having a lot of fun, laughing. (I think she's pretending to have fun….)she gets to a point in the hill that levels out and she slows down, suddenly, two men appear and pick her up and put her in an OTTO bin. She's screaming, afraid, asking for mercy. They ignore her and push the bin down the hill. She's screaming. The blonde girl watching is screaming. I'm screaming. The bin goes down the hill… it hits a truck and she gets throw in the air - something is implied that she gets terribly mutilated while in the air. The truck is full of heads (ceramic ones) and her decapitated head lands next to these heads. This is outside a house. A man is looking at a newspaper article about a parasitic disease. He sees the woman's head and thinks of his daughter. Suddenly he realises she might be in danger. He gets in his car and speeds home. His house is on a steep hill, he parks his car (he has trouble finding a spot) and runs inside to see his daughter having sex with her boyfriend. He has given her the parasitic disease, but he sees no wrong in it, he says the parasite only lives for 10 years anyway. She seems satisfied with his excuse and is happy again so he won't be upset. Her father isn't fooled he's infuriated. End of dream, mum woke me up. dream_comments: Warning on pretending to be enjoy danger to appease another. Don't obey blindly. Look after yourself. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 16:38:42 -0800 (PST) From: wendy Subject: Re: snakes chasing me I still don't know what this means can someone help me?? I was with me brother we were walking up the drive > way > toward our house (but it wasn't our house) i heard a > ratteling sound as my brother went to reach for the > door a red and black striped snake popped up from > the > ground and pounced at him. > > I turned to run away looking behind me and there was > a > yellow with white stripes with a catfish head snake > chasing me. > > I ran across the street and turned around and out of > the bush a two headed green and black striped snake > pounced at me. > ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ There are 6 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Earthquake From: Anonymous 2. I keep dying.. From: Anonymous 3. Re: I keep dying.. From: wendy frazetti dream_text: I saw large virtual computerized evening news board. My favorite sports anchor was showing the world news. Different areas of the world were being shown, then highlighted in red and zoomed in on. The world map was zoomed and India was highlighted in red. There was a substantial earthquake in India reported by the newscaster. (Other areas of the world were highlighted and news spoken, but fading from recall. This news broadcast seemed very futuristic.) dream_comments: Please use my Real Name Please use my e-mail ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 13:01:59 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: I keep dying.. dream_title: I keep dying... dream_date: Reoccurring dreamer_name: Robin dream_text: I keep having a reoccurring dream that I am dying. I never die in the same way. Once my father killed me, I died in a car crash, my home was bombed while I was asleep, etc. I don't understand what It means... and It freaks me out, because I'll wake up panting, out of breath and so scared. dream_comments: It is so scary. I hope it doesn't mean i'm going to die! ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 13:50:01 -0800 (PST) From: wendy Subject: Re: I keep dying.. what keeps happing in these dreams? i mean detail wise. is there anything significant about them. It may have a different meaning. Think of each dream and what is in common with them. how do you die? what are you wearing? what is everyone saying?etc.. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ There are 2 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. red horses From: Anonymous 2. Phil Collins and the Secret Society of Women From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 09:08:43 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: red horses dream_title: red horses dream_date: not sure dreamer_name: mam mix alot 1 (e-mail address) dream_text: there are millions of red bowls filled with upside down nails and dead red stuffed horses,there are also locked windows all around dream_comments: please use my e-mail address (editor - no email address given?) ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 09:09:04 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Phil Collins and the Secret Society of Women dream_title: Phil Collins and the Secret Society of Women dream_date: 3/28/02 dreamer_name: Fawn dream_text: I am in a small bar with the friend of a freind, known for bad alchoholic behavior. I am surfing the web there and she messes up my whole search pushing the wrong buttons. Phil Collings comes in and sets up to play with his band. He is laughing drunkenly with the friend of a freind, and sticks me in the nose with a needle. He treats it as a joke. It is painful, but I laugh about it, not wanting to offend a rock star. Then, my boyfriend and I are climbing this old rickety wooden stair case. It goes up and then down and then up again, like one of those ladders that can be bent for use as a scaffold. It is scary to me, and I have to be pushed, prodded and helped to make it over the tall rambling stair case. It has chicken wire on it too. Finally, we end up in this old house with many floors. The house is full of women of every shape, size ,color and age. My boyfriend is the only man there, and he is accepted, but warily. It is some sort of secret society of women. The leader is middle aged and somwhat heavy. She is a photographer and loves to take artsy nude pictures of women. She is wearing a filmy red negligee. The pictures aren't meant to be purely sexual (she shows me some) it is also a spiritual experience to be part of the process. All of the women are smiling, happy, peaceful. I go to the bathroom. Somone walks in on me and it takes a few minutes to convince her that I need privacy. I look down at myself, and am surprised to see that I have a thick mop of of chestnutt brown, shiny, perfectly groomed luxurious pubic hair. When the phone wakes me up, I feel sad that the last part is only a dream, so I must have been happy about the hair within the dream. ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 428 ____________________________________________________________ There are 4 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Death From: Anonymous 2. It's not coming From: Anonymous 3. strange From: Anonymous 4. well i saw god From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 15:28:53 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Death dream_title: Death dream_date: March 8,2002 dreamer_name: Some Girl dream_text: I dreamed that I won a skateboard competition. Some reporter asked if I ever rubbed in someone's face that I was better than them. I said,"No, but maybe just this once." I was of cource only kidding. Some people saw me on tv and they decided to kill me!!! They chased me and when they finally caught me they wanted to chop my head off.I said, "Isn't there a commandment that says Thou Shalt Not Kill?" They said that they didn't care what God said. dream_comments: I don't even know why they are trying to kill me. And why would they go against what God says.I don't even skateboard! ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 16:58:45 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: It's not coming dream_title: It's not coming dream_date: 2/02 dreamer_name: Bonney dream_text: I had a dream one night during my pregnancy that I was going into Labor. Well that wouldn't be so odd but I was in the delivery room and was pushing. The head started crowning and from there the contractions stopped and labor was not progressing so they sent me home and told me to come back if I started again. So there I am sitting in a chair with part of my baby's head sticking out. and on top of that when I was in labor the dr. got hungary and I was crowning and he all the sudden decided to go get a bag of chips to eat. It was the nurses that sent me home. dream_comments: I am still pregnant...only a few more weeks to go. I would like to know what this all means. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 16:59:04 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: strange dream_title: strange dream_date: 22/03/02 dreamer_name: dreamer dream_text: it was very strange and it came for three days regularly and it was like very starnge like how can i see the same guy and the same dream three days regulary cuz my day is very normal everyday nothing unusuall happens with me so it was starnge like that guy looking at me and then i saw i am on a hilly mountain where i ever havent been but it felt like that i had been there (in the dream) cuz when i ran away from that guy when he started following me i knew the places where to go so it was starnge dream_comments: i ve got nothing to say on my dream cuz it was very strange all i can say like i felt very diff after seeing this dream i guess thats it ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 16:59:25 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: well i saw god dream_title: well i saw god dream_date: 16/12/99 dreamer_name: dreamer dream_text: well it was very long ago i saw this dream it was like i saw a horse and the place where i live and an old woman who told me some very starnge words which she told me like these words if u use in anything u want ull get it and it was like strange cuz i saw the horse right up on the fifth floor and 80 yr old woman on the floor saying these words to me like they were i dont remeber it properly but it was like three names of lord krishna thats all i remember dream_comments: well i got scare on this dream like how can it be a horse on the fifth floor funny and an old lady tellin me the names of god yeah it was strange ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 429 ____________________________________________________________ There are 3 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Moving into Mickey Mouse's House From: Anonymous 2. Vault of Caskets From: Anonymous 3. Trapped in Computerland From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 09:49:24 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Moving into Mickey Mouse's House dream_title: Moving into Mickey Mouse's House dream_date: 9/15/00 dreamer_name: Heather dream_text: I bought Mickey Mouse's house for my family and I to move into. The house was black with Mickey Mouse jack-in-the- boxes all over. The jack-in-the-boxes were purple, blue, yellow, green, and red. dream_comments: This was my most memorable dream I have ever had. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 09:49:51 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Vault of Caskets dream_title: Vault of Caskets dream_date: 03/31/02 dreamer_name: Letisha dream_text: Hello Everyone- I always have the weirdest dreams but this one was somewhat unordinary so I really feel there is some type of meaning behind it. Can anyone give me their opinion or "interpretation" about my dream? Here goes the dream...(It's long) I was moving into my Mother's home after her funeral. I was just starting to get a feel of the place being mine and then I heard this loud scraping in the hallway leading to all the back bedrooms. So, I get to the noises and look down and there are these little figurines( a different variety) staring up at me. They were welcoming me into the home and I got the feeling they were going to be my friends. I wasn't freaked, just felt safe. So, time passed on and I was enjoying my new home. I decided after all the unpacking, I would stay in my brother's old room. I noticed my mother had redecorated it to a gold and maroon(velvet) fashion box. It was very trendy and had a very large bed in the middle of the room. This room was above the vault that we buried my father, mother, grandmother, one of my brother's toddler daughters, and some white guy with dark black hair. So there were 5 caskets in this vault which was under my brother's old bed. I was nervous about the room, but I wanted to stay in that room. So I decided I would re-decorate it to put my touch on it...then I heard the scraping noises again. When I went out into the hallway, the figurines were looking up at me and I got the feeling they were trying to tell me about the vault of caskets. So, I went back into my brother's old room and raised the bed and looked down into the vault. Nothing looked wrong except for the cement floor of vault starting to crack. I immediately called my brother to ask if he knew about it, he said no, but was coming to see about it. My brother arrived and said that we should call the funeral home because he didn't think the white guy belonged in the vault. He wasn't our family or friend...we did not know him. So the undertakers arrived and I couldn't help to notice how nicely dressed they were and how soft their hands were when shook hands. I began to compliment them on it and we started flirting with each other. As the meeting went on, they informed me and my brother that the white guy was my mom's friend(not boyfriend) and while she was alive, had him buried in the vault because he did not have any burial insurance. So we decided to honor my mother's wishes and keep the man there. The undertakers decided they would check out the vault and noticed an odor. The white guy was cleaned up correctly when he died...so they had to redo him(I don't know how to word that part) After that, the undertakers were going to charge us $650.00 for the services. I was refusing to pay because they should have done it rignt the first time, but my brother decided to pay....and this is when I woke up. I know this is a wierd dream- my mom is still alive, my mom does not have a vault of caskets in her house, she is not trendy and would have never redecorated, there are no figurines in my mom's hallway, I still don't know who this white man is....I don't know the undertakers, and my brother would have never been coming to my rescue as he did in the dream(we still have the sibling rivarly thing going on) Also, my brother only has 1 child who is alive and well. What is this dream all about? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 09:51:36 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Trapped in Computerland dream_title: Trapped in Computerland dream_date: Sometime in the 1st 1/2 of 1996 dreamer_name: anonymous dream_text: Now here's an odd one. I was 9 at the time of the dream and very interested in computers (as I am now). It started out with me walking boredly down a gravel trail in some campground. I talked with my dad briefly and somehow after that (I forgot) was suddenly zapped into 17th century England. I was a little panicky and very confused as you might expect. I remember finding my house, in England (I reside in Minnesota, USA) being used as a schoolhouse. I said "F--k off" or something like that and she said something like "Now young boy, show respect". Anyway, I found a hole in the snow which I jumped in (very similar to the movie Stay Tuned). I came out at the Windows 3.1 Desktop, if you remember that. At the top was the "File" menu, which, by using my mental willpower or something, I clicked and went down to "Shut Down". I then got a little message over a black screen "Shut Down Now?" I chose "OK" and automatically woke up to find myself in bed, with the sun shining and my clock loudly clicking. dream_comments: I remember it as being a very long dream. ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 430 ____________________________________________________________ There are 2 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. worth it From: Anonymous 2. Bay of Rings From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 09:51:16 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: worth it dream_title: worth it dream_date: 3-30-02 dreamer_name: Lori dream_text: Well, first im walking down a sidewalk by a large&busy street and i see a man walking by me,dragging an infant on the ground by a rope tied around its neck &i fought the man& took hold of the rope&lifted the baby up into my arms&run as fast as i can across the busy street to a smaller streetwith little businesses&shops on it...lots of people were lookin around&i look at the baby in my arms &his head fell off his body so i toss its little body nonchalantly on the ground&look at its face&its gorgeous big blue eyes were rollin back into its head&just movin all slow¬ together&for some reason that pissed me of,so i yelled at it "WHY THE FUCK AREnT YOU LOOKInG AT ME!!!!LOOK AT ME!FUCK YOU!" so i throw his head\neck on the ground as hard as i could&i begin to step on it&i pick it back up &i see that it has a giant hole on the back of its skull&so i stick my fingers in it to touch its brain but i wuss out&leave it...so im walking&i see a church&i go in,there is a lady&a baby in one of those strollers&the lady is holding a black pitbull with a leash&she looks at me walkin to her&we're both VERY calm&she takes the baby out&lets the vicious pit bull attack it&rip it to shreds in this church&strangly enough it doesnt bother either of us one bit nor do i hear the baby cry at all...so then i help her find a trashbagso we find a big black trashbag&put it on the dog's head&eventually get the dog completely in it&we load it into her LIMO&we drive it to a dock &throw the bag with the live dog into the water&i woke up...the end dream_comments: i believe everything in your dream means something,or tells somethin of the future me&my mother have been using the book:The Dreamer's Dictionary by Lady Stearn Robinson&Tom Corbett for many,many years&it has foretold many things for us &all my life ive dreamt in color...is that weird or completely normal? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 19:13:27 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Bay of Rings dream_title: Bay of Rings dream_date: 4/1/02 dreamer_name: LilLadyK dream_text: I was walking at the edge of a bay, along the water so calmly. I looked in the water and saw a ring. I looked again and saw more rings, gold weddig bands and diamond rings just laying in the water. The more looked the more rings I saw. I got into the water and began picking them up and checking them out. I didn't feel the water, not cold, not warm, just there. Before I knew it the bay wasothing but wedding rings, inches deep of nothing but gold rings. Every kind imaginable was there. Picking them up I didn't want for them or think of filling my fiingers or my pockets with the prizes left there. It didn't enter my mind at all, which is really weird too. I could have paved the way to a new life with them and chose not to disturb them anymore. Standing in the waer up to my knees I looked to the edge of the water and saw rock, it had a framed picture of me just sitting there with a diamond ring beside it. I remember the frame was peach and the pic was kinda hanging out as if someone had been holding it and reading the back of it. I couldn't see the back or anythng I just had that feeling it said things on the back. I still felt calm seeing it, not knowing just why I was there and who had placed my picture at the bay of rings. I have no idea what this means or why I don't feel odd, just calm...any thoughts on this dream? dream_comments: I have been searching folklore and mythology for any thing on Bay of Rings which stands out in my minid as important ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 431 ____________________________________________________________ There are 7 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Re: Bay of Rings From: "Denise 2. Yea, I died From: Anonymous 3. Re: Yea, I died From: Harmony314 4. Shiela From: Anonymous 5. bell pepper From: Anonymous 6. The Blue Wedding Dress From: Anonymous 7. Driving Fast Can't stop From: Anonymous ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 11:20:24 -0600 From: "Denise Subject: Re: Bay of Rings I used to have a dream very similar, of walking at the oceans edge and picking up gems and jewelry out of the water. I took my dream to mean there is precious material in my unconscious mind. -Denise ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:27:57 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Yea, I died dream_title: Yea, I died dream_date: 4/2/02 dreamer_name: CAC dream_text: I'm at school and I become very depressed. I don't smile, I don't laugh. After weeks of nothing, I get infront of the school and tell them how they hurt people and how what they say kills. Then, I pull out a dagger and get ready to stab myself. Someone stops me, though. I end up in a facility that holds attempted-suicide victims. My voice is completely gone and I can see, but I can't. The world lost meaning, life was naught, and so I died as I continued to breath. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 17:51:08 -0500 (EST) From: Harmony314 Subject: Re: Yea, I died I don't know much about dream interperatation yet, but maybe this is an expression of you feeling disconnected...you fixed it so you couldn't talk anymore, you couldn't really see anymore...you felt dead as you breathed, like a ghost left lingering in the world of the living...doomed to watch as life passes you by..maybe part of you feels that way now? By the way, you told your dream eloquently. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 18:00:23 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Shiela dream_title: Shiela dream_date: Jan 2002-March 2002 dreamer_name: Bob dream_text: Before I tell you my dream I must give you a little history about the dream.. I have had this dream for about 3 year, but only till recently the girl in the dream has been faceless, that is till January.. Now Sheila (The girl in my dreams) has worked with me for now about 8 months at this night club, even though she is hotter then hell, we have never clicked. My dream starts in a different place every time, but it always is the same premis.. We are in a differnt country traveling, sometimes we meet there, but now we since I have put a face to her, we have started our travels together. The rest of the dream is sright forward, we travel around, and have one of the best times in my life, it never revolves around sex, but as I have traveled more into this dream I have kissed her, and it is the most beautiful, sweet kiss I have ever experiaced. The next time I dream of her I will record it and write it up so there is more detail, which I will write with in the next few days, as I dream about her once every 2 days give or take a day. dream_comments: This is a dream that has puzzled me for years, and only till recently I have not had a face to the girl,, The thing that now puzzles me is why am I dream about Sheila. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 5 Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 17:59:52 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: bell pepper dream_title: come on over dream_date: 4-1-02 dreamer_name: bell pepper dream_text: I had this dream that my crush(Bob) was rapping me at my friends house. and when i woke up from the dream he was standing right above me. dream_comments: what does it mean? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 18:00:59 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: The Blue Wedding Dress dream_title: The Blue Wedding Dress dream_date: 03/28/02 dreamer_name: muffy dream_text: I am standing alone in a fog in a short blue wedding dress. It is a beautiful Royal Blue with a high turtleneck collar which is covered in small blue feathers. I like the dress and I am wearing blue high heels to match. I am baffled because I don't know who I am going to marry. My mother (who I can't see) says not to worry because I look beautiful and it doesn't matter. dream_comments: I hardly ever wear dresses. I feel comfortable in jeans. I don't consider myself a raving beauty, yet in my dream, I was. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 7 Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 22:50:10 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Driving Fast Can't stop dream_title: Driving Fast Can't stop dream_date: 4/2/2002 dreamer_name: Amy3201 dream_text: I awoke in my dream setting behind the wheel of a pick-up. A person I recognized was right beside me with his hand on the wheel and foot on the gas. As I awoke he said it was my turn to drive, and put my hands on the wheel. I kept going faster and could not slow down, even when I took my foot off the gas. I saw trees swishing by but I couldn't seem to see clearly. dream_comments: I didn't feel I was going to crash In a way I felt secure in knowing I was not alone, because the guy with me stayed by my side even after I took control of the wheel. In a strang sense I felt secure. ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 432 ____________________________________________________________ There are 9 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Devil From: Anonymous 2. Bride Trapped In the Walls From: Anonymous 3. Face Of A Dead Man From: Anonymous 4. Bonnie Riatt & the end From: Anonymous 5. Crazy Gift Car From: Anonymous 6. my husband From: Anonymous 7. stars From: Anonymous 8. the house From: Anonymous 9. Re: s for 4/3 From: Heratheta ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 08:04:07 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Devil dream_title: Devil dream_date: March 2002 dreamer_name: anonymous dream_text: The devil became apparent to me in a dream, and he was facing away from me. I'm not sure where I was, all I can remember was that it was dark. I was extremely angry with the devil, and although I fear him in real life, in the dream I had no fear whatsoever, and I physically struck at his back with my fists, venting my anger. I pummelled and pummelled away at him. However he seemed unconcerned, and pointedly ignored me, much to my frustration. The dream ended. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 08:13:53 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Bride Trapped In the Walls dream_title: Bride Trapped In the Walls dream_date: 3-13-02 dreamer_name: Anakatora Klio dream_text: Scattered Dreams of Being Stalked By A Thin, Scary Man: A man chases me. He is thin and his face is scarred. I hide behind a wall, but he traps me there. There is a hole in the wall big enough for him to see me through. He could kill me through this hole, but instead he keeps me as a bride behind the wall forever. Everyday he shows his face in the hole and says dirty things to be. I become thin and sickly looking. I am in a large circular room in a temple. There are no doors, windows, or stairs leading from the room to escape. The thin, scar-faced man is there. At times, I pretend to love the man so I can escape. Once I ball up like a spirit that resides in the house and roll down the stairs and out the front door. I had seen a spirit do it once. Other times I flew away either as myself or disguised as a bird. Most times the man captured me again. Me and another woman, which he mistook for me, are trapped in a small room or closet with the man. We kissed each other to please him, and then I pretend he arouses me so that I can get him into the bed. An axe lay by the bed. I bash him in the head, but he is still alive. The other woman exchanges places with me on the bed and smooshes up his brains. dream_comments: Please use my Real Name Anakatora Klio Please use my e-mail anakatora@hotmail.com Comments on dream: The dream seemed to continue and stop throughout the night. I can't remember the specific order of these visions or how much time passed between each, only that the dreams were related to one another. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 08:13:08 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Face Of A Dead Man dream_title: Face Of A Dead Man dream_date: 3-12-02 dreamer_name: Anakatora Klio dream_text: I took the entire face of a deformed, dead, old man who was evil. I wore his face like a mask and danced with my mother. I am her son. Her eyes glow like an angel, or something of comparable beauty. I go to find her as she disappears in one of the rooms of our home. There are two young thieves planning something evil which involves stealing. They are willing to murder if necessary. Outside, I walk by the thieves with my mother in my arms. She is very pale, like she is dead. I lay her on the ground and go to look for help. I am outside an apartment building or hotel. The thieves consider me as a possible victim, but I can tell in their faces something made them decide against committing the action towards me. My mother's body begins to slowly levitate. Her body positions change each time she drifts upwards, until she if finally hovering several feet up, and her body is stretched completely flat with her arms to her side. At this point, her skin is a very pale white. In my head I hear, "Let me go, I'm dead," as if the thought were being put there by my mother. dream_comments: Please use my Real Name Please use my e-mail (editor - e-mail not given) Notes on dream: The mother in the dream was not my mother in life. Also, I was a man in my dream, whereas in life I am a woman. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 08:21:12 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Bonnie Riatt & the end dream_title: Bonnie Riatt & the end dream_date: 4/01/01 dreamer_name: Fawn dream_text: I dreamed I was on a cruise ship with my family. Bonnie Raitt (the blues singer and guitarist) was there. We were told that in a few days, the polar ice caps were going to melt and the earth would be covered with water...all human life would end. I kept crying and asking my nother how it could be true and telling everyone I was afraid to die. I was so scared, nearly to the point of hysteria. Then Bonnie Raitt suggested a way I could save myself and the earth..she asked if I would be willing to try, but I was given the impression the chances of success were slim. She said they could freeze me in this apparatus that was taller than the world could flood. I would be able to control the thing from inside, even though it was frozen. It reminded me of a transformer (cartoon huge robots that transform into other things). She said they could insert my mind or conciousness into a computer program and basically turn my conciousness into a dream, and I would dream that the water would recede, and that would save the world. I woke up after agreeing to do it, with a horrible feeling of sadness, and wanting to call my mother. dream_comments: There are detail about this dream I can't remember becaue I woke from it in the middle of the night and went back to sleep. This is the second dream I have had recently with a pop star in it. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 5 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 08:21:39 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: Crazy Gift Car dream_title: Crazy Gift Car dream_date: 4/01/01 dreamer_name: Fawn dream_text: I dreamed my boyfriend bought a station wagon from his grandparents and gave it to me for a present. I asked him "Can I keep it even if we break up?" And he said "Yes." Next thing I knew there was a family gathering at our house. His grandparents, and some of my family were in the back room singing hymns. Meanwhile, my mother and grandmother told me to look in the back of the staion wagon for presents from them. The car was completely full of baby items and sex toys. There was a bassinette and rattles and bottles, and there was every kind of sex toy you could imagine, some I have never seen, read about or heard of, much less tried. I was fantasising within the dream about using them with my boyfriend as I was looking at each item and putting it away. My mother also gave me a plant and I hung it on the wall. I asked her how I was ever going to have time to care for it. She told me not to worry, that soon I would be able to afford to have somone do those kinds of things for me. I was happy and surprised in this dream. dream_comments: I just had a birthday and issues such as getting married and getting too old for childbirth have been on my mind. Also I am menstruating at this time...could these factors have anything to do with the dream? Also, I am an entertainer with hopes of "making it". I have the feeling that relates to my mother's comment in the dream about a change in my financial status. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 6 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 14:57:55 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: my husband dream_title: my husband dream_date: 4\2\02 dreamer_name: cassy dream_text: in my dream my husband shot my friend,and about ten helicopters came after him along with police on foot.he was chasing me and just before he shot me he was shot in the back right in front of me i watch him die and i felt as if i was smiling the whole time. dream_comments: my husband has threatened to kill me many times ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 7 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 14:58:41 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: stars dream_title: stars dream_date: 04 03 02 dreamer_name: libby dream_text: well i have been having several types of dreams ,this latest one was .stars,i keep dreaming about them like i was there in the nite with them just looking everywhere and there were brilliant beautiful stars, near and far away.i awoke to go to bathroom,them went back to bed and whrn i would close my eyes there they were .so i opened my eyes to see if i was dreaming ,and then i seen i was in my room i could see,everything in the room,so closed my eyes again and they were there again,so i just accepted them and fell back to sleep. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 8 Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 14:59:29 -0800 From: Anonymous Subject: the house dream_title: the house dream_date: february 12, 2002 dreamer_name: angel dream_text: hi, my name is angel: I and my daugther have this recurring dream of a house. It is a Victorian type of house. It is white in color and quite large, with many windows with fancy wooden sills, and with rooms with out or with furniture from the 19th century. In the dream the house has a piano in the living room. One of the bedrooms has a queen anne bedroom set, with a closet with clothes in it. The kitchen is wallpaper with a flower pattern and wooden floor. When looking out the window you see a beautiful flower garden. Consists of various types of plants and flowers. I never get to go upstairs but i bet the second floor is very elegant what does this mean. dream_comments: What does this mean? I and my daugther keep on having the same dream. For comments please email at Angelica_valme@email.com ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Message: 9 Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 21:06:17 EST From: Heratheta Subject: Re: s for 4/3 peace lies to the right of where your dream occured if you remember not to be called its name see www.dreamgate.com./dream/dubetz/ ____________________________________________________________ [dream-flow] Digest Number 433 ____________________________________________________________ There are 3 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Re: Bride Trapped In the Walls From: "P Ingerson" =============== SUBMITTING NEWS and Calendar events related to dreaming. We usually have a deadline at the 15th of each month. Send all events and news to Peggy Coats SENDING IN QUESTIONS, Replies and Concerns about dreams and dreaming. 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We now provide them and you can download them at http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-covers/ or, if you have a black&White printer, you can in Netscape choose the "Print..." option while on the page you wish and get B&W copy that is adjusted to your paper size. 1994 - 1997 Back issue covers are also available at: http://www.nonDairy.com/ED/covers.html BACK ISSUES OF ELECTRIC DREAMS: WEB: http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-backissues/ ARTICLES BY AUTHOR http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/ed-articles/ Also available AOL America On Line: Alternative Medicine Forum (KeyWord: AltMed > Therapies > Dreamwork) or KeyWord: aol://4344:1679.ALTdrem.13664900.588132320 Also at the Writer's Club Libraries Keyword: writer \writers club library \writers club e-zines Thanks to John Labovitz for putting us on his e-zine list: http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/zines/ electric-dreams.html Thanks to the Dream Network Journal for mentioning the Electric Dreams project. DreamKey@lasal.net http://www.dreamnetwork.net Thanks to the Usenet newsgroups for mentioning us in the FAQ files at alt.dreams and alt.dreams.lucid and for other Usenet Newsgroups for allowing us to continually post messages. Thanks to our many web links! See http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/resources Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z= The Electric Dreams Staff (Current) Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z=Z= Peggy Coats B Global Dreaming News & Calendar Events Director E-mail: web@dreamtree.com http://www.dreamtree.com Kathy Turner B Dreamworker List Moderator E-mail: rcwilk@dreamgate.com Phyllis Howling - Dream Wheel Moderator (eDreams list) E-mail: pthowing@earthlink.net Victoria Quinton Electric Dreams Archives & Reporter DreamChatters Host http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/dreamchatters mermaid 8*) E-mail: mermaid@alphalink.com.au http://www.alphalink.com.au/~mermaid Lars Spivock - Research and Development Director E-mail: lars@dreamgate.com Richard Wilkerson - General Editor, Publisher, Articles Subscriptions & Publication E-mail: rcwilk@dreamgate.com http://www.dreamgate.com Also thanks to +Jesse Reklaw - Cover Art Gallery 1994- 1997 http://www.slowwave.com/ED/covers.html o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o All dream and article text and art are considered (C)opyright by the writers, artists and dreamers themselves. Anyone other than the authors may use or reprint the text for non-commercial use, but all other use by anyone other than the author must be with the permission of either the author or the current Electric Dreams dream editor. o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o DISCLAIMER: Electric Dreams is an independent electronic publication not affiliated with any other organization. The views of our commentators are personal views and not intended as professional advice or psychotherapy. o|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|+|o