Included below are the newsgroups related to dreams and some historic messages from the founder Jack Campin to John Herbert about alt.dreams. 

• alt.dreams newsgroup 
• alt.dreams FAQ by WWW
• alt.dreams.lucid newsgroup 
• alt.dream.lucid FAQ by FTP
• alt.dreams.castaneda newsgroup
• Other newsgroups related to sleep and dreams

The Founding of alt.dreams 

http://users.aol.com/john0417/HuSci/ApI-AltD.html  

The following posting to the alt.dream topic led to the e-mail listed below:  

Topic 22 Need info on alt.dreams  

jherbert alt.dreams 5:13 pm Mar 5, 1991  

I would like to get some information about the founding of alt.dreams. Does anyone remember how it got started, or know who the originators were? If anyone can help, or put me in touch with someone who can help, please contact me. Thanks, John Herbert  

John W. Herbert, P.O.Box 9250 
St. Petersburg, FL, USA, 33740-9250 
813-360-6161 
IGC networks: jherbert 
APC networks: igc:jherbert 
UUCP: uunet!pyramid!cdp!jherbert 
Bitnet: cdp!jherbert@labrea.stanford 
Internet: cdp!jherbert@labrea.stanford.edu  

I suggested it. The idea came from surrealism: to provide a window onto what we all really feel about the present age by revealing thought processes that can't be censored as easily as conscious ones. It hasn't done that as well as I hoped (too much paranormal crap) but I'm reasonably happy with the result.  

I don't know who actually posted the newgroup message; I'd like to know if you find out.  

best wishes - jack  

Jack Campin Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,  
17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland  
041 339 8855 x6854 work  
041 556 1878 home 
JANET: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk 
BANG!net: via mcsun and ukc 
FAX: 041 330 4913 
INTERNET: via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk 
BITNET: via UKACRL 
UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp 

Dear Jack - Thank you for responding. I stumbled on Newsnet while compiling a directory of conferences available to PeaceNet. I do not yet know who does what or who monitors what it posted. I am a student at Saybrook Institute in San Francisco in a doctoral program in psychology and am interested in finding out how effective computer conferencing can be in working with dreams. I conduct dream groups using the Ullman-Zimmerman method, and am currently doing a study on comparing responses from a face-to-face dream group process with responses posted on alt.dreams.  

Would you mind a few more questions? Approximately when did you start alt.dreams? Did you have a core group or did you just start it up alone? Did it ever function as a meeting place following your original intent, or was it always as scattered as now? Have you ever structured a closed conference working with dreams? Are you actively working with your or others' dreams?  

I would appreciate any comments you could share. I am trying to structure my essays and dissertation within a dreams/computer framework, if possible. I am not in clinical practice - the U-Z method is a people-people process, not a therapist-client process, although many therapeutic results follow working with dreams, if you use the knowledge presented.  

Thanks, John Herbert  

[Herbert]I conduct dream groups using the Ullman-Zimmerman method  

[Campin] Never heard of this. Might be worth posting a referenced introduction to it to the group.  

Would you mind a few more questions? Approximately when did you start alt.dreams?  

About a year ago.  

Did you have a core group or did you just start it up alone?  

I followed the usual procedure for an "alt" group: I posted note to alt.config and other relevant groups (sci.psychology, rec.arts.misc, and talk.politics.misc, I think) asking if anyone else was interested in the idea. When enough people had followed up saying that they were, someone went ahead and sent out a creation message.  

I had to post a followup to my original note, as one quite intelligent person had misread it - he thought my intentions were subsumable under sci.psychology, but I always regarded the artistic and political aspects of dreaming as more important. I did mention surrealism in the original note, but most people didn't know enough about it to decode my reference. I was very explicit about wanting minimal discussion or interpretation, but people had a hard time seeing why.  

There's a book called "The Third Reich of Dreams" you might have seen; I intended this group to provide the same sort of insights into our time.  

Did it ever function as a meeting place following your original intent, or was it always as scattered as now?  

I expected something "scattered", as you put it. I've been on the net for a very long time and have a fair idea of how its sociology works. I had expected rather more raw material than has actually emerged.  

Have you ever structured a closed conference working with dreams? Are you actively working with your or others' dreams?  

No. No, but I might at some future time.  

cheers - jack  

The founding of alt.dreams  

End