Oliver Jaar 

Conditioning helps acquiring consciousness during dreams

Until recently, lucid dreams were considered an esoteric phenomenon. However, in the last 20 years they have been the subject of an increasing number of studies. Although very few individuals can experience them “on demand”, rendering their study a difficult task, classical conditioning might be a solution.

A subject that has associated an audio stimulation to the execution of a “reality check” should acquire the reflex to consider his environment from a critical viewpoint after hearing this audio stimulus, even during a dream. Three subjects, equipped with portable MP3 players randomly exposing them to an audio stimulus, had to do a “reality check” as soon as they’ve heard it. After three days of conditioning, they slept two nights in the laboratory during which they were exposed to the audio stimuli every two REM sleep periods. If they achieved lucidity, they were asked to perform three left-right eye movements, such a signal being recorded with the EOG.

Even with a limited number of subjects, one night out of two, consciousness was achieved during a single dream. For those rarely experiencing lucid dreams, this method seems to have improved their chances of being lucid while sleeping, but only in the presence of the audio stimulations. Further investigation is needed.

 

Elizabeth Jeffries, BA and Nicholas E. Brink, PhD

The Roots of Healing Dreamwork in Welsh Mythology

This workshop continues last year’s IASD workshop that dealt with the Second Branch of the Mabinogion, the story of B ranwen, Daughter of Llyr (1991). The Third Branch of The Mabinogion (1) continues the story of Pryderi and Manawydan. Examined as a dream of our ancestors, this story portrays our continued struggle with facing threats, avenging humiliation, and seeking the path of greatest integrity.

Clara Hill (2004) suggests that dreams can reflect experiences of waking life, parts of self, the dream experience itself, spiritual issues and relationship issues.  Dealing with seeking the path of integrity while facing humiliation and vengeance cuts across several of Hill’s categories, the struggle between parts of self, spiritual issues and relationship issues.

After the struggles with the shadow in the Second Branch, Manawydan is found with nothing.  Pryderi is the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon. Pwyll won the hand of Rhiannon through her magic and the humiliation of her unwanted suitor, Gwawl.  In the Third Branch, Pwyll supports the “ungrasping” Manawydan by arranging for him to marry is widowed mother, Rhiannon, and thus gain the wealth of Dyfed, but a mist falls over Dyfed and when it clears only Rhiannon, Manawydan, Pryderi and his wife Cigfa remain to wander for two years before going to England where they first successfully make saddles, then shields and finally shoes, but each time their competition threatens their lives.  Three times Pryderi wants to stay and fight but Manawydan seeks to avoid violence by moving on to another town before they finally return to Dyfed.

In Dyfed their dogs bristle in fear on finding a shining white boar that they track to a fortress.  Pryderi follows the dogs inside where he becomes trapped by touching a golden bowl.  Rhiannon goes to find him and also becomes trapped, whereupon Manawydan and Cigfa return to England to make shoes until again their lives are threatened so they return to Dyfed, this time with wheat to plant.  At the harvest they find the first field stripped of wheat, then a second field in the same condition.  That night Manawydan sees a h ost of mice come to the field. He caught a fat, slow moving mouse that he plans to hang as a thief.  He is asked by a clerk, then a priest and finally a bishop not to hang the mouse.  Upon the refusal of their request the bishop offers him horses and gold and finally the release of Pryderi and Rhiannon from his spell to free the mouse—who happens to be the Bishop’s pregnant wife, under a spell to avenge cruelty toward his friend Gwawl.

This workshop is a dream group exploring the story Manawydan as a dream/myth.  It is our belief that we each gain much personal growth by experiencing the myths of our culture when we examine and understand them as dreams, facilitated by a dream group.

 

David Jenkins, PhD  

Dream Work:  The Rashomon Approach

In Akira Kurosawa's film, Rashomon (1950), each person recounts a series of events from their own perspective. The various participants' accounts conflict.  We are never sure who is telling "the truth" and we never actually learn "the truth."

The parallels to dream work are considerable. One of the key features of the dream is that no one in the waking world can contradict the dreamer. In the group, one important way of working is for each member to tell the dream as though it were their own dream. The results can be quite startling. Not only does the dreamer resonate to some of these narratives, but group members can identify with the dream and become deeply involved in its resolution.

Group members assist the dreamer by taking on the dream situation, retelling it from their own perspective with all the variations that entails, and considering how they might handle it. Rather than aiming for a consensus as to what the dream means, we want each member to discover their own unique view of the dream, as exemplified by Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece. We expect that, when the theme of the dream recurs (as it is almost bound to), the dreamer wil l have access to more resources and hence the experience of future dreams will be different.

This workshop will demonstrate an innovative, non-interpretive approach to dream work.   We will use Gestalt, variations on the “If it were my dream . . .” technique, the “Movie method”, Completion and other techniques. See my websites, DreamReplay.com and DreamOfTheWeek.com for a discussion of many of the techniques. 

The workshop will include an introduction, (possibly) working in pairs, and working with the whole group.

 

 

Tracey L. Kahan, PhD with Emily Luther, Jenny Imberi and Megan Thompson

Emotional Intensity in Dreaming:  Associations with Reflective Awareness in Dreaming and Waking Cognitive Style

Purpose: Typical dream experiences, especially those occurring during REM sleep, are presumed to involve greater emotional activation than typical waking experiences (e.g., Hartmann & Brezler, 2008; Hobson, 1988). The present study addressed three questions:

1) Do participants typically report greater emotional intensity associated with their dreaming experiences than with their waking experiences?  2) Does the intensity of emotion in dreaming predict reflective awareness in dreaming? and 3) Are there associations between emotion in dreaming and waking cognitive style?

Method: Two samples of dreaming experiences and two samples of waking experiences were obtained from 92 undergraduates as part of a larger study comparing the cognitive, affective, and metacognitive qualities of dreaming and waking. After providing a narrative report of the dream upon morning awakening, participants evaluated the metacognitive, cognitive, and phenomenological qualities of the experience using, respectively, the Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Affective Experiences questionnaire (MACE) and the Subjective Experiences Rating Scale (SERS). Parallel samples were obtained from participa nts during their waking experiences (see Kahan, 2001, for a review of research conducted with this procedure). Participants also completed the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) scale and the Private Self-Consciousness scale (PSC).

Results:

Emotional intensity, as measured by the SERS, was significantly greater for dreaming experiences than for waking experiences (p < .001). Emotional intensity in dreaming experiences (EID) was predictive of reduced reflective awareness in dreaming. Also, EID was significantly negatively correlated with the “Describe” sub-scale of the KIMS and with the Public Self-Consciousness sub-scale of the PSC (p < .01) .

Discussion: Consistent with research conducted by Nielsen, Kuiken, & McGregor (1989), our results suggest that reflective awareness is less likely to occur in the presence of intense emotion. We discuss the outcomes in relation to recent efforts to characterize the relationship between emotion and cognition in dreaming and offer an alternative explanation that emphasizes capacity limitations of cognitive processing during dreaming.

 

 

Jacob Kaminker, MA 

Dream as Moral Parable

This presentation will begin with a look into a Jungian concept of Self and how that concept relates to cultural G-d images.  Dreams will be compared to religious parables of different traditions and the way those parables guide towards a cultural norm.  The processes by which religious parables shape cultural norms parallel the processes by which dreams have the ability to shape value systems.  Both dreams and parables guide towards connecting with a Self concept which itself guides towards moral authenticity. 

Morality is a personal code of behavior whereas ethics are a cultural code of behavior.  We can understand it for our discussion as the organizing principle for converting insight into action.  The Self c an be understood as a value-driven guidance system aimed at morality.  G-d images in parable can be understood as guiding towards an ethical code.  When a parable has enough attention created around it by way of the unconscious attraction to some relevant G-d image, the values associated with this G-d image are reinforced.   By aspiring towards these dream and parable-born values, an individual can approach their authentic self.  Through interaction with dreams and parables, sequential insights can guide towards a personal morality.

This presentation will look at different ways cultural parables have been approached in the construction of laws and draw comparisons for the formation of self-discipline through dream insight.  Concepts to be explored include the use of apophatic versus cataphatic language.  This is the dichotomy between a discussion of the divine through labelling what is divine versus a discussion based on what the divine is not. 

Apophatic language would include the Taoist understanding that “the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao” (Feng, 1989, p. 3).  The language offers a looser ethical structure which relies on the individual’s intuitive take on a moral dilemma in the moment.  

An example of cataphatic language is the Judeo-Christian idea that G-d is a moral judge who mandates appropriate behavior.  The language used in this case promotes stricter ethical guidelines which vary from tradition to tradition. How each tradition builds its G-d images changes their relationship with morality, which is the organizing principle around relative values for actions in the world.

Inseparable from both of these is the allegorical study of religious language.  The process of gaining wisdom from these images of the divine can help guide towards greater individual authenticity.  This is the function of a parable.  Parables are teaching stories that are meant to be taken symbolically and to induce in the reader or story-listener some experience with some aspect of the story. 

Dreams can also be interacted with in this way.  The quality of the experience of different aspects of a dream can help teach the dreamer like a parable.  Through a depth-oriented witnessing of one’s reaction to a parable or a dream, one can find their current place within the fabric of the story.  Examples will be provided.

 

 

Siamak Khodarahimi,  PhD  

Dreams in Jungian Psychology: An Instrument for Research, Diagnosis and Treatment in Clinical Practice

The significance of dreams for clinical interpretation varies among psychoanalytical, analytical or depth-psychology, and gestalt-therapy approaches. While in analytic psychology there are many guidelines that help the therapist to integrate a basic approach to dream interpretation into clinical practice, the present study, based on a Jungian approach, incorporates dreams as an instrument for assessment of etiology, psychotherapy process and outcome of treatment for social phobia in a clinical case study. The implications of dreaming in clinical practice, in the etiology of mental illness, and the outcome of therapy are discussed. Dream interpretation is conducted according to a Jungian model that includes written details, reassembly with amplification, and assimilation. It is indicated that a rebellious persona which originated in masculine identification during childhood can manifest itself in dreams as male figures, accompanied by obsessional thoughts, presenting as a clinical feature of social phobia. So dreams can reflect a patient’s psychological and physiological needs and offer prognosis for the outcome of psychotherapy. Therefore, dreams can be an instrument for diagnosis, research and treatment of mental disturbances in a clinical setting.

Key words: Dream interpretation, Jungian approach, social phobia, therapy outcome

 

 

Philip King, PhD 

Statistical and Design Strategies in Dreams Research with Multiple Measurements

Advances in statistics often fail to percolate down to researchers.  Articles reach publication in refereed journals without being adequately vetted by statistical experts.  A ubiquitous example is the failure to adjust alpha levels to reflect multiple significance tests.  Typically in dream research analyses, many tests will be performed, with alpha (probability of a Type I error – falsely concluding that a finding is statistically significant, i. e. “real”) set at the same level (often .05, sometimes .02 or .01) for each test.  The problem is that the tests are not independent but are all part of the same study, and the study-wide (“family-wise”) probability of Type I error (alpha_FWE) is greater than alpha.  The more tests, the greater the alpha_FWE.  For k independent tests, alpha_FWE = 1 – (1-alpha)^k.  Thus with two tests and an alpha of .05, alpha_FWE is not .05 but .0975, with five tests .226, with ten tests .401, with twenty tests .642, with forty tests .871, and with eighty tests .983, or a near certainty of committing a Type 1 error. 

Consider a blindfolded archer shooting arrows in proximity to a target that he or she cannot see.  The probability of hitting the target quite accidentally is very low with one, or just a few arrows.  But give the archer 40 arrows, or 80, and it is highly likely some arrows will find the target, quite by chance.  One can see the illogic of the archer then claiming that the arrows that found the target are “significant” (i. e., indicative of some particular ability or skill), while ignoring the far greater number that missed.  Yet researchers do not hesitate to trumpet a “statistically significant” finding based on a fixed alpha criterion as meaningful, conveniently discounting the equivalent of failed arr ows lying all around: the tests that weren’t “significant.” 

In the June and September 2007 issues of  Dreaming, the eight quantitative studies reported included tests ranging from 22 to 740 in number, with a mean of 290 and a median of 171.  None of these studies employed “multiplicity adjustment strategies,” i. e., modifications of alpha when multiple tests are performed so that conclusions of “significant” findings are warranted.

Essentially the study-wide alpha, say .05, needs to be parceled out among the various tests.  The most conservative way to do this is the Bonferroni adjustment, with the study-wide alpha divided equally among the k tests.  This strategy protects against Type 1 error but unduly reduces the power of the test: its ability to reject false null hypotheses.  Better alternatives to Bonferroni include the Hochberg and James adjustment strategies.  These will be described and applied in re-analyses of some Dreaming article findings. 

Other research strategies to enhance statistical power require increasing sample size—often possible with large collections of dreams—and strictly limiting the number of tests performed.  The latter requires deductive, a priori hypothesis testing approaches rather than common procedures of testing everything against everything else and then seeing what findings emerge.                              

 

Gerhard Kloesch and Brigitte Holzinger   

Dream Behavior in Austria:  Data from a Representative Survey (2007)

Introduction: In February 2007, an epidemiological survey on the sleep and dream behavior of the Austrian population was conducted by the Austrian Sleep Research Association (ASRA). This presentation will report preliminary data on dream behavior in the general Austrian population and discuss the data with findings of a previous survey performed in 1993. 

Methods: A representative population of 1000 people aged over 14 was selected by random sampling. Randomizing and face-to-face interviews were carried out by the Austrian Gallup Institute. The questionnaire prepared by the Austrian Sleep Research Association (ASRA) included questions on sleeping habits (non restorative sleep, use of sleeping medication etc.) and dreaming (dream recall frequency, dream content, nightmare suffering and awareness of dreaming while dreaming). 

Results: Dream recall frequency: More than half of the sample (58%) reported that they recalled at least one dream per week. 27% of them reported three or more dreams per week, and 8% said that they dreamed every night. No significant differences were found between females and males, though women found dreams to be more important for their everyday lives than men.

Dream content: 26% of the respondents described neutral dreams, 18% pleasant and 7% negative dreams. Day residuals are the predominant topic of all dreams reported (20%), followed by items of the recent past (19%). Dreams related to childhood events (6%) are rare, as are dreams referring to the future (7%).

Nightmares: 20% of the total sample reported suffering from nightmares at least occasionally.

Awareness of dreaming while dreaming (lucid dreaming): 260 (26%) out of 1000 participants reported occasional lucid dreaming and 43% of them were able to influence the dream content voluntarily. 

Discussion: As compared with to the survey performed in 1993, dream recall frequency seems to have remained. Also the distribution of pleasant and unpleasant dreams as well as the occurrence of lucid dreaming remained more or less the same. On the other hand, the frequency of nightmares increased significantly between 1993 and 2007. This finding needs further examination and clarification.

 

 

Elena Korabelnikova, PhD  

Dreams and Psychological Adaptation

Among many functions of dreams, most authors identify one as the most important: the function of psychological adaptation. In order to study the defensive function of dreaming, we have examined 198 patients with neurotic disorders and 55 healthy subjects. The multiple recordings of dreams were carried out by taping the subjects’ dream reports immediately after morning awakening.

In each case a stage of neurotic state was defined: either compensation, subcompensation or decompensation. Various methods of dream research developed by us were used: the method of Dream Content Analysis, which allows evaluation of frequency, character and structure of dreams, and analysis of dreams as model of stress situation (ways of averting the dream’s culmination).

At the earlier stage of the disease we have noted the following changes: increasing dream  intensity and activating affective experiences (high frequency of emotional reactions during the dream) and complex changes in dream structure. 

In phase decompensation dreams, activity intensification was followed by its depression (low frequency of connection between waking up and dreams), keeping negative emotional background. These peculiarities could probably be related to activation of psychological adaptation at the early stages and its destruction at the more severe neurotic stages.

In comparison with healthy subjects, in the group of patients with neurotic disorders, negative ways of averting the culmination of dreams predominated, in both cognitive and affective spheres (negative interpretation and negative emotion), along with the behavior of actively leaving the dream. These responses may reveal the ineffectiveness of coping mechanisms and adaptive processes.

We conclude that peculiarities of psychological adaptation are reflected in dream content.

 

Kevin Kovelant, MA

Dreams of the Dead:  Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Dreams of the dead, or “Visitat ion Dreams,” have been recorded throughout history and across every culture on the planet. In the West, these dreams have recently been thought to be part of the “healing” process in grief or bereavement. Yet this narrative is only 20 years old. Is this a fair connection to make?  By examining these dreams from a broader context, we have a unique opportunity to understand a phenomenon that transcends culture and transcends time, without imposing Western standards upon it. Many traditions, both spiritual (and even psychological) hold that at least some of these encounters, may, in fact, be real. Could something be going on beyond simple grief or bereavement?

While visitation dreams show many similar features, it would be extremely ambitious to suggest that all dreams of the dead are somehow actual visitations. Too often, it becomes difficult to assess whether the deceased person in the dream might have actually been that person, or merely a wishful projection. As a result, we in the West, are quick to avoid any serious inquiry into these dreams, other than to suggest that the dreamer may have been in a temporarily “deficient” state of mind while working through grief, or that these dreams are symbolic of some sort of inner process of “healing.” This in turn, leads to a dishonoring of the deeply personal experience of the dreamer, pathologizing it, while at the same time promoting a kind of narcissism, in which everything that happens is all about the dreamer. It is my suggestion that by actively, genuinely engaging other cultures in discussion of these dreams, we can begin to formulate a much deeper understanding not only of Visitation Dreams, but of the nature of dreaming itself.

.

Milton Kramer, MD 

The Dream Experience: A Systematic Exploration

This presentation is based on his book of the same name. The presentation will begin with a brief review of the historical interest in dreaming and why we study dreaming . It will place dreaming during sleep and give evidence to support our ability to collect and quantify dreaming. Work will be presented showing that dreams reflect psychological differences, are orderly not random, and can be searched for meaning from many points of view. Dreams respond to emotionally significant experiences and have a systematic relationship to waking consciousness, being reactive to pre-sleep thought and proactive to post-sleep affect. The many functions that have been posited for dreaming and the biological concomitants for the dream experience will be described.

 

Don Kuiken, PhD, Laura Byrtus and Connie Svob  

Classifying Dream Anomalies: The ‘Style’ of Dream Narratives

Using distinctions introduced by Revonsuo and Tarkko (2002; see, also, Revonsuo & Salmivalli, 1995), there seem to be three broad classes of dream anomalies: (1) internal anomalies, i.e., alterations of the intrinsic form of a dream object (e.g., a blue banana); (2) contextual anomalies, i.e., alterations of the relation of a dream object to the surrounding world (e.g., sleeping in a bathtub); and (3) discontinuities, i.e., transformations of a dream object over time (e.g., the metamorphosis of an aphid into a spider). While the procedures for identifying internal and contextual anomalies seem fairly thorough, those for identifying discontinuities seem less well differentiated. The present research is an attempt to refine those procedures and to articulate different patterns of dream anomalies.

Kuiken (1995; 1999) proposed that dream discontinuities imply transformation, suggesting that the identification of discontinuities in dreams is comparable to the identification of theme variations in literary texts (cf. Zholkovsky, 1984; Emmott, 2002). For example, when dream bugs of one kind, aphids, become bugs of another kind, spiders, we have a variation on a bug-pest theme. Numerically aided phenomenological methods (Kuiken & Miall, 2001; Wohl, K uiken, & Noels, 2006) may be used to identify anomaly structures, i.e., theme variations that are similarly described in different dreams. For example, the following descriptions may be understood as having a common discontinuity structure: (1) “When I looked closer, these aphids suddenly were spiders”; (2) “When I looked closer, my boyfriend had canine molars.” Their shared meanings can be paraphrased as: “When I looked closer, an animate dream object became more threatening.” The wording of such paraphrases, called constituents, is constrained exclusively by the requirement that it emerges from the comparative effort through which are captured the similar meanings of these recurrent expressions. When a constituent has been identified, each dream within the available set can be systematically reread to determine the presence or absence of that constituent. Gradually, through repeated reading, an array of such constituents can be identified. These arrays, expanded to include the scored presence or absence of the Revonsuo anomaly categories, can then be cluster-analyzed to classify dreams according to their profiles of co-occurring dream anomalies. To use a literary analogy, these profiles constitute a dream’s style. We will report the results of a preliminary study that articulates such dream styles and examines whether they are differentially distributed across impactful dream types (e.g., nightmares, existential dreams).

 

 

Don Kuiken, PhD; David Kahn, PhD; Philippe Stenstrom, MSc; Tracey L. Kahan, PhD  

Variations in Cognitive and Metacognitive Functions during Dreaming

Recent studies of the neurocognitive networks that support dreaming, supplemented by comparative studies of reasoning and reflection during dreaming and wakefulness, have invited reconsideration of whether dreaming embodies a cognitive failure or a cognitive accomplishment. David Kahn will review the changes that occur in various neurocognitive networks during sleep and discuss evidence that self-organizing brain dynamics diminish the capacity to reflect on implausibilities, incongruities, and discontinuities during ongoing dream imagery. Philippe Stenstrom will discuss evidence that thinking during dreaming is logical and that emotional responses are appropriate, underlining how difficult it is to establish direct associations between sleep neurophysiology and dreaming cognition. Tracey Kahan will report evidence that the incidence of metacognitive events during waking predicts metacognitive skills during dreaming, suggestive of continuity between these two broad domains of consciousness. Don Kuiken will discuss evidence that both deficits and accomplishments in cognition and metacognition are evident during dreaming, suggesting that close examination of dream anomalies and of their incidence in different dream types may help to address controversies in this area.

 

Beena Kuruvilla, BA and Jayne Gackenbach, PhD 

Threat Simulation Theory and Video Game Play

The function of dreaming has been debated for centuries. Currently, theories suggest that dreams may be a form of emotion regulation or a problem-solving process (Blagrave as cited in Revonsuo, 2000; Kramer, 1991). Recently, an innovative theory presented by Revonsuo hypothesizes that dreaming is an adaptive process with an evolutionary foundation (Revonsuo, 2000). He purports that dreaming allows us to simulate threatening situations in the safety of a virtual environment. This continued practice would allow an individual to better prepare for these dangerous instances, were they to arise in the waking world. Revonsuo provides six tenets within his theory that emphasize the organized nature of dreams, the continuous interaction between the dream and waking worlds, and the high level of perceptual integrity in dreams (Revonsuo, 2000). Support for Revonsuo’s theory has been demonstrated in the content analysis of dreams across cultures (including dream analysis in hunter-gatherer societies), neurobiological studies examining neural activity during REM sleep, and research exploring the effects of mental imagery (Gregor as cited in Revonsuo, 2000; Ranganathan et al., 2004; Peretz & Hobson, 1986).

With the immense technological advances that have occurred in the past century, it would be likely that media-induced immersion in virtual reality settings would have effects on dream content and function. Studies have found that high-end gamers, who represent the most multisensory and psychological immersion in media, experience both qualitative and quantitative differences in their dreams, when compared to norms. For instance, a study by Gackenbach (2006) found that gamers experience a higher number of lucid and control dreams. Additionally, the content of gamers’ dreams displays variations in the frequency and degree of violence and number of bodily misfortunes (Gackenbach et al., 2007).

The current study seeks to further examine the effects of video game play on dreaming. It is hypothesized that the high-end gamers, who are continuously engaged in interactive threat simulation in the game world, will alleviate their mind of threat simulation duties in the dream world. Thus, these individuals should display a lower frequency of threat simulation dreams. Additionally, it is believed that due to their extensive experience with threat avoidance during video game play, high-end gamers should also adopt more pro-active, aggressive reactions to any threat simulations they do encounter while dreaming.

Currently, we have collected data from approximately 20 high-end and 20 low-end/infrequent gamers. We hope to double this sample size by the end of this testing period. We will then use the DreamThreat Rating Scale, created by Revonuso, to content analyze the dreams of these participants (Revonsuo & Valli, 2000). We will use an analysis of covariance, controlling for sex and dream recall by word count, to examine the differences between these two groups on a number of variables presented in the DreamThreat Rating Scale. It is expected that high-end gamers will show less frequency of threat simulation and more proactive responses to threat simulation in dreams than the comparison group.

References

Gackenbach, J. (2006). “Video game play and lucid dreams: Implications for the development of consciousness.” Dreaming, 16, 96-110.

Gackenbach, J.I., Matty, Ian, Kuruvilla, Beena, Olischefski, Jordan, Zederayko, Alexis & Samaha, Ashley Nicole (2007). “Video Game Play: Waking and Dreaming Consciousness.” Anthropology and Consciousness. Under editorial consideration.

Peretz, L., & Hobson, J. A. (1986). ”Origin of dreams: Anticipation of modern theories in

the philosophy and physiology of the eigthteenth and nineteenth centuries.” Psychological Bulletin, 100, 229-240.

Ranganathan, V. K., Siemionow, V., Jing, Z. L., Sahgal, V., & Guang, H. Yue. (2004). “From mental power to muscle power – Gaining strength by using the mind.” Neuropsychologia, 42, 944-956.

Revonsuo, A. (2000). “The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming.” Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 23, 793-1121.

Revonsuo, A., & Valli, K. (2000). “Dreaming and Consciousness: Testing the threat stimulation theory of the function of dreaming.” Psyche, 6, 1-25.

 

 

Tom Lane, DMin    

Utilizing Central Dream Images & Personal Myth for Integrative Practice

 

Erin Langley, MA with Teresa MacColl, MA; Atava Garcia Swiecicki, MA

Dreaming with our Ancestors 

Dreaming with Our Ancestors will chronicle the reconstitution of a dream community that has worked to recover th eir ancestral traditions through the Master's program in Indigenous Mind at Naropa University, Oakland. As graduate students, each presenter has had at least two years of dream work and indigenous science classes taught by distinguished indigenous elders such as Auntie Mahealani Poe Poe (Hawaiian); Dr. Apela Colorado (Onedia and Frank); Mr. Hale Makua (Hawaiian); Dr. Yacine Koyate (Dogon), Ilarian Merculieff (Aleut), and Alessandra Belloni (Southern Italian). Several presenters have also studied with Kimmy Johson, PhD and Karen Jaenke, PhD. Each presenter has participated and/or facilitated dream groups for more than four years for students and graduates of the Indigenous Mind program. 

We will discuss how our experiences with native elders informed our own journeys to connect with our Celtic and Slavic ancestors through dreaming. Recovering our indigenous minds and capacity to dream as a community required extensive decolonization. We sat with elders not to imbibe their traditions, but to be exposed to the indigenous ways of understanding, which overhaul the western mind. For Erin Langley, visions and dream encounters illuminated the path of remembrance. Learning to live in balance with the Celtic second sight initiated Teresa MacColl into her ancestral traditions.  For Atava Garcia Swiecicki, Baba Yaga guided the process of healing. For all three, recovering our indigenous minds required a willingness to walk through our cultural shadows. 

By fostering connections with our myriad lineages and learning with elders from around the world, we come together as a global tribe in unprecedented ways. Our very DNA heralds the globalization of the tribes from within us. We will address how to know which lineage(s) to pursue a deeper connection with, what to expect in the midst of decolonization, and how to handle the power that comes with knowing who we are. Finally, we will show how working with our dreams using indigenous protocol has enabled us to bring back the sacred art of tribal dreaming. 

 

 

Jessica Lara-Carrasco, MSc with Tore A. Nielsen, PhD; Elizaveta Solomonova, BA; Philippe Stenstrom, MSc; Katia Lévrier; Ani Popova, BSc

 

REM-Sleep Deprivation after a Negative-Emotions Induction task produces a Different Pattern of Dream Incorporation and Dream Emotions across a 10-Day Period 

Background: Dream incorporation of salient events (e.g., emotional) has been shown to fluctuate across a 7-day period following a circaseptan morphology. Generally, these events influence dream content the next night (day-residue effect) and about one week later (dream-lag effect).  However, the impact of a REM-sleep deprivation on this pattern remains unknown.

Objectives: Using a negative emotions induction task, we assessed the impact of REM-sleep deprivation on the fluctuations of incorporations of pictures across a 10-day-period.

Methods: 30 subjects (23 W; 24.47±4.38 yrs) slept 1 adaptation and 1 experimental night after randomization to high (High-REMD; N=12) or low REM sleep deprivation (Low-REMD; N=18) groups.  One hour prior to sleep and 1 hour after morning awakening, subjects viewed sets of 36 neutral and 36 negative pictures.  Subjects kept home records of their dreams for a 10-day period, and rated each dream for incorporation of pictures on a 1-9 scale.  Scores were averaged over 2 successive days, producing 5 post-experiment time periods per subject: D1-2, D3-4, D5-6, D7-8, D9-10.  Mean incorporation was also calculated (D1-10).  Finally, each dream incorporation was scored by an independent judge as including either a negative or a neutral picture element, and total scores were computed for the number of negative and neutral pictures incorporated between D1-D5 and between D6-D10. An independent t-test was performed to assess group differences in mean incorporation scores.  Repeated-measures ANOVAs assessed the temporal delay of incorporati ons for each condition, and polynomial curve-fitting assessed fluctuations over time.  Another repeated-measure ANOVA assessed valence of picture incorporations (neutral, negative) by time (D1-D5, D6-D10) and REMD group (Low-REMD, High-REM).

Results: High- and Low-REMD groups did not differ in D1-D10 mean incorporation scores (1.45±0.59 vs. 1.52±0.55; t(28) = -0.368, p = 0.715). They also showed no main effect for temporal delay (High-REMD: F(4, 8) = 1.504; p = 0.288; Low-REMD: F(4, 14) = 1.856; p = 0.174).  However, while the High-REMD group showed no polynomial trends (all p = n.s.), the Low-REMD group demonstrated an exclusive cubic polynomial trend (F(1, 17) = 6.877; p = 0.018; R²=0.798).  Peaks of incorporation were D1-2 and D7-8.  Finally, a significant main effect for picture valence showed more incorporations for negative pictures than for neutral ones (0.63±0.17 vs. 0.10±0.04; F(1,28)=8.93; p=0.006); there were no effects for time or group, however.

Conclusions: Fluctuations of picture incorporations across a 10-day period followed the circaseptan morphology in the Low-REMD group only. This suggests that REM sleep deprivation selectively disrupts delayed incorporations of visual stimuli and thus supports the notion that dreaming is implicated in a medium- and perhaps long-term memory consolidation function. The findings are also consistent with the notion that dream incorporations reflect an emotional adaptation process over time.

Research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

 

 

Judith R. Larsen, MA, JD 

Dreaming Across the Border between Potential and Manifest Life 

Quantum physics helps us understand that life is far more complex, layered and paradoxical than we perceive it to be with our five senses.  For example, an electron that has a choice of two paths to travel toward a goal is found to travel on either of those paths, depending on which of two different observers measures it.  The physicist and philosopher David Bohm applied the tenets of quantum physics to life as we experience it in spacetime.  He posited a sensory explicate order of experience that unfolds through pulses of energy from an implicate order that is the potential for everything.  Bohm understood that what is manifest to our senses in the explicate order “is a small quantized wavelike excitation on top of an immense background of energy.”  Bohm suggested music is a bridge between implicate and explicate orders because on one side of the note heard now is anticipation of the next note, and on the other side is the lingering echo of the note just heard.

As in Bohm’s musical metaphor, dreams are a bridge over the border between the explicate sensory world of waking consciousness and the implicate potential for all life.  Time dissolves and space is fluid.  Dreams include that which is in the foreground of the image field, that which has intensity, but also include that which is attenuated, reflected, and twice, thrice or more removed until it touches the implicate order.

Bohm states that what happens in our explicate order is enfolded back into the implicate order, creating an ever-changing pool of potential.  That is, the choices we humans make and the events we experience change the nature of the implicate order.  Or, as Carl Jung said in Answer to Job, “Whoever knows God has an effect on Him.”  When a profound dream changes us it may shift the implicate potential as well.

 

Justina Lasley, MA 

Dreamwork Leadership: Opening the Boundaries of the Unconscious

By working within a dream group, participants will share dreams, experience and observe the process of successful dream group leadership.

Participants will witness the dream’s power in helping individuals understand issues in their life that may otherwise block personal growth. We will focus on the importance of recognizing emotions within the dream and relating those to life, leading the dreamer to identify and understand personal emotions and live a more fulfilled life.

My special interest and research is in personal growth and individuation through dreamwork. Group dreamwork not only affects the dreamer, family and friends, but also the entire world through the ripple effect of change.

Dream group leaders are rewarded, whether volunteers, professionals, or trained therapists. The success of the group depends on the leader’s ability and training.  It is important that a leader be well prepared for the role.

We will look at the following areas of group dreamwork:

·      Benefits of dreamwork and especially dream groups

·      The role of leadership

·      Organizing the dream group

·      Creative methods of dreamwork

·      Group problem solving

·      Effects of energy and emotions in dreams and waking life

·      Resources to enhance leadership

 

We will explore techniques for listening, observing, and experiencing the dream. Through the workshop, I will share my experience of leading dream groups for over seventeen years, writing Honoring the Dream: A Handbook for Dream Group Leaders, and creating the Institute for Dream Studies, which offers a certification course for dreamwork leadership.

If you are a group leader, I want to inspire you to enhance your work.  If you are not a leader, I want to encourage you and give you the support you need to take the leap to leader ship.

 

Justina Lasley, M.A.   Waking Up to Your Dreams

I will lead the group so that we respect the sacredness of the dream.  The group opens by establishing trust among the members honoring the integrity of the dream and the confidentiality of the dreamer.  Each day I will use a meditation leading into our sacred space.  We will look at the emotion and energy of the previous day and relate them to the emotion of the dream shared.  Each participant will be able to work though a short personal exercise to help understand a certain aspect of their dream. I will then facilitate the process of analyzing a dream (or dreams) in more depth. I will use different methods of working with dreams so that the participants can gain a wider experience of group dream work.  We will then look at the relationship of the dream to the dreamer. Each dream will be ritualized in a manner chosen by the dreamer. The group will close with a meditation honoring the dreams.

 

Ming-Ni Lee and Don Kuiken, PhD  

Reflective Awareness in Dreams Following Loss and Trauma

Quite often dreaming is described as involuntary and unreflective. Some evidence, however, has shown that a certain degree of reflective awareness occurs during everyday dreaming (Kahan, LaBerge, Levitan, & Zimbardo, 1997). Other studies suggest that dreamers sometimes reach a state of explicit lucidity (awareness of dreaming while dreaming); they may remember previous events, reason clearly, and take voluntary action in accordance with self-directed reflection (Gackenbach, 1991; Green & McCreery, 1994; LaBerge, 1985; Laberge & Gackenbach, 2000). Moreover, recent research has indicated that reflective awareness during impactful dreams (nightmares, existential dreams, and transcendent dreams) is predictive of changes in subsequent waking thoughts and feelings (Kuiken, Lee, Eng, & Singh, 2006). Nevertheless, fundamental theoretical and empirical issues require further exploration.

We propose that, by examining reflective awareness within different types of impactful dreams following loss and trauma, we may enhance our understanding of the self-transformative potential of dreams and their connection with waking life. We have conducted a 2 (loss/trauma experiences) X 3 (timeframe: within the preceding 6 months, within the preceding 6-12 months, over 3 years ago) cross-sectional study (with a Comparison Group that had experienced neither loss nor trauma) to examine the incidence of impactful dream types, reflective awareness within impactful dreams, and dream-induced changes following loss or trauma.

First, participants were asked to complete a series of background measures: Loss/Trauma Inventory (Eng, Kuiken, Temme, & Sharma, 2005), Rumination—Reflection Questionnaire (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999), Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (Walach, Buchheld, Buttenmüller, Kleinknecht, & Schmidt, 2006), and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Then participants were told how to record (online) the first impactful dream that they experienced following the initial laboratory session (i.e., the first dream that seemed at least as impactful as their most impactful dream during the preceding four weeks). To describe this impactful dream, participants were asked to complete a series of dream-related measures: Impactful Dream Recording, Reflective Awareness Questionnaire (Lee, Kuiken, & Czupryn, 2007), Impactful Dreams Questionnaire (Busink & Kuiken, 1996; Kuiken & Sikora, 1993; Kuiken et al., 2006), and Post-Dream Questionnaire (Kuiken, et al., 2006). In their final task, which was undertaken on the evening following their impactful dream, they completed the series of measures of waking reflective awareness again (e.g., rumination—reflection, mindfulness; post-test measure). This pre-test/post-test design allows us to examine th e transformation of waking reflective awareness that may be induced by impactful dreams. The results that we report will highlight the patterns of reflective awareness that emerge during impactful dreams; the distribution of impactful dreams and their associated patterns of reflective awareness following loss and trauma; and the association between reflective awareness during impactful dreams and during waking experience.

 

  

Ming-Ni Lee, MS with Joanna Czupryn, BSC and Don Kuiken, PhD   

Categories of Reflective Awareness in Dreams 

Dreaming is usually single-minded (Rechtschaffen, 1978); i.e., the dreamer experiences events and circumstances within the dream as a fully constituted world. However, dreamers sometimes become aware of dreaming while dreaming, and such “lucidity” regularly entails attention, memory, and reasoning (Gackenbach, 1991; Green & McCreery, 1994; LaBerge, 1985; LaBerge & Gackenbach, 2000; Purcell, Moffitt, & Hoffmann, 1993; Rossi, 1985). However, Barrett (1992) observed the asynchronous appearance of different aspects of cognition during lucid dreaming, suggesting that there are qualitatively different profiles of mental activity, rather than different “levels” on a lucidity “dimension.” Therefore, the objective of this study was to: (1) document the diverse forms of cognition (e.g., remembering events prior to dream onset, anticipating events following dream termination) and attention (e.g., multiple perspectives, making attentional adjustments) that occur during dreaming; and (2) articulate the qualitatively different profiles of the forms of cognition and attention that constitute types or classes of reflective awareness during dreaming. 

We first systematically documented different aspects of dream attention and cognition, and then, using cluster analysis, identified five different classes or categories of reflective awareness:  

(1)  Anticipating events within the dream;

(2)  Remembering events within the dream;

(3)  Remembering events that occurred before the dream (events involving general knowledge and skills);

(4)  Remembering events that occurred before the dream (events involving general knowledge and skills); dream déjà vu and multiple spatial perspectives; anticipating and remembering events within the dream;

(5)  Remembering events that occurred before the dream (events related to an internal dream conflict); anticipating and remembering events within the dream (events related to interpersonal tensions). 

A further analysis involving dreamers’ self-ratings (cf. Lee, Kuiken, & Czupryn, 2007) indicated that dreams in the fourth category were associated with dual perspectives (i.e., a form of reflective awareness involving two separate and autonomous agents) and willed appearances (i.e., a form of reflective awareness that involves the emergence of dream objects or figures in response to the dreamer’s wishes). These findings emphasize that perspectival complexity is characteristic of this type of dreaming. We suggest that departures from the single-mindedness of dreams come in different forms, manifesting different styles of first-person perspective.

 

Anna Leifer, PhD    

The Lingua Franca of Dreams 

From the time Freud first mentioned his interest in dreams in 1889, he always referred to them as “absurd” and “a creation of insanity.”

Recent investigations, however, have taken issue with Freud’s pronouncements reporting an absence of any contributions from the cortical regions of the brain responsible for the most sophisticated mental processes like planning, abstraction, logical thinking and the contextual flow of memories, as well as the primary visual cortex in charge of receiving visual input from the outside world. Thus what characterizes the neuropsychology of dreaming is the absence of any contributions from the prefrontal convexity that results in the total dependence of dreams on spatial and quasi-spatial forms of synthesis.

With the highest levels of abstraction barred as component contributors, the dream is forced to rely on a highly condensed version of its message, a visual shorthand; it has to rely on condensation. Far from being secretive, the dream speaks as well as it can using those parts of the brain at its disposal. For this reason, it must supply a great amount of material within a smattering of images.

The dreams of three patients will be presented to illustrate their use of a single individual who produces many associations relevant to the patient’s past and current situation.

 

Anita Leuthold  

Illness as Foretold in Dreams

A series of twelve examples will be presented from a rich multitude of dreams which clearly announced  and showed the chronological development of a lethal brain tumor that was diagnosed only after the dream series took place. The relatively young surgeon who was very interested in Jung always interpreted his dreams in terms of various symbols and thus failed to see what they were clearly attempting to tell him.  The first such dream occurred 11 years before the tumor was correctly diagnosed and he ended up dying at age 51.  Had he paid sufficient attention to the objective level of his dreams, it could well have been that the tumor would have been detected earlier and his life prolonged. Although it entails a lot of work, it would be interesting to obtain the dream series of other such patients and in connection with other diseases.  In the future, it is hoped that care-givers will ask for and include the dreams of their patients when making a diagnosis or designing treatment plans in order that diseases can be avoided and lives may be saved.

 

 

Katia Levrier with Tore Niel sen, PhD; Ani Popova; Sébastien Saucier, PhD; Vanessa Guérin; François Rabbat

Temporal Delays in Non-incorporated Dream Content Following a Virtual Experience

Background: Many studies investigating the relationship between daily events and dreams have observed two types of temporal delay in event incorporations into dreams. Short-term delays are referred to as the day-residue effect and have been appreciated since Freud (1900). Longer delays, approximately one-week, are referred to as the dream-lag effect and are a more recent discovery. These studies have generally linked subjectively important and specific events to their incorporation into dreams. However, non-specific changes in dream content are also possible after exposure to a target event.

Objectives: This study examined the content of dreams following a virtual maze stimulus for evidence of differences in non-maze specific content between day residue and dream-lag dream incorporations.

Methods: 56 participants (45W, 12M; 24.5±3.25 yrs) were exposed to a video game in which they were to find the exit to a 3D maze. They completed the maze under one of four interactive conditions (see accompanying abstract: Nielsen, et al.). They were asked to keep written reports of their dreams for 14 days after the experiment. Post-stimulus dreams of participants who subjectively reported an incorporation of at least 4 (out of 9) in a dream (n=43) were then evaluated for the presence of content that was not specific to the maze. This included scales for assessing #characters, #groups, emotions (fear, confusion, anger, joy), presence/absence of an objective, laboratory experiences and social interactions. Variables were coded from 1 to 5, except for #groups and #characters, which were continuous variables. Variables were dichotomized (values ≥2 were considered incorporations). Chi-square tests were used.

Post-stimulation days were separated into 3 time periods: days 1 to 4 (D1-4), days 5 to 8 (D5-8) and days 9 to 12 (D9-12). The occurrence of elements not specific to the maze for the periods D1-4 and D9-12 were statistically compared.

Results: Very few differences between D1-4 and D9-12 were found. A single notable exception was for #groups (Chi-sq=9.23, p=.004; Fisher exact test, 2-tailed). More D9-12 participants reported dreams containing groups (40%) than did D1-4 participants (0%). Analysis by subgroups indicated that this difference was strongest for the TV-act group (Chi-sq=8,08, p=.011; Fisher exact test).

Conclusions: Our failure to find many differences in non-maze specific changes in dream content occurring D1-4 and D9-12 following a stimulus suggests that the processes that might be brought to bear on a memory consolidation function at these two time points are largely similar in nature. Analyses of maze-specific dream content (see companion abstract: Popova, et al.) suggest a similar conclusion. However, the finding of a single robust difference (#groups) specific to the TV-act group, indicates that the two time periods may yet be found to differ if more extensive dream content grids are employed (e.g., Hall & Van de Castle, 1966).

Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

 

Jacquie Lewis, PhD  

Dreaming of Animals

The topic of animals in dreams has been of interest to humankind since ancient times, perhaps even before the dawn of history (Van de Castle, 1994).  Previous civilizations most often interpreted animal dreams as portents of future events (Debecker, 1974; Lorand, 1974; Van de Castle, 1994).  In contrast, modern dream investigators have viewed the presence of animal characters in dreams as representations of sexual impulses (Freud, 1972), as depictions of undesirable character traits (Estes, 1995; Faraday, 1974; Wangyal, 1998), as divine helpers that can offer aid to th e dreamer (Barasch, 2000; Priess, 1993), as symbols of personality traits in the dreamer (Garfield, 2001), and as benevolent beings who visit us in dreams (Boss, 1974; Hillman, 1979). 

Studies of dream accounts indicate that animals may appear in dreams as representations of physical health (Barasch, 2000), offer psychological insights (Garfield, 2001), inspire poetry (Prelutsky, 1994), offer glimpses into future events (Van de Castle, 1994), or are a call from nature to protect certain species and the ecology (Priess, 1993).  

The data on dreams conducted by this presenter was compared to norms developed by Hall–Van de Castle (Domhoff, 1996).  Results indicated that of animal-rights activists reported animal dream characters at a much higher rate than the general population.  Activists also overwhelmingly had more friendly animal dreams than the public, demonstrating an aggression /friendliness percent that is significantly friendlier toward animals than the general population.

This session will consist of a PowerPoint presentation focusing on how animal dreams have been viewed down through the ages and have been treated in different cultures.  Attendees will also be presented with research that examined the dream reports of animal-rights activists.  Participants will be able to share their dreams of animals and how these dreams may have impacted their lives.

 

Jacquie Lewis

Survey Results of Dream Researchers and IRB Experiences

This study explores the experiences of dream researchers with the institutional review board (IRB), or other ethics review committees.  A dream researcher email address list was compiled from Dreaming Journal, DreamTime Magazine, the International Association for the Study of Dreams membership, and author websites.  A total of 91 dream researchers were contacted through email.  Twenty-seven dream researchers completed the survey.  This study offers an understanding of the dream researcher experience with the review board process.  Because of the nature of the research, dream researchers conduct a wide variety of research techniques.  Some researchers conduct laboratory experiments, others conduct qualitative research, while others conduct quantitative studies outside of the laboratory setting.  The findings from this research project should be helpful in understanding how the IRB influences dream research.

 

Ruth Lingford, Professor of the Practice of Animation, Harvard

Animation and the Dream

Like the dream, animation is often overlooked as trivial and silly, but has the power to illuminate interior worlds.  It has intrinsic qualities that make it especially suitable for illustrating or evoking dream experience.  Animation is present in many apparently live action films, and is defined as any moving image that is created or mediated on a frame-by frame basis.  Common methods of animating include drawing (either on paper or digitally) the phases of movement, moving objects, puppets or human actors frame by frame, and creating models in a digital environment.

Like the dream, animation speaks the language of condensation and distortion.  Animation’s unique capacity for metamorphosis allows the portrayal of shifting identities, spaces and realities.  Animation’s ability to control and mediate movement allows the exploration of the particular qualities of dream movement.

The repetition inherent in the animation process can allow an almost trance-like state where unconscious material can surface.  Animation has the capacity, and the social permission, to transgress boundaries that demarcate life and death, cleanliness and obscenity, human and animal, subject and object.

This one-hour session comprises a 20-minute lecture, a 30-minutes screening, and 10 minutes for discussion.

 

Jon Lipsky, Professor of Acting and Playwriting with Jennifer Boyes-Manseau, Actress, Direc tor of Dramamuse at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

Play Your Dreams: Create Potent, Imagistic Theatre Using Dream Enactment

This workshop in re-experiencing dreams will be co-led by Jon Lipsky and Jennifer Boyes-Manseau. Through the process of Dream Enactment, the dreamer will have an opportunity to re-enter the dream space and encounter dream figures. At all times the focus will be, not on analyzing dreams, but on communicating the dream experience to an audience. 

By working in a theatrical medium, this workshop takes dream embodiment into three dimensions. At first we will simply tell the dream narratives as we would tell a story around a campfire.  But then we will try to go further and enact the dream, using theatre techniques to shape the settings, characters, and actions of the dreams. The dreamer will play all the parts, and in this way, view the dream from many perspectives. 

We will also enter one another's dream, by assisting the dreamer in creating the dreamscape, and by playing some of the parts. By enacting dreams, it is hoped that we will have a more visceral experience of the images from inside rather than outside the dream. It is also hoped that, by enacting the dreams of others and crossing the borders between our imaginal worlds, we will have a better understanding and empathy for each other’s imaginative experiences. 

We want to emphasize that you don’t have to have any experience in acting to do this workshop. You just have to be willing to get up on your feet and tell a good story.

 

 

Monique Lortie-Lussier, Monique, PhD; Catherine Sabourin, PhD; Joseph De Koninck, PhD  

Ontogenetic Trends and Gender Differences in Dreams:  A Normative Study of Canad ians

The issue of gender differences in dreams has been long standing. Previous studies, dating back to Hall and Van de Castle (1966) normative study, have documented gender differences in the dreams of young adults. The influence of age on dream content throughout the life cycle has also been explored, but not in a comprehensive manner. There is a need for more systematic and inclusive studies to determine the ontogenetic evolution of dreams from adolescence to late-adulthood among women and men alike. Recent studies of either gender or age differences have been conducted with relatively small samples and dispersed cohorts. We are in the process of establishing norms of dream content for male and female Canadians from 12 to 80 years, encompassing both Anglophones and Francophones. To date, more than 600 subjects, divided into five age groups (12-17, 18-24, 25-39, 40-64, 65-80) have completed a protocol comprising a short dream diary, and a diary of waking events and morning and evening moods. Additionally, dreamers completed questionnaires related to impactful dreams, dream mood and original measures of episodic memory and temporal references. Dreams were analyzed by two independent judges with the Hall and Van de Castle content scales. Preliminary results indicate significant ontogenetic trends in females’ dreams on characters, interactions and emotions dimensions. For instance a linear decrease in the number of characters was found, from early adulthood onward.  Gender differences appear to be less prominent than previously reported for young adults. This observation is particularly noticeable among older age groups. In addition to these findings, more comprehensive results of ontogenetic trends in male dreams and gender differences across age groups will be reported. The study will also provide information relative to hypothetical cross-cultural differences with American samples that have been alluded to with respect to women’s dreams (Domhoff, 1996).

 

Athena Lou and Roger Martínez, BA, LADC, NCAC-II 

Secrets of Interactive Dream Group Dynamics

The beauty of dream work is that there are so many possibilities. Working with dreams in a group setting can take on an entirely different feel than working with the dream by oneself or individually with a therapist or other dream worker. This method of Group Dream Work, Interactive Group Dream Work, opens up other possibilities that are not always possible in working with dreams individually or in other settings.

Many have written and spoken about making associations from dream images and keeping them from being static as a dream dictionary might do. Interactive Group Dream Work takes this a step further by getting the dreamer to invite the dream group members to participate in the dream by taking the role of each of its characters and symbols. The characters are given their own life as they participate in the dialogue, expressing possible feelings thoughts and ideas that they are experiencing while in the roles of the characters. Once the characters and symbols of the dream are cast, a dialogue takes place that involves the senses, in a way that Calvin Hall recognizes as a type of Dream Theater. This group collaboration invites the visual, tactile, and sound senses into the waking dream, which can be advantageous in understanding a dream, its contents and the message the dream is attempting to send forth.    

The dreamer is able to get a new understanding of the message the dream brings simply by having a dialogue with each character of the dream and many times is able to get valuable feedback from the dream characters.  

 

Mary Pat Lynch, PhD

The Three Cauldrons of Poesy:  Dreams, Visions and Ancestry

The lack of attention given to dreams and visions in modern Western society presents a formidable barrier to those of us of European descent. How can we connect to trad itions of dreaming that are authentic for us, without assuming we can simply adopt whatever we find? Sensitivity to the autonomy of indigenous and tribal cultures, as well as a desire for deeper connection with our own cultural heritage, make it difficult to know how, or indeed where, to begin.

Paths are still open to us, and experience suggests that many paths can lead to wonderful insights and connections. In this paper, I explore dreams, visions, and shamanic journeys as avenues for connecting with the roots of European dreaming cultures. I was born and raised in the United States, but my ancestry is Irish. Fascinated with Ireland since childhood, I focus on her traditions and history.

Specifically, the Three Cauldrons of Poesy, found in a medieval Irish manuscript, provide the framework for a discussion of how dream incubation can lead to insights about cultural history. The Three Cauldrons appear to have been part of a training program for poets, important visionaries at all times in Irish culture. As such, they offer powerful images for dreams and visions.

My work with the Three Cauldrons, and the experiences of others with this material, are concrete examples of what can happen when we engage our mythopoetic function in a cultural context. The paper considers these examples in the wider framework created by anthropologists like Barbara Tedlock, visionaries like Frank MacEowen, and mythographers like Joseph Campbell.

 

Munirah MacLean, BA, PGCE

The Dreams of Sheikh Muhyideen Ibn Arabi

Who was Sheikh Muhyideen Ibn Arabi? This presentation offers a biographical view and a definition of Sufism within this context, focusing on the dreams of Ibn Arabi (translated from original sources into English by the Ibn Arabi Society (Oxford & Berkeley), the importance of dreams and spiritual messages in Sufism, dreams as healing in fragmented and pluralistic societies, and the integration of dreams into spiritual practice. Research reflects both ancient (Hadith) and modern (Damascus) practice.

 

Susan E. Mehrtens, PhD    

Prophetic Dreams for Our World in Transformation

I begin by recounting my personal history with what I have come to call my “voice-over” dreams, specific auditory messages that wake me up, conveying information about what is going to happen and what I am to do.

Next I consider the nature and quality of precognitive dreams, in an interactive format drawing on the audience’s own experience. I then present some rules of thumb on how participants can discover their own unique form of precognitive dreaming.

In the third part of my presentation I consider some specific dreams I have had recently, all of them clearly precognitive, that suggest what we might expect in the next few years. I will be interested to hear from participants if any of them have had similar dreams.

In the final section I will provide an overview of our time, and the 4 phases we are currently living in, with the component features of each.

The final section, on why we should feel hopeful about the times ahead, includes discussion of the roadmap we have, perspectives from indigenous cultures (which respect dreams), our role as co-creators and the vision of the Fifth World.

 

Sandra Moon Dancer, BSc, MHSc. Founder and Executive Director of the Centre of Circlewisdom   

Living the Dream:  From the Rooftops of the Tibetan World to the Heart of the City of Toronto

In this presentation, Sandra Moon Dancer teaches how to dream consciously.  Opening one’s heart provides the gateway through which all dreams manifest.  The skill of opening one’s heart is an essential tool in today’s world.  To truly hold one’s heart open surpasses all personality expectations and beliefs.  By doing so, the soul’s journey is honoured and integrated into the human being.  

World-t raveled shaman and healer, Sandra Moon Dancer shares the true inspiring story of how an eleven-year-old Canadian boy brought his childhood dream to life, integrating Eastern and Western borders and bringing the two worlds together. A Tibetan Buddhist heard the dream and invited this boy to travel into the heart of Tibet and China where very few Westerners have ever been allowed to visit.  This is part of the healing story of this boy’s commitment and desire to self-realize.  It is a powerful, moving story.  This boy and his eight-year-old sister participated in several Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies at Monasteries such as Kumbum, Ganden and Jokhang. Some of the ceremonies had not been held for hundreds of years.  This true story of living the dream against all odds is one of great inspiration.  It is a story that transcends borders, politics and beliefs.  It is a story that touches and heals our own questions of realizing our dreams.  It moves us forward.   

Sandra Moon Dancer provides tools on how to Live the Dream.  She answers key questions, such as: Are we meant to keep the Dream World separate from the Waking World?  Or is it our time to Live the Dream?  She will facilitate the bridge between visioning for our dreams and manifesting them. 

Participants will be given practical tools to ignite conscious dreaming, realize visioning and strengthen focus.  Working with the current collective energy, participants will learn how to open their hearts, vision their dreams and bring them into their Waking Worlds.  Clear, fun and easy to practice, participants will be inspired to take these teachings into their own lives.  Sandra Moon Dancer believes the skill of opening one’s heart is essential in this time of Great Awakening.  And it is easier than ever to Live the Dream!