Attempting to understand a dream's meaning is exactly like trying to do a puzzle. You try one piece. It doesn't fit, so you try another. I call these attempts different points of entry, using the theories and frameworks of Perls, Freud, Jung and Adler with each try. I will explain the different points of entry I use, with the goal of better understanding the dream's meaning. Participants will learn how to discover what point of entry works best for a particular dream, or is the most comfortable for the dreamer. I will teach ways to look at and work with symbols, emotions, and noticing the atmosphere in the dream space.
The workshop begins with a short lecture. I will pass out notes on the lecture portion to each group member so they can relax and focus on the discussion rather than note taking. Once the current issue the dream is addressing is uncovered, solutions to the problem as they may be presented in the dream become the focus of discussion. In this section, I have two goals. As we so often focus on the negative or frightening aspect of a dream, one goal is to show participants how to recognize and apply the strength in the dream. Very often the dream actually discloses the solution to the problem. I will also look at polarities that present themselves and how we might benefit from noticing and working with them. My second goal is to help dreamers see the solutions our subconscious introduces before our conscious mind catches the message.
In my use of an eclectic approach to understanding our dreams, I strongly emphasize practical methodology and individually directed results over abstract theory. For example, I will ask the dreamer questions such as: What familiar stories, fables, movies, or characters come to your mind when you think about the story and people in this dream? What do these stories or characters have to teach you about your current situation?
We will then attempt to understand the dream of a volunteer from the group with the participants using an “If this were my dream” format. The group helps define the layers of the dream using these different approaches, as the dreamer connects to each level of the dream. I reserve 15-20 minutes at the end of the workshop to reexamine the process and answer questions or engage in discussion.
Teresa L. DeCicco, PhD
Putting Dreamwork into Practice: A program of dream interpretation for professionals and workshop leaders
Authors of dream science have suggested that dream interpretation is useful for both patients and therapists, very valuable in the therapeutic process and unfortunately, greatly underutilized (Pessant & Zadra, 2007). This workshop addresses this very issue and is intended for professionals who would like to implement a systematic program of dream work into their practice. The workshop follows the program from the recently published book, The Giant Compass: Navigating Your Life with Your Dreams (2008) by Dr. Teresa L. DeCicco. The program is a guide for patients and participants consisting of four dream interpretation techniques. The techniques guide participants from a novice level (Technique 1) through getting comfortable with dreams (Technique 2), then accessing emotions related to dream imagery (Technique 3) to finally going to the deepest level of dream meaning (Technique 4).
Each of the four techniques has been scientifically tested and shown to lead participants to relevant discovery (DeCicco, 2007a; 2007b; 2007c; 2008). The techniques have been specifically designed to provide early success with dream work, and to be user-friendly, practical and easy to use in a therapeutic setting.
Participants in this workshop are encouraged to bring a dream to work on for themselves as several techniques will be illustrated and then implemented. The workshop will be divided into four one-half hour segments:
Technique 1: Beginning Dream Interpretation with The Storytelling Method (TSM) (DeCicco, 2007)
The first 10 minutes of this workshop will introduce the TSM Worksheets and explain the protocol for the method. Scientific findings will be discussed (e.g., 80% of all participants report discovery) as appropriate for clinical use. This method is best used with novice participants who will likely have early success with discovery. Discussions around appropriateness, relevance and therapeutic issues will occur after participants use the method with one of their own dreams.
Technique 2: Expanding the Process by Sharing with the Projective Method (DeCicco, 2007)
This group sharing technique will be the second method introduced into the dream interpretation program. The applications of the method, the method itself and the appropriateness for participants will be discussed as a group. Issues concerning safety and making waking day changes will be discussed in the context of dream sharing.
Technique 3: Getting to the Emotions with The 2A Method (DeCicco, 2008)
The third technique in the program leads participants into accessing the emotions that are associated with their dream images. The 2A method connects dream imagery with waking day emotions and events for the dreamer. The group will discuss accessing emotions for participants and the level of therapeutic work that can be done with dreams.
Technique 4: Delving Deeper in Dreams with Meditative Dream Re-Entry (MDR) (DeCicco, 2008)
The final and deepest level of dream interpretation will be introduced and practiced as a group with MDR. Participants are encouraged to work with a dream in order to fully understand the impact of this technique. Participants are taught the protocol of MDR and its appropriateness in practice.
Teresa L. DeCicco, PhD.
Sex, Relationships and Emotions: An Exploration with Dreams
Research Study 1: Zanasi, M., DeCicco, T.L., & Musolino, G. (2008). Comparing and Contrasting Dreams with Sexual Imagery across Italian and Canadian Samples
Study 1 compares dream content of sexual imagery and emotions for an Italian sample (N=267) and a matched Canadian sample (N=267). Study 2 examines sexual dream content and emotions for 100 Canadian and 100 Italian participants from dreams with sexual content alone. Cultural differences and implications are discussed.
Research Study 2: Navara, G.S., & DeCicco, T.L. (2008). Exploring Intimate Relationships with Dreams and Dream Interpretation
Forty dreams collected from dream journals over a four-month period were used for both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Both a phenomenological approach and content analysis were employed on both the actual dream content and on the dream interpretation. Results are presented with a particular interest in intimate relationships.
Research Study 3: Jones, E., & DeCicco, T.L. (2008). Differentiating Anxiety and Depression Using The Storytelling Method of Dream Interpretation and Content Analysis
The dreams of 85 community-dwelling young adults were content analyzed, as were the discovery passages from The Storytelling Method of Dream Interpretation. These categories were compared to waking day measures of depression, as measured by the BDI, and anxiety, as measured by the CES-D. Regression analyses predicting waking day levels of depression and anxiety from dream content categories are presented.
Research Study 4: Clarke, J., & DeCicco, T.L. (2008). An Investigation among Dreams with Sexual Imagery, Romantic Jealousy and Relationship Satisfaction
This study extends previous findings on the relationship among dreams with sexual imagery and waking day relationship issues. Content analysis categories from the dreams of 100 university students are compared to waking day measures of romantic jealousy and relationship satisfaction. Particular prominence is given to sexual imagery of dream sex targets, infidelity, romantic jealousy and emotions and how these relate to waking day measures of these constructs.
Teresa L. DeCicco, PhD.
The Storytelling Method of Dream Interpretation in English and Italian: Dream and Discovery Content
Many studies have found that dream interpretation can be very valuable in therapy for insight (Pesant & Zadra, 2004), for exploring emotions (Goelitz, 2001), to help decrease psychological distress (Crook Lyon & Hill, 2004; Pesant & Zadra, 2004), to help with feelings of isolation, lack of support, life transition issues, and to provide effective coping strategies (DeCicco, 2007a). Dreams also reflect the physical health of the dreamer (King & DeCicco, 2007). Therefore, dreams can be a valuable tool for revealing important aspects of the dreamer’s physical, mental and emotional life, rendering dream therapy a valuable tool.
The Storytelling Method of Dream Interpretation (DeCicco, 2006) has specifically been shown to be effective for coping with cancer, pain, relationship issues and waking day problems (DeCicco, et al., 2007; 2008). Recently, the method has been translated into Italian (DeCicco & Donati, 2008) and implemented into therapy. Results from testing this method in two languages will be presented. The dreams and discovery passages have been content analyzed from Italian (N=15) and Canadian (N=15) participants. Differences in content categories, discoveries and waking day insights between the two samples will be given. Furthermore, implications for therapy and translating the method into other languages such as French and Spanish will be discussed.
Sven Doehner, PhD
Reflexes: discovered and restored through dream-work
All movement - physical, emotional, mental - initiates and is based (usually unconsciously) upon our reflexes.
We will take advantage of some images from the dreams and lives of several patients to demonstrate how we can discover, explore and restore the present-day relationship that each has with the involuntary responses to specific stimuli that we call reflexes, to gain an understanding of how these underlie all possible reaction or response patterns in our being.
In addition to showing how to recognize the reflexes that dominate a particular dream image, examples of exercises designed to stimulate these same reflexes will be presented as a kind of dream work useful to restore possibilities for new movements in the life of the dreamer.
Our goal is to demonstrate how it is possible to create the emotional and somatic awareness required to discover and modify unconscious patterns in the lives of our patients by working with the reflexes that appear in images in their dreams, to open new possibilities for choice in responding to difficult or unexpected situations in their everyday lives.
Sven Doehner, PhD
Sound-work with Dream Images
Telling a dream, as well as the dream images themselves, brings forth unexpected sounds, and multiple possibilities for making palpable unconscious aspects of our being, yet we seldom work with the sounds in our dreams.
That we are usually unaware of the sounds that accompany our dream (or life) images, should not hide the fact that it is virtually impossible to make and/or hear a sound without it evoking new, unexpected images that can give surprisingly sincere form to deeply unconscious aspects of our lives, with deeply transformative results.
Guided by some fundamental principles of C.G. Jung and James Hillman’s Alchemical Psychology, basic elements involved in working with the sounds in our dreams will be presented as a theoretical basis for a dream-work that includes sound-work.
I expect to show how a certain kind of sound-work can allow for a relatively clear discovery and recognition of the patterns that protect a person, as much as entrap him or her, in daily life and provide the sound-dream-worker with opportunities and ways to modify these patterns, opening new possibilities for being in the dreamer’s life.
My intention in exploring this sound archetypal approach to working with the images in our dreams is to nurture healing movements in our souls and lives.
Laurette Dupuis, MA
Shamanic Dreams Following Munay-Ki Rituals
The Munay-Ki is a set of nine rites of passage kept secret for thousands of years by the Laika, medicine men and women from the Andes of Peru. These nine rites are common to all shamanic traditions, even though they are expressed in different forms and styles in different cultures. Munay-Ki rites are made available to North Americans by initiates who trained with medicine men and women in Peru. People come to receive these rites from these initiates when they are ready and feel a calling to do so. These rites facilitate the transformation of consciousness and guide people on their journey towards healing, wholeness, love and light.
Fifteen women and men attended a three-day retreat and received these shamanic rites in a country setting in Quebec in the fall of 2008. This presentation first describes the particular wisdom transmitted by three of these rites and then discusses three dreams selected among those submitted by members of the group. The dreams took place during the week following the retreat, or shortly thereafter, and were chosen according to three criteria:
(1) They contain images that relate to one of the rites received;
(2) They present indications of an energy transmission;
(3) Some images or archetypes present in the dream relate, in some form, to the shamanic archetypes invoked in the rituals.
The evidence for the incorporation of elements of the rituals into the dreams and for transmission of energy is adduced from the form and language of the dreams as well as from a correlation between shamanic archetypes and a contemporary North American form of expression.
The goal of the dreamwork with each participant in this study is particularly important because, although it can be fully experienced on a subtle level, the transmission is now confirmed in the dream. The dreamer thus becomes more deeply aware that he/she has been invested with the powers conferred by the rituals and recognizes the guidance which the dream offers to fully integrate this new wisdom. As a result the dreamer feels highly empowered to pursue the journey that lies ahead.
In my dreams, as in my waking state, I can act with various levels of consciousness. By the term dream, I mean an experience of an outer world made up of characters and actions that my expanded self has helped to create. In this sense, I view the waking state as a kind of a dream. I aspire to come from an expanded level of consciousness, or lucidity, in every moment, whether awake or asleep. In sleeping dreams, time and space may appear to differ from the waking state. Events can happen almost instantly, so I can quickly see the results of my thoughts, desires, or fears.
When I act in my dreams, or in the waking state, with a contracted level of consciousness, I may judge, attack, suffer, stressfully pursue ego gratification, or just plain not pay attention. However, when I question if I am dreaming---in other words, question my reality and my assumptions, and notice them in some way as ‘not true’--my consciousness expands. This inquiry process seems similar to the techniques of Byron Katie, the author of Loving What Is. She helps people end suffering by asking them to question any stressful thought and see if they absolutely know it as true.
If I believe that I am not dreaming, I may feel limited. When I knowI am dreaming, my fear decreases, my mind clears, and I respond in more appropriate and creative ways. I often experience expanded potential. Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now, calls this state ‘Presence.’ With even partial lucidity, small frustrations disappear quickly, and I experience more fulfillment. When I know I am dreaming, I focus more on the present moment, usually realizing that I will wake up soon. Concerns, such as ambition or regrets, don’t come up, and I can co-create interesting dramas, which sometimes seem to enhance my waking state as well. When I have increased lucidity, I easily surrender to, and fully face seemingly painful or scary situations, a process that both Tolle and Katie recommend.
The more lucid I become, the more I notice that my view of how others act towards me may reflect how I act or have acted toward them, others, or myself. I listen carefully to what others have to say to me and sometimes change my actions instead of defending myself. My response comes from an expanded self. In her work, Katie calls this the ‘turnaround.’ In my extreme levels of lucidity, I experience no separation, but rather a connection, with everything. Eventually, I no longer have a body nor an environment. Tolle calls this expansion into ‘Being.’ Others use the word ‘Source’ or ‘God.’ I like the term ‘Dreamer.’
Lucid dreaming also gave me a spiritual perspective on death. In non-lucid dreams, I used to think of my ‘dream body’ as my ‘self.’ Because I did not have awareness of my expanded self, I believed that if my dream body died, I died. I continued to feel this way until I woke up out of the dream. Then, as a child, when I knew I was dreaming while I was dreaming, I experienced myself as more than just my body before I woke up out of my sleeping dream. Eventually, while very lucid in a sleeping dream, I let my sleeping dream body die, and yet woke up whole. As an adult, I now see that I can similarly “wake up” in my life before my physical body ‘dies’ and really enjoy the experience of my expanded, lucid self.
In Tolle’s recent book, The New Earth, he says, “To awaken within the dream is our purpose now. When we are awake within the dream, the ego-created earth-drama comes to an end, and a more benign and wondrous dream arises. This is the new earth.”
2. "Lucid Dreaming: A Bridge to Lucid Living," D’Urso, Beverly (Kedzierski Heart), PhD, Workshop Before the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) Conference 2007, Sonoma, California, June, 2007. http://www.durso.org/beverly/IASD_Workshop_2007.html
3. Loving What Is: Four Questions that can Change your Life, Katie, Byron, and Mitchell, Stephen, Harmony Books, New York, New York, 2002. http://www.thework.com
4. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Tolle, Eckhart, New World Library, Novato, California, 2004. http://www.eckharttolle.com/eckharttolle
5. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Tolle, Eckhart, Penguin Books, London, England, 2005. http://www.eckharttolle.com/eckharttolle
Rita Dwyer, BS, CPC
Dreams in Orbit—Circular/Spiral Motifs and Imagery
Presenters: Rita Dwyer, BS, CPC (Chair); Judy Gardiner; Robert J. Hoss, MS; Robert Moss, MA
Is circular/spiral imagery in dreams hardwired into our genetic code? Do these archetypal images/motifs bring a centering force to earth’s inhabitants? We are in constant orbit around the sun, passengers on our round mother, spaceship earth. Our bodies and all of creation are composed of the same basic elements and teem with unseen energy in motion.
In the book, Green Fire, the Life Force from the Atom to the Mind (Ignacio Martinez and Juan Luis Asuaga, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004), Russian geologist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945), is cited as the creator of the metaphor Green Fire, a term used to describe our journey on this planet from the first living organism to all that followed. We humans are different flames of the same first fire, and at the heart of the process sustaining the vast majority of life in our world is photosynthesis, where a green molecule is found, chlorophyll. Vernadsky also coined the term biosphere (earth’s living envelope)upon which paleontologist and theologian Teilhard de Chardin modeled his discovery of the Noösphere, our planet’s thinking envelope, both rounded shapes, providing wholeness and nurturance, much as a mother’s womb, always in orbit as the world moves on its path transporting its inhabitants.
But long before these scientific theories, humankind dreamt of circular imagery as can be seen in artifacts from the past. Creation myths also reflect connection with such imagery. Jim Nollman, author of The Man Who Talks toWhales: The Art of Interspecies Communication (Sentient Publications, 2002), writes that aboriginal Dreamtime contains stories and creation myths that accompany a relationship between a person, his totem, and his environment. Nollman’s own experiences in interspecies communication rely in some cases upon music and sound as the medium of the message in a relationship between himself and an environment, both natural and human, recounting his experiences with dolphins whom he considers to be non-human people. In some creation myths they are perceived as becoming the first humans on earth. Australian-born Robert Moss will add much to this panel based upon his independent studies and personal experiences with circular and spiral imagery and shamanic practices.
Our culture ascribes a linear nature to time, but many others believe time to be cyclical. It is this quality that allows dreamers to travel to the past and the future, and not just dwell in the present. Those of the past are still present in spirit and appear in dreams, and futures are shown to us, all for wholeness or healing. Our dreaming brings the images and actions that show the way. For example, an 11/01/08 dream Beth Scanzani (used with permission) is excerpted here:
Living Mandala: There’s a priest or a master who has been with me since I was a child. This has something to do with my growing up. On this day, he’s walking with me and showing me some of the remnants of a bad storm and cautions for something coming in. He’s taking me to a place across the street where other people are gathering. We all start lining up there. We end up in a circular pattern with other bodies around a pole…head first to the pole and bodies straight out, arms and legs wide and touching in a circular pattern like the spokes of a wheel (like a mandala).
Henry Reed, author and dreamworker extraordinaire, draws a mandala every day as a meditative practice and displays it on his website for others to enjoy. He years ago had a dream similar to Beth’s which led to his creation of the Sundance Journal and his continuing fascination with this healing circular image. Some of his mandalas will be shown.
Judy Gardiner will describe a “big” dream in which green was a very important color, as well as other planetary dreams which led her to Montague Ullman, who became her friend and mentor. She will speak of his theory of The New Abode of Dreams, based in part upon Bohm’s theory of the implicate order and explicate order. We are all connected in body, mind and spirit with our Source, as some of our big dreams show us. My own interest in this topic is based upon a long-ago but never forgotten highly energetic and brilliant dream of being one with the All.
Bob Hoss, our IASD expert on color in dreams, will be focusing on Jungian theories about archetypal circular/spiral imagery. His abstract follows:
Circular or Center-Oriented Imagery by Robert J. Hoss
Jung spoke of the circle in terms of the totality of the human psyche and the relationship with the whole of nature. To Jung circular imagery in dreams represented a completion, the ultimate wholeness, and the natural centering force within the psyche. It takes on the qualities of the unconscious and the feminine. It appears as a circle, the sphere, or within a circular mandala. It may also appear as a center-oriented motif, to represent the new center as it comes into consciousness,perhaps as a circle with an object in the center such as a tree, character or representation of the inner Self.
The centering force may also appear as moving in a circular or spiral pattern, which draws one towards the center. This might include walking around a square path, or descending or ascending a spiral stair. In waking life as well as human mythology and tradition, the circle dance is observed as a symbolic part of many human rites. One example of this is the following “office party” dream:
I dreamed that I was hosting an office party that was taking place in three of four houses, the fourth being incomplete. It was dark at night and people were arriving from the left of the houses. My job was to bring each of the groups through the woods into a lighted area to join in a circle dance. I got so caught up in the dance and my leadership role in it that I forgot to bring the remaining guests over. When I went back most all of them had left.
Symbolically this dream was a process of bringing suppressed fragments of the personality (all the guests arriving from the darkness to the left) into consciousness (the light) and into a circle dance of integration, toward a new center around which the ego revolves. Unfortunately the ego self in this case fell into a familiar pattern of self centered behavior, leaving the integration incomplete.
Jung related the spiral motif as a pattern of new creation and new ways of thinking that spontaneously arises from the unconscious. Anthropologist Angeles Arrien also observed that the spiral has been used to symbolize growth and evolution. It is an evolutionary pattern often associated with spirit that can lead into the unconscious, or bring forth new creation from the unconscious. Within this new creation, the older pattern returns on a higher level. I find the spiral often appears in dreams as a tornado, i.e., a storm of natural forces from the unconscious that brings forth new concepts. An example is illustrated in the following “tornado” dream:
I dreamed there was a spirit that came up from a creek destroying trees in its path, like a tornado. . . In the next I was in a classroom and I knew the teacher but could not identify her. I tried to volunteer to go out and survey the damage at the creek, but I was invisible so the teacher never recognized me. In the third, a very old friend I knew, who later became a missionary, was riding a tricycle down toward the creek. Later two men, including my friend, were struggling with the spirit which was invisible and neither good nor evil.
This was a case where the dreamer was struggling with some new spiritual awareness that was threatening the concepts from his earlier religious upbringing. In the following case the dreamer was experiencing an upwelling of anxiety and unidentified fears as she was thrust into a legal situation: I saw a wall of wind and gray clouds coming toward me, with dozens of gray counterclockwise spiral cloud forms in it. I felt it hit me and push me back.
At times, the object in the center can be a central theme around which the fragments of the personality are orienting. It might appear as a symbol of inner growth, such as a tree, or perhaps as a character clearly associated with the conflict or myth that the dream is dealing with. This appeared to be the case in this “Latin priest” dream:
I was in an airplane that landed in a spiral motion on the rim of a large circle in a Latin American village. In the center of the circle was a priest dressed in black with a gun, protecting the village.
Here again, as with the previous tornado dream, at the center of the conflict were childhood religious concepts represented by the Latin priest.
The circle or unity-of-one motif also appears in the form of the number 0 (likely due to its circular shape), or more frequently as the number 1 (as symbolic of unity). It is common to see patterns of 10, or more often 100 (or its quartering in the number 25), as representing this state of ultimate wholeness. It appeared as quarters in the following dream: I dreamed I was with some friends and we were pitching quarters into a circle.
Marcia Emery, PhD
Exploring Intuitive Dreamwork During Transitional Times
Everyone is immersed in the changes wrought by transitional times. During these challenging times, you can’t just question with a logical mind. Instead, you have to see the whole picture. The secret for getting back in balance and seeing the whole picture is intuition. Intuition lets us ride the wave of rapid change and stay on the crest. Intuition, as Marcia teaches, is that immediate and indisputable knowing. It is the deepest wisdom of the soul, which gives us the broadest and clearest insight into any situation. It is the intuitive mind that will comb through the dream and provide instant understanding.
Participants will learn how to unravel the transitional message in the dream by applying simple principles of intuition to selected dream samples. Intuitive guidance through dream work will benefit the people immersed in transitions like: marriage/divorce; pregnancy/childbirth; career change; loss of a loved one or of a pet; health crises; change in finances; empty nest syndrome; mid-life crisis; sexual orientation change; starting and/or graduating from college; purchasing a new home; and victim of a natural disaster.
In this workshop, Dr. Marcia Emery uses her DreamShift method along with other intuitive association techniques to show participants how to easily and effortlessly go right to the dream’s bottom line. Dr. Emery has successfully used this method for decades, to help her clients and students unravel the mysteries embedded in their dream images. One of the steps in the DreamShift is to let the intuitive mind reveal one or two salient symbols that literally jump forward for analysis. Using intuition to freely associate to this symbol will instantly clarify the dream message.
Here’s an example: Thirty-year-old Brittney is originally from Mexico and moved to Canada after her marriage. She wakes up with a panic attack after having the following dream: I am at the beach and see a huge wave rising. I am worried that it is going to fall on me and pull me out to sea. I run away so I won’t drown.
She titles the dream “Drifting Out to Sea” and finds the “huge wave” symbol compelling and retrieves the following associations: inundate, menacing, water, drowning; and then she has an Aha to the association, “over the head. “She realizes she is in “over her head” in the new culture with different customs, another language, etc. As we talk, I show Brittney that the dream is revealing her underlying fear of being inundated and she realizes that the adjustment will come eventually and she won’t feel “over her head.”
Does this sound a bit simplistic? It is! In this workshop, intuitive insights into challenging transitional times will be elicited to the dreams provided by the presenter as well as those elicited from the participants.
Ted Esser
Thematic Content of Intentional Kundalini Experiences in Lucid Dreams
There is a small body of research that has been done on the subject of how kundalini manifests in the waking awareness of people, especially experienced meditators. The present study was aimed at discovering how kundalini manifests in the lucid dreaming state. During every sleep session over a two-week period, fourteen participants incubated for kundalini to appear in their dreams while lucid. Once lucid, they again invited kundalini into their awareness and began to meditate, witnessing the dream as it unfolded (they could optionally do other things after kundalini appeared if they chose, such as inviting nondual awareness).
The participants wrote their experiences in journals upon awakening and then interviewed within a few days of the dreaming protocol period about their experiences and how they were affected by them. Follow-up interviews were conducted three months later to track the longer-term perceptions and results of their experiences.
A qualitative narrative research method was used to analyze the interview transcripts for themes that emerged from the participants’ dreaming experiences. These were divided into three major categories: meta-theme, major themes, and secondary themes. This study illuminated how kundalini can reportedly manifest in lucid dreams and what senses of meaning the participants derived from their experiences. Subsequent perceived shifts in identity, senses of changed fulfillment, and other changes in participants’ lives are also briefly examined. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the study’s dreaming protocol, and a few phenomenological descriptions of kundalini in the dreaming state will also be discussed.
This research brief summarizes preliminary results and analysis from a dissertation study titled, “Lucid Dreaming—A Transpersonal Doorway to an Expanded View of Consciousness and Ultimate Realities: Kundalini, the Divine, Nonduality.”
Willem Fermont PhD/Artist
Disentangling patterns of variance in dream reports: Bridging Art and Science
Dream studies commonly refer to non-verifiable transcripts of oral dream reports (1). The absence of statistical accuracy and precision tools is a fundamental quandary (2,3). Longitudinal single case consistency studies may partly compensate this. Complexity, due to multiple variance sources: dreamer, reporter, interpreter, scholar (1,4,5,6,7) is reduced here through execution of all functions by one operator. Notwithstanding the intrinsic relation between observer and subject, different sources of variance are identified, disentangled and quantified (using 3,8,9,10).
In 2007-2008, 328 free format dreams (DR, average 468 words) and annotations (AR, average 624 words) were recorded under “home” conditions (frequency 0-4/night). 300 circumstantial photographs, and 63 dream drawings were prepared. Quantitative DR and AR variables comprise: sentences DS, AS; words DW,AW; signs DT,AT; nr. of annotations DA; average word length DTW,ATW; average sentence length DWS,AWS; DR/AR-ratios of words and sentences Rs and Rw. Time data concern date, sleep onset TS, arousal TA, notes TN, reports TR.
Principal component (PCA), time series (TS), nonlinear programming (NLP), and variance (ANOVA) analyses were performed. PCA shows: DW, DS, DA, AW and AS load upon C1 (42,5%). AWS and Rs collectively load upon C2 (17,1%). Rw and DWS load equally strong upon C3, C4 (12,9 %). TS reveals that DW, DA, AS and Rw, although highly variable, are remarkably consistent (p>0.05). DS, DWS, AW, AWS and Rs show significant change (p<0.01). ANOVA demonstrates three predominant sources of variance: dream description procedures (reporting delay reduces report volume), investigator inconsistency (reduction of DWS (1 df, Fs=120.3)), and dream content (DW, DS). NLP yields a nonlinear model for the “decay” of dreams (p<0.001), explaining part of the variance in DT, DW, DS.
Significance monitoring demonstrates change of the observer’s dream reporting style, which is not likewise recognized in contemporaneous annotations: reduction of DWS from 11.2 to 8.01 (1 df, Fs= 120.4, p<0.001); increase of DS from 38.1 to 60.3 (df=1 Fs= 10.3, p< 0.01). AWS changes from 13.0 to 11.8 (1 df, Fs= 5.54, p<0.05) and AS from 34.5 to 29.2 (1 df=1.68 p> 0.1) . These changes started pre-conscious, and became conscious after a period of two months. The change of DWS through time points to a significant change in the author’s mechanism of dream interpretation. With increasing experience dream constituents seem to become interpreted and consolidated as shorter, less coherent, text-fragments, representing singular presentations of past experiences. Also, this lack of coherence seems to relate closely to driving artistic creativity mechanisms. This hypothesis is underpinned by authentic dream drawings. The thesis is defended that scientific and artistic interpretations depart from the same basic property of matter: observed variance!
References:
1 Hobson et al., 2003. In: Pace-Schott et al. 2003.Cambridge, 1-50.
2 Malcolm, N., 1959. Dreaming.
3 Sokal &Rohlf, 1995. Biometry.
4 Waterman et al., 1993. JSR, 2:8-12.
5 Barrett & McNamara (eds.), 2007. The New Science of Dreaming, vols. 2, 3.
6 Schredl, M., 2007. In (5): vol.2.79-114.
7 Kramer &Roth, 1979. Sleep, 1 (3), 319-325.
8 Avriel, A. 2003. Nonlinear Programming, New York.
9 Alligood, K.T. et al., 1996. Chaos.
10 SPSS-16-1, 2008.
Jayne Gackenbach, PhD
Video Game Play Effects on Dreams
Symposium participants: Jayne Gackenbach, PhD, Raelyne Dopko, Jason Lee, Beena Kuruvilla, B.A., & Stanley Krippner, PhD
A Further Exploration of the Lucidity-Gamer Association
Jayne Gackenbach and Beena Kuruvilla
In several previous studies Gackenbach and colleagues (summarized in Gackenbach, 2008) have found a relationship between video game play and lucid dreaming. They have explained this in terms of common characteristics of individuals who have these experiences or skills that are acquired due to game play (i.e., higher spatial skills, better vestibular systems, field independence, focused attention). While various questions remain to be asked about this association the one in this inquiry asks are there elements to the lucid dreams of gamers that are unique or that help to explain why this may be happening? Kahan and associates (1996) have been examining the reflective qualities of dreams including lucidity relative to waking reflective mentation and find that there are fewer differences than once assumed. The cognitive and spatial skills necessary to command many video games, or at least the ones hard-core gamers play, have been well established. Thus one would assume that along with the individual difference skills (preceding or resulting from gaming) that the in-game cognitive skills would manifest in dreams and would be associated with lucidity in gamers but not in low-end gamers.
If participants met the necessary criteria (based on responses to questions inquiring about frequency of game play, length of gaming session, age of first gaming experience, and number of played game formats), they were emailed an invitation to participate in the second phase of the current study. In this section, participants were asked to record a dream from the previous night and were then presented with a questionnaire where information regarding their previous day’s media use was gathered. They also answered questions about the type of dream they just recorded. Finally, participants filled out the “Sleeping Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ)” and the “Subjective Experiences During Sleep (SER)” survey (Kahan, 1996) regarding the dream they reported upon. The SEQ focuses on cognitive elements to the dream while the SER inquires about sensory, emotional and cognitive aspects of the dream.
About half of the 98 people who fulfilled the selection criteria filled out the questionnaires and provided a dream from the previous night of at least 40 words in length were low end gamers, and the other half were high end gamers. Low-end gamers were predominantly female while the high-end gamers were predominantly male. Analyses of covariance with sex of subject and dream recall as covariates were calculated on the dream type questions and on the items from the SEQ and SER questionnaires. None of the items of any type showed a group difference while only one dream type and two SEQ items approached conventional levels of significance as a function of gamer type. Specifically, high-end gamers reported more lucid dreams than low-end gamers, as has been previously found. In terms of the SEQ only the two items mentioning attention showed marginal gamer group differences. For the item, “sudden attention shift during dream,” low-end gamers reported more of this in their dream than the highs, while for the item “focus on accomplishing a task during dream” the reverse was the case.
Due to these marginal, if interesting, results it was decided to further investigate the relationship between gaming, dream type and SEQ and SER variables through a series of factor analyses. The major finding was as predicted, that high-end gamers reported considerably more cognitive type elements associated with lucidity while low-end gamers also reported lucidity the types of dream elements associated with it tended to not be cognitive in nature.
Video Game Play, Dream Bizarreness and Creativity
Raelyne Dopko and Jayne Gackenbach
The presence of electronic media in our lives has become widely pervasive. People of all ages are spending countless hours in electronically mediated worlds. Probably the most immersive of such media is video game play. This study examines the effect that this form of immersion has on our night-time dreams. The present study is building on past research that showed video game players had more bizarre dreams, with the suggestion that bizarre dreams may be an indicator of creativity. Our hypothesis is that high-end video gamers will have more bizarre dreams and will have higher scores on the creativity tests. Additionally, we are examining if the bizarre elements in gamers’ dreams are simply memories of a recently played game or if they are instead representative of more diverse semantic networks which are needed to be creative.
High- and low-end gamers were selected from a college mass testing pool reporting high levels of dream recall. The participants were asked to keep a two-week online dream diary for course credit. After each entry, they answered several questions about their media use from the day before the dream(s) entered in the diary. These questions were specific regarding the content of any media they experienced and any video games they may have played. They were also asked to indicate any parts of the dreams that they think are bizarre in terms of their own lives. These dreams are currently being content analyzed using Revonsuo and Salmivalli’s (1995) “Content Analysis of Bizarreness” scale. Finally, the media and self-reports of bizarreness will be compared to the dream contents of bizarreness as assessed by the judges. Following the online dream diary, participants were administered the Torrance creativity tests. Because previous research has shown that video gamers have high spatial skills compared to non-video game players, both a verbal and figural creativity test were administered to participants. The verbal creative test is the Verbal Torrance Test of Creative Thinking and the figural test is the Figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking.
It is expected that the high-end gamers will exhibit more bizarre dream elements than the low- end gamers. It is also expected that they will score higher on the creativity scales. When waking bizarre elements are factored into the dream content, the bizarreness scores of gamers may drop but they should be higher than those of low end gamers. Data collection for the study has been completed. From the college mass testing pool, 151 participants met the criteria for the study (of these students, 67 were video game players and 84 were considered non gamers). All of these students were emailed invitation to be a part of the study and 67 students consented (of these participants, 26 were video game players and 40 non gamers). Over the two-week dream diary period, all participants had at least 4 dreams that were over 50 words and therefore, could be coded. The data is currently being analyzed.
Nightmares of Video Game Players: What do They Look Like?
Jason Le and Jayne Gackenbach
Our research is focusing on a model proposed by Nielsen and Levin (2007) as a new way of looking at nightmares as applied to video game players. Previous research by our group has found no relationship between nightmares and gaming (Gackenbach, 2006) as well as the suggestion that gaming may act as a protective mechanism for threat simulation dreams (Gackenbach & Kuruvilla, in press). Thus the question we are addressing is, what is a nightmare for a video game player?
Nielsen and Levin proposed that individuals actively engage in three processes of fear memory extinction in dreams. We focus on the conditioning process. The difference between the dream and the video game process for fear memory extinction is that both are carried out within a virtual environment (technological and biological) and not within the real world. Essentially, with the continuous pairing of the feared stimuli to responses that are the opposite of what would naturally be elicited, the gamers would no longer elicit the same responses as pre-conditioning when they encounter the same stimuli within dream context. Thus we hypothesize that to acquire a fear memory, and thus a nightmare type of experience; the contents would have to be novel and could not have been paired with non-aversive responses and outcomes. We would expect high end gamers are likely to not experience violence and bizarre contents with intense enough anxiety to cause an awakening, as they may have extinguished the association of fear with these stimuli. Our previous research has supported this notion.
In the present study, we collected from a group of over 600 undergraduate students at a western Canadian college illustrations of two negative (bad dreams and nightmares) and two positive dream types (lucid dreams and mystical dreams) through an online survey. Following an explanation of each type of dream, participants were asked to indicate if they had experienced the dream type. They were then asked to give an example of such a dream, and indicate the frequency with which they typically have that type of dream and the emotions they associated with their example of the dream type (Zadra, 2006).
Using the criteria established in previous research on video gamers, about 100 high-end gamers and about 200 low-end gamers were identified. We will be comparing four dream type contents: nightmares, bad dreams, lucid dreams and mystical dreams. The dream type that most participants said they never had was the mystical dream, while most high- and low-end gamers had experienced lucid dreams and nightmares. However, for bad dreams, the high-end gamers were less likely to say they had these dream experiences while the low-end gamers were more likely to report having them.
The primary content analysis currently being done is that of Hall and Van de Castle (HVC) dream content analysis which has been shown to have high validity and reliability. To supplement the HVC, we have also incorporated different scales from other researchers. Using the coding tool developed by Wilmer (1996) to analyze the dream motifs of Vietnam War veterans, we restructured the system to fit with video gamer dreams. This coding scheme is more extensive in terms of the motifs of violence, especially those related to war. This, we believe, can also be applied to video gamers, as they too experience similar types of violence in the virtual wars (i.e. World of Warcraft, Halo, God of War).
We also included the emotional intensity scale developed by Zadra (2006) in the online questionnaire. We will use this dreamer-rated emotionality scale in comparison with what was developed by the HVC to determine emotions associated with each dream type. While the Zadra scale allows for rating of emotional intensity felt by the dreamer, the HVC uses a judge’s perception of what emotion is present.
An Exploration of the Conditional Model of Socialization Effects of Media on Dream Content
Jayne Gackenbach and Raelyne Dopko
Media effects are well studied by communication scholars but rarely do they examine those effects on dreams. Yet dreams are now known to reflect our daily experiences and indeed serve various cognitive and emotional regulation functions. Of concern has been the role of media violence in creating nightmares. Van den Bulck (2004) found some association between media violence and nightmares in children which lessened in older children. This included computer game play with violent content. Gackenbach (2006) found the opposite with fewer nightmares associated with video game play for older participants. Gackenbach and Kuruvilla (in press) found that the media effects of high-end video game play seemed to serve a protective function for subsequent potential nightmares (threat simulation dreams).
This research group has also found some (Gackenbach, 2006; in press) evidence that especially immersive media (e.g., video games) would be associated with another form of intensified dream, lucid/control dreams. Although video games represent the highest form of telepresence widely available today, other electronic media vary in their ability to elicit strong reactions and thus a sense of being there from their users. This study examines video game play as well as exposure to other electronic media (i.e. audio, video and interactive) during the day prior to a dream. It is a follow-up to a study conducted by Gackenbach (in press) with an additional set of questions. These new questions draw in part upon Van Evra’s (1998) conditional model of socialization effects of media to see if his conceptual dimensions (i.e., type of use, perceived reality, amount of viewing, information alternatives) will further illuminate media effects on dreams. Two additional variables thought to be related to immersion in media were also asked about in this study: attentional absorption and emotional engagement.
Western Canadian college students answered the survey online (n=844). Of these only 109 reported dreams from the previous night where they were tested. High and low thirds were selected based upon their gaming history with 35 subjects in each cell. Gamer type ANCOVA’s with sex of subject as a covariate were calculated on dreamer identified types of dreams (dream recall clarity, lucidity, control, observer position, nightmare, and electronic); media used the day before the dream (audio, video, and interactive); and media relevance to the dream (audio, video, interactive, type of use, perceived reality, amount of viewing, information alternatives, attentional absorption, and emotional engagement).
There were no group differences for type of dream ANCOVA’s. The other two sets of analyses resulted in significant group differences. High end gamers reported more audio and interactive media use the day before the dream and, not surprisingly, they also reported that interactive media was the most related to their dream as well as being more absorbed in this dream related media. Due to the lack of gamer group differences in type of dream, a principal component factor analysis was calculated on dream type, pre-dream media use, and media relevance to dream questions. The first factor loaded male gamers with more interactive media used and relevant to the dream along with electronic dream content and high dream control. Nightmares loaded with not having an electronic media dream and using the media selected as related to the dream for entertainment. Lucidity loaded on three factors which require more complex interpretation than possible in this short summary.
Discussant: Stanley Krippner, PhD
Olaf Gerlach-Hansen, MA
Dreams and an ecological age by 2050
1. Ecology and Dreams and "Back to Nature"
Parts of the ecological movement were for many years criticized for pushing a backwards "back to nature" romantic ideology. The same has been seen in the dream movement. One very well known example is the so called "Senoi controversy," where the "Senoi dream theory" by Kilton Stewart and his followers likewise has been criticized by Bill Domhoff for perpetuating a romantic, false "back to nature" view of the life of the Senoi tribe in the Malaysian jungle in the early 1940s. "Back to nature" has also been an element in the strong interest in shamanistic and related views of dreams and dreaming according to my own experience.
2. Ecology today: Bio-mimicry
With ecology now increasingly becoming mainstream, it’s interesting to observe how ecology paradigms are developing, and also relate to some of the issues being criticized in the past. The expanding field of bio-mimicry is exemplary in this context. It’s on the one side part of the ecological movement, and on the other side it also stands out as a paradigm increasingly being applied in science, education, and business.
Bio-mimicry celebrates nature, but it’s clearly not a "back to nature" paradigm. Bio-mimicry reconstructs reality and knowledge in reference to principles embedded in nature. The principles are formulated at a general level, and open to interpretation and investigation, not based on romantic beliefs or ideologies.
3. Dreams and Bio-mimicry
Theories and practices on dreams and dreaming deal with human consciousness in its wider relations with other humans, nature and the universe. Accordingly, it’s not surprising that dream theories have dealt extensively with nature: The most explicit are shamanistic dream paradigms, in addition to the Kilton Stewart’s Senoi-theory. But also all the main theories--Freud, Jung, the various transpersonal psychological theories, as well as contemporary research based theories such as Revonsuo’s "Threat Simulation" theory--have elements of "copying from nature" - "bio-mimicry" built into them.
4. Jung and biomimicry
Jungian dream theory has had major impact on dreamwork and theory and it may thus be of interest to compare it with biomimicry. Jungian thought, just like bio-mimicry, is based on loads of references to nature and natural phenomena and it is–in spite of what critics may say–defined in very general and open terms, which allows for interpretation and investigation.
The 9+10 bio-mimicry principles (listed below in footnote 1) outlined by Janine Benyeus in "Biomimicry" (1997, updated 2002) may be applied to dreams and dreaming, which I will do in my presentation, with reference to the Jungian framework.
5. Discussion
It’s evident that applying bio-mimicry principles to dreams creates problems. One reason is that the applied set of bio-mimicry principles are "normative" for "good ecological practice," but dreams and dreaming evidently do not necessarily follow normative principles for "good ecological practice.”
It may however be speculated whether dreams and dreaming do have a natural trend towards bio-mimicry, which however is affected by socialization. For example, dreams evolve as children grow from infants to become young adults–as seen for example in the number of animals counted, which is reduced over time, in particular after formal education starts. The dreams of adults might be considered as the result of the balance between bio-mimicry and socio-mimicry (socialization).
6. Future
At the UN Summit on Climate in Dec 2009, the global society is seeking to agree how by 2050 to have transformed the planet to enter an ecological age.
A final question is whether and how dreams and dreaming will change in a future ecological age perhaps by 2050, and whether bio-mimicry may give us an early insight into how this may unfold and be nurtured.
FOOTNOTE 1:
The bio-mimicry principles (Benyus p. 7) are:
1. Nature runs on sunlight
2. Nature uses only the energy it needs
3. Nature fits form to function
4. Nature recycles everything
5. Nature rewards cooperation
6. Nature banks on diversity
7. Nature demands local expertise
8. Nature curbs excesses from within
9. Nature taps the power of limits
Applied to business the bio-mimicry principles (Benyus p. 253-277) are:
1. Use Waste as a Resource
2. Diversify and Cooperate to fully use the Habitat
3. Gather and Use Energy Efficiently
4. Optimize rather than Maximize
5. Use Materials Sparingly
6. Don't Foul Their Nests
7. Don't Draw Down Resources
8. Remain in Balance with the Biosphere
9. Run on Information
10. Shop Locally
Dan Gollub
Speculations About Dream Control
Efforts to manipulate a factor or variable and observe the effect on dream content have been a focus of dream research. Efforts have also been undertaken to identify "exotic” (puzzling, unusual, extraordinary, or anomalous) dreams. This article proposes that mental exercises carried out in the falling-asleep period can affect both the content and quality of dreams. Four such exercises are described: 1. Examine your thoughts, and when you spot a positive thought whisper it aloud. 2. Think using words. Complete sentences are not necessary. Try to use relevant words in relation to important topics. 3. Try to produce consciousness you would want to share with another or others. That consciousness presumably will contain positive implications regarding your future efforts and/or intentions and also will involve a feeling of sociability or love. 4. Examine your thoughts, and when you identify a visual scenario which involves an adaptation contributing to a "win-win" situation, try to "beautify" that scenario. This presentation also suggests that attempts to assess the content and quality of dreams can be undertaken simultaneously with seeking to analyze the meaning of dreams.
Robert P Gongloff, MA
Now What? Living the Wisdom of the Dream
This is a logical extension to the workshop on determining themes I have presented at the past three conferences. Hopefully, many attendees will have attended those initiatory workshops or my morning dream groups. Addressing the point that dreams are coming to us to point out issues we need to be dealing with in waking life, participants will be given specific techniques on how to deal with those issues. This is called “honoring the themes of our dreams.” The basic method I will present makes use of what I call the Theme Matrix. This matrix provides twelve basic life activities or themes, twelve distinct groupings of human activity. It can be viewed in three ways: (1) as the 12 activities or aspects of life one may have an opportunity to experience every day, (2) the phases in any cyclical life journey, and (3) levels of consciousness. I will briefly explain the first two, but dwell heavily on the third, which I use as the basic technique for honoring the dream. I will explain how, if we look at the matrix as a model displaying levels of consciousness, we can apply a practice of working with higher levels to resolve issues identified by the themes of our dreams. For instance, if the theme of the dream has to do with self-identity or self-image, one can consider the second common core theme – personal resources/security/self-reliance – as providing clues about how to work with issues of self-identity in one’s waking life.
Participants will be presented with dreams and suggested themes that have been identified in previous workshops and dream groups. They will be offered suggestions as to how these themes apply using the Theme Matrix and will be asked to discuss their own views and opinions about these. They will be given the opportunity to discuss related situations from their own experience. Participants will also be encouraged to discuss specific actions they may take to honor their dreams in waking life. All this discussion will give them a deeper understanding of the matrix and how it may be applied to their personal dream study as well as their general psychological, social, and emotional development.
Robert P. Gongloff
Exploring the Heart of the Dream
Themes reflect the major issues going on in one’s life. A theme is the important message, idea, or perception that a dream is attempting to bring to your conscious mind. Following are some key questions one can ask to aid in determining the theme of a dream: What is the basic activity going on in the dream? What are the main characters doing in the dream? What is the major issue concerning the characters? What is the apparent or presumed motivation of the characters that causes them to act this way? Theme statements are best determined when they are personalized, stated in the present tense, and don’t just restate the words or actions from the dream.
Activities in which attendees will be encouraged to participate: Group participation will follow a modified Ullman/Taylor “if it were my dream” approach. Each group member wishing to explore a dream will present the dream to the group, without interruption. Group members will be given time to ask the dreamer for clarification on points in the dream. They will then offer suggestions on possible themes based on their versions of the dream, incorporating the techniques described above. The dreamer will then be invited to share group insights.
In many cases, determining the theme alone has been found to be sufficient for providing a good “aha” for the dreamer. Due to time constraints, it is my intent not to go any farther into the dream than the theme itself. Participants will be invited to share whether any of the suggested themes relate to waking life themes, but will be encouraged to go deeper into the dream (symbology, art work, etc.) at a later time.
In my experience working with dream study groups using my theme-oriented techniques, I have realized several benefits:
1. The dreamer gets to the core issues presented by the dream quickly.
2. The dream group tends to relate more to the dream rather than the dreamer, thus providing more safety for the dreamer.
3. The theme provides a context or framework within which the dream symbols can be explored.
Gary Goodwin, MA
Dreaming by Ages: Our dreams across our life
Panel participants: Michael Schredl, PhD; Patricia Garfield, PhD; Ernest Hartmann, MD; Gary Goodwin, MA
While we dream across our lifetime, the character of our dreams changes as we age. The various seasons of our lives offer differing dream themes and images, as well as differing types of nightmares. This panel will look across the our life span, showing us where we have come from, where we are now, and where we are going in our dream world.
How Children’s Dream Themes Differ from Adults’ Dream Themes
Patricia Garfield, PhD
Do dream themes of children differ substantially from those of adults? If so, how? In this paper, Dr. Garfield describes three major contrasts in dream themes and imagery between the two groups (including some examples from Federico Fellini’s recently published dream journals) and discusses their implications.
The Continuity Hypothesis of Dreaming
Michael Schredl, PhD
The continuity hypothesis of dreaming postulates that dreams reflect waking life quite directly. Since the everyday life changes across the lifespan, dream content is expected to change in a similar way. In a representative survey in Germany, we found that formal aspects of dreams like bizarreness and intensity of emotions do not change with age. The dream content findings of this study, however, clearly indicate differences between young persons and older persons, e.g., in respect to the ratio of male and female dream characters. In addition, older persons dream more often about relatives whereas younger people dream more often about friends, reflecting the differing daytime environment. Dreams of deceased persons increase also with age. All empirical findings support the above mentioned continuity hypothesis of dreaming.
Dr. Hartmann will lead the discussion on this panel and will make mention of his own dream journaling, observations in his studies, a future directions can take to further document the changes in our dreams across our life span.
Dale E. Graff, MS
Exploring the Psi Dreaming Process
An evaluation of information in psi dreams can provide insight into some aspects of the psi dream process. By developing a variety of psi target types, along with variations in protocol, and comparing the psi target content to the psi dream imagery, it is possible to make inferences about the source of the psi dream data, its space-time “location” and how it is presented to dream consciousness. This presentation summarizes some of the interim findings from recent projects and from multi-year investigations.
The variety of psi target types used in these long-term exploratory investigations were primarily pictures with a variety of content, that included natural scenes, architecture, abstract art such as impressionist and cubist, illusions, unusual scales, words and numbers or combinations of these. Distance between the psi participant and psi target varied from local areas to 8,000 miles.
Some psi and psi-dream targets had observers or senders; some did not and were double blind. Some were in the future, such as pictures in future news articles. The effects of variations in feedback were examined. Displacements of psi access of the wrong target sometimes occurred. In some instances, it was possible to infer how psi target information is reconstructed in the brain’s neuro-network sensory system. This suggested that an adaptive pattern recognition process is involved and that psi vision resembles mono-vision, not ordinary stereoscopic vision, and may be similar to processing performed by the retina. Other observations were that interpretation of what is accessed through the psi process for pictorial targets is dependent on an individual’s background, experiences and expectations. There were exceptions: words on pictorial material can provide meaning of the picture’s content.
Some theorists speculate that psi results from precognition of the future when feedback is received and that we are sending information back in time to ourselves from our future experiences, i.e., telepathy from the future. I discuss this concept and suggest that psi follows the path of easiest resonance, which can accommodate a variety of sources. I briefly review various concepts for psi dreaming and consider a collective global “mind” hologram with a projection feature, or psi as accessing an alternative future. Precognitions are probabilistic and do not forewarn of an unavoidable fate. We can take actions to avoid the precognition if necessary. Concluding remarks have suggestions for further psi dream process investigations and for psi dream application pursuits.
Nicole Gratton
DREAM INCUBATION – 10Principles to benefit from our sleep and practice dream incubation
1) Collaboration: Dreams are our best allies.
2) Compensation: Dreams balance our emotions.
3) Elimination: Dreams purify the mind.
4) Information: Dreams make sense of the day.
5) Intention: Dreams depend on our expectations.
6) Experimentation: Dreams offer a personal laboratory.
7) Communication: Dreams put us in contact with others.
8) Transformation: Dreams contribute to our personal development.
9) Intention: Dreams nourish our creativity.
10) Premonition: Dreams project us into the future.
Presentation summary
Among the many dream functions are some that help us to be more conscious of their importance in everyday life. These 12 different functions from dream activity reveal a principle that is in action. From that we can practice dream incubation with a list of statements related to the principle in action. Dream incubation is an active way to enter into relationship with our dreams. This practice to obtain guidance, resolve a problem, or even to heal various illnesses dates to antiquity.
In our day, it is also possible to practice dream incubation on our own thanks to autosuggestion, nourished by a sincere desire and a noble intention. The goal of dream incubation is to help obtain the maximum benefit from the principle that is in action according to the priority of the moment. We can then compose our own requests or dream statements in order to obtain results adapted to our needs. By inducing dreams in this way, we can find effective ways to take advantage of the multiple benefits of creative sleep.
