Title: Electric Dreams Volume 2 Number 6

File: Electric Dreams 2(6)

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Electric Dreams back issues are available to the public and

listed individually.

For an index of Articles and dreams on Electric Dreams,

See the IIDCC Research Tools area.

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Electric Dreams

Volume 2 Issue #6

15 April 1995

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--Back issue and the FAQ available via anonymous FTP at

sppc1952.uwsp.edu

-- Also available via America On Line:

Keyword: writers

\writers club library

\writers club e-zines

--For mailing list info, subscriptions, dreams and comments

send to Cathy: <cathy@cassandra.ucr.edu>

--General comments, articles and ideas to Richard:

<RCWilk@aol.com>

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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:

Editors' Notes & Day Residue

Core Group Invitation Still Open!

Questions & Answers Person Position Open!

Article/Review: John Herbert and the Internet Group

Dreamwork -by Richard Wilkerson and John Herbert

==== Special Section: Dream Recall ====

Questions and Answers - Favorite Recall methods Contest

Article: On the Tips our Tongues: Clues from Dreaming

Research to Enhancing Control and Understanding

of Dream Recall - by Richard Catlett Wilkerson

Article: Encouraging Dream Recall - by Henry Reed

Article: Developing Dream Recall - by Jill Gregory

Dream: "My Missing Son" by Pricilla

Commentary: on "My Missing Son" by jay

Commentary : on "My Missing Son" by Marton

Commentary: on "My Missing Son" by Bob C.

Commentary: on "The Small Cat" by Karen

Commentary: on "The Late Train" by Bob C.

Dream: "The Recurring Nightmare" by Flare

Dream: "Flying Lessons for Kevin" by Richard

Commentary: on "Flying Lessons for Kevin" by

Bob C.

Reply to Bob C. on "Flying Lessons..." by Richard

Dream: "My Dream World" by Teeto

Dream Resources

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EDITORS' NOTES AND DAY RESIDUE

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What, can't remember any dreams to send in to us? This is

the Electric Dreams issue for you! After my quick look at

how dream research might give us clues to recall, Henry

Reed sends us a note on intention and recall and Jill

Gregory has donated 21 collected tips on remembering

dreams. If that's not enough, we are collecting our

favorite dream recall methods and giving a prize for the

best! Also, check out the work of John Herbert, dreamwork

pioneer on the Internet and find out how it all came about.

And of course, dreams, dreams, dreams...

Core Group Invitation!

While anyone who wishes may comment on dreams, we do

circulate the dreams before publication among a core group

who simply send their comments in to Cathy sometime before

publication. As we move deeper into this project of

multiple comments on dreams, the need for multiple comments

becomes more important. And so we are offering an

invitation this month to join our core group. Anyone

interested may contact Cathy or me.

Question & Answer position open!

Matthew is taking a break to focus on his education. He

won't have time to contribute for awhile, he will still be

with us, lurking around late at night between cups of old

coffee, piles of old journals and morning deadlines.

Our many thanks to you, Matthew, for answering our

questions and for all the experimental inspirations.

This leaves the Q&A position open for someone who is

either knowledgeable about dreaming or/and has good

research skills. You will be paid twice what Cathy and I

make (lets see 0 x 2 = hmmm, feel good about yourself?) but

even better, you are free to expand and create the column

as you wish. As a matter of fact, if anyone has a regular

column they would like to experiment with, feel free to do

so while Electric Dreams is still a free public service.

--Richard

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John Herbert and the Internet Group Dreamwork

By Richard Wilkerson and John Herbert

=============================================

I had heard about the work John Herbert last year through

the grassroots dream grapevine, but hadn't been able to

track him down on the Net. Finally, he found me and I had

a chance to go through two of his groups, one as a

commentator and the other using one of my dreams. I feel

John's work, both at the Seniornet on AOL and his many

other projects in the last few years, provide a core model

and background support for the emerging communities of

concerned dreamers on the Net. The background support comes

from his research on CMC (computer mediated

communications)vs Face-to-Face dream groups and his

findings suggesting that many aspects of dreamwork work

just as well with CMC and some aspects are even superior.

The point here is not to set up a competition between the

two. John has a great deal of experience with face-to-face

groups and highly values them. What I see as valuable in

his project is the process of differentiating just what

*is* better mediated by CMC and Face-to-Face and building

on what we learn.

While I want to describe my experience with this kind of

Net group dreamwork and compare this to Face-to-Face and

other Net dreamwork, my main goal here (beyond giving John

Herbert's work some exposure and attention) is to stimulate

our imaginations and inspire ever new forms of experimental

dreamsharing. But first a short history I asked John to

provide for us:

From John Herbert:

Most of my professional life has been associated with

aviation, but my introduction to group dream work started

with an Edgar Cayce group in New York in the 1960's. I

later attended one term at the C.G.Jung Institute in

Zurich, which started my serious work with dreams. My

desire to learn more about dreams and research led me to

back to school, first at San Francisco State Univ.

(M.A.Psychology, 1970) and recently to a Doctoral program

in Psychology at Saybrook Institute (San Francisco), where

I was introduced to Montague Ullman's "If it were my dream"

approach by Stanley Krippner, who has been my major mentor.

Progressively, I became more active in face-to-face group

dreamwork; I have studied under Ullman and have moderated

FTF groups for several years.

I became aware, however, of the changing modes of

communication available to the electronic community and I

wanted to find out if it might be possible to conduct group

dream work on electronic BBSs. As part of the research for

my dissertation, I have done test groups on the Internet

(alt.dreams), Delphi, Compuserve, the WELL, and America

OnLine. Group Dreamwork is currently being conducted on

AOL in the Seniornet sector\Communities Message area\Group

Dream Work topic. I have over 3500 of my own dreams stored

in electronic format, and I have been able to use them for

research, documenting how dream metaphors have commented on

various life situations. J.H.

Reflections on the Seniornet Dreamgroup & Ideas - by

Richard Wilkerson

I enjoyed both of the groups I participated in and as I

mentioned I was a commentator in one and a dream sharer in

the other. The process is much like alt.dreams, only much

more intimate. If you are not familiar with the alt.dreams

newsgroup, you can subscribe to that via Usenet. In John's

version there were about 5 participants in each group who

signed up anonymously and the group lasted under two weeks.

The group was guided through the steps of the process by a

mediator who chose the dream from the list of submissions

and the process generally ran as follows: After the dream

was posted, the participants were asked for clarifications

only. The dreamer responded, but didn't have too. The next

phase began with the participants being encouraged to

comment in the "If this were my dream" style originated by

Montague Ullman, and made popular and developed by Stanley

Krippner, Jeremy Taylor and others. The dreamer chose to

limit the replies, but was encouraged to the comments as he

or she wished. End group.

There was a subtle but delightful shift that occurred in

me emotionally that had to do with the reflective process,

the give and take, question and answer. I often feel this

in Face-to-Face (FtF) groups too, but there is a difference

in that I get a chance to reflect longer before I respond

in the CMC groups. Which is the better mediator of skills

and insight over time? There is something about the CMC

experience that is "light" and ephemeral. I've had to look

up responses to my dreams over and over, as I keep

forgetting things I wanted to remember. With FtF groups,

things stick a little better for me personally. But this

may indicate that CMC may have and inherent, excellent

self regulation valve. One of the mutual projects John and

I share with dreams as well as internet is the valuing of

self-empowerment, and the lightness of the medium allows

for more personal self regulation.

What this experience has led me to is the possibility for

using Electric Dreams as an experimental ground for

miniature groups that meet and organize on Electric Dreams

and then go off to conduct a more private and personal

experiments and then return to the EDreams community with a

report or summary and suggestions for new mini-groups. We

are trying one of those now and will have some results for

you next issue. If you are interested in being in one of

these groups or would like to suggest and mediate your own,

feel free to send in a request. We are trying a Round Robin

approach now, but I can think of many interesting

variations. What, for example, would happen if we, as a

small group, began visiting other realms and domains on

internet? We could conduct a group on alt.dream, going

about our process, but allowing other in too. We could sign

up on mail list, like Imagination or Gestalt, and do a

small workshop with them. Perhaps we have a Telnet expert

who could help link us together at a specific time, or use

the IRC on internet for a real time meeting. Send me some

ideas and requests. Lets play. -Richard

For more on John Herbert's Seniornet group or other work,

send your email to him at <Jherbert@aol.com>

========================================

SPECIAL SECTION: DREAM RECALL

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: RECALL CONTEST!

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Recall Contest! No, its not how many dreams you can

recall, but a contest for the most original recall method.

Winners to be judged by votes from subscribers. The Prize:

I'm still working on it. I think its going to be a world

dreaming tee shirt. Just send me your favorite methods and

in June we will print them all and you can vote. Staff

welcome to participate too.

One of my favorites is having *everything* ready for the

next day before I go to bed. I mean really ready, clothes

and even socks picked out and un-balled, one each of my

shoes. Breakfast pre-prepared and ready to microwave.

Glasses, watch and keys laid out.

I've already gotten some good ones- thank-you, your names

are in the contest pot - but I'm not giving any more away.

-Richard

=========================================================

ARTICLES:

=========================================================

On the Tips our Tongues: Clues from Dreaming Research to

Enhancing our Control and Understanding of Dream Recall.

by Richard Catlett Wilkerson

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The purpose of these essays is to explore how we can build

our dreaming recall skills by an exploration of the last 50

years of dream research on recall. I want to mention that

many informed dreamers see no need to increase the number

or quality of dreams or build recall skills, and I just

want to say that this essay is not placing a political or

psychological value on recall, but on the self empowerment

that comes from informed choices and options. All of the

techniques offered might also be reversed to decrease dream

recall and may thereby be of relevance to nightmare

sufferers as well as dreamers who are seeking more dreams.

============================================

Part I: Research on Dream Recall and Repression.

With the discovery of REM sleep and its connection with

dreaming by Aserinsky and Kleitman in the 1950's, empirical

sleep research gave birth to a new child, the study of

dreams by respectable scientific researchers. Now, 40 years

later, what have we learned? As often happens, the

researchers are now beginning to confirm what the motivated

dreamer has always known, that the more interest you show

towards your dreams, the more you have.

Still, since our hard earned tax dollars went into this

research, maybe we can get a little more from them than

just the official go-ahead to keep being interested.

Generally, dream recall research looks at issues of

*content* or *process*. The content theories include:

salience (novelty, bizarreness, affectfulness, or

intensity), its opposite - dream disorganization (to

chaotic to be remembered), interference (example: body

movements disrupt recall), disinterest in dreams, and

repression. The process theories are mostly memory-

process oriented, with the inclusion of arousal theories,

state dependent learning and the new neural net

connectionist theories.

In this essay, we are going to look at the most commented

on and least clear reason for dream recall failure, the

content theory of repression.

Due to the strong influence of psychodynamic dream theory,

a major reason postulated for the lack of dream recall is

that dreams contain things we just don't want to remember.

This is content that the waking self just can't handle or

would cause too much distress if remembered. This dream

material is referred to as ego toxic. This follows from

Freud's notion that dreams are mediating desires that are

pushing for expression and attention and counter forces

keeping those thoughts and impulses from disturbing the

sleeper. Most of the content is disguised before reaching

consciousness, but some gets kept away from the waking ego

altogether. Hence the memory loss. Or at least, this is the

theory.

The clinicians feel that the notion is useful and the

process easily observed over time. New patients recall less

dreams. As patients begin to show other signs of less

resistance to the material that the dream content is

displaying, more of this dream content shows up. The higher

the repression, the lower the content. However, these ideas

are more anecdotal clinical observations than tested

research.

One approach to testing this is by using different

personality measures. Types that use repression as a

defense ought to have less dreams to report, right? The

most popular method has been to test field-dependent types

against field-independent types. Generally, field-

independent types are internally cued; they eat and sleep

when they feel tired or hungry and generally don't repress

or delay their desires if possible. Field-dependent

individuals are externally cued and eat and sleep (for

example) according to an external schedule and use

something like repression/suppression on internal demands

and cues.

Yet the tests are mixed and not really convincing that it

made any big difference what type of field-dependency you

had, though there is a suggestion that field independent

people recall dreams a little better. One interesting

notable group. These were field-dependent people who

generally didn't remember dreams if allowed to awaken in

their usual way, but did remember many more dreams when

abruptly awakened from REM sleep. It seems the break in

their routine allowed for dream recall to increase. So, if

you are a person who lives by an external schedule and you

want to remember more of your dreams, you might try setting

your alarm at random wake up times or have your schedule

interrupted by someone else. Also, if we were to act on

this little evidence of field-independence being of some

help in recall, we might take it upon ourselves to become

more internally cued.

Finally, its not at all clear that field-dependence lack

of dream recall has anything to do with repression.

This same mixed results problem was found with personality

tests using the Convergent vs Divergent personalities. Are

your better on multiple choice tests that have one right

answer (convergents are better on these) or loose ended

essay questions (divergent personalities)? There is some

indication that divergent personality types recall dream

more frequently, but slight indications only.

More Personality tests in relation to repression results:

Rorschach index of repressive styles:

In women, the repressors had less dreams.

But in men, just the *opposite* was found.

For those of you more interested in the gender issue, David

Cohen did a study on recall and sex role orientation (1973)

where the issue of gender was shifted to that of sex role

orientation. I'm sure the masculine/agency and

feminine/communion connections would now be challenged, but

it is probably a positive alternative to explaining the

above Rorschach results on gender issues.

Repression-relevant questionnaire scales:

(repression-sensitization, anxiety, neuroticism, ego

strength)

A couple, yes, many studies, no.

Is the problem that these studies didn't control for

interest and salience, (the two major factors for

predicting dream recall), is personality in general just

not a very good predictor of dream recall, or what? Many

researchers now feel that it isn't. But what about

repression in general? Can it still be said to be playing

a role if all the personality measures we use to test for

it don't give us any differences between individuals

recalling dreams?

There are a group of studies that use pre-sleep stress

conditions. They predicted that the pre-sleep stress would

bring on repression and less dream recall, which is exactly

what happened. But it is often pointed out that this may

also be due to the distraction of attention upon awakening,

which also produces dream recall failure. Still, for those

of us interested in modulating recall, the choice of the

evening's entertainment can be experimented with as a

personal factor.

A now famous study (Whitman, Kramer, Baldridge, 1963) had

subjects report dreams both in a laboratory setting and to

therapists. The subjects often withheld dreams from one

while telling the other. Sometimes the therapist, sometimes

the lab recorder. Its not clear if they consciously

withheld or repressed the reports. But for us, we might

consider that *who* we share our dreams with may alter our

recall.

Cultural repression is such a big issue that I'd like to

unfold these ideas in another essay. But I do want to note

that I feel this is a large factor in recall. I haven't

seen any cross-cultural studies on this in particular, but

there are many anthropological studies that talk about the

common practice of daily dreamsharing of various culture's

were the parents do more than we who tell our children "Its

just dream, dear, go back to sleep."

Summarizing the repression study clues for recall.

Generally, it seems that repression plays a role, but just

how it works is not at all clear. Therapies and activities

we take up that reduce our repressive habits could increase

our recall. Becoming more internally cued and allowing for

more divergent activities looks like a possibility.

Reducing anxiety before bedtime may decrease anxious images

that could lead to a repressed dream. Not always telling

our dreams to the same person(s) or internal person(s)

might open up new channels of dreams that would be

repressed by our habits of dreamsharing to just one real or

imaginary person. Included in this may be re-visioning our

inner mothers to tell us when we have a dream something

like "Oh, boy, that's a great dream, tell me more!"

And this may also lead us in another important direction.

If we learn to engage anxiety and imaginal fear a little

more, we will be able to have alternatives to just pushing

odd and stressful things away. It is a useful basic

strategy to delay and set aside stressors, but not a long

term solution to everything. And so, one approach, like the

child who is encouraged to tell or draw a dream, is to do

so ourselves. Different forms of storytelling and

dreamsharing may allow us to play with material that

otherwise might be too toxic and forgotten as useless.

I feel I have but barely touched upon the idea of dreams

and repression by going through a general summary of the

empirical research. For one thing, we have focused only on

*amount* and not on *quality* of recall. But more

important than putting out a perfect summary I wanted to

show that we could as individuals use the available

research to our advantage.

In the next essay I want to move through the other content

oriented theories of dream recall, focusing especially on

salience and how dreams that are seen as vivid, interesting

and self-involving are the best content predictors of

recall.

A short Bibliography for Dream Recall Research & Cited

articles:

Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1953). Regularly occurring

periods of eye motility, and concommitant phenomena,

during sleep. _Science_, 118(3026), 273-274.

Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1955). Two types of ocular

motility occurring in sleep. _Journal of Applied

Physiology_, 8(1), 1-10.

Cohen, David B. (1979). _Sleep and Dreaming: Origins,

Nature and Functions_. New York: Pergamon Press.

--------. (1974a). Toward a theory of dream recall.

_Psychological Bulletin_, 81(2), 138-154.

--------. (1974b). To sleep, perchance to recall a dream.

_Psychology Today_, 7(12), May, 50-54.

--------. (1974c). Presleep mood and dream recall. _Journal

of Abnormal Psychology_, 83(1), 45-51.

--------. (1973). Sex role orientation and dream recall. _

Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, 82(2), 246-252.

Cohen, D. & Wolfe G. (1973). Dream recall and repression:

Evidence for an alternative hypothesis. _Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology_, 41(3), 349-355.

Freud, Sigmund. (1900/1953). The Interpretation of Dreams.

Standard Edition, 4&5 London:Hogarth Press.

--------. (1965; first published 1900). _The Interpretation

of Dreams._ James Strachey (Trans.). New York: Avon

Books.

Goodenough, Donald R. (1991). Dream recall: History and

current status of the field. In : Ellman, Steven J. &

Antrobus, John S. (Eds). (1991). _The Mind in Sleep:

Psychology and Psychophysiology._ 2nd editon. New

York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Goodenough, D., Witkin, H. A., Lewis, H. B. Koulack, D.

Cohen, H.(1974). Repression, interference and field

dependence asfactors in dream forgetting. _Journal of

Abnormal Psychology_, 83(1), 32-44.

Gregory, Jill (1988) _Dream Tips_ Novato, CA: Novato Center

for Dreams.

Moffitt, A., Kramer, M., Hoffmann, R. (Eds.). (1993). _The

Function of Dreaming._ NY: State University of New

York Press.

Reed, Henry (1995). Encouraging dream recall. _Electric

Dreams_ 2(6), electronic page index.

Tonay, Veronica K. (1993). Personality correlates of dream

recall: Who remembers? _Dreaming,_ 3(1), 1-8.

Van De Castle, R. L. (1994). Our Dreaming Mind. New York:

Ballantine Books.

Whitman, R., Kramer, M., & Baldridge, B. (1963). Which

dream does the patient tell? _Archives of General

Psychiatry_, 8, 277-282.

=========================================

Encouraging Dream Recall- by Henry Reed

=========================================

If you don't remember your dreams, it's because of neglect,

not neurological oneirotic retardation (N.O.R., or lack of

dreams),according to Cayce. A simple confirmation of his

suspicion comes from a recent study reported to the

Association for the Study of Dreams. Gorgon Halliday, a

psychologist in Ohio, found that simply encouraging someone

to remember their dreams was helpful in stimulating dream

recall. In his study, involving patients just entering

therapy, he treated people in one of two ways: (1) He asked

them if they remembered their dreams; (2) he suggested that

they try to remember a couple of dreams for the following

week, explaining that dreams could help the therapy. The

second week, he asked all patients if they remembered any

dreams. Patients whom he had previously encouraged to

remember dreams recalled more dreams than the patients whom

he merely questioned about their dream recall. The

difference was more than two to one.

If you want to remember your dreams, find someone who is

willing to ask you about them. Make a commitment to tell

that person your dreams each day. See if that doesn't

help. For more information, write to Gorgon Halliday at the

Center for Individual and Family Service, 741 Scholl Rd.,

Mansfield, OH 44907.

[Source: ASD Newsletter, May/June, 1990]

==========================================

Developing Dream Recall - By Jill Gregory

==========================================

1. Keep a pad of paper and pen and a couple of pencils by

your bed.

2. throughout the day, remind yourself that you want to

remember a dream.

3. When you go to bed, relax your body and review the day;

events, thoughts and feelings. Ask yourself what changed

for your today. What was surprising, confusing,

disappointing, wonderful, scary, sad, ect.? What was new?

4. As you are getting close to falling asleep, repeat over

and over, "when I wake up, I will remember my dream." A

physical "trigger" along with the verbal suggestion

often helps, i.e. pressing your thumb against each finger

as you say each word of the suggestion.

5. If you remember a dream during the night, write it down

(at least notes) right away.

6. When you wake up in the morning, don't move! Stay in

your same position, relax your body and let your mind drift

closer to your dream. Remind yourself that you want to

remember your dream. Shutting your eyes may help.

7. Write down whatever you remember right away so you're

not trying to remember that material while trying to recall

new material. Or , review the parts of your dream in your

mind once or twice before recording.

8. If you have no recall for a couple of weeks, write down

any made-up daydreams or fantasies.

9. When memories are coming quickly, jot notes about each

part. Do not worry about sequence.

10. When something is hard to describe in words, make a

quick sketch.

11. When you have exhausted the recall in that body

position, move slowly to another body position that feels

natural. See if your can remember anything else. If so,

write it down.

12. When you can't remember any new material, review

whatever you have written. Sometimes that will trigger

forgotten parts. Ask yourself questions about it. Some

sample questions are: "Which side was it on? What color was

it? How many were there? How do I feel about that? how far

away was it?"

13. This is a good time for putting the parts in sequence.

Don't worry about how you got from one scene to another.

Dreams often just jump.

14. As soon as you have time, write your dream. Make up a

title and write the date.

15. If you are unable to recall any images, just experience

your feeling. Each morning

when you wake up, you feel a little bit different. Give

that feeling some space. It is, at least in part, the

effect of your dreams.

16. Keep your dream in the back of your mind during the

day. Does something remind you of your dream? Ponder your

images. This helps you to feel more connected to your

dreams.

17. Whatever you recall, treasure it. Your dream images are

perfect! With practice, you

will develop your ability to recognize their perfection.

18. Create an image of yourself recalling your dreams. If

trying to remember dream scenes feels like fishing, then

see yourself fishing when your are recalling dreams. Other

images: open container lids to see if anything is inside,

play a TV game show, pull in ropes with dream scenes

attached to the other ends, or run a movie backwards

slowly. Find your own image.

19 Be clear as to why you want to remember your dream. Tell

yourself during the day, "I want to remember my dream

because..."

20. Tell your dream to someone (person, pet, doll or

yourself in mirror).

21. When your images are fading fast: a. Strobe Effect -

Instead of trying to ignore waking stimuli allow your

awareness to flash, briefly and rapidly, back and forth

between the dream imagery and the waking stimuli until the

dream imagery is firmly fixed in your memory.

b. Let It Go - Intentionally let the dream go, telling

yourself that it will return to you within a few minutes

and you will catch it.

c. Let It Go Longer - Let the dream go. During the day, if

you find yourself thinking of your dream, try to remember

other parts of the dream at that point.

d. Synchronicity - During the day you may encounter some

element of your dream. At that point you can sometimes

recall other parts of your dream.

e. Incubation - Ask for a dream that will give you the

forgotten dream material.

f. Lucidity - If, while dreaming, you become aware that

you're dreaming, you can ask to recall forgotten dream

material.

Gregory, Jill (1988) Developing Dream Recall. In _Dream

Tips_ (pp. 8-9). Novato, CA: Novato Center for Dreams.

A full copy of _Dream Tips_ is available for $10.00 via

snail mail at:

Novato Center for Dreams

%Jill Gregory

PO box 28

Novato, CA 94948

=========================================

DREAMS AND COMMENTS

=========================================

Dream: "My missing Son" by Pricilla

Note by Pricilla: I don't know maybe it was the spicy pizza

that I ate before bed but this dream really shocked me and

the feelings are still within me.

Okay, the dream is kind of foggy to me but I do remember

that my son A. was declared missing, I cried for hours.

Explain this to me please!!

======comments by jay on pricilla's "my missing son"

dream======

did you cry in the dream or waking life? who declared your

son missing?

is there a sense in which you are losing or missing your

son? or your sun? or something within yourself similar to

your son or sun?

======Comments by Marton on Pricilla's "My Missing Son"

Dream======

If it were my dream, I would think that either it is a

precognitive dream or symbolic. If it is symbolic, the son

represents some important for me which I have lost

temporarily. (Nothing is lost for ever.) I cry for him, he

is very close for me. I would ask a question what happened

to me in the past three days which would be the same as

losing my son. There is a lot of emotions in the dream. Is

there someone who I regard as my symbolic son in my real

life? Or in my life, something changed so that it made

impossible for my inner son to manifest. I would find ways

to communicate with the dream figure: I would use active

imagination and ask him why he is lost. Do I neglect him

but I do not realize it?

======Comments by Bob C. on Pricilla's "My Missing Son"

Dream======

Not much to go on, but it would appear that something of

major importance is missing from the dreamer's life;

(perhaps a recent relationship that the dreamer is or wants

to nurture)? As always, if the dreamer disagrees with the

above interpretation, then it is wrong. Only the dreamer

knows.

======Comments by Karen on "The Small Cat"======

(See ED vol. 2 #5)

Here are some of my thoughts, when viewing this *as

if it were my own dream*. As always, this is my projection

on the dream. Only the dreamer knows its true meaning.

This dream seems to be showing me that my coping mechanism

of acknowledging only the positives is beginning to feel

constraining. I am experiencing life halfway. (This isn't

a judgement -- coping is necessary.)

The magician, through force of will, contains and

controls my life by internalizing experience and

manipulating it to an acceptable form. This shows great

power of will, but there is not much life in my city.

When I ground myself and come out in the open, a

lesson in duality is quickly offered. (Wolves are teachers

in the Native American tradition, and the number two is

dualism. Also note all the opposites in this dream, listed

below.) The transformation of one wolf into a contained

chicken meal seems to symbolize my avoidance of

confrontation that can cheapen experience (chicken,

chicken feed). While one wolf becomes food, the other

becomes a skeleton -- the "skeleton at the feast" bringing

gloom to a festive occasion. I also see the wolf images

as "the wolf at the door".

I use my magical powers to convert the two large

canines into two small felines. I minimize/reduce the

situation by turning the negatives to positives, making

the situation is now manageable. However, I only retain

half the experience (symbolized by keeping one cat, and

giving away the other).

The dream shows spiritual progress in that the

wolves are brought back to life, rather than left for

dead. This means to me that I am willing to deal with

them, but I must transform them into something palatable

and deal with them indirectly for now.

(Opposites in this dream: flying/grounded, inner

world/outer world, large canine/small feline, meat/bones,

life/death, keep/give, mental/physical, active/passive)

======Comments by Bob C. on "The Late Train" Dream======

(See ED vol. 2 #5)

The dreamer is off on a journey alone. It is late

(in a relationship/friendship)? The dreamer seeks to avoid

extremes. She sits in the middle of the train, all alone.

She keeps getting 911 (police emergency number) calls on

her beeper, which she believes are from her friend Jason,

but she can't connect with him (which may be a problem in

the dreamer's conscious life and possibly a problem that is

the source of the dream). A human phone operator is trying

to help the dreamer connect with Jason. Possibly the

operator is a symbol of a mutual friend in the dreamer's

conscious life who is trying to facilitate communication

between the dreamer and Jason. In any event, the operator

doesn't succeed.

The weather is terrible outside the train, but the

dreamer is thinking of braving the elements to find Jason.

This may symbolize the dreamer's willingness to put herself

through considerable discomfort in order to reestablish

communication with Jason. A door opens and Jason appears.

He is as protected as the dreamer in a trench coat and hat.

He sits opposite the dreamer, which may mean he is in

opposition to some aspect of the relationship/friendship.

She keeps calling his name and he keeps briefly looking up

and then back down at a textbook. This may indicate the

dreamer feels Jason "hides" in intellectual interests or

pursuits.

The dream ends when Jason calls the dreamer's name.

The end may be "wish fulfillment." It would appear that

the dreamer and Jason are having serious problems

communicating, possibly because both find it necessary to

protect themselves and will not allow themselves to be

vulnerable in the relationship/friendship.

If the dreamer disagrees with the above

interpretation, then it is wrong. Only the dreamer knows.

======Dream : "The Recurring Nightmare" by Flare======

Background for this dream: a little background is in order

... when I was 15 years old, I was dating this guy who

was 18 at the time. One night, when were out late, he was

practicing with his band, we went outside to get in his

car and all of a sudden, another car pulled out of nowhere

and shot my boyfriend. We had been dating for a year and

a half. He died within minutes, before the ambulance

could get there...

THE RECURRING DREAM: THIS DREAM HAPPENS EVERY OCTOBER

10TH, THE NIGHT, OR SHALL I SAY MORNING THAT HE DIED.

THE DREAM GETS LESS VIVID EVERY YEAR. THE DREAM ONLY

HAPPENS ON OCT. 10TH.

In this dream, I am standing on a street corner.

It is very dark and everything appears in black and white

at first. I stand there in the cold and watch as a young

couple walks out of a building. There is a man there and

a young girl, about 15 years old. Soon, I realize that the

girl is me and that the young man is my boyfriend.

Startled, I walk towards them. Just as I am about the

reach them, a car's headlights turn on and there is a lot

of gunfire, the first sound made in the dream. But, the

gunfire seems very hollow and muted. The lights on the

car, however are very bright, they blind me.

At this point, the dream snaps into color and the

sound is very clear. I can hear myself screaming, both me

and the one that I can see in the dream. I guess you

could say the one who is stuck back there in time, at that

particular moment. I notice the jacket that my boyfriend

is wearing has turned dark red with blood. The white shirt

I was wearing that night turns bright red. I also notice

that I am wearing a long, black trench coat. The same one

in the dream "The Late Train". (See ED vol.2 #5)

I start running down the street. Anywhere and in

any direction to get me away from that scene. I look

across the street and see the dim shadow of an animal

running beside me. I don't know what it was, but it

looked like a large dog of some kind. I stop to rest and

at that moment, the dog on the other side of the street

sits down and howls into the night sky. That is where the

dream ends every time.

====Commentary on "The Recurring Nightmare" by Richard====

This dream is presented to us as a trauma dream, which is a

very special category of dreams. For a long time it was

felt that the repeating trauma dream was the limit of

dreaming. It was the one thing that the dreaming process

just couldn't play with and come up with the strange and

odd variations common to most dreams, even most nightmares.

This research comes mostly from the Combat traumas,

especially after the Vietnam war. However, it has been

found that dream sharing combined with professional

attention is a very effective in the reparation of

traumatic psychic structures. Alan Siegel, who worked with

the trauma victims of the Oakland fire, has found that the

survivors whose houses *were not* destroyed suffered even

more than those who lost their homes, and I'm sure this can

be applied to other survivors as well. One of the keys to

the return of creative variation to repetitive dreams came

from the act of sharing the dream in groups with other

community members. And so, I want to thank you, Flare, for

sharing this dream and rather than interpret or even really

comment on it, I just want to give the dream some attention

by taking it on as if it were my own and sharing my

thoughts and feelings.

As I enter this as my dream, I am at a dark intersection

of my life without even knowing it. I see myself and my

boyfriend and feel surprised, confused, separated from

myself. I observe my own identity and relationship with him

come out of a complex, something built that housed or held

them/us. As I approach my identity an unknown vehicle

illuminates the situation. The silence is broken as hollow,

muted, violent, deadly projectiles spew from the vehicle

that appeared when I approached my separated self. The

situation is so bright it is painful, and what was once a

black and white consciousness is now the full spectrum, so

piercing I scream, my separate self screams, and for a

moment we are one again. So bright it blinds me and I am

again in darkness.

When my vision returns, I first notice the blood soaked

clothes, the now destroyed protective clothing and skin by

which I knew him, by which he expressed himself. And my own

white blouse, my pure and vulnerable self now turned to red

and covered by a protective coating that re-occurs in my

dreams, a coat that may only occur in my dreams, but which

I must now wear. As I run I notice my animal shadow appear

and shadow runs with me, though across on the other side of

the path built for human vehicles. I become aware of the

need to rest from fleeing from the deadly situation and

death of him and terror of it, the horror of it. I stop. My

shadow animal stops across the path humans have made and it

cannot cross to reach me, but can rest with me. Into the

darkness that is too infinite to escape me, it howls, it

howls.

Thank you Flare for reaching down into the darkness and

sharing this dream..

======"Flying Lessons for Kevin" by Richard======

Kevin and I are wandering around, like we did as

kids. We come upon a rich women's house and go in through

the double French doors off a porch. We can't seem to find

the woman, but there is a sense of her. I seem to know or

feel she is, hmmm, that she is in her early 40's and kind

of reminds me of the film star Ann Bancroft, perhaps living

alone. We find our way upstairs to a room and are playing

around, exploring the room, talking, playing kick the can

with something in her room. I begin to fly. I recognize

this as a skill I've developed over time and experiment

with it. I seem to be able to control the flying better

than usual and rise 30 or 40 feet, near the ceiling. Its a

very high ceiling. Kevin mentions to me that he would like

to learn how to do that in this dream state. I'm a little

surprised as usually he ignores my flying and doesn't see

the wonderfulness in it that I do.

I land and tell him I can teach him but warn that

it will require that he go into that very spot he hates to

go. While saying this I'm thinking the spot is boredom.

But after he says, "Well, I'm willing to go there a little

bit," I think the spot he must traverse is anxiety. I

begin to instruct him, but as I haven't taught anyone

before, I have to begin by describing my subjective state.

I say that I make my head very light, and he immediately

says, "Well, *that* makes sense.". I begin to wonder just

how *do* I hold my anxiety and boredom and how to teach him

to do the same.

-Gap-

Another person enters. A young women. She hangs out

with us for awhile. We leave, I remember kicking something

on the floor around. Unclear - a bag of shit, an empty

gasoline can, a foot long smelly fish - all and non of

these. We leave through the window and across a balcony and

down a rainspout or trestle or vines.

We wander around together. Later we return and

Kevin and the woman go into the room through the 2nd story

window, but when I enter I trip an alarm. The family shows

up below. We run and go to a crowded park. People are

hanging out in the park as if it were a beach. I look for a

spot for us to sit down. Its pretty muddy.

Richard's notes: I met Kevin when I was 12 yrs old, we are

still friends as I approach 40. All other places and people

unknown. The way I usually fly in dream is by simply

willing, not making my head light nor traversing anxiety

and boredom.

====== Comments by Bob C. on "Flying Lesson"======

The dreamer appears able to literally "get up" when

in the place or space of a woman around his own age, and is

even able to give instruction to a peer. But when it

comes to being around younger women, "something smells,"

i.e., gasoline, a fish and a bag of shit are all strong,

unpleasant odors. Kevin does somewhat better around the

younger woman. Whereas the dreamer has to teach Kevin how

to fly in the older woman's place or space, Kevin is quite

adept at "getting up" and through a second story window

with the younger woman. The dreamer, on the other hand,

"alarms" the family when he tries to enter. (Whose family

is the dreamer alarming?) Possibly the dreamer may be

thinking about having an affair with a younger woman, (and

possibly his friend Kevin or another peer is having such an

affair) but the dreamer is very concerned about the

consequences of such an affair being exposed. In "kicking

the idea around" the dreamer realizes that if such an

affair were to be exposed it would create "a real stink"

that would alarm the family.

If the dreamer disagrees with the above interpretation it

is wrong. Only the dreamer knows.

==== Richard's Reply to Bob. c. on "Flying Lessons..."====

I find the "getting up" comparisons useful and they lead me

emotionally to the place where, as you mentioned, the two

boys have something different to offer one another. The

offering is/are the ways of relating. I find that by being

able to switch back and forth between Kevin's way of

relating to the new/present/young and my way of relating to

the rich/absent/old I get to own the whole neighborhood

instead of having to just feel like a burglar in her house.

Both women mediate for me the journey into the unknown, but

one (my favorite and old rich path) leads further inward,

while the other leads out and to newer, social territories.

Those territories are not well carved out - muddy little

spots in the park, but they are workable. And I like the

possibility of the affair issue you brought up. Just as in

the "Graduate", the Mother/daughter is in play and choices

are forced upon me. Without Kevin, (or internally owning

Kevin) I can't have both and would be forced, like Dustin

Hoffman, to abandon one and steal the other. By owning my

inner Kevin, I may not get exactly what I want, but I can

learn to negotiate both worlds.

Thanks Bob c.

========================================================

======"My Dream World" by Teeto======

I call these dreams my dream world About 2 months

ago i had a dream about a big school, nothing too strange

about this dream. The next day i had a dream about a huge

lake with a forest next to it. Now here is where it gets

strange, on the third day the dreams seemed to connect with

each other: i left the school to go fishing. The next day

or soon after, i had another dream of this old house like a

summer home it was all by itself. The next day it also

connected with my other two dreams. My dreaming went on

like this one day a single dream; the next, connected to

the rest of dreams. It includes the lake, school, highway

which takes me to a big city, forest, a complex of

apartment buildings. IN these dreams my memory is intact of

my dream world. i know where i went, who i was with, what i

did--not everything, just certain things--like i leave my

poles for fishing in the weeds by the lake. in the summer

home, i have a closet full of things i want.

The people in these dreams seem very real: some are

my friends, some are strangers and a few strangers are my

friends. They usual do what they want--ignoring me or

telling me they got something to do (the strangers). Many

times there were cops in the first dreams, but i thought i

didn't do nothing wrong, and they haven't came back yet.

One more strange in the middle of all these dreams

i had a dream of a man standing next to me. He told me

something i cant remember, but with his hands he opened the

air like a curtain he put his hands out and just spread the

air inside was what i thought was energy, then i did the

same after a failed first try.

i still have the dream world dreams. the last one

was last night. there are so many dreams i had that i

cannot be detailed for i am new to this and do know what is

wanted but i will be more than happy to get into more

detail. plus i have been practicing dream control with a

mixture of mine, jane roberts (seth, channeled

consciousness),and a little of carlos castanada teachings

(the art of dreaming). i would love to here all thoughts on

this.

DREAM ON

==== Commentary on "My Dream World" by Richard ====

Yes, a great title for all this, Dream World. Its almost

like you are getting a special map of some kind. If these

were my dreams I would be interested in looking at this as

the beginning of my inner map. Here, The School, the place

I learn and teach and all the issues, playground and

friends that will be part of this experience. And over

here, the Fishing Pond, the place I go to relax and dip my

pole into the part of the unconscious that I've learned to

fish in, to get things from, or just to hang out with.

Maybe I just throw the fish back, maybe I occasionally feed

on them.

Most of the people seem to get along pretty well. If this

were my dream I would want to engage them more in my

projects, have them play soccer on the school playground,

go fishing with me and swap stories. I might have some

concern about the police and cops that surround the place.

What kind of boundaries, I ask myself, are they? Are they

protecting me as I feel they should or do I feel jailed and

hunted by them? If these were my dreams I would want to

know more about the man with the power gift. What might

that power be for? Just for fun? Creative uses? Healing?

Perhaps it is all the gifts that come out of thin air and

can be passed from one to another.

Teeto, I hope you pass us some more dream gifts. It

sounds like you dream life is at a very interconnected

place. Are you recording the details of these on paper or

recorder? Also, I'd like to hear more of the details of

how you have synthesized and put together some of the Seth

and Castanada techniques with your own.

Thanks for sharing your dream world. Richard

==========================================================

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DREAM RESOURCES

==========================================

IIDCC: The International Internet Dream Community Center

project is underway! If you interested in helping to build

a community resource, conference and project center on

internet, you can drop me a line, Richard Wilkerson, at

rwilkerson@igc.apc.org or for an automatic reply for more

information you can send an email to:

<iidcc-info@igc.apc.org>

Three Internet Papers at ASD 12!

Dan Cummings: "The dream of cyberspace: Mosaic-based

interface to the iternet:

Cynthia Pearson: "The dream index: Thanks to Bill Gates,

it's working"

Harold Ellis: "The Community Dream Sharing Network and the

regional Dream Switchboards"

The twelfth annual conference of the Association for the

Study of Dreams will be held in New York City June 20-2,

1995. Questions should be sent to the ASD Central Office in

Vienna, VA, USA (703) 242-0062 or phone/fax (703)242-8888.

Students can get in this year for only $85.00! Non-members

should register *before* May 1, and the price goes from

$245.00 to $295.00. Members save too.

Also, if you are interested in information on how to join

ASD and receive a quarterly journal _Dreaming_ , the

quarterly newsletter _ASD Newsletter_ and some cuts on

conference rates, just send your request snail mail to:

ASD P.O. Box 1600 Vienna, VA 22183

In a continuing joint effort, we are cross posting with

_Dream Network, a Quarterly Journal Exploring Dreams &

Myth._ Since 1982, They have been providing encouragement

to dreamers, information and networking services,

internationally. Each issue contains a section on The Art

of Dreamsharing & Dream Education, the Mythic Dimension

and articles which respond to Questions posed in the

previous issue. The classified section offers

dreams/readers the opportunity to initiate and engage in

research projects and to form or participate in existing

dream groups. Sample issue: $5.59/One Year/$22. Also

available, a 44 page booklet, The Art of Dreamsharing &

Developing Dream Groups that would enhance dreamplay on

Electric Dreams: $5 + $1 (P&H). For Information, email to

ossanah@delphi.com or subscribe via VISA, Mastercard, AmEx

: 1-800-To-1-DREAM (800-861-3732).

If you have something to post or run across addresses or

events related to dreaming on the net, Please send to my

address and we will share the information with everyone

else.

Richard <RCWilk@aol.com>

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Electric Dreams is an independent electronic

publication not affiliated with any other organization.

The views of our commentators are personal views and not

intended as professional advise or psychotherapy.

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