Title: Electric Dreams Volume 2 Number 2.1

File: Electric Dreams 1(2.1)

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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 #2.1

06 February 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 ezines

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

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

--Send questions about dreams & dreaming to Matthew:

<mettw@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au>

--General comments, articles and ideas to Richard:

<RCWilk@aol.com>

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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:

Editor's Notes & Day Residue

Questions and Answers - by Matthew

Focus Article: Henry Reed - Transforming Research into

Socially Responsible, Collaborative Personal Education

Article: Lets Sleep On It: Dream Answers via the

Incubation Approach. By Richard Catlett Wilkerson & Jill Gregory

Commentary: on Corydon's "An Exquisite Marble" by Cathy

Commentary: on Jay's "Dogs" by Bob

Reflections: by Jay on Comments on Jay's "Dogs"

Dream: "Slashed Smile" by Buffalo

Commentary: on Buffalo's "Slashed Smile" by Bob

Commentary: on Buffalo's "Slashed Smile" by Richard

Dream: "Vampire Conversion" by Richard

Commentary: on Richard's "Vampire Conversion" by Bob

Commentary: on Richard's "Vampire Conversion" by Jay

Reflections: "Reflections of a Vampire" by Richard

on comments by Bob & Jay

Dream: "The Door, The Limo and The TV" by Viking

Dream: "The Blue Potent" by Cathy

Commentary: on Cathy's "Blue Potion" by Jay

with notes by Cathy

Commentary: on Cathy's "Blue Potion Dream" by Bob

Commentary: on Richard's "Roman Ruins in the Cyclades"

by Cathy

Reflections: on Cathy's commentary.

Dream Resources

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Tagesreste - Day Residue

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Hello to our new guests from America On Line! We a have

a great issue this week for your pleasure. Do dreams have

solutions and answers? We are hoping to develop a wide

response to this, and this week we are focusing on Dream

Incubation, with history, how-to summaries and a focus

article on one of the major contemporary contributors and

researchers, Henry Reed. Please feel free to send your

own approaches and comments. And finally, one of the most

delightful and richly textured issues of dreams and

comments I've had the pleasure of reading, I hope you do

too.

-- Richard

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Questions and Answer

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-Send your Questions and answers to Matthew

<mettw@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au> Please include a copy of

thequestion when you send in a reply.

Question:

I'd like to reprint here part of a set of questions Jay

asks below on getting answers from dreams in hope we might

have some multiple and varied responses:

"One of my interests in dreams is the hope that they

might offer solutions to problems of mine. Mostly though,

it seems to me, my dreams offer statements of my problems,

but not a lot in the way of solutions."

Answer by Richard: Is this the issue for you or what? I

think the question of how to get answers from dreams is one

that needs to have multiple approaches. For me it brings up

a central issue in

dreamwork, which is by what authority do we interpret, and

who is the final authority? The popular phrase, "You are!"

is, I think, the result of a long historical tradition

moving toward empowering the individual. However, I feel

this shift to the ego simply displaces the issue or

question to the mysterious "self" which is itself now in

question as an essential concept and perhaps better seen as

a constructed cultural experiment. In other words, if it's

up to the individual to decide for him/herself, does that

mean that anything goes or that the individual must answer

every important question with a unique answer? And what

tools do we use to get an answer and then to know it's the

correct answer? I'm a perspectivist, meaning I think we get

answers and solutions by choosing to approach the dream

from the perspective of questions and answers. Generally

in dreaming this is called "dream incubation" and I've

included in this issue an article on the history and some

steps for practice. However, the question of whether the

dream answers we get this way are the right ones (for You,

for the State, for the

Cosmos?) remains open. So I want to suggest here that all

answers, to be a pleasing as possible, need to be bounced

back and forth between the seeker and his/her components

and filters. I like and use the four part Jungian types

as a hermeneutic circle and Gendlin's_ Focusing_ technique

as a model. I ask myself the following four sets of

questions and then listen quietly for a moment for some

bodily/emotional/physical response. I give the response a

name or handle (blue, pissed, defeated, bagged) and then

ask again if this fits and listen again. If it fits there

is some slight to

strong feeling of acceptance and often a movement or what

Gendlin calls a Shift.

The Questions: First, does the answer feel right, do I like

it, does it seem valuable? (Feeling). Does the answer have

some internal rational, is it a meaningful and just answer?

(Thinking).

Is this a workable, grounded solution that can be

implemented? (Sensate).

And does the solution leave room for spirit and creativity,

for exploration of the unknown? (Intuition).

And so I want to end this with a question instead of an

answer, What techniques do others use to find solutions via

dreams and test the authority of these solutions? Does

anyone have some examples we can see?

*Question: Hey, I missed the O.J. Simpson dream issues.

What was it about, what kinds of thoughts on dreams were

presented? My mom said that she didn't understand Van der

Castle's statements. What did he say? - Richard

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SPECIAL FOCUS ON DREAMWORKERS:

The work of Henry Reed

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Transforming Research into Socially Responsible, Collaborative

Personal Education

From the very beginning of his career, Henry Reed

has demonstrated innovative approaches in the field of

psychology, integrating personal transformation, research

and classroom learning into a new paradigm of socially

responsible discovery.

As a case in point, when he began his post as

Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University

in 1970, his first project was a new approach to the

problem of amnesia for dreams, a topic for which there had

been no applied research up to that time. His class for

undergraduate students was on the psychology of dreams. As

a class project, students kept dream journals, developed

and used a quantitative records of their attempts to

remember dreams, and devised a novel procedure for

revealing what, exactly, was "learned" when a person

"learned to remember dreams." Students learned the skill of

dream retrieval in the

morning and transformed their attitude about memory for

dreams from that of being a victim of circumstances ("the

alarm chased the dream away") to feeling empowered in the

use of their skills ("by lying still in the morning I am

able to bring back memories of my dreams.") The methodology

used in that class, and the results of the students'

experiment, was published in the Journal of Humanistic

Psychology (1973, 13, Pp. 33-48) as "Learning to remember

dreams."

While at Princeton University, Henry innovated in

other areas. He taught the first for-credit course offered

in the United States on the topic, "Humanistic Psychology."

Laboratory work in this class involved student exploration

and reporting in areas such as meditation, imagery,

communications, etc. One of the first students in this

class, Mary Watkins, wrote for her senior thesis, Waking

Dreams, which was later published and has become a classic

in the field of imagery.

Henry offered the first for credit course devoted

entirely to the subject of Carl Jung's psychology. Students

read Jung's autobiography and kept dream journals. Using

art and drama, they explored Jung's practice of active

imagination and linking dreams to myth. When he took his

students into New York City on a field trip to the Jung

Institute, the Director of Training initially expressed

skepticism, as was the custom at that time, that anyone

could learn anything meaningful about Jungian psychology

without being a patient in Jungian analysis. After

interviewing the students and hearing about the personal

insights they had made and how they could relate them to

Jung's theory, he admitted that perhaps there was a place

for Jung within an educational framework. The Jung

Institute then published Henry's next article, "The art of

remembering dreams" in Quadrant (1976, 9, Pp. 48-60).

During the early 1970's, dream research was in its

infancy, and was just beginning to expand into the

humanistic domain, where dreams would be seen as an asset

to the dreamer him or herself and not just a diagnostic or

therapeutic aid to the attending psychiatrist. Henry wanted

his students to see if they could, as he had done, use

dreams for self-transformation. He realized that the "dream

incubation" procedure, inherited from ancient Greece, could

potentially be dormant within the human psyche, but that

new methods would be required to realize their current

vitality.

As a result of his continuing investigations into

creating a new paradigm for research provided

transformative and educational experiences for its

participants as well as significant new information for

society, Henry decided that the sterile laboratory, with

its antiseptic procedures, was not the best atmosphere to

encourage people to test the outer limits of dreams. He

decided upon the use of psychodrama to create symbolic

rituals as preparation for "big" dreaming or "breakthrough"

dreams. The psychology department at Princeton University

frowned on this approach, declaring it was "void of

scientific value." At this time, the A.R.E. invited Henry

to conduct research with its membership. At the

residential, rural setting of A.R.E. camp, Henry conducted

his first experiments in dream incubation. His paper was

immediately accepted for publication by the Journal of

Humanistic Psychology, (1976, 16, 53-70) as "Dream

incubation: A reconstruction of a ritual in contemporary

form." It has since been reprinted in many sources.

That study, showing that the transpersonal

dimension of dreaming is indeed available to individuals

today, provided their motivation is sincere and the

preparations are expressive of that motivation, was a

landmark study, with implications for psychology, religion,

anthropology and related fields. It showed that symbolic

ritual, expressed through psychodrama, made available to

people working on real concerns, who have a vested personal

interest in the outcome of their involvement, was the

perfect context for creating structured, repeatable

experiments that yielded the type of meaningful,

transformative experiences that heretofore had been only

seen in "spontaneous" or uncontrolled cases outside the

laboratory.

A.R.E. commissioned Henry to continue his style of

research with its at-home membership. In what became a

paradigm-creating project, Henry showed that people at

home, working on themselves in structured projects, keeping

track of their experiences with simple record keeping,

could indeed make significant progress in personal growth

and at the same time contribute to science. His study,

"Improved dream recall associated with meditation."

Journal of Clinical Psychology (1978, 34, Pp. 150-156)

showed that when people meditate, they are more likely to

remember dreams. It was but the first of many experiments,

the later ones conducted by other researchers such as Mark

Thurston and Richard Kohr, using the "home study" approach.

Henry later published a workbook based upon that first

experiment. It is now in its sixth edition, Dream

Solutions, (published by New World Library).

Henry's style of research was excellent at

encouraging serendipity as all the laboratory subjects,

rather than being passive little rat-people obligingly

going through the motions required by the experimenter,

were instead motivated observers. During the study on

meditation and dreams, some of the participants had dreams

about the research itself. Those dreams were synchronistic

with Henry's dreams and the result was the creation of the

experimental publication, Sundance Community Dream Journal.

This journal, sponsored by Atlantic University, had

as its premise, nothing other than the counter-cultural

hypothesis that, instead of segregating scientists away

from the population, that people themselves, as a

cooperating circle of responsible people, could become a

research entity, making significant discoveries in dreams.

The motto was, "Every dreamer is a researcher and every

dream is an experiment in consciousness." The journal

accepted articles from dream explorers and sponsored

projects for subscribers to attempt. The journal was

published for three years then stopped for lack of funding.

But its reputation didn't die. The journal received high

praise and began to spawn imitators. A few years later, The

Dream Network Bulletin sprang up as a private enterprise,

citing Sundance as its inspiration. As professional dream

researchers saw the potential of harnessing people's

interest in dreams and directing it toward research, the

organization, The Association for the Study of Dreams was

founded, allowing laypeople equal participation with the

degreed professionals. All this as a outgrowth of Henry's

research project.

Gradually Henry's work expanded beyond dreams into

parapsychology proper. This evolution came about through

dreams, as told in his book, Getting Help from Your Dreams.

Most significantly, as we researched dreams in a community

setting, he found that people could cooperate with their

dreams as well as they could cooperate on projects during

the day. That led to the innovative dream telepathy

procedure, "The Dream Helper Ceremony," whereby a group

attempts to dream about the undisclosed problem of a

stranger in distress. This ritual demonstrated that it is

possible to obtain telepathic dreams, repeatably, when

there is a good purpose for dreaming telepathically. The

Dream Helper ceremony, published in Theta as "The Dream

Helper Ceremony: Small Group Paradigm for Transcendent ESP"

(1990), has been also written up in Omni magazine and in

Jean Campbells' book, Dreams beyond Dreaming.

The ritual was also used to generate dreams for America

("The Dream American Project", Sundance, 1976), reviving

the visionary politics of the Native American. Henry's

interest in the civic aspect of transpersonal psychology

led him into the community, reaching into the mainstream.

For several years he worked as a social work supervisor

with the Department of Social Services in Virginia Beach.

Bringing his same approach to collaborative personal

learning as a research tool, he transformed the way the

Crisis unit responded to city emergencies. His approach,

published by as "Burnout and self-reliance." Public

Welfare, Summer, 1982, 29-36 also earned him an award of

merit from the city of Virginia Beach. After leaving

employment by the city, he continued as a volunteer,

training other supervisors in his methods, and was

nominated to a Governor's award for Volunteering Excellence

in 1989.

In a recent book, Night and Day, by Jack Maguire,

in a passage describing Henry's work on dream incubation

and Sundance, there is this summation, "By common

agreement, Henry Reed is the father of the modern dreamwork

movement." In a recent evaluation of the significance of

Henry's work for parapsychology, Rhea White, past president

of the Parapsychology Association and editor of the Journal

of Parapsychology, said that Henry's work was the "dark

star" of parapsychology, currently unseen, but inevitably

drawing everything into its wake as it pointed to where the

future had to go.

(Article received from H.R. on February 3, 1995. For notes

to Henry Reed or information on contacting him, please send

requests to Richard <RCWilk@aol.com>)

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

Lets Sleep On It: Dream Answers via the Incubation

Approach.

By Richard Catlett Wilkerson & Jill Gregory

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Approaching dreams to find answers emerged in

written records in the earliest Babylonian cuneiform

writing. We can only assume that answers were sought from

dreams long before these ancient records. Anthropological

samplings of non-technological cultures support this

assumption. Note the Ojibwa of Ottawa and the Mohave Shaman

dreams for example (Radin, 1936 & Devereux,

1957). In our own tradition, the ancient Greeks are the

best know for their use of dreams to find answers and it

is from them we receive the tradition of sleeping on a

problem for an answer, or incubation (enkoimesis: sleeping

in the sanctuary). Carl Alfred Meier, a Jungian

researcher, studied the ancient methods for decades, and

notes that the polyseminal nature of the dream led to a

different path of interpretation than fixed methods:

"...in ancient Greece dreams were thought of as real

oracles. But when the many existing techniques for

receiving answers to problems (auguries, haruspicy and the

like) had fixed systems of reference and only a relatively

limited number of possible answers, the dream lacks these

points of reference altogether. It is so polymorphous that

its proper interpretation either takes a great deal more

skill and knowledge or leads to quackery, as in fact it

mostly did" (Meier, 1966 p. 203)

The most wide spread and famous places to

incubate dreams were the Asklepion dream sanctuaries where

little interpretation was needed. The appearance of the

healer Asklepios or one of his family or minions

(including snakes & dogs) in the dream was usually enough

to effect the cure. The "right" dream was the one that

healed. However, these were sanctuaries were more focused

on sicknesses of body and spirit than problem solving.

Though dream interpretation and incubation was suppressed

by the Orthodox Christian Church (an interesting

subject in itself), the practice continued among the

common people, shifting from the temple to the chapel.

Meier says that it is still practiced today. It may also

be seen in use by poets, writers, alchemists and

esotericists throughout the centuries. But for the

mainstream, the practice was pretty much lost until

psychotherapeutic techniques merged with new secular

dreamwork movements to produce the experimental climate of

the 1960's and 70's.

Two of the major researchers in this area are Gayle

Delaney and Henry Reed. (See the focus article in this

issue on Henry Reed). Both have studied and researched

this area for many years and I have included some of their

works in the following bibliography, which I recommend

reading. I noted at the end of an excellent article by

Henry Reed (1976) on incubation the following original

reprint message: "Enclose one dollar or dreamy barter" (p.

70). Others, such as Morton Saltzman (1987), have

attempted to incubate dreams to solve puzzles and some

like Mark Blagrove (1992), have questioned the assumptions

regarding problem solving in dreams. But, if Deirdre

Barrett's study (1993) is to be believed, dreamers are for

the most part quite satisfied with the answers from dreams

when the issues are of a more personal nature.

Consequently, we are offering Jill Gregory's technique list

that appears to me as a useful synthesis of the techniques

available and her own research and experimentation.

For any of the following procedures, you should

check first with your doctor if you have any kind of sleep

disorder or are using any kinds of prescription or

non-prescription drugs.

Tips for incubating a dream from Jill Gregory

Dreams can be incubated when you're awake or when

you're dreaming. When you move into your desired dream

directly and immediately this type of incubation is known

as psi dreaming. It is possible to make more than one

incubation request and get responses in one or more dreams

that night.

1. Remind yourself that incubation is something that you

frequently do already in your life, as, for example, when

you tell yourself to remember something at a future time.

You are already incubating your dreams and your waking

life without your conscious awareness.

2. In a quiet, relaxed condition, let your mind wander

about the possible dream topics, images or types of dream

that you wish to incubate.

3. Review your possible choices for incubation. Narrow

it down to a couple of options. Ask yourself, "Why do I

want to incubate this?" If you don't know why, its okay.

If you do, it will strengthen your incubation.

4. Choose your incubation. Every once in a while, remind

yourself that you want to incubate that particular dream.

5. Amplify your request for that dream. For example, if you

want to dream of horses, use your imagination to "see"

horses. Or you can write, draw or say your incubation.

6. When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself that

when you wake up tomorrow morning, you *will remember* a

dream on your incubation topic. Just before falling

asleep, remind yourself again. You may want to start your

dreaming mind on the incubation by thinking, feeling,

sensing or imagining it as you are moving into sleep.

7. Always write down your dream for that morning! For the

next two days, if you think that you haven't gotten your

incubation dream, write those dreams also. Through

dreamwork you may discover that you did receive it after

all. Sometimes our dreaming mind has something more urgent

than that and will not give the desired dream the first or

even second night.

8. If, after three nights, you do not feel that you were

successful in you incubation, do one or more of the

following:

a) Ask yourself if there's any reason that you

do *not* wish to dream about your topic.

b) Ask your imagination, "Who can help me do this?" Add

that helper figure to your incubation topic.

c) Tell your dreaming mind that if it gave you your chosen

dream, you didn't realize it. Request that this time the

dream be obvious, easier to connect to your incubation.

9. Try again. If you do not receive the dream, put it to

the back of your mind and give it just enough energy that

if it does come, you will remember that you were

incubation it. Add new incubations to your "dream shopping

list."

Bibliography:

Barrett, Deirdre (1993). The "Committee of Sleep": A study

of dream incubation for problem solving. _Dreaming, 3_(2),

115-122.

Blagrove, Mark (1992). Dreams as the reflection of our

waking concerns and abilities: A critique of the

problem-solving paradigm in dream research. _Dreaming 2_(4),

pp. 205-220.

Delaney, Gayle M. V.(1988). _Living Your Dreams: Using

Sleep to Solve Problems and Enrich Your Life_. Revised Ed. San

Francisco: Harper and Row.

--------. (1979). _Living Your Dreams._ San Francisco: Harper &

Row.

--------. (1976). A proposed dream experiment: Phase-focusing

dream incubation. _Sundance: Community Dream Journal,

1_(1), 71-83.

Devereux, George (1957). Dream learning and individual

ritual differences in Mohave shamanism. _American

Anthropologist, 59_, 1036-1045.

Gregory, Jill. (1988). _Dream Tips_. Novato, Ca: Novato

Center for Dreams.

Meier, Carl Alfred (1966/1962). The dream in ancient Greece

and its use in temple cures (incubation). In Von Gruenebaum,

G. E.& Caillois, R. (Eds). (1966). _The Dream and Human

Societies_ (Chapter 17, pp. 303-319). Berkeley: University

of California Press. Originally a paper read to the

"International Colloquium on 'Le reve et les societes

humaines'" in Royaumont, France, 1962.

--------. (1967/1949). _Ancient Incubation and Modern

Psychotherapy_. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

(Original German, 1949).

Radin, Paul (1936). Ojibwa and Ottawa puberty dreams.

In R. H. Lowie (Ed.),_Essays in Anthropology_ (pp. 233-264).

Berkeley, CA: University of Cal Press.

Reed, Henry (1991). _Dream Solutions: Using your Dreams to

Change your Life_. San Rafael, CA: New World Library.

PO Box 1541, Virginia Beach, VA 23451.

--------. (1985). _Getting Help From Your Dreams._ Virginia

Beach, VA: Inner Vision Publishers.

--------. (1976a.). Dream incubation: A reconstruction of a

ritual in contemporary form. _Journal of Humanistic Psychology,

16_(4), 53-70.

Schatzman, Morton (1987). The meaning of dreaming. _New

Scientist_, December 25, 36-39.

--------. (1983a). Solve your problems in your sleep. _New

Scientist, 98_(1360) June, 692-693.

--------. (1983b). Sleeping on problems really can solve

them. _New Scientist,_ August 11, 416-417.

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DREAMS AND COMMENTS

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======Commentary on Corydon's "An Exquisite Marble" by

Cathy (vol. 2, issue 1)======

This dream seems to be about the beautiful memories

you have of your grandmother and the fear of losing them.

The memories must be uncovered--the drawer opened, the box

opened. By even when uncovered, the memories are

fragile--they quickly become sand, something that is

difficult to examine grain by grain. That some of the

memories are represented by the beautiful "Apache Tears"

suggests the bittersweet nature of the memories. They are

both sad and beautiful.

======Commentary on Jay's "Dogs" by Bob (vol. 2, issue

1)======

When the dream begins the dreamer is not being "up

front" about something; i.e., he is wandering around

several back yards. Although the "small metal tube in the

bushes" may or may not be able to fire a bullet (no way to

tell because it's not loaded), the issue is a moot point.

A "principled person" (i.e., the school principal) informs

the dreamer that the tube is a "supporting rod" from a

previous structure (relationship?).

The dreamer next starts to climb over a chain link

fence (indicating he isn't welcome beyond the fence) and a

blind man is there with his seeing-eye dog. This may

indicate that someone involved in whatever conflict is

being symbolized by the dream does not have first hand

knowledge of the dreamer's trespass (i.e. he can't "see"

the dreamer) but there ways he can be informed by pets (or

people?) around him.

In any event, the dreamer starts being "dogged" by

another dog, who is wounded in the attempt to chase him.

The dreamer is at first reluctant to help the dog, but

then, because it doesn't cost you anything to help, (the

blind man is either paying or providing a convincing

rationale for the dreamer to pay) the dreamer takes the dog

who chased him to a vet for "only $600." The doctor tells

the dreamer that the dog belongs to someone in "Washington

state" (governmental/ male power) but the dog itself came

from "West Virginia" (a virgin or unspoiled area?

Innocent/ young/naive person?) and is with dreamer in

another Washington; i.e. "Washington, D.C."

Again, Washington, D.C. may be a reference to where

the dreamer is located in a career sense, i.e. working for

the government. The dream conflict, therefore, may have

something to do with people in the dreamer's work

environment or about how he feels about a particular

career-related issue. Washington D.C. is also a city

that is a bastion of mostly male power. The dreamer states

Washington D.C. is "where we (i.e. the dreamer and the

blind man) are." Could the dream mind be using Washington

D.C. as a simile for a psychological state?

The next dream symbol is an "old beat up...4 by 4

post with this strange door knob and latch in it. Whatever

the "old beat up post represent" it is clear that even if

the knob and latch still functioned they're useless,

because the post is not attached to a door.

The last dream symbol is the tiny 5 inch dog

skeleton which is alive (the dead past which still has the

power to quickly bite off whatever small shreds of cover

that are left on the dead past?

Possibly, the underlying conflict of the dream

might revolve around a repressed desire for a covert

affair. The dreamer has the means (the empty tube) but

it's not loaded (he hasn't done anything about his desire

yet). The symbol of the school principal may be the dream

mind telling the dreamer that principled people use sex as

a means of supporting or nurturing a relationship, not as

an end in itself. Climbing a fence meant to keep him out

may be a symbol that he will be trespassing on someone

else's place or space. Even if that someone else is blind

to his trespass, he could still be found out. Being found

out could lead to the dreamer being dogged or hounded, and

it could lead to something (a relationship?) being hurt or

wounded. The dream mind brings to the dreamer's attention

that the bill for mending whatever is injured could be

expensive. Perhaps the blind man will pay, perhaps the

dreamer, or perhaps both.

The beat up old post may have something to do with

a relationship. It doesn't matter if the old hardware

works, if there is no attachment.

Lastly, the dog skeleton indicates anxiety about

the past; i.e., that either something the dreamer does will

come back to hurt him, or that there is something in his

past that a present situation is unconsciously stirring up

and making the dreamer feel emotionally vulnerable.

As always, if the dreamer disagree with the above

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

======Reflections by Jay on Comments on Jay's "Dogs" (Jay's

dream and Richard's comments on it are in vol.2, issue

1)======

Thanks to Richard and Bob for their comments on my

dogs dream. In reflecting on this dream and Richard's and

Bob's comments, it seems to me that the dream likely has to

do with my feelings toward my wife and my 18 year-old

daughter, as well as, other issues.

My relationship with my wife is currently less

satisfactory than it has been in past years. Whereas it

used to be closer and more mutually supportive, we are

currently more seperate, less supportive, and feeling more

angry with each other. I have already been conscious of

this and of the fact that while I often have a good bit of

friction and distance between myself and my daughter,

nonetheless, we see some things more similarly than I and

my wife do. There is a certain attraction there, as there

often is between a father and daughter. This I have also

been conscious of, and detected in other dreams, and always

wished to acknowledge to myself but not act on, other than

in appropriate ways.

The backyards, climbing of fences, and the tube,

which can be taken as a phallic symbol, could relate to my

attraction to my daughter and the youth she represents.

The backyards and fence-climbing also remind me however of

another aspect of my personality: my tendency to try to

live vicariously off of the lives and events that are going

on around me, rather than accept the danger of

participating first hand. The rod without a bullet also

reminds me of my feelings of anger toward my wife, which

have replaced, to some degree, the former feelings of

supportiveness.

The absence of the bullet, the presence of the

principal and the seeing-eye dog seem to represent my

efforts to keep these feelings in check. Both of the dogs

strike me as good, friendly, sympathetic, helpful, soulful

and spiritual symbols. I feel like they represent the

goodness of my feelings or 'soul'. One of them is wounded

quite badly. This may represent one or more of the

following hurts. The hurt I expose myself to when I let my

feelings out; the hurt I feel when I keep my feelings

bottled up; or the hurt our relationship or my wife (the

dog may also represent my faithful wife) is currently

experiencing or could experience if things get more out of

hand. I am slow, at best, to do anything about these

injuries, though they are eventually healed somehow.

The post with latch seems to represent to me the

locking up by me of my feelings, despite the fact, as Bob

points out, that the post is not attached to anything

anymore. Puzzling. Perhaps this is pointing out to me the

uselessness of this outdated, perhaps, behavior.

After this locking up, my feelings or 'soul' are

reduced to a mere 5-inch skeleton of their/its former self,

scavenging hungerly on the scraps still available to it.

As I read over my dream and these reflections, the

primary message seems to me to be, the hurt that arises

from locking up my emotions. Yet, I don't see how to let

them out without hurting myself or others. currently, it

seems, my predominant feeling is anger. It is one feeling

which I am not sure how to deal with productively.

One of my interests in dreams is the hope that they

might offer solutions to problems of mine. Mostly though,

it seems to me, my dreams offer statements of my problems,

but not a lot in the way of solutions. Do others see

solutions offered that I am missing or ignoring? Any other

further comments by others on this dream, its meaning to

them or any of the comments so far?

======"Slashed Smile" by Buffalo======

As she drove me in a car, I could see her husband

following on a bicycle. He had a rifle and a large hunting

knife. At some point, as happens in dream time, the husband

cornered me and slashed at my face. I thought for sure my

face had gashes in the cheeks, but as I inspected the face

in the mirror, I could not find the lacerations I was so

assured of receiving. What was wrong? My smile had been cut

off.

======Comments by Bob on Buffalo's "Slashed Smile"======

It's not clear if Buffalo is a man or a woman, but

the husband is obviously unhappy that his wife and Buffalo

are in the car together. The nature of the attack

indicates that although there are no visible scars on

Buffalo's face, he has lost the ability to smile, or

express happiness. This may be Buffalo's dream mind

warning him/her that whatever the nature of the

relationship he/she is pursuing, it could result in

permanent unhappiness.

======"Vampire Conversion" by Richard======

After despairing about having to go through the

process of buying a new car, my wife Tess turns on a

Vampire film on the television. It's near the end. The film

is about an old vampire family. A man who lives with them,

may be one of them, has some elaborate plot to save the

family from extinction. It's very risky to him. He is

risking being "converted," or trapped by Ghostbuster-like

machines which his enemies have. The machine will turn him

into some kind of ghost on an eternal torture course.

A glimpse of this appears: a large mining shaft

going down forever, rotting wooden and rusted structures

all around. A track goes down the large shaft, and one can

see dozens of already "converted" creatures strapped to

racks on wheels going down. The creatures are ghostly but

with more substance, something between Gieger/Alien and

John Carpenter/Thing creatures. One can tell they were once

vampires, but now are converted ghosts in eternal agony on

an endless track to nowhere in the bowels of the dark

earth.

Tess is bored and wants to turn off the movie and

go to sleep.

Now the scene is an old warehouse. The men with the

converter machines are getting ready to fly off to the

Philippines. One guy coaxes a red dog that is around the

warehouse into going with them. The red dog is a vampire

and morphs or begins to change. The men turn on the

converter and the vampire/dog is converted into a ghost

thing, is strapped on the wooden train/rack and sent down

with the other captured vampires. Maybe a car is placed on

top of the

converted vampire.

======Bob's Comments on Richard's "Vampire Conversion"

Dream======

There may be a link between Tess despairing of

buying a new car, and the extinction of the old vampire

family. Possibly a present relationship in the dreamer's

life is a "horror show," and Tess (or whoever she

represents) is reluctantly thinking of ending it. The

dreamer (via an anoymous man in the horror movie) believes

he might save the relationship, but only at great risk to

himself; i.e. he may get the "shaft" (his best efforts will

be unrewarded and if that happens, he fears he will be

emotionally tormented for life).

Tess is not supportive of the dreamer's feelings or

efforts. She wants to turn the horror show off and go to

sleep. She is obviously not concerned with whether the man

in the horror show can save the family from extinction.

At the end of the dream, the symbolism indicates

the dreamer is not optimistic about the future. A red dog

is turned into a ghost and and "sent down with the other

captured vampires. Maybe a (train) car is placed on top of

the converted vampire." Possibly the "red dog" may be a

symbol for how the dreamer is feeling about himself (he's

being treated in the relationship like a dog), and the

train car may represent the "new car" that Tess is

despairing of buying (but may anyway?)

As always, if the dreamer disagrees with the above

interpretation then it is wrong. Only the dreamer knows.

======Comments on Richard's "Vampire Conversion" by

Jay======

It sounds to me as though the man in the dream

represents yourself. It also seems as though the dream has

to do with some situation of yours having to do with your

wife, Tess. At first I assumed the vampires were bad guys,

but as I read and reread the dream, it seems as though the

vampires are a friendly faction. The converter men seem to

be the bad guys. What do the vampires, converter guys and

ghost people represent for you? Tess seems uninterested in

this conflict; she goes to sleep. What does the

'Philippines' bring to

mind for you?

Then we have the red dog. Isn't that interesting?

Right on the heels of your commentary on dogs. Why is he

red? He also seems to me to represent yourself. The same

fate which threatens you befalls him also.

==== "Reflections of a Vampire" by Richard ====

Reflections on comments by Bob & Jay

Yes, thanks to Bob and Jay on the vampire dream

comments. I originally took the vampire family to be an

inner unconscious narcissistic complex. Can't tolerate the

sun (unconscious) and unable to see themselves in a

mirror(self-image wound). Generally I don't like vampires

and often call people vampires who have no

life/blood/generosity of their own but act superior and

criticize other people's lives. You know, blood suckers.

But this family is, at times, noble, heroic and self

sacrificing. The converters, as Jay mentioned, are the bad

guys. Its the vampires, as Bob says, that get the shaft.

I've been looking around for where that manifests in my

life, where things that threaten to break out into monsters

are being giving the shaft and imprisoned and suppressed.

I wish there were one area of my life this were so and not

the many that have been coming up.

I miss- wrote the beginning. Tess is not depressed

and despairing about the car, I am. A slip. But either

way, the vehicle despair leads to the vampire fantasy

being projected. I don't think Tess is not interested in

my horror show, I just don't think she can access that

place. My feeling is that she served as a safe place, a

reality check, so that I might enter this horror and

explore the nightmare. (If it gets too scary, well, its

just a show and Tess is right here). Bob, I do fear being

emotionally tormented by those I care about and I think

that is an interesting insight I would like to develop

further. I've noticed that I can reduce this anxiety by

becoming less caring, but what a rotten trade off. This I

think is my Tess-on-the-bed, no anxiety, but no life. One

last note. Just after I had this dream I was talking with

an old friend, doing a kind of mid-life summit, and he

mentioned the idea of vampires expressing the drive to

creativity a la Anne Rice. Anyone read Interview and know

about this metaphor?

======"The Door, The Limo and The TV" by Viking======

I was in my house and heard voices outside so I

peeked out the blinds. In the driveway was a white limo

with people inside making lots of noise. I figured they

were just turning around so I went (I think) to take a

shower. I came out and was talking to my daughter, when I

realized I heard more noise. As I went by another

bathroom(not one that exists in my house, but I still felt

like I was in my house), there was a strange guy in the

bathroom. (This bathroom was not the one I had showered

in.) I asked what he was doing, and he sort of laughed at

me and said he was just going to the bathroom. I asked him

to leave, and he wouldn't so I sort of threw him out. As I

pushed him out the door I realized Olive had wandered out

and was now standing on the front bumper of the limo, so I

ran out, grabbed her and ran back in the house.

As I came back in I realize that the TV set had

been stolen by the people, and it seemed other things were

missing also. I ran out to stop the limo but it was too

far down the street, and I couldn't see the plate #. I

came back in and kept thinking how Vesta was going to kill

me for leaving the front door open. Then I thought maybe

this is just a dream , but I woke up (in my dream) and

realized it was not a dream and how stupid it was to leave

the door open so the TV could get stolen. Then I finally

really woke up.

======"The Blue Potent" by Cathy======

(Dream Prelude)

I was being driven by my parents on

a long drive with a friend with me, male or female I didn't

know. I was annoyed to find we were going to a movie

theater that was so far from home. I said irritably, "I

was there last week with my friend Natan." [Natan is an

email friend whom I have meet in person once. We are both

married and are friends because we work on the same

research topic]. Then I noticed the beautiful mountains in

the distance and was surprized to recognize them as

California mountains, as my parents live in Pennsylvania.

(Main narrative)

We arrived at the building and got out. It

was an inn of sorts. I was helping unpack baggage. A

younger female friend drank from a small crystal bottle

that she had pulled from her baggage. The fluid in it was

the blue color that swimming pool linings are. The young

woman went into the building and came out with a long

pink-mauve evening gown on a hanger. It was polyester with

some sequins, and I thought it looked like matronly and

would be worn with a turban. The young woman swooned in a

faint and seemed to be waiting for a lover. I had a sense

of his standing dressed in a black suit, with a silver

vest, and black cowboy hat behind me to my right. I pitied

the collapsed woman and felt the potion was dangerous.

Another beautiful, rich young woman came up

the driveway. I moved away from the building to listen to

her. She talked to me as if happy to see me after many

years. She was dressed messily in a plaid flannel shirt

and had some small little boys with her. She seemed to

assume I should remember her from our earliest school days

together when she had been the most popular girl. I tried

to recall if she and I had been to school together in grade

school or high school and could not.

I then grew suspicious that she was so eager

to see me. I demanded to know where the blue potion was.

She opened her black leather bag, which was on the tarmac.

It was either a large purse or some sort of shoulder bag.

I pulled out the blue potion and another bottle of perfume.

I forcefully took the bottles and then sprayed the perfume

on the woman's neck roughly as she kneeled before me. I

told her "This probably isn't an antidote, but at least

you'll smell good."

======Commentary by Jay on Cathy's "Blue Potion"

Dream [with notes by Cathy]======

My overall impression is that this dream is another

one of those repressed feelings of attraction dreams. In

this case, it involves your feelings of attraction to

Natan. The friend in the car sounds like a comfortable

sort of friend. Like Natan maybe? Notice the locale seems

to be California, where you know Natan. [Cathy's note--I

really don't think so, since I had no sense of Natan being

"in" the dream or any conscious sense of attraction to him.

We are both very happily married and just talk about work.

Natan incidently lives in Pennsylvania.]

The two younger women seem like they might be other

aspects of yourself. The first one seems more sensual, and

the second one seems more married. How do you dress, gowns

or shirts, or at different times, either? [Cathy's note--I

do were both, but I had no feeling of liking the dress or

the shirt in the dream. In fact, I felt rather that both

were bad clothes--more a snobby sense of being a better

dresser and superior to the two women than that they were

parts of myself].

The potion, which seems dangerous to you and in

need of an antidote, seems to have to do with the

attraction to men. The perfume seems to be the opposite,

an antidote or cover up, for the potion. [Cathy's note--an

interesting idea I'll have to think a about!]

What comes to mind when you think of the first woman and

her gown? [intense curiosity, interest in her situation but

with a sense of superior detachment] The second woman and

her shirts and kids? [pity--if she was so popular, pretty,

and rich, why look like a slob and have to drag dirty

annoying little boys around?] The potion? [no idea] The

perfume? [a useless substance]

After playing out what happens when the first woman drinks

the potion, you decide to spray the perfume on the second

woman. [But why so cruely, as if I wanted to hurt her? am I

unconsciously a big jerk and it comes out in my dream?]

I hope this is helpful to you.

======Bob's Comments on Cathy's Blue Potion Dream======

A great deal seems to be going on in the dream

regarding identity. First, the dreamer is on a long

journey to a theater with her parents and a friend, the

latter having no definite gender; "male or female I didn't

know." Then the dreamer remembers that she and another

male friend, Naton, went to the same theater last week. A

theater is a place where actors pretend to be people other

than who they are.

When the dreamer arrives at her destination, it is

not a theater but rather an inn, or a place where one stays

temporarily. As the dreamer unpacks her baggage (emotional

conflicts from the past she is trying to get rid of?) "a

younger female friend drank (a blue potion) from a small

crystal bottle that she had pulled from her baggage." The

young woman goes into the place of temporary accommodation

and returns appearing matronly, or older, in a mauve dress.

The dreamer thinks the dress should be worn with a turban,

which is a covering for the head, and possibly by

derivation, the ego. The young woman swoons while waiting

for a lover, who doesn't appear to be represent anything

positive, since he is a cowboy (a drifter? someone who is

reckless?) and is dressed in black (a symbol of death, loss

or evil). In any event he stands

behind the dreamer and doesn't rush to the woman who

fainted.

Another beautiful rich young woman from the

dreamer's past shows up in the dream, dressed in "messy"

garb, which might also be considered casual garb (a plaid

shirt) and is happy to see the dreamer. The dreamer can't

remember how far back they met, only that it was in some

level of school (i.e. they met in a learning situation).

The dreamer grows suspicious about her friend's

eagerness at seeing her,and demands to know where the blue

potion is. There is something vaguely sexual about what

happens next. The friend opens a black leather bag or

purse, and there are two bottles in it; the blue potion

and perfume. The dreamer removes both bottles, and sprays

the female friend on her knees before her with perfume

(which is a feminine scent) saying, "This probably isn't an

antidote, but at least you'll smell good." (Does this mean

she'll smell like an attractive woman? And what is the

injurious substance that the perume is the antidote for?

Aging?)

It would appear that the dream concerns some type

of conflict regarding the interaction of pretense or acting

(denial?), feminine attractiveness and aging. If the

dreamer disagrees with the above interpretation, then it is

wrong. Only the dreamer knows.

======Comments on Richard's "Roman Ruins in the Cyclades"

by Cathy (vol. 2, issue 1)======

The series of locks, each one higher than the next,

could represent some project that you are involved in that

is getting more and more profound or "deep." Perhaps this

involves your work with dream interpretations. The

uncovered ruins could symbolize the uncovered meanings of

dreams and dreamers' feelings. Both your worry about

challenging others' opinions and your sense of vindication

because you have the correct interpretation of the ruins

may reflect concern over a current patient or dream

interpretation on which you are working. Others get

distracted by "tourist issues" or what is easily

marketable. You instead leave and forget these things, and

"go off on your own." The dream seems to be about a new

direction your work is taking you, a innovative one and a

scary one, since there are no authorities.

==== Reflections on Cathy's Commentary by Richard====

What a delightful interpretation. It is a reading

that allows the dreamer (or anyone entering the image) to

explore his desires and test unknown waters while at the

same time providing a boat or frame to return to when

things get anxious. Thanks.

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

Dream Resources

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

Internet at ASD Twelve!

"Dan Cummings (aka windeatr@www.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu), who has

developed a World Wide Web dreamsharing site called

"worldDreaming/dreamMosaic" will be presenting at the next ASD

(Association for the Study of Dreams) conference in New York this

summer. The title of the presentation is "The Dream of Cyberspace-

Mosaic- Based Dream Interface to the Internet." The presentation is all

about the WWWeb site and the activity there.

Specifically, Cummings will focus on the expansion of the

dream through the Internet using multimedia hyperlinks. You

can find a simple example of this at:

http://www.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~windeatr/worldDreaming/0037.htm

l It's a dream called "The Meeting at the Reservoir" and

features a basic dream expansion and hyperlinking. I

haven't tried this one, but I tried another one about

crocodiles that gave me a vision of dreams on the net I

will remember for a while.

To contact ASD for information about the conference :

The twelfth annual conference of the Association for the

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

1995. For information write to: Jane White Lewis at 29

Broad St., Guilford, CT 06437-2613 or Don Kuiken at

University of Alberta Department of Psychology, P-200

Biological Sciences Bldg., Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9,

Canada.

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

Dream Network Journal:

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 something

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

and we will share the information with everyone else.

Richard <RCWilk@aol.com>

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

Note: Electric Dreams 2-2.1 is the same as 2-2

with an error corrections.

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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 a professional advise or psychotherapy.

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