Dreaming in the News & Links

Exceptional links about Dreams and Nightmares:

Brain basics: Understanding Sleep and Dreams – 9 articles which cover the basics of sleep and dreaming.

Dream facts – 22 facts about dreaming including trivia as well as debunking popular myths.

Your Child’s Top 10 Nightmares and Dreams Explained – An extremely valuable resource for parents. While these explanations make sense, understand that not everyone is going to go by the “books” when interpreting the complex language of dreaming, but this site nails a lot of the most common explanation for the most common dream and nightmare-oriented experiences that children face.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Articles will post with much more regularity starting next week.

- K. Kennedy

Alfred Adler on Dreams

Alfred Adler, an Austrian doctor with psychoanalytic theories (though he is known as the forefather of Cognitive Theory) and a great contributer to many realms of psychology is most well known for coining the phrase “inferiority complex.” While the bulk of his work involved self actualization as well as various methods of reaching goals (note that these goals are not simply career oriented, but any kind of goal unique to that person from buying those cute black heels to getting the promotion, to simply seeing someone smile), insecurity and superiority, survival (both literally and within social constructs), he was also very well established as a particularly philosophical dream analyst who looked carefully into the makeup of the unconscious vs the conscious reality and proposed new ideas and applications to dream analysis focusing equally on the individual as well as the social environment of the individual to create a more specialized and accurate approach to understanding dream languages.

Key Ideas to Adler’s approach on Dream Interpretation

• Mastering your life – Dreams clue the dreamer into the problems they face during waking life, both internally and externally. If the dreamer wishes to examine the dream for better understanding, they will find answers to many of their problems, and see where the focus is most needed in any sort of problematic situation.
  Bottom Line: Examining and learning from your dreams is important to problem solving.

• What Drives Human Behavior? – Freud is famous for his theories that sex drives human behavior. However, Adler looks at motivation and emotions as what drives humans to act the way they do as a person strives for self-actualization or “perfection” and alleviating anxiety in favor of feeling and being in control. Adler postulates that behavior in dreams is no different than behavior in waking life. Exaggerated, confused by symbolism, yes, but the same motivation that one may have to dream is the same motivation one has to achieve.
  Bottom Line: Dreams can help clue the dreamer into their motivations and goals.

• Dreaming and Emotions – Adler argued strongly that true feelings – the ones that some people do not allow themselves to face – are revealed through dreams. Dreams are a safe way to examine the extremes of the spectrum of emotions that the dreamer has. This is not to say that these dreams mean that the dreamer is that way, however it does point to the idea that the dreamer has either neglected those feelings, has not come to terms with those feelings or healed from them, or is so afraid of their feelings that they would rather not feel them in waking life and instead examine them in dreams (consciously or not).
  Bottom Line: A dream about a feeling that is exaggerated or something that simply is not you, according to Adler’s theory, these are the very emotions that you are uncomfortable with and least likely to act on in waking life. However, these feelings can help the dreamer become more in-tuned to their underlying feelings and come to understanding of them for healing and self awareness.

• Dreams and Insecurity – Adler placed a lot of focus on success vs failure, where a person falls on the spectrum of self esteem, and defense mechanisms (over compensation) commonly used for insecurity or the feeling or idea (whether true or false) that a person can not succeed in any given situation in waking life. Therefore, interpretation of dreams where superiority and inferiority come into play are either very literally looked at or are looked at as wish-fulfillment or a fantasy dream to turn an uncomfortable situation around. For Adler, to dream of paralysis indicates feeling hopeless and incapable. To dream of traveling indicates the dreamer’s travel through life. To dream of falling is to indicate loss or a social failing of any kind while dreaming of flying (according to Adler) signifies the dreamer’s certainty and happiness over reaching a goal, knowing they are capable, and knowing they have the ability to succeed.
  Bottom Line: Dreams can also be tools for glimpsing into our insecurities and our ability to complete tasks. How a dreamer reacts to these experiences can indicate how they are currently reacting to these things in waking life.

Alfred Adler and Self Betterment
The greatest part of Adler’s work was the examination of an individual to come to completion through self actualization or completing goals and feeling the rewards of those completions. A person can become “whole” through many methods: knowledge, setting reasonable goals for themselves, being who they are, through self-esteem boosting exercises, and by examining their dreams. Adler’s description of the insecure person (a person who has not yet “leveled up” through adulthood) is very close to today’s clinical definition of depression. While modern medicine and research can certainly debunk this by exploring chemical imbalances that cannot be helped, personal tragedies, and learned behavior (among many other reasons why a person my experience any sort of mood disorder), it is interesting to note that becoming complete is a universal expression of a person’s life. Perhaps self-actualization is not the key to happiness or lack of mood disorders, but it is a path by which some may choose to examine deeper to find relief from some of the symptoms a mood disorder or unhappiness brings.

Further Reading on Self Betterment:
Books by Alfred Adler
Self Discovery Workbooks

“The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.” – Alfred Adler

- K. Kennedy

A practical approach to Lucid Dreaming

After going over the basics of lucid dreaming, let’s step things up a notch and focus on the one aspect of lucid dreaming that is universally accepted: during a lucid dream, both sides of the brain are at work. While it’s easier to say that your right hemisphere and left hemisphere are working at the same time the truth is that there has never been any documentation of both sides simultaneously working at the same time. Rather, when both sides are at work, there is a rapid fraction of a second switch between both sides of the brain that utilizes both hemispheres seemingly simultaneously.

Knowing this can help a lucid dreamer or anyone who wants to have a lucid dream have much higher incidents of lucidity by doing very simply activities in waking life that have shown to induce this rapid nearly simultaneous brain state. Every time a musician picks up his or her instrument, they are entering into a “zone” where technique meets creativity and improving communication between both hemispheres of the brain, which was backed up again recently with this study. Athletes also enter into this “zone” because both sides of the brain need to communicate to not only move the body, but also to combine quick strategic decisions with creativity. But there is a far more simple and less demanding activity that can get you right into this seemingly elusive “zone.”

The activity that I’m talking about is something you might have done about 15 years ago on your old Nintendo or Nintendo “brick” gameboy. The activity is Tetris. It is common knowledge in scientific communities that puzzle games boost the communication between the right and left side of the brain immensely. So whether your puzzle game of choice is Tetris, Bejeweled, Dr. Mario, or the many other puzzle games out there – most of which can be played for free online – this creates an ideal way to work out your brain and get the left and right side communicating quicker. Another benefit to playing puzzle games was one that most gamers knew already, but something that the scientific community has just now started to look into. It has been observed that puzzle games cause people to feel more relaxed. Tetris shines above all the others, though and is currently being tried out right now as a possible “cure” for anxiety, post traumatic stress, and other stress-related disorders. You can read about the research here or, you can read an “opinion” article about it (with a lot of scientific back-up) here.

Besides picking up a new instrument or becoming a world-famous athlete, or even playing a puzzle game, other activities that stimulate right brain/left brain communication are: jigsaw puzzles, strategy games like chess or checkers, any activity that uses both hands, or finding out which side of the brain is your dominant side and then exercising your recessive side with games or activities. Another, very simple exercise (or seemingly so) is just tuning out. Meditation is one way to go which will yield many positive results, not just for lucidity but in other areas, but so is anything a person does where there is high focus and attention. Perhaps it might be shooting pool or fishing. Maybe going for a walk. Whatever it is that gets you into your version of “the zone” – that place where you’re thinking but not – go for it. Not only will it improve your incidence of lucidity in dreams, but it will also have a calming effect and boost brain activity as well. Also, reading while listening to music uses both sides of the brain. Many people have told me that crossword puzzles get them in “the zone”, but if you’re as bad at them as I am, it might not be a very calming thing to do unless it’s your thing. And then, the most obvious way to tap into right brain/left brain communication is doing anything that involves both of your hands: typing, knitting, you name it – it’s activating both sides of the brain.

While lucid hreams are documented to be most common between 2 AM and “wake up” time during the sleep cycle of a dreamer who goes to bed at 10 PM, an activity that can greatly enhance lucidity in dreams is getting into the habit of doing a right brain/ left brain activity before going to bed. If it’s a puzzle game of some sort, a crossword puzzle, listening to music while reading, or playing an instrument, whatever you decide is something you’d like to invest in, it is best to do this activity for at least 10 – 20 minutes before going to bed.

These techniques are not the more conventional advice given to induce lucid dreaming, but these techniques will greatly prepare yourself for the more conventional activities which will be discussed next Wednesday and will prepare your brain to be pushed a little harder so that it’s ready to take on the challenge (or simple act) of lucid dreaming.

Tetris – If you don’t already have one, you can get a copy of Tetris here.
Left Brain Right Brain – A game designed to exercise both hemispheres.
Brain Age 2 and Big Brain Academy – Other popular puzzle games that exercise your brain.

- K. Kennedy

What does it mean when I dream about …

Falling

Falling is among the most common dream symbols, making the #1 spot of most of the “top 10″ lists of dream experiences. Most falls in dreams occur at a very quick speed through air coupled with acute anxiety of the immanent impact. Other versions are falling through air (or another medium) at various paces with the anxiety of the falling sensation itself, but without the fear of the impact, the anxiety of being stuck in a free-fall with no impact, and also, some falling dreams include a welcoming feeling toward whatever the impact may be.

The anxiety of a falling dream points to situations in waking life that the dreamer is feeling out of control, a feeling of failure or insecurity, or not having the right support. To dream of yourself falling indicates that you have “lost ground” in a situation, have run out of backup solutions, feel alone and possibly abandoned with no one to take care of your fall. If you have been pushed, perhaps you feel “pushed over the edge” in a situation that has turned overwhelming or, you may feel as though someone else has pushed you to this point, reinforcing the lack of support. If the dream starts with another person pushing you, it could mean that the person represents the situation where you are feeling out of control or where you need the most support. The distance that you fall indicates how large the situation or feelings about the situation are.

This dream can also be interpreted as falling away from God or the moral dogma that the dreamer is connected to. The reasoning here is that heaven, a higher power, the spirit is up, in the sky and falling away from that is representative of feeling disconnected from spirit or going down – possibly towards a “hell.” However, be assured if there is a falling dream related to a poor decision, morally or otherwise (this can apply to other situations including a work environment or any situation where the dreamer recognizes that a poor decision has led to a chain of events that have greatly upset their waking life) can also indicate the desire to just let go and face the consequences of the poor decision. In this case, the impact may be frightening or welcoming, depending on the dreamer’s view of how this would play out in waking life. If a person is having this kind of falling dream, it’s important in waking life to look at areas where there is guilt or where the dreamer has felt that they have failed themselves or their morality in some way and to repair that situation in a way that the dreamer feels comfortable.

If the falling is slow, the dreamer may either want to slow down the situation or the dreamer believes that the situation is going to play out over a long period of time. If the falling is fast, the speed perpetuates the anxiety of the impact which is a measure to the dreamer to what extent of anxiety they might feel about the subject. If the distance is a small one, like falling from a step-stool to the ground, it might be a message that the dreamer needs a little push to get back on track. If the falling is a steep fall, it can also indicate how far from “level ground” the dreamer feels. In some situations, the dreamer welcomes the impact which is a sign of a situation that is out of the dreamer’s control but has been accepted. Another indication of welcoming the fall indicates that the dreamer knows or is being shown that it is time to do what’s needed in a situation in order to put it to rest.

Sometimes people report the sensation of falling which wakes them from a dream. The experience has an eerie feeling like that of Déjà vu and is sometimes described as “feeling out of my skin” or “slamming back into my body”. The sensation of “falling awake” in this case is scientifically explained that when the person goes to sleep, their body is tense. Upon falling asleep, the body (tense or not) will relax completely, all at once. If a person is extremely tense while going to sleep and their body relaxes completely, it creates the illusion of falling say scientists. It is possible that during the night, a dreamer with lucidity can enter into various states of tense sensations with their waking body and thus induce this feeling through-out the night. Perhaps this physical reaction can cause the dream of falling as well as the eerie sensation upon waking, but in most cases I think not. Another popular theory about “falling awake” is that the dreamer was beginning an Astral Projection and, due to whatever circumstances during sleep – the dream, a loss of control of the Astral Projection, the astral body’s desire to return to the physical one – it falls back into the body, thus waking the person up with a strange sensation.

- K. Kennedy, available for dream interpretations starting in late July.

The Legend and History of the Dream Catcher

Native Americans looked to their dreams with great reverence and respect. Dreams from spirit and guidance messages acquired through dreams shaped and influenced their culture in so many ways that it’s impossible to do justice to Native American culture in just one article. While we will certainly go over Native American culture and dreams in as many ways possible, today we will be talking of one of the most fascinating and prevalent effects of Native American culture today: the dream catcher. It is so prevalent that it has wound up in homes across America and other Countries and become a widely-accepted decoration in the bedroom. But where did these come from? And, more importantly, why are they used?

History of the Dream Catcher

In Native American culture, dreams are thought to be spirits moving through the night sky. In some tribes, the “Great Dream” or life path of the dreamer is forgotten at birth and thus needs to be remembered to carry out their spiritual gifts. Children are encouraged to explore their dreams to carry out their life’s mission. The hoop is thought to have originated from the sacred circle. In ceremonies, Native Americans make a sacred circle around one person, to capture the messages from the dream spirits and focus these messages to the center of the circle where a young man awaits to receive important guidance for his life or for the tribe.

But, it all really started with children and nightmares. Well, sort of. A mobile created by a “Sacred Hoop” was hung above the cradle or bed of a baby or child. A baby would watch the dancing feathers and adornments and be charmed into sleeping. Newborns had a charm or feather in the center of their sacred hoop to focus their dreams and so that their innocence would be preserved rather than fall into the hands of the “trickster” of the night. One feature of a child dream catcher is the feather or charm in the center which is removed in the adult version. The feather, meaning “breath” or “life” is replaced by other adornments special to the adult’s life path to aid in wisdom and understanding. The basic principle of a dream catcher is that good dreams pass through the hoop, while the bad dreams become caught in it to evaporate at morning’s light.

Dream Catcher Legends
The Legend of the Dream Catcher varies from tribe to tribe (dream catchers were passed to different tribes with trading). Through extensive studies, Anthropologists believe that the dream catcher was first used by the Ojibwe or Chippewa tribe. The dream catcher legend, according to this tribe, is as follows:

“Beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother, a spider was quietly spinning a web. Each day, Nokomis marveled at the spider’s work. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in and saw the spider. Thinking his grandmother was in trouble, he picked up a shoe and started towards the spider to hit it. The grandmother said to the boy, “don’t hurt it!” The boy was confused and asked why she protected the spider, but the grandmother gave no answer. When the boy left, the spider thanked the woman her for saving its life and said to her, “For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift.” The spider went to work, “see how I spin? Learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web and perish at the beginning of each new day.”

The Lakota dream catcher legend is a bit different, but also involves a spider:

Long ago when the world was young an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In this vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi the spider picked up the elder’s willow hoop which had feathers, horsehair, beads and offerings on it, and began to spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life; how we begin our lives as infants, move on through childhood and onto adulthood. Finally, we go to the old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle. “But,” Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, “in each time of life there are many forces; some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they’ll steer you in the wrong direction, and may hurt you. So these forces can help or can interfere with the harmony of Nature.”

While the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the elder the web and said, “the web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to help your people reach their goals, make good use of their ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will catch your good ideas and the bad ones will go through the hole.”

The elder passed on his vision to the people, and now many Indian people hang a dream catcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good is captured in the web of life and carried with the people, but the evil in their dreams drops through the hole in the center of the web and are no longer a part of their lives. (courtesy of snowwowl.com)

Dream Catchers in Modern Culture
Today, the dream catcher is appealing to parents of children with nightmares or are afraid during the night. It is a very common way to solve this seemingly universal problem and it is also effective. It is recommended to tell the child the dream catcher legend and, upon waking, to encourage the child to physically shake out the bad dreams either into the wastebasket or outside. The ideal placement for dream catchers for the act of protection is to place them above the bed, or in the window. Adults also use dream catchers to enhance dream recall, gain more empowering messages, to affect the landscape and directions of the dreams or in the same way that they were traditionally used: to help achieve a higher understanding of self and to find one’s journey in this life. Whatever purpose one might use to catch a dream, the dream catcher is a fashionable and intimate way to connect with the dream world. A person’s dream catcher should be unique to the dreamer and should involve colors and symbols meaningful to them.

Available on our outside resources page, the Catch A Dream shop is an ideal place to shop for custom made dream catchers, “adapted to any style and taste” at a perfect price.

- K. Kennedy

Does Cheese Cause Nightmares?

Does Cheese cause nightmares? The answer is “no”. But what is more fascinating is if we were to re-word the question just a bit.

Does Cheese affect our dreams? The answer is a BIG “yes”. Cheese contains tryptophan – an amino acid which has been found to lower and relieve stress and also acts as a mild sedative that induces sleep. People who eat food high in tryptophan yield a higher dream recollection rate and more vivid dreams. The incidence of nightmare in any given number of people who have eaten high amounts oftryptophan before sleep is the same as a given number of people who do not eat tryptophan before sleep.

A popular British Study done in 2005 came back with conclusions leading the research team to believe that certain kinds of cheese does affect what subject matter a dreamer might dream about. The findings were this:
Cheddar – Increases dreams about celebrities.
Red Leicester – Increases dreams about the past.
Lancashire – Increases dreams about the future.
Cheshire and Red Leicester – Improves sleep quality.
Stilton/Blue Cheese – Increases the effects of particularly bizarre dreams (especially in women).

It can easily be argued that this study, in order to be conclusive, would need to test on much larger scales, for a longer period of time (the study lasted a week) and with more varieties of cheese. But, strikingly enough, it should be noted that out of all 1,400 potential (not everyone remembered their dreams) “cheese dreams” there were no reports of nightmares. And given the amount of cheese (and thus, tryptophan), there is enough evidence to say that this old wives’ tale is most likely myth.

However, given that cheese is high in tryptophan and eating cheese more than doubled dream recollection in the above study (67% recalled dreams while, on average 30% of Americans recall their dreams frequently), it is worth while to look at tryptophan and the human body rather than cheese in particular. Tryptophan forms 5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan) which is marketed in the many countries, including the United States as an over-the-counter supplement for mood disorders (especially depression and anxiety) and as a sleep aid (it is also marketed to be used as an appetite suppressant). Why would it be affective for these areas? Because 5-HTP creates mood – enhancing Serotonin as well as the drowsy at-ease neurotransmitter Melatonin (which is also used holistically as a sleep aid). In fact, some studies have found a Tryptophan depletion in insomniacs, leading Tryptophan to be a semi-common suggestion from a nutritional standpoint to help people with Insomnia.

Whether one would like to use this information to enhance vivid dreams, dream recollection, or as a sleep aid, the best way to get these types of amino acids is simply to eat food rich in them (especially since many of these foods are part of a balanced diet). Here is a list of food high in Tryptophan for your very own at-home studies. From highest to lowest: Egg White, Spirulina, Atlantic Cod, Raw soybeans, Parmesan Cheese, Caribou, Sesame Seeds, Cheddar Cheese, Sunflower Seeds, Pork Chops, Turkey, Chicken, Beef, Salmon, Lamb Chop, Atlantic Perch, Eggs, Wheat Flour, Milk, White Rice, Russet Potatoes, and Bananas.

For further reading check out:
The Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep
Mind Boosters: A Guide to Natural Supplements that Enhance Your Mind, Memory, and Mood
5-HTP: The Natural Way to Overcome Depression, Obesity, and Insomnia

- K. Kennedy

Dreaming in the news & Links

Slowwave.com – A fun comic. People submit their dreams which are put to pictures, creating amusing stories. Hit “back” or “forward” to scroll through the archives. While these might get a laugh (which they will), also use this time to consider how universally bizarre dreams can be. (Includes an RSS feed)

Daydreaming in the news – When the mind wanders, it ignites goal-oriented behaviors. 2 page article.

Ecological Niche May Dictate Sleeping Habits

An Interesting Read on Sleep Apnea – Anyone going through unexplained fatigue may find this article helpful (note: the unexplained fatigue that women get around and during menses can be greatly improved with an iron supplement).

Quality Marriage affects Sleep and Vice Versa

Letting baby cry to sleep: Does Research say it’s safe? – Research might, but our instincts don’t. Most parents (especially mothers) are hard-wired to respond to their own crying baby.

Change of Sleep Position Stopped Heartburn – At least in this case.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Back to articles starting tomorrow.

- K. Kennedy

Beyond Dreaming

Sometimes dreams can not be explained by science alone. The mystical side of dreams is both mysterious and sacred. And to dive into these sorts of dreams requires sensitivity and an open mind. In future articles, we will go over many techniques and guides for each category, but for now, lets get as simple as possible: here are the most common things people report involving a dream that has a bit of “something more” in it. And, along with it, a brief definition.

Astral Projection – Astral Projection is a state achieved in meditation, sometimes during a dream spontaneously or controlled, where the spirit body is propelled outside of the physical body and is free to explore the real-world as well as the astral plane. During these experiences the dreamer can mingle with other dreamers (sometimes unconsciously which is one way of explaining shared dream experiences) or spirits and can explore wherever they want. While science doesn’t recognize Astral Projection as a valid (proven) state of being, it does recognize that Astral Projection is a subjective experience outside of any psychiatric disorders (such as dissociation or depersonalization). However, evidence of Native Americans, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans show that Astral projection is accepted among varying cultures as a very valid experience. Even the bible backs up the experience of Astral Projection.

• Fun Fact: Astral Projection is an Out-of-Body Experience, but OBEs are not always Astral Projections. An OBE can be caused by trauma and other things of that nature while an Astral Projection is connoted more with a spiritual quest or journey.
• Link: Adventures Beyond the Body: How to Experience Out-of-Body Travel – A guide to inducing Astral Projection

Communication with Spirits – Many dreams have been reported where a dreamer has communicated with a deceased loved one. These dreams hold much power and have therapeutic properties as they usually bring a sense of closer and peace. In these dreams, the dreamer is joined by someone who is deceased and they feel their presence as if they were actually there. These dreams tend to be extremely vivid and leaves the dreamer in awe afterwards. Like these dreams with the deceased, another form of spirit communication is dreaming of a spirit guide or guardian angel. In all cases, these dreams tend to yield valuable messages and a one of a kind experience for the dreamer.

• Fun Fact: The most common time to have a dream of a deceased loved-one is within a week of the death, and then later between 6 weeks to 3 months after the death. There is no scientific explanation for the gap of time in between those time frames.
• Link: In Communication With The Deceased – This book investigates communication with the deceased from both a scientific and religious standpoint, taking the reader through many case studies and leaving it up to the reader to figure out what science can’t explain.

The Conscious Dreamer – A conscious dreamer is one who participates in (mostly) active meditations and exercises through-out the day in order to fulfill greatness in their dreams. The idea behind conscious dreaming is that the more awareness one has from themselves and the outside world, the greater awareness they will have in their dreams. Conscious dreaming also includes willing a dream about a certain subject, praying for guidance, and even the act of writing in a dream diary will make a person a conscious dreamer. The Conscious dreaming is as rewarding as it is nurtured by the dreamer themselves.

• Fun Fact: Because Conscious Dreaming includes quite a bit of being a passive observer during a dream, it is also a type of Lucid Dreaming.
• Link: Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life – This book has everything you need to know about Conscious dreaming.

The Lucid Dream – A dream where there is some sort of awareness or control during dream-time. These types of dreams fall into many categories, but the three main categories are: dream-initiated (the dreamer becomes lucid during an otherwise normal dream), wake-initiated (the dreamer is aware of falling asleep and is able to have lucid dreams right after falling asleep), and mnemonic-initiated (the dreamer has done exercises to enhance lucidity and achieves this in the dream state).

• Fun fact: Lucid Dreams are shown to involve both right brain and left brain cooperation/communication.
• Link: Left Brain, Right Brain – This game can help bridge the gap between the left and right side of the brain, giving the dreamer a workout in the awake state to greatly increase lucidity in the dream world

The Prophetic/Premonition Dream – A dream about current or future events with information that the dreamer could not otherwise have during wake time. The Prophetic dream, when spontaneous, happens most commonly with large events in life (revealing a death or major injury) or with very mundane events (the pamphlet says to go to level 3, but upon reaching the elevator the dreamer pushes 4 instead, which is later carried out in waking life leads to an exceptional experience). Getting to the in-between stage of prophecy takes someone who is open to receiving visions through clairvoyance, through spirit or religious beliefs, or through many exercises to enhance these experiences. While prophecy in general can be frowned upon by the general public, the prophetic dream is the most socially accepted as a valid means to attain unexplainable information (not to imply that any way of prophecy isn’t valid).

• Fun Fact: By age of 50, most people report that they have had at least one prophetic dream.
• Link(s): Spiritualism & Clairvoyance for Beginners – A beginner’s book on developing clairvoyance.
  
• Growing In The Prophetic: A practical biblical guide to dreams, visions, and spiritual gifts – A book geared towards Christians with extremely helpful information.

The Shared Dream – A dream where a person either steps into another’s dream or vice versa or two people have strikingly similar dreams the night before. This is most common with couples, twins, and family members. This is also one way to explain why the same idea seems to pop up all over the world at around the same time. Some spiritualists believe that the shared dream experience can only happen while the other person is asleep.

• Fun Fact: Shared dreams might be much more common than we think because we as a society are so disinclined to talk to others about our dreams.
• Link: Dreams & Relationships: Interpret Your Dreams, Understand Your Emotions, and Find Fulfillment – This unique dream book has exercises for couples to enhance shared dreaming experiences.

Other Resources:
Dreamwork: From Around the World and Across Time: An Anthology
Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History
The Secret History of Dreaming

- K. Kennedy

*False awakening and Sleep paralysis will be discussed in full in a later article*

What does it mean when I dream about …

“I’m back in school and…”

Dreams about being back in school, or in a previous school (a college student dreams of high school or junior high) or even level (someone who is a buyer and seller for a major grocery store chain dreams of being the bagging boy) are extremely common. They are often perplexing and because of all of the stigma placed on “regression” and things of that nature, beginning to understand this symbol can get confusing.

Without the context of anything else, going backwards to a school or previous level setting indicates that the dreamer in waking life (whether true or not) is under the impression that they do not have the capacity or tools needed to move forward in a situation. The context, more often than not, will clarify which situation needs to be looked at more closely. For example, if a person is back in school and they have failed an important English class, it could indicate that they are not communicating or articulating themselves well with others, that others are failing to communicate with them, or even more simpler, a recently read book failed to make an impression on them. Another common variation is failing to remember a locker combination, which reinforces the idea that there is some sort of secret code that you should have learned but didn’t or need to learn which leaves you at a loss for getting the tools you need – or you should have access to but don’t. Another variation is missing a specific class to graduate (again, the class usually indicates what area of life that the dreamer may want to examine more closely), or even more bizarre, the introduction of some ridiculous class that the dreamer has never heard of (which is actually more helpful as a dream since it usually nails the situation right on the head).

And the above is usually the most common indication of that specific dream circumstance. Except when it’s not. And when it’s not, deviating from the norm with dream symbols is not “freakish” by any means, but just another way that the human brain uses creativity to enhance our understanding.

Other things the school setting indicates: A desire for learning, sincere interest in the self or another person, the school might be the back drop to revisiting a past problem that keeps occurring in waking life, the school setting can mean a very different thing to someone who was chronically bullied that it would mean to a person who chronically bullied others and now finds remorse. Going back to a previous time period can also indicate a desire to cut-free from the struggles of adulthood responsibilities. Going back to a school setting and acing every test can indicate that the dreamer is recognizing that it seemed easier back then to succeed. A past school setting can also come up with dreamers who have had a recent brush with someone who they remember from grade school. Maybe there was an unfortunate death of a person the dreamer remembers as a classmate. Or maybe the dreamer has reunited with a grown woman who he remembers having a crush on in 6th grade. Anything from the media (school shootings, school bullying, school fires) to our own personal situations (feeling as though there’s something crucial to learn in order to perform) can affect how our dreams of school play out.

Another common variation: the parent goes back to school. Going back to school can also indicate a parent’s concern for their own grade school children. In these dreams, the child may not even be present, but the parent is in a classroom setting because in waking life they may want to help their child with their homework, they might feel embarrassed because they no longer can help their children with their homework (how many of you guys can actually still do long division? Never mind, don’t answer). It can also pose a very awkward dream situation because the parent knows, on some level, that they don’t belong in this situation, it’s their children that belong in this situation. Regardless of how it plays out, if the dreamer is a parent of a school-aged child, from pre-school to post-graduate school, dreams about school can reflect anxiety about a child’s performance, anxiety about the child becoming independent, anxiety about the school setting being safe (on a cerebral learning scale, or on a social scale), and anxiety about whether the child is getting a good education or not. It can also reflect a parent’s anxiety over their children becoming smarter than they are (which goes back to gaining independence). It might seem horrific for the dream parent to wish failing on their children, but because a dream world lacks the “rules” of the waking world, the dreams are a safe place to express these thoughts. In actuality, the parent who is more apt to dream of the scenario of the child passing them in intelligence is a parent who is aware of and celebrates the child’s aptitude in waking life and simply plays out the consequences in their dreams.

At a glance: Dreams about going back to school usually indicate gaining tools in order to perform better in waking life or the feeling of being incapable of performing in an area of life. The context of the dream indicates which area of the dreamer’s world there might be a lack of knowledge. Upon waking from a dream about going back to school, be aware also of the feelings and what school meant to you while you were in it. School can also be a setting that one associates with anxiety (being bullied) or safety (escaping troubles at home). Parents are prone to dreaming about school settings especially as their children move through school levels. A parent dreaming of being back in college the night their “baby” leaves to go to college can mean that they parent doesn’t know how to handle the separation, or that they wish they could go with them.

- K. Kennedy, available for dream interpretations starting in mid to late July.

Freud on Dreams

Writing about Freud’s oddities and unusual approach to psychology would take up several articles and investigation not only on his own line of thinking, but the social response to him. So let us suspend any previously held beliefs about this character to see how he paved “the royal road to the understanding of unconscious mental processes,” which is how he described his ground breaking book on dream analysis.

Freudian Facts
Freud was among the first classically-trained psychologists to explore what we call the “unconscious”. He understood something that a lot of people hadn’t come to accept yet: as humans, there are parts of our beings that elude us. These parts not only hold a wealth of information about our psychological make up and why we do the things we do, but also is a key participant in the creation of our dreams. To understand basic Freudian theory on dreams, one must understand the backbone of his theories: the id, ego, and superego. The id is the child who wants another piece of cake, the superego is the mother who says, “You don’t want to ruin your dinner” and the ego is the meeting between those two things. The ego is the part of a person who does the decision making and is in most control. One idea is that while awake, the id can not be expressed because the superego keeps it at bay so dreams represent the motives behind the id, the true wants and desires. However, given that the ego is a meeting place between these two planes of thought and can communicate with each plane, it isn’t as simple as that. Actually, it’s much simpler. Freud proposes that during dream time, neither the id or superego are monitored by the ego and thus can run wild with desires or inhibitions.

The second Freudian fact to use while approaching your dreams with Freudian theory is the understanding of Defense Mechanisms. A defense mechanism is created so that a person can function in a high-anxiety environment (ie: the world). For the most part, defense mechanisms are involuntary. And, a bout of anxiety is often brought on my one or more of these mechanisms failing to do their job. Here are the most common defense mechanisms found in dreams and a brief explanation of them:

• Acting out: Doing something that a person knows intellectually is wrong without knowing what the emotional intentions are.
• Anticipation: Planning for the future with the focus being on the anxiety that the future brings.
• Denial: Inability to accept and live with the reality of a situation.
• Distortion: Rewriting the world to fit needs and desires.
• Displacement: A feeling is redirected to another person or object (punching a pillow, yelling at the dog when mad at the roommate).
• Humor: The truth of how a person thinks or feels is camouflaged by a joke, or uncomfortable issues are distracted by joking to change the subject.
• Hypochondriasis: Confusing negative thoughts and feelings about others with ones’ self, usually resulting in negative feelings or illness (or feeling responsible for other’s shortcomings).
• Idealization: Putting someone on a pedestal or in a place of power without that person having done anything to earn this placement.
• Identification: Adopting the behavior of someone else so that it becomes part of the personality. (while Introjection is a form of identification with ideas or objects)
• Intellectualization: Only looking at a situation from a thinking-oriented mindset (or, its opposite, looking at a situation from a feeling-oriented mindset).
• Passive aggression: Indirect expression of irritation, anger, disagreement.
• Projection: the paranoia that others feel about us what we feel about them (can be negative or positive) or ascribing one’s own feelings to others.
• Reaction Formation: Having an unhealthy desire and trying to “atone” for it by outwardly expressing the opposite of that desire.
• Regression: Looking at a situation in a child-like way.

While it is true that a lot of the dream symbology according to Freud did lead back to nothing but a bunch of symbols representing sex and penises, the bottom line of Freudian Theory looks at literal opposites of the dream symbol for the purpose of analysis. If a person is afraid of choking, then they may dream of fasting or starvation. If a person has constantly avoided speaking up about something that would be life altering, they may have a dream where they are mute.

Using Freud to understand your dreams
Breaking things down to be used for personal dream analysis is very simple. During the awake state, a person has to balance their needs with desires, their thoughts and feelings with the social norm (defense mechanisms) and often do things to avoid negativity. These behaviors are healthy and things that every person should be doing. Understanding that the “real world” even has these rules that a person needs to abide by brings understanding to the “dream world” where rules do not apply.

Use Freud to understand your dreams by becoming more aware of the decisions you make during awake time: were they out of obligation? Bullying? Habit?. Behavior in the dream world according to Freud may not only show what the true desire is, but might also show an alternate, even better way of dealing with the anxiety of the real world. Second, upon waking, the dreamer can explore which defense mechanisms broke down during the dream (which they will because what’s the use of a defense mechanism in a dream world without rules?). If one can pinpoint a defense mechanism and start to accept that defense mechanism might and most probably is in play during wake-time, one can use that knowledge for self-growth and understanding of how experiences have shaped their personality and the messages of their dreams.

Tips for exercises in self analysis:
Look to a recent dream in your dream diary or journal or simply just recall one from your experiences. Use Freud to understand the dream. 1, ask yourself if anything that happened in the dream is something you wished for before, but couldn’t get because of social norms or rules (these types of dreams are called “wish-fulfillment” dreams). 2, ask yourself if anything that happened in the dream shed light into various defense mechanisms. 3, practice using the literal opposite of dream symbols to explain their symbology. Some will resonate, some will not. (Examples: water may represent thirst or drought. Ice might represent warmth or heat. Black might represent white).

For further reading, The Ego and the Id (The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud), or for a more in-depth look at Freud’s theories on dream analysis, The Interpretation Of Dreams by Sigmund Freud was his first publication addressing dream analysis or for a more concise and accessible version, check out On Dreams also written by Sigmund Freud himself.

- K. Kennedy

Lucid Dreams: The basics

To anyone who has had a Lucid dream, the experience is an exceptional one. Traditionally, a lucid dream refers to a dreamer’s experience of  “waking up” in a dream with the freedom to do whatever they want, go where ever they want, and explore their dream world. Lucidity in dreams is a fascinating aspect not just for the dreamer, but also for psychologists, neurobiologists, and parapsychologists. The only “fact” of lucid dreaming that has been proven time and time again to be valid is that it takes both hemispheres of the brain to communicate with one another in order to achieve lucidity (usually just the right brain is at work during the dream state) during a dream.

So how does a casual dreamer get to a point of lucidity? It’s all about breaking it down, and also, learning not to try so hard. “Trying too hard” is one of the biggest hang-ups people will encounter with their mind whether they are wanting to induce a particular meditative state, wanting to calm down after a stressful day, wanting to fit into a social situation, or wanting to create a lucid dream experience. While Lucid Dreaming is going to be in the future a very hot topic of discussion (as well as astral projection and out of body experiences), for this article’s purpose, lets focus only on the basics on how to improve not only lucid dreaming, but any sort of conscious dreaming.

Step One: Take away its power

Lucidity in dreams is not unachievable – it’s even probable that you’ve already had one. Lucidity is another word for “conscious”, so any dream where you are conscious that you are dreaming, any point in time between the dream and awake state where you come to the realization that you were dreaming, even having a dream that solves a problem in your daily life – a very common form of dream – is in fact a lucid dream. In other words, at any point that you have control in waking life, you have control in your dreams. Even if it’s as simple as surrounding yourself with specific ideas by reading a novel before bed, if you dream about that novel, you have gained some form of control of what you’re dreaming about. If you have had any of those experiences then all your concern would be to focus on how to expand the control you already have on your dreams.

Step Two: Become more aware in your own life

Instead of spending so much time and energy in getting to a point of lucidity in dreams, put that energy into getting more connected with yourself. Connection with self will not only yield a better understanding of self which will lead to a better understanding of your personal dream language, but can also improve many areas of your life outside of the dream world. There are many resources on becoming more aware in your own life, but the main recommendations that will simultaneously lead to lucidity in your dreams would be the following:

• Invest in a self-empowering or guided journal. The Soul Catcher journal is a favorite of mine.
• Make a list of your beliefs
• Make a list of 10 things you really love and 10 things you really hate
• Take an online survey that pop up on places like Myspace and Facebook (You don’t have to tell anyone that you did it!)
• Make a list of your 10 greatest strengths and your 10 greatest weaknesses
• Short and Simple:

Before going to bed, go over your day in your mind and pick the best thing that happened to you and the worst thing that happened to you. This simple exercise can not only get you into contact with your feelings, but also can help with finding out what things in life you prioritize which are the very things that tend to make up our dreams.

Step Three: Become more aware of your surroundings

Putting energy into understanding yourself is one thing, but becoming more aware of your surroundings is one of the easiest paths to induce luciditity in dreaming (and one that is most covered in guides and books on how to induce lucid dreaming). The most conductive exercises are the following:

• Go to a favorite room of the house and sit in a familiar area. Set a timer (either internal or external) for 5-10 minutes. While sitting, notice everything you can about the objects you see, the sounds you hear, smells, even the texture of the room. Get as creative as possible at noticing the details. Once the timer goes off, take a blank piece of paper (or 5) and write as much of the things you recall about the room as possible. The first part of the exercises enhances awareness, the second part of the exercises reinforces that awareness with the added bonus of helping dream recall
• Turn your favorite music playing device on (radio, iTunes, iPod). If possible choose a “randomized” feature. Listen to three songs. The key to this is that during this time you’re not only listening to the songs, but you’re not doing anything else but listening. This active listening will not only enhance your appreciation of what you’re hearing, but will also enhance your ability to focus on one thing and sends the message that you are actively pursuing higher awareness in your surroundings. Apply this active consciousness to other things as well, such as eating for more results.
• Short and Simple:

Throughout your day ask yourself, “Is anything out of place here?” In most cases there won’t be. Dirty socks might be on the floor where they’re not supposed to be, but chances are they are there because you (or someone else) left them there. But in some cases there will be. Perhaps a person will be acting uncharacteristically, or you will discover something new about an aspect of your life that is “off” that you didn’t realize before. When you are constantly checking if something is out of place, you’re not only becoming more aware of patterns and “rules” of your environment, but you’re also training your mind to look for inconsistencies which will start to show up during your dreams.

Step Four: Practice Conscious Dreaming

Before going to bed, decide on what you would most like to dream about. Maybe you’d like a solution to a problem. Maybe you would like to have a talk with someone you know. Maybe you want to dream of going to the beach or sitting on top of a mountain. Or, maybe you might pray or ask for guidance according to your dogma. While this might not work at first, with practice, it will yield powerful messages as well as enhance your ability for lucid dreaming.

- K. Kennedy

Further tools:

The Self-Empowerment Journal is an excellent resource for self awareness as well as just about any Guided Journal.
The Books and Resources section of this site has excellent books about Lucid Dreaming while the Music and Meditation section has some guided meditation CDs to improve the occurrence of Lucid dreaming.

Become your own Dream Dictionary

While dream dictionaries are very useful tools, it is encouraged not to use them as a primary method of dream analysis, but rather a supplement on your journey to understanding the symbols and meanings in your dreams. While the goal is to come to clear conclusions with as much accuracy and resolve as possible, to reach that state, most have to start out small. In music, a virtuoso doesn’t usually become one by simply sitting down at a piano. Understanding the keys and chords, basic melodies and themes, putting them together into coherency; this is what shapes and molds a virtuoso (along with practice!).

Become a Dream Dictionary Champion by working out with these Exercises
Some of these exercises might not apply to interpreting your dream, but all dreams apply to the exercises.

1. Warming up

• a) What is the theme or category of the dream that I want to understand? While themes and categories will be explored here on a later date, a dream category or theme can be assessed using a simple metaphor: what genre of movie would your dream be listed under if you were looking for a recording of your dream in a movie store?
• b) What Kind of dream have I had? Was it a Nightmare? A wishful dream? A Rehearsal dream? About the Past? A possible answer to a problem? A Premonition?

2. Stretching exercises

• a) Association: Take a symbol from a dream that you want to understand (or a common one from repeated dreams, or just pick one at random) and write as many one-word to one-phrase associations you can for that specific symbol. For example, what’s the first thing you think of when you think of water? It could be ice, life, cup, or something completely unrelated. If it is life, then find out what the first thing is that you think of when you think of life? Keep going until you get stuck or pause for a long amount of time. Keep a running sheet of the words that you get “stuck” on. These can indicate areas of your life where you may have difficulty, and also potential symbols in dreams to look out for.
• b) Color Therapy: List the colors that you would find in an 8 pack of crayons or any group of colors you wish to explore. Next, attach a feeling to it, a few words that it reminds you of (orange might remind you of oranges, for example), and then let any other impressions come. Do you associate this color with a song? A memory? Was your husband or wife wearing a blue shirt on the day that you met? Is this the color of your favorite blanket or stuffed toy growing up? Write down as much as you feel comfortable with about each color. Keep at hand, or stick your findings in the back of your dream diary or journal so that you can quickly reference what colors mean to you in wakefulness.
• c) It’s all about the numbers: Numbers 1-20 are the most common that come up in dream symbols. After those, multiples of ten are also common. On a piece of notebook paper, write down numbers from 1-20, skipping a few lines in between. Next, write next to any number that strikes you what it means to you. Perhaps a certain number is lucky or particularly unlucky for you. Maybe one number is associated with your dogma. It’s as equally important to note what numbers don’t give you any impressions. In your dream-language a zero might be represented by an 8 if you don’t associate that with anything else. At the end of this, also make sure that you write down important number combinations. Suggestions are the address where you live, or your telephone number, maybe the number of your best friend or parent, your birth date, your numerology numbers, anything that has meaning to you.

3. Strength-Building

• a) Take a dream symbol and think of as many alternate meanings or puns as you can for that symbol. For example, the word “duck” can mean to watch out, could be a representation for a bird or flight, can signify the caring of a mother of her ducklings, can also be a reference to a toy in the bath. Apply the slang that you commonly use, and get as creative as possible. It is probably best to pick a dream symbol that doesn’t have a lot of weight, so that you can get in the habit of doing this with neutrally-charged words so that once you have come across a dream symbol this action would be automatic.
• b) Take an issue that you have been having troubles with. Imagine what that issue would be if it were an animal, a color, a sound, a character from a cartoon, a book, a superhero, an illness, a cure. Come up with as many things as you can think of to turn that problem into. This exercise can help get you in-tune with how you consciously in waking life conceive of your problems and can also give you an idea of what sorts of symbols might start turning up in your “problem-solving” dreams.

4. Aerobics

• a) Go all out. Pretend that the last 30 minutes of your life were a dream. What would the people you interacted with symbolize? What about the clothing that you were wearing? Your mood? The colors you came into contact with? The funniest thing that happened? The scariest thing that happened? Not only will this exercise get you thinking in dream-speak, it will also prepare you for better self-awareness which is one block of the foundation of lucid dreaming.
• b.) Analyze other non-dreams as if they were dreams. Suggestions: Your favorite or least favorite scene in a movie or TV show, What is in your fridge or pantry, the way your car runs, A recent evening out that you had, a list of 10 objects from your house. Or, you can go even further and analyze settings that you encounter. What would it mean to you if your dream happened in your bedroom? How would that differ from your living room or work environment?

5. Cooling Down
Go a head and get some rest for all of the hard work that you’ve done (just make sure you have your dream diary or journal near you).

To supplement your studies, you also might want to go a head and pick up a dream dictionary that resonates with you. There are some featured on our book recommendations page. But use a dream dictionary as a supplement to your studies for best understanding rather than a substitute for them. Besides, you wouldn’t want to get out of shape, would you?

- K. Kennedy

Interpreting Dreams: Where do we begin?

Where do I begin?

Where does one begin to interpret their dreams? Thousands of books and theories have been published just over the past 50 years on so many different methods of interpretation that one can easily get lost in the information available. Who is a better say? Jung or Adler? Or, outside of the hard-science of psychology or neurobiology, where does the mysticism and spiritual side come in? If one is able to have a prophetic dream once, where is the “on” switch to make every dream a prophetic one? And what’s this about lucid dreaming?

The answer is both simple and complicated: The best interpreter of your dreams is you. The dreamer themselves are most familiar with associations to dream symbols, triggers that induce fear, and “hangups” that may play out in repeated dreams. The complication lies in the fact that the very reason that dreams elude the dreamer is that they more often than not provide their messages of guidance and personal growth wearing the mask of gentle symbols and perplexing situations. And even the nightmare, invasive, frantic and horrifying which is anything but gentle still is masked behind an exaggerated symbol of an imminent force which is out to control and terrify the dreamer. And that’s just the symbology. Throwing in intense emotions – or even, sometimes more disturbing – the lack of emotions, strangely familiar settings, and sensations of trying to run under water or even flight … well, the mind gets dizzy even thinking about it. But the bottom line that is most widely accepted in both psychological, cultural, and mystical interpretations of dreams is that the many faces of the dream (symbols, actions, feelings) are all really your personal internal language, unique to you. It might be a language you have never learned or a language you understand in part, but it is hard to argue against the simple fact that the dream originates somewhere within the dreamer.

So the question then turns to not where do we begin to understand, but how do we remember what the language that we have created for ourselves means? Or, How do we learn our dream language? For every individual there is a different answer. In the same way that a writer might find their voice writing in a certain place, or with a certain pen or type writer, or with certain music playing, the best way to reach out to that creative force inside of you, feasibly the very place which creates these dreams, would be to do what is most comfortable. But since it is impossible to know and say accurately what is most comfortable for you, a quick way to start the process is by starting a dream diary. Why a dream diary and not a dream dictionary (or both)? Because the value of becoming your own interpreter is so much better than finding others who are able to interpret for you (and less costly).

Starting a Dream Journal

Selecting a dream journal is a different process for every individual. It doesn’t have to be a special design or even expensive, but some, possibly most, will prefer going that route simply because it feels as though these beautiful and frightening sensations during our “night business” must live in a special place. And if this is your method, by all means, find what you need. However, anything from scrap paper to a spiral notebook is just fine. To start a dream journal, I recommend the content of your entry go somewhat like this: Date, as much of the dream as the dreamer remembers, the symbol or sensation that struck you the most, and the predominant feeling during the dream and the predominant feeling after the dream, upon waking. Some people also prefer to title their dreams, draw sketches, and such and anything like this is greatly encouraged. This scrap paper or uniquely designed diary is a place where you will be recording important information. So treat it with as much respect as you feel it warrants. While not the most famous psychologist on dreams, the notorious Edgar Cayce believed strongly that just the simple act of desire to record one’s dream to understand it will yield more understanding (as well as more dream recollections). Psychologically, this conventional wisdom has been proven true again and again through either self-fulfilling prophecies or simply the way that valuing a coincidence yields more coincidences (though it may be said that the coincidences were already there and the person had only just then woken up to them which is also probable). What I can say about the intentions, amount of respect, and sincerity put into creating a dream diary to find better understanding in the dream world is that the more attention one gives to their dreams, the quicker and simpler it will be to gain understanding of them.

Other tips to maintain a dream diary is to keep it (as well as a pen or pencil) near the bed, write in it even when you do not recall a dream, and write in it as soon upon waking as is possible. Also, one might wish to indicate how long the dreamer had slept and if it had come in an 8 hour sleeping session or a nap. If the dreamer is also prone to any sort of clairvoyant experiences as well during waking life, the dream diary would be an appropriate place to record those, as well – using the same format. If a dreamer has the unfortunate diagnosis of a mood disorder, it also may be helpful to use the dream diary to also serve as a record for mood as well, so that a correlation between mood and dreams can be examined (if there is one).

Once a dreamer starts a dream diary, over the next few weeks and months, startling patterns will be found. Some symbols may surprise you with how commonly they come, regardless of the setting or the feelings involved. The merge between waking life and the dream world will begin and all of this will serve to create your very own personal bridge between your every-day language and your dream language.

Outside resources:
Shop for a Dream Journal Here or check out our featured dream journals from our Books and Resources on Dreams page.

- K. Kennedy

We’re almost There

The webmaster and contributers to the Nightbusiness blog are excited to announce that the first of daily articles will start posting on July 1, 2009. The first three articles will not match the schedule as stated in The FAQ (which we are working to update in full by July 15, 2009). Content and Articles have been in the works for several months and we are enthusiastic about the date set to start publishing these articles.

In the mean time? Check out the Nightbusiness blog, pages and links!

- K. Kennedy

Get ready!

Nightbusiness is run by a professional dream analyst. Content and articles are currently in the works. Nightbusiness will cover common dream symbols, how to interpret dreams, links to new research in dreams and sleep, methods to help induce lucid dreaming and ways to improve upon any dreamer’s important “night business”. Nightbusiness goes live on July 1, 2009.