E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s

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E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s

Volume #12     Issue #6

June 2005

ISSN# 1089 4284

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http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams

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Download a cover for this issue:

http://tinyurl.com/bps53

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C O N T E N T S

++ Editor's Notes – Richard Wilkerson

++ Global Dreaming News – Harry Bosma

++ Cover Artist Bio

      Laura Atkinson

++ Article: A Preview of Alchera 4

                   Harry Bosma

++ Column: An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange

           Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams

           Robert Waggoner 2005

                       Editor, Lucy Gillis

++ Article: Give Your Inner Child A Lift

                    Linda Lane Magallón

++ Dream: Dragon Breath

                    Stan Kulikowski II

++ Column: The View From the Bridge

                     The Power of DaFuMu Dreaming

                     Jean Campbell

++ Article: Response to Strephon Kaplan-Williams' comments on

                  "Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?"

                   Anthony Shafton

++ Article: The Artist and the Tidal Wave

                   How Dreams Can Save Your Creative Life

                   John D. Goldhammer, Ph.D.

++ Article: The Dream Koan, “Why Do We Dream?”

                    Richard Catlett Wilkerson

++ DREAM SECTION: Dreams from May, 2005

                                        Host Kat Peters-Midland

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D E A D L I N E :

June 20th  deadline for July 2005 submissions

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Post Dreams and Comments on Dreams to:

http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple

Send news, events, workshops, conferences& reviews to

Harry Bosma <ed-news@...>

Send Articles, news and other items to:

Richard Wilkerson: <rcwilk@...>

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 Editor's Notes

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Welcome to the June 2005 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal to dreams and dreamwork online.

If you are new to dreams and dreamwork,  there are a few lists where Electric Dreams people seems to congregate. One is

dreamchatters@yahoogroups.com

Subscribe by going here and registering

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dreamchatters/

.. and another is the IASD bulletin board hosted by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D.

Please, no dreams interpreted here, just discussion of dreaming and dreamwork topics.

http://www.asdreams.org/subidxdiscussionsbboard.htm

Hello IASD conference attendees!

This issue will be printed up for offline reading at the conference.  If you haven’t yet registered, you better hurry, space is running out quickly now.  http://www.asdreams.org/2005

This month in Electric Dreams:

 You might think it self-serving that our news editor has included an article about his own dream journal software, but in fact this is an invited article. A few years ago we reviewed this and other journal software with Peggy Coats in the IASD Dream Time Cyberphile (Winter 99)

http://dreamgate.com/dream/cyberphile/rcwasd10.htm

  and it just feels like its time to start updating this information, particularly with software developers like Harry, who have been responding to the users of the software and have continued to add to the programs.  Now that there is a new version about out, you are lucky if you read “A Preview of Alchera 4” by Harry Bosma.

Lucid Dream Exchange editor Lucy Gillis offer ED readers a excerpt from her Lucid Dream Exchange, this month from Robert Waggoner, long time lucid dream explorer. Be sure to read “Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams” and double your lucid dreams.

After eight hours of work at the office, then you finally off and go home and get some sleep. And what then? We are told we have dream work to do. Linda Lane Magallón wonders if all this work is really the best way to liberate your inner child. Rather, how about a dream flight?  Be sure to read “Give Your Inner Child A Lift .”

Stan Kulikowski II often contributes dreams from his journal written in a unique format. This month, “Going to Decatur”

Jean Campbell keeps us up each month on the activities of The World Dreams Peace Bridge. From all around the world, people are dreaming for peace. One of the ways is through “The Power of DaFuMu Dreaming” which Jean discusses and gives example of in her column, The View.  

We are pleased to have Anthony Shafton in this issue, responding to Strephon Kaplan-Williams  (SKW).  SKW has been wondering if the notion going around that there aren’t many blacks in the dream movement isn’t a kind of Ethnocentric viewpoint, as blacks have had their own traditions of dreamwork for sometime.  This question was posed in the March ED issue, in relation to a 1990 Dream Time article by Anthony Shafton who had attended an IASD (ASD) conference and saw only two three blacks.  Shafton, (author of Dream-Singers, and an immense work on dreamwork, Dream Reader)  now responds to SKW and updates us on his research in a “Response to Strephon Kaplan-Williams' comments on  ‘Why So Few Blacks in the Dream Movement?’"

 One of the most popular questions we get on the IASD bulletin board is ‘Why do we dream?”  I’ve begun to see this question more like a Zen Koan, where each time this un-answerable question is asked, there is a moral imperative to answer.  Leaping into this paradox yet one more time, I’ve included a response I posted last month. You can discuss these issues and more at the IASD BB:

http://www.asdreams.org/subidxdiscussionsbboard.htm

Fortunately for Electric Dreams readers, Janet Garrett puts the articles from past issues online in an easy-to-access format. These articles contain a wide range of information for dreamers and dreamworkers. You can see her work progress and view hundreds of article on dreams at: http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/index.htm

Harry Bosma has collected dream news, web updates, conference announcement and other events in the world of dreaming and you can read about those below in the Global Dreaming News.  If you have any dream news, conferences, books, workshops, and especially any online meetings or events, be sure to send that information to Harry by the 15th of each month at ed-news@...

Being in the ocean all alone, trying to save a friend, being with friends from schooldays, being arrested for a publication, and trying to escape from a brown bear…another fascinating dream section of the Electric Dreams!  Kat Peters-Midland has collected the finest from the month to read. Be sure to read all of these dreams and more.

If you want to send in dreams, please enter them at http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple

or join the dream flow at dreamflow@yahoogroups.com

(dreamflow-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)

Cover this month by Laura Atkinson

More on the cover and the artist below.

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For those of you who are new to dreams and dreaming, be sure to stop by one of the many resources:

http://www.dreamtree.com

http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams

http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/library

Electric Dreams in PDF: (thanks to Nick Cumbo)

http://electric.dreamofpeace.net/

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From Planet Dream,

-Richard Wilkerson

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G L O B A L  D R E A M I N G  N E W S

http://dreamunit.net/news-en/

June 2005

If you have news you'd like to share, simply email Harry Bosma at his special ed-news@...  address. I will be away most of June, so replies will be slow.

Online:

- Moonflower Vine

- Spirit Community

Physical world:

- Dream Studies Courses at JFKU

- “DREAM WEEK” to Feature Experts - IASD conference

Books, movies, research:

- Foreign Objects: Dream Drawings

Recurring events:

- Ritual DaFuMu for Peace

- IASD Online Auction

* * * ONLINE * * *

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- Moonflower Vine

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I would like to mention my new web site: www.themoonflowervine.com

The Moonflower Vine is my story of prophecy and healing through dreams. A reluctant subject at first--I'm just a dreamer, not an expert--I came to accept and appreciate this gift as a connection to the higher consciousness we all share. A precognitive series of dreams a few years ago started the journal writing of my dream experiences. Struggling constantly with denial, misinterpretation, overinterpretation, among other things, I finally settled down to let things flow. It seemed out of my control anyway.

Words are inadequate to describe how much dreams have helped me.

Thank you for any mention of my new site.

Sincerely, Carol Gardner

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- Spirit Community

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Spirit Community currently has more than 28,000 pages of free dream interpretation tools to help you understand the meanings of your dreams. There are several dream dictionaries, dream interpretaton methods, 3000 dream symbols and classic writings on dreams by Fueud and Stout.

www.spiritcommunity.com

Fine regards & blessings, Dr. August H. Wald, Ph. D.

* * * PHYSICAL WORLD * * *

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- Dream Studies Courses at JFKU

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JFKU offers a graduate level 36-unit certificate program in Dream Studies at our Pleasant Hill Campus. Courses in Dream Studies are offered every quarter. For more information on how to enroll, contact Marilyn Fowler, Director of the Dream Studies Program, JFKU. 925-969-3513, mfowler@...

Courses for Summer Quarter:

The Language of the Dream (1 unit)

Instructor: Lynne Ehlers, PhD

Thursdays, 4:30-6:30 pm, July 14 - August 11, 2005

Shamanism and Dreams (1 unit)

Instructor: Fariba Bogzaran, PhD

Friday evening, all day Saturday, August 26-27

http://www.jfku.edu/?a=holistic_is_dream&cid=2&spid1=63&spid2=72&spid3=74

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- “DREAM WEEK” to Feature Experts - IASD conference

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http://asdreams.org/2005/

BERKELEY, CA — The week of June 24-June 28, 2005, has been declared Dream Week by the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, California to honor the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) which is holding its 22nd annual conference at the Doubletree Hotel at the Berkeley Marina that week.

Internationally Recognized Experts: The IASD conference, entitled, CALIFORNIA DREAMING, includes over 100 presentations by the world's foremost dream researchers, authors, and clinicians. Included are diverse presentations on psychological, biological, anthropological, spiritual, artistic, and literary perspectives on dreaming.

Dream Research: Who remembers their dreams and why? What has science learned about the meaning of dreams? What is the link between REM sleep and dreaming? The answers to these and other questions will be featured in presentations by G. William Domhoff, Ph.D. who is an Emeritus Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and by renowned nightmare researcher, Ernest Hartmann, M.D. and other North American and European researchers. How do the dreams of liberals differ from those of conservatives? Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D. will present research on differences between Democrat’s and Republican’s dreams and nightmares about sex, flying, terrorism, and death and will explore the unconscious roots of America’s bitterly divided political landscape.

Continued Education Program: Conference Program Co-Chair and past-President of IASD, Alan Siegel, Ph.D., will coordinate a series of clinical and research seminars on the meaning of dreams and their use in psychotherapy throughout the life cycle with presentations on children’s nightmares, characteristics of dreams during life transitions such as pregnancy, marriage, divorce, midlife, and approaching death. A special seminar on dreams, aging, and grief will feature noted author, Patricia Garfield. Clinical, cultural, and ethical considerations in using dreams with trauma survivors will also be addressed.

Dreams and the Arts: Acclaimed novelist, Chitra Divakaruni (Mistress of Spices), will present a keynote speech on traditional and contemporary views of dreams in Indian culture and will read from her latest novel, Queen of Dreams, which is set in Berkeley and features an Indian woman who discovers the dream journal of her deceased mother. She will be introduced by IASD President, Richard Russo, who will also make a presentation on dreams and photography. A juried exhibit of dream-inspired art will be open during the conference with the artists available at a reception on the evening of June 25th. The art show will be viewable during the conference on the IASD website. At the conference, a series of workshops will show the role of the expressive arts in exploring and understanding dreams.

Cultural and Spiritual Dimensions of Dreams: How do different religious traditions view dreams? A series of presentations by anthropologists, psychologists, and religious studies scholars will explore the role of dreams in the Koran, Bible, and the Talmud, reviewing ancient and contemporary spiritual perspectives on dreams. A symposium on Islamic Dreams will feature a presentation by English anthropologist, Iain Edgar, Ph.D., on the “True Dream” in Contemporary Islamic Jihadist Dreamwork. Research on lucid dreaming and PSI phenomena in dreams include a presentation on precognitive dreams, by distinguished researcher and author, Stanley Krippner, Ph.D and a keynote presentation by Charles Tart, Ph.D.

International Association for the Study of Dreams: The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) is the only organization of its kind in the world. This non-profit, international, multidisciplinary organization has a diverse membership representing a variety of dream-related activities, including academic research, clinical practice, and individual study. The IASD was founded in California and has its headquarters in Berkeley, CA. www.asdreams.org

Conference and Contact Information: Members of the public may register for conference activities on a space-available basis. Reporters are welcome to cover presentations. Please go to the registration desk and request a press pass. Media access to workshops is strictly limited; reporters must receive approval to attend from workshop leaders. For additional information on IASD and the conference program visit our website, asdreams.org or call toll-free at 1-866-DREAM12.

Media Contacts:

Alan Siegel, Ph.D. at (510) 527-7929 or

Wendy Pannier at (610) 995-1507

* * * BOOKS, MOVIES, RESEARCH * * *

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- Foreign Objects: Dream Drawings

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by David Reisman

Foreign Objects is a compilation of pen-and-ink drawings, executed in 1995 and 1996, from artist/writer David Reisman’s dream journals. Surreal, funny, and at times unsettling, Reisman's drawings feature friends and family, acquaintances, a variety of character types, and celebrities including Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Jackson Pollock, and David Letterman. While Foreign Objects is a kind of unconscious autobiography, the book may be seen as an effort, as his brother Carl Reisman notes in his foreword, to “help us to build bridges, however rickety, between our secret selves and consciousness, and between our isolated selves and humanity.”

Reading Foreign Objects is like visiting a Museum of Everyday Life that's been broken down into its quantum state and reassembled as a surrealist masterpiece! David Reisman's dream art is autobiography at its most auto-luminescent.

—Rick Veitch, Author/artist of Rabid Eye: The Dream Art of Rick Veitch

When Goya etched "The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters" he wasn't reading David Reisman's Foreign Objects. In this diary of dream moments, Reisman illustrates many hilariously absurd situations that will leave you laughing. Still, this book does produce a trance-like state where the idea of someone half-submerged in floor boards seems as normal as, say, George W. Bush being president of the United States. Hmmm, Goya was right!

— Peter Kuper, Cartoonist

FOREIGN OBJECTS, Dream Drawings

by David Reisman

ISBN 0-9706407-2-2

First printing: November 2004

Trade paperback

200 pages 8.5" x 5.5"

US$14.95

Available from the Hornbill Press:

www.hornbillpress.com

* * * RECURRING EVENTS * * *

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- Ritual DaFuMu for Peace

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The World Dreams Peace Bridge, on the 15th of each month, is holding a monthly DaFuMu (a collective dream of good fortune: http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/dafumu.htm) to support peace.

In joining a DaFuMu each month we will be seeking the mandala of peace within the universal mind: learning what it is to be peaceful at a personal level, how to act in a peaceful manner within the world, and accessing and supporting the general mandala of peace available to all people. So, please join in on the 15th of each month. Before sleeping set your intention to dream towards the mandala of peace.

If you feel that your dream has touched upon a symbol that can be used within the mandala of peace we are creating, or on a particular relation of peace, please let us know. Just send your comment, picture or dream to http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/dafumumonthly.htm. To join the World Dreams Peace Bridge discussion group, just send an e-mail to worlddreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

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- IASD Online Auction

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Each month new, fabulous items are up for bid online on the Auction Board on the IASD web site. To look at all of the bargains and place your bid on these items, go to http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/bb2005/viewforum.php?f=7 or to http://www.iasdreams.org and follow the links from the home page.

Also – you can do your part in supporting the IASD by donating a book, CD, DVD, a piece of art, some delectable item of your choice! It’s easy to do – just contact Kat Peters-Midland (moderator) at IASDonlineauction@... or or go to http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/asdauction/auction.htm and follow the directions to submit your donation there!

In the next couple of months, you will find these fabulous items up for bid and so much more!

* Women’s Bodies, Women’s Dreams by Patricia Garfield, PhD.

* The Lucid Dreaming Kit PLUS the bonus Eight Hour CD by Bradley Thompson.

* $800 ($100 per quarter) off of the tuition for The Haden Institute Two-year Dream Leadership Training of any NEW STUDENT.

* The Thirteen Dreams Freud Never Had: The New Science by J. Allan Hobson, MD, signed by the author and dedicated to IASD.

* The Wilderness of Dreams: Exploring the Religious Meanings of Dreams in Modern Western Culture. By Kelly Bulkeley, PhD.

Kat Peters-Midland

Director IASD Online Auction

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Cover Artist, Laura Atkinson

“Keys to a Faraway World”

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Artist Statement / Bio: 

As a former photojournalist, Laura Atkinson has explored the links between art, visual therapy, and the realities of the dream state for many years. Her work, while being a deeply personal exploration of her own dreams, jars the viewer with its beauty of light interplay, form, and design. Her work has a tactile beauty that brings viewers into her private world while simultaneously giving one the permission to touch, feel, and experience each piece, while making it part of his/her own world, language, and life. She has been also been studying and photographing energy fields using a Kirlian technique, discovering the wonders of digital photomontage, as well as working on a large, handpainted silk project involving 30 dreams that were submitted by various IASD members and friends.

This month’s cover:

“Keys to a Faraway World”

A very simple dream. I am outfitted in some type of futuristic flight suit.  I swoop down to a person who hands me large key-ring with hundreds of old fashioned metal keys on it.  I bounce off the ground like a trampoline, taking flight back towards the moon.  I feel the mist of the clouds then the sky turns black.  I am alarmed that there aren't stars in this sky.  I stop on the moon and the key ring dissolves, scattering the actual keys.  They are floating in slow motion before my hands as I try to grasp them one at a time.  Some of them defy gravity and fall into the powdery surface of the moon.  I am left holding one key, which I must keep secret because it is the key to unlock a faraway world.

Website:  http://www.arthatglows.com    Email:  ArtThatGlows@...

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A Preview of Alchera 4

Harry Bosma

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For many years I've been working on a new version of the Alchera dream journaling software. I think that the upcoming version 4 still has the same simple feel as the previous versions, even though internally the amount of program code seems to have exploded. Let me first give a quick overview of the current version before I move on to the upcoming version 4.

Current version

Paper journals have their advantages. Everyone likes the directness of a pen against paper. If you like to travel you know that a paper journal packs much lighter than a computer. Dream software has advantages too. I like to quickly search through years of dreams, to keep notes on recurring imagery, and to index my dreams. I don't really travel that often anymore, so I've become a big fan of dream software.

While many of the longtime dreamers may not really need a symbol dictionary, I get the impression that they still find it fun to flip to the Symbol page to check out to which symbols a dream links to. I plead guilty as well. I keep several custom dictionaries, one of them for numbers and Tarot cards. By systematically entering numbers encountered in my dreams I discovered that they actually make sense. The related dreams frame at the Symbol page automatically shows other dreams with the same symbol. Sometimes I think to see a new image in a dream, only to have the related dreams show me dreams from a long forgotten time.

The Alchera 3.x versions also have bells and whistles that won't all necessarily improve how you work with dreams, but are just fun to play with. Dreams can be emailed directly from within Alchera. Charts can be generated for types of indexed dreams. Plugin tools shows how many dreams you logged per month, or how your dream counts relate to moon phases.

Alchera 4, standard edition

Dream journaling software almost by definition attracts longtime dreamers, but I keep hoping to find ways to draw in novice dreamers and even non-dreamers. Alchera 4 lets people attach small icons to dream titles. These icons come in two groups. The first group contains icons for happy dreams, dreams with success, new friends, new talents, in short dreams with hot apple pie and babies. Everyone likes hot apple pie and babies. The second group contains all kinds of things that go wrong. The suggestion I want to give is that you should celebrate the good dreams, and if you don't like the bad ones, you can perhaps find a way to improve them. I have no idea whether this will catch on, but I can reassure longtime users of Alchera that the use of these icons is entirely optional.

Alchera 4 introduces a special dictionary for names of people and places. This is for dreamers who like to pay attention to people and places, and what they signify. It still surprises me how people and places are the most frequently occurring elements of a dream, yet routinely overlooked. I wonder what it means when people show up in particular dreams, and perhaps I'm not the only one. I also use this dictionary to store the names of all the strangers I meet in dreams. The names dictionary has a few other uses. Among others, the research edition uses it to identify characters in a dream.

There are some improvements. The used word processor displays more image formats, including those found on the internet. Not only the journal entries, but also the symbol dictionaries and the new names dictionary accept pictures. Titles can be sorted in various ways, for example on word count or moon phase. Other Alchera 4 improvements are reserved for the research edition. Current customers are eligible for a free upgrade to the research edition, which is why the release of Alchera 4 depends on finishing the entire line.

The research edition

The research edition improves support for the coding system developed by Calvin S. Hall and Robert Van De Castle. I often refer to this system as the Hall and Van De Castle scales. Alchera 4 supports most of the scales. This  means that you can index your dreams for characters, social interactions, success and failure, good fortune and misfortune, and emotions. Support for the remaining and generally less interesting considered scales will most likely be limited.

Manual indexing of the scales is simply a matter of dragging words to certain place holders. That beats writing down codes on score cards. Alchera can index the scales automatically for as far as it only requires recognition of words. The character and emotions scales are relatively simple for automatic indexing. You will still need to manually inspect the results, because it can misidentify a word, or underestimate the count. The moment that sentences need to be analyzed, you're on your own. Alchera can pick up keywords that indicate a social interaction, but can't yet determine all the details. Success and failure, as well as good fortune and misfortune, typically require much human intelligence to detect and classify, so Alchera doesn't even try here. As characters are by far the most common elements in a dream, and central to the main other scales, I feel that significant time is saved even while automatic indexing is partial and needs manual inspection.

Alchera really shines when results get presented. A list of tables and charts can be viewed, comparing results to norms, for all dreams, for specific years only, for search results on words, for search results on index items attached to dreams, and for ad hoc selections of dreams.

The future

The future of Alchera looks good. Alchera 4 has been designed for easy creation of special editions. There already exists a special edition used with Jean Campbell's Dream Scouts project, based on the standard edition of Alchera 4. The release of the regular editions will have to wait a while, because parts of the research edition are still being tested. Existing customers are welcome to try such a test version.

Perhaps you're going to the IASD conference of 2005, in Berkeley. I  plan to show previews of Alchera 4 there, so you're warned! If you're not going, then I hope you will check out the website for updates, and - if you haven't done so already - subscribe to the monthly newsletter where I tell  about Alchera and other dream projects.

Thanks for reading!

Harry Bosma

The website of the Alchera dream software:

http://mythwell.com

For kids (and their parents), check out the Dream Scouts project:

http://imageproject.org/dreamscoutsinternational.htm

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An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange

By Lucy Gillis

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With over thirty years of lucid dreaming experience, Robert Waggoner has come to recognize several subtle factors that can help to induce lucid dreams. He shares his observations with us below:

Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams

(c) Robert Waggoner 2005

Over the past 30 years of lucid dreaming, experience has taught me that occasional subtle factors influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming. Like running downhill with the wind behind your back, these subtle factors seem to influence one's awareness, so that the threshold of conscious awareness or lucidity appears more easily attained in the dream state.

In my early years, the connection between these subtle factors and lucid dreaming seemed scarcely noticeable. But as the years progressed, I began to recognize the pairing of the factors and the lucid dreaming. Over time, I began to meet more and more experienced lucid dreamers, and I found concurrence with our joint observations, and some new subtleties that had escaped me. That subtle factors seem to influence lucid dreaming or one's ability to become consciously aware at all, suggests that the "mechanism" of lucid dreaming involves more than simply an intense desire or memory activation to achieve lucidity. It suggests that lucid dreaming has biological and environmental antecedents supporting it.

When certain conditions appear, a potential lucid dreamer may have an extra boost in reaching the threshold level of conscious awareness. I have selected the following seven subtle factors influencing lucid dreaming for your consideration:

1)   Approaching Thunderstorm or Weather Fronts

In my experience here in the Midwest, there seems to be a subtle increase in the number of spontaneous lucid dreams when a thunderstorm or (spring, summer, fall) weather front appears imminent. In fact, I have wakened from a number of lucid dreams by the sound of thunder. As meteorologists discovered, the imminent arrival of thunderstorms or a storm front appears associated with a number of atmospheric changes such as changes in barometric pressure and electrical ionization. Many people report that they "feel" a storm approaching before seeing any outer manifestations. Could these atmospheric changes of stormy weather influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming? Though a subtle factor, it seems possible. From that observation, I have a negative ion air cleaner in my bedroom.

2)   Extreme Physical Labor or Exhaustion

While I do my best to avoid too much labor, inevitably during the year, I put in a hard day of gardening or lawn work, or helping a friend move to a new apartment. Afterwards, falling asleep seems welcomed relief. Yet, surprisingly, these nights seem to create a higher likelihood of lucid dreams. Why? Are there chemical changes in the body from the physical labor that promote lucidity? Or does the lucid awareness come into existence as a counterbalance to hours of external, physical focus? As a subtle factor, infrequent lucid dreamers may wish to suggest a lucid dream after a day of serious physical work. That assumes, of course, that they are not too exhausted to care about lucid dreaming after a tough day.

3)   Yoga

Perhaps similar to the subtle factor of extreme physical labor on some levels, I have noticed that attending my weekly yoga class seems to increase the likelihood of a lucid dream that night. Though the class lasts for one and a half hours and varies in strenuousness, the compelling subtle factor appears to involve performing the asanas or yoga postures. Though one may claim that the greater probability of lucidity results from the subtle (or not so subtle) energy or chi arising from the yoga postures, my experience suggests that whatever the reason, yoga seems to improve one's chances of lucid awareness.

4)   New Sleep Locale

Have you ever noticed this? You go on a trip and sleep in a new bed, and that night you have a lucid dream? Or, you renovate your house and sleep in a different bedroom for a few nights, and the first night you have a lucid dream? I have. I think that the mechanism behind this involves greater vigilance from sleeping in new surroundings. Perhaps some primeval part of our brain/mind feels the need for greater awareness in the strange new surroundings of the different sleep locale, and this greater awareness translates into a greater chance of conscious awareness in the dream. Want to lucid dream? Go sleep in the den, or maybe the kitchen!, some place new.

5)   Vacation or the Weekend.

While sharing some points with "new sleep locale", I feel that a vacation exists as a subtle factor to improve lucid dreaming in my experience, along with the weekend. How to explain this? Vacations and weekends normally have this in common: the sense of a break from daily-work and its stresses. I have found that I remember more dreams on the weekend. My mind, thoughts and consciousness seem freer and wide-ranging on vacation. The typical, 50 hour a week, get-up-and-work lifestyle doesn't seem naturally conducive to lucid dreaming, except on the weekend or on vacation when "time" becomes freer and returns to one's self. It appears we need "free time" to free our mind, and become lucid.

6)   Diet

A number of lucid dreamers have noticed that diet seems to influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming. I have to agree. While the proper diet for lucid dreaming may take decades of research to determine, diet appears as a subtle factor in lucid dreaming. For interested lucid dreamers, they may wish to look back at their diet immediately before a spontaneous lucid dream. If they notice commonalities, they may wish to incorporate that diet into their lucid dream incubation.

7)   The Full Moon

Even though I submitted a (short) lucid dream in this LDE that occurs on the night of a full moon, I and some others have noticed that achieving lucidity on or around a full moon seems more difficult than other times of the lunar cycle. While some may suggest that a waxing moon seems the best time for lucid dreaming, I would like to see an actual research study of spontaneous (that is, unplanned) lucid dreaming occurrence and the phases of the moon.

Any graduate students out there needing a research project? Numerous anecdotes and some research on criminal activities suggest that full moons tend to correspond with behavioral changes and "lunacy". But why a full moon seems to impact negatively the occurrence of lucid dreaming, I don't understand, yet it too appears as one of those subtle factors in lucid dreaming success.

So there you have seven subtle factors that seem to influence the likelihood of lucid dreaming. If you feel you have more subtle factors, send Lucy or I an email, and we hope to include them in future issues of the Lucid Dream Exchange.

The Lucid Dream Exchange is a quarterly newsletter featuring lucid dreams and lucid dream related articles and interviews.  To subscribe to The Lucid Dream Exchange send a blank email to:

TheLucidDreamExchange-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

You can also check us out at www.dreaminglucid.com

Seven Subtle Factors Influencing Lucid Dreams

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Give Your Inner Child A Lift

(From "How To Fly")           

(c) 2005 Linda Lane Magallón

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I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope.

In our busy workaday world, it can be hard to find time to take a break from adult concerns. This especially applies to the field of dreams. The techniques used on dreams have been called dream "work," and for good reason. They require that we address serious issues like the meanings of our dreams or the resolution of the anxiety that they may contain. The sober tenor of such endeavors can mask our equally serious need for dreamplay. All work and no play don't just make Jack a dull boy; they make him an unhealthy one.

So how can you play with dreams? The most popular suggestion is artistic creativity. That's a response with a powerful historic precedent. And it's no surprise to discover that the dream flows as freely through the brush as through the recording pen.

For all their benefits, traditional dreamwork and dreamplay have this in common: they don't take place until the end of sleep. We in the waking world may struggle for survival or play at picnics, but all too often we forget to clean up after ourselves. The residue of the daytime drama still serves as fodder for nocturnal life. And guess who has to choke down the leftovers every night?

There was an old man from Peru

Who dreamed he was eating his shoe.

He woke in a fright

In the middle of night

And found it was perfectly true.

I called traditional dreamwork and dreamplay "afterwork" and "afterplay" because they take place after the dream is done. Some folks have rediscovered the sort of Creative Dreaming featured in Patricia Garfield's book of the same name. This sort occurs before and during the dream. It features the proactive skill of incubation.

The advantage of before-dream creativity is that it can be set up to launch the dreams that follow. If we waking egos do clean-up work plus add some rich nutrients before sleep, the results are truly amazing. Suddenly, the dream isn't shackled with serving us; the Inner Child isn't just a servant who works for us. Now, she has time to play while the dream is still happening. Now, she has the energy to experience the extraordinary. She has the curiosity to explore the unknown. Finally, she has the opportunity to grow and glow, to desire and wonder.

The difference between before and after can be merely a case of shifting intent. Instead of painting a dream you had last week, you might paint the dream you want to have tomorrow. This means you are nurturing the dream ahead of time. You are creating a blueprint for a new environment, building a new playground of the mind.

Plato found the model of play in children's need to leap, to transcend the limits of gravity, of the grave and the serious. Flying is definitely a leap of the imagination. Flying dreams provide an opportunity for the Child Within to take a vacation from mundane constraints, to express herself freely, to swing suspended between Earth and silent sky. If we don't put obstacles in her way.

Rock a bye Baby

On the tree top

When the wind blows,

The cradle will rock

When the bough breaks

The cradle will fall

And down will come baby

Cradle and all

Sometimes I wonder about us adults. Do we really want to give our children nightmares? What do you think are the results of singing this traditional lullaby just before a child goes to sleep? I remember that every time I heard it (and I was the eldest of 5 children, so I heard it a lot), I pictured a baby in a bassinet come crashing down out of the tree. Lovely image to take to dreamland.

It may seem counterintuitive, but to fly freely, we first must be well grounded. Suppose you do fly into the stratosphere. How are you going to get back down? Have you thought that far ahead? A safe flight does require some pre-planning. Let's see if you remember how to stretch your imagination like a kid does. So consider this for a moment: if you could pack a safety symbol in your Inner Child's flight bag, what would it be? How about a net, a parachute or angel wings for safe flights? Or if you could design a safe spot in your Inner playground, what would you use as a landing pad? A mattress, a pool of water, a mound of whipping cream?

Some of us have great runways

already built for us,

so if you have one,

TAKE OFF.

If you don't,

grab a shovel and build one.

To build a flying dream, we must pair movement of consciousness with appropriate imagery. Our sleeping minds match the emotions or sensations that cause our hearts to leap and soar with visuals drawn from waking experience. Since most of us are not pilots or astronauts, those pictures tend to be of the grounded variety. Thus, though we well feel our spirits in motion as we sleep, we're most likely to dream up a physical body walking down a road or riding in a car. To fly, we must substitute free-flying imagery for its grounded counterpart. Where do we get that sort of imagery?

Even when our lives are stationary, we can observe nature in motion. When was the last time you lay on the grass, looking upwards to view butterflies, helicopters and leaves drifting in the wind? The clouds, driven along the blue sky, may tempt us to travel with them. The seasonal smells can make us feel buoyant, too. When I gaze skyward into the night, I might see shooting stars or planes flashing their approach to San Jose airport. Even the moon moves if I stare at it for long.

Child of the pure unclouded brow

And dreaming eyes of wonder!

As the seasons change to cold and chilly, we may withdraw into our cozy cocoons, but we need not leave flight behind. Inside the home, the pictures to invoke flying dreams can come from paintings or photos, collages or calendars and especially in the books we read. We might incubate flight when we immerse ourselves in an adult novel. But fairy tales, myths, short stories and tall tales from the children's section of the library are a particularly rich source of imagery.

Crossing the skies of Earth, dipping into off-planet atmospheres or roaming the reaches of outer space, humans streak and bob throughout the annals of fantasy and science fiction. Teenage comics and adolescent paperbacks house these contemporary myths. On their covers, we are likely to find the archetypal images of flight that will fly us into the future.

Fly high my pretty one

Through endless sunny colors

Ribboned currents of support

Light and lifting

Caressing arms of wind.

Together fly

Finger touching

Break and dance

Spin the sky

Return encircling

Wings entwining

Welcoming

Nuzzle

Lucky for us, the Inner Child has always had an inborn ability to expand still snapshots into live action movies. But nowadays, we can help her create a data bank of moving pictures, too. Movies, DVDs and CDs: video makes a great visual aid.

Don't forget MTV. Because flying can make our hearts pound, our spirits sing, the right selection of song or music may actually help induce a flying dream. The monotonous throb of a mantra or tom-tom can put us into an altered state, but a dream is already an altered state! We don't need to calm down there; we're already asleep. To fly we need to rev up our Inner Child. So a faster rhythm is quite appropriate. Thus, flying is not so much a lullaby as it is a wake-up call, a sudden "Ah ha!"

Self-suggestion is a powerful ally in achieving dreams of flight. There are certain times in my life when I'm likely to be elated - for instance, when I finally finish writing an articles on dreams. If I can catch the moment just as I'm feeling the rush of elation, I can saddle it with a strong suggestion to fly and ride both into my dreams that night. What better source for a suggestion than a song? The refrain from Peter Pan is quite effective:

You can fly! You can fly! You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!

Our Inner Child also responds well to affirmations. Yes, I can do it! She's very proud of her achievements, so we can pat ourselves on the back when we reach our flying goals.

Tight-woven cocoon

You were born to be life's

golden butterfly.

Flying is not for couch potatoes! Flying is dream air-obics, an exercise of consciousness. It's a wind game that proves to us we're fully alive. Emotions move us, no doubt about it. But so can tactile sensations. I had quite a bit of success when I put suggestion and sensation together one summer. I held the intention to incubate flying dreams while swimming in my pool. I pictured myself flying plus I felt the sensation of flying while I swam. Then subvocally I urged my Inner Child to remember the same feeling after I fell asleep.

Write of swimming under water and you will have the flight of the bird through the air.

For me, falling backwards into the pool translated into a dream of falling back off a ledge on the building that houses the David Letterman Show. The dog-paddle, crawl and breaststroke actions were all copied by my Inner Child in nonlucid dreams of flying.

But not the sidestroke. Instead, I had a dream of lying on my side, in bed. Those waking movements were too lazy to inspire dreaming flight.

I came like Water,

and like Wind I go.

Now, you may not fly or swim in waking life. But you do move. As your feet hit the ground, your Inner Spirit floats along for the ride. Every day, she has an in-the-body-experience, just as you do. At night she can call up the motion while she flies free. But to release her, you may have to rev up your energy, even for a short while. Go for a brisk walk. Ride a bicycle. Create the wind to massage your skin.

A snail, who had a way, it seems,

Of dreaming very curious dreams,

Once dreamed he was - you'll never guess -

The Lightning Limited Express!

When I was a kid, I used to play "Super Arm." I'd put my arm out the car window in a horizontal position and fly it like Superman. You can do the same thing in your imagination. Get comfortable in your chair. Close your eyes and pretend you are a passenger in a car. Feel the motion of the car. Let the vibration hum through the soles of your feet and the cup of your seat. Look out the window and watch the scenery go by. Look ahead at the highway, straight as an arrow. See that small tree at the side of the road? Watch it come closer...and closer...and then whiz by. Open the window just a crack; listen to the wind whistle past. Then open it all the way. Feel the wind as it caresses the hair on your skin. As much as you can, become your arm. Place all your concentration there. Let the sense of vehicle fade away. Raise and lower your hand. Up and down. Up and down. Now, side to side. Now, request your Inner Child to form a dream like this. You can open your eyes now. If your attention has been on more on your seated body than your arm, don't be surprised if you get a sitting-flying dream.

I remember, I remember

The fir-trees dark and high

I used to think their slender tops

Were close against the sky...

I remember, I remember

Where I was used to swing,

And thought the air must rush as fresh

To swallows on the wing...

For a standing-flying dream, imagine yourself flying while you're standing upright in a bus, subway or boat. For easy upward or downward movement, the escalator and elevator are your best places to practice.

When you are in your safest space, try closing your eyes. But this time don't project or expect any pictures. Instead, become a night flyer. Conjure up the sensations of flight sans imagery. Learn to enjoy moving through the friendly dark. The great hood of night can be a warm blanket against the frigid cold of anxiety.

When the nightbird sings

Then my soul takes wing

to a land of wise

and wondrous things.

Through the gifts of day

hold me in their sway

'tis the gifts of night

are my soul's delight.

A dream that corresponds to physical reality has practical value to our waking selves. But remember, it is a mask to that which is more native to the reality in which our Inner Child resides. In dreamspace, there is no need for gravity. We actually cooperate with the natural properties of the dream state in order to achieve flight. But we can still use the waking world to launch our flights, by importing emotions, imagery and physical sensations. Coupled with a self-suggestion, we use such artistic treasures to form a flying dream. And off we go.

When I fly,

I crash straight thru the roof.

Then I know I'm there.

When I'm bounding down the street,

taking giant boomerang steps,

50 yards or more,

Then I know I can blast off

under my own power.

For the high octane joy of it.

I never flap or fuddle.

I run and jump off the cliff,

just to get air-borne deliciously.

When I fly,

I glide over the tops of trees

to spy into secret backyards below.

When I fly,

I know time is always now

and space stretches

wherever my mind goes.

When I fly,

it's to fly forever

Authors of Poetry and Prose

Cahn/Fain. " You can fly! You can fly! You can..."

Carroll, Lewis. " Child of the pure unclouded brow..."

Da Vinci, Leonardo. " Write of swimming under water..."

Earhart, Amelia. " Some of us have great runways..."

Herford, Oliver. " A snail, who had a way, it seems..."

Hood, Thomas. "I remember, I remember..."

Johnson. Carol. "When the nightbird sings..."

Khayy‡m, Omar. " I came like Water..."

Magall—n, Linda Lane. "Fly high my pretty one..."

Smith, Kent. " Tight-woven cocoon..."

Smith, Kent. "When I fly..."

http://members.aol.com/caseyflyer/flying/dreams.html  (Dream Flights)

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THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

The Power of DaFuMu Dreaming

Jean Campbell

May 2005

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Not so very long ago, it would have been laughable to think about connecting with friends in Japan, Australia, Germany, without great expense and long delay.  Now, the Internet makes almost instant communication, at no expense at all, a daily occurrence.

You probably know, if you've been watching the news, that the situation in Iraq grows daily more dire.  The number of car bombings, abductions and shootings increases to the point where some observers speak of civil war.  Yet this chaos has not entirely stopped the flow of communication from people living in the madness.  Recently, the speed of the Internet and the speed of telepathy united to present an amazing communication from Baghdad to The World Dreams Peace Bridge.

>From a time slightly before the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, members of the Peace Bridge have been dreaming about the children of the world, particularly the children of Iraq.  What began as dreams soon turned into the Aid for Traumatized Children Project, through which the Peace Bridge has been able to provide almost $20,000 in aid to the children in Baghdad, Fallujah and other hard-hit areas of the country.  For a small group of dreamers, that is a large feat.

Project fundraising is ongoing.  For example, the Silent Auction/International Bazaar at this year's conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in Berkeley, California June 24-28 will be a fundraiser for the group's work with the children of Baghdad.  This work has provided therapeutic toys, art supplies and dream journals for the children, and also support for important, Iraqi-led programs such as Seasons Art School, run by Emad Hadi; and the PTSD Project of Dr. Ali Rasheed and Dr. Wisal Aldouri, aimed at teaching those who work with children how to recognize and treat post-traumatic stress.

In all of this cooperative effort, it has seemed only natural that e-mail communication would hurry back and forth many times each week from Baghdad, in the same way that members of the Peace Bridge living in Dallas, or Cincinnati, or Istanbul, less threatened parts of the world, communicate via the Internet.

Then, for two and a half alarming weeks in May, there were no communications from Baghdad.  We knew that Ali Rasheed was safe in London, where he had been invited to speak about his program.  But what of Emad and the children at Seasons Art School?  Were they safe?  Were they alive?  Had the frequent power outages disrupted communication?  Had the Internet Cafe they use closed?

In the past few months, I have become the primary contact for Emad with the Peace bridge.  We are in the process of creating a dream work program with twenty-one children between the ages of ten and fourteen who attend Seasons Art School, and I had just sent the first dream exercise for these children, The Crystal Birds, before silence descended.