The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (39 page)

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Authors: Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras

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or she] is out of the body." British psychologist Susan Blackmore studied out-of-body dream experiences and found that most occur when the subject is "in bed, ill, or resting, with a smaller percentage taking place while people are drugged or medicated." Perhaps the hypnogogic state leads to some confusion between being awake and being asleep. Stephen LaBerge, a lucid dreaming expert, concurs with this view, theorizing "that out-of-body dreams are most often associated with the onset of sleep, when dreamers lose input from their sense organs while retaining consciousness."
Although lucid dreams share the same vivid nature as out-of-body dreams, there is one important difference: During a lucid dream, the dreamer is quite sure he or she is dreaming. During an out-of-body dream, the opposite is true; the dreamer is certain the experience is real, and "the event is actually taking place in the physical world, and not in a dream," Krippner and de Carvalho explain.
Several researchers have theorized a connection between near-death experiences and lucidity. Jayne Gackenbach reports, for example, "Two studies have found that people who have [near-death experiences] are more likely to experience dream lucidity." Indeed, the feelings associated with each experience may be similar. Astral projectionthe sensation (some would say experience) that the self or soul is leaving the body to travel freely from place to placecan be thought of as an extension of these two experiences. Consider this example: A high school student, bereft over a breakup with a longtime girlfriend, reported a dream experience in which he had the sensation that he left his body behind in his bed and found himself transported to his ex-girlfriend's bedroom 15 miles away. There, in the darkness, he saw her sleeping. Interestingly, this young man had undergone a near-death experience during abdominal surgery when
 
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he was seven years old, and, unprompted, mentioned a similarity between the two events.
Nocturnal Hallucinations
Have you ever had the experience of awakening from deep sleep and seeing something you can't explain? These nocturnal hallucinations may be dreams, but they are so exceptionally vivid that they can make those who have them wonder about the existence of ghosts. Leea Virtanen is one of the researchers who has studied hallucinations. ''Seventy-five percent [of the visions we recorded] occurred in the borderline state between sleep and waking. Many of these visions seem to be continuations of dreams. The experience is usually very brief, perhaps only a few seconds. Typically, the apparition is perceived as a human form, which appears in the percipient's normal surroundings, [such as] in the bedroom." For instance, a young woman we interviewed recalls a time when she had just completed law school and was packing up her apartment for a move to Washington, D.C. On her final night in that apartment, she had an experience that still haunts her. She reports waking up in the middle of the night and looking toward her bedroom window, which was illuminated by a streetlight. As she began to focus her eyes, she saw a large human form step in front of the light, its back to her. At first, she told us, she thought it was an optical illusion, like a pile of clothes on a chair or a windblown drapery. But the room was empty, except for the bed and a dresser. She expected the "illusion" to fade away as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Terrified, she froze in bed, then noticed the figure's long cloak and the heavy hood. "It looked liked Death," she recalls. "As I started to look at the dresser mirror, to see whether I could see
 
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a face, the figure turned, and it was impossible to see. I turned on the light, and the figure was still there. Eventually, it did fade away, but I couldn'twouldn'tgo back to sleep.'' Was this a visit from a ghostly spectre? Or a symbolic dream or nightmare about the "death" of grad school life and the transition into the working world? Like other kinds of nightmares, experiences like this one are worth interpreting. But science has yet to verify or explain this phenomenon.
For some people, no explanation is sufficient; they truly believe they were in the presence of an otherworldly entity. For instance, another well-educated woman we know sublet her sister's New York City apartment only to have an experience so terrifying that she now sleeps with a crucifix over her bed to ward off evil. She reports waking up one night to feel an "evil presence" enter her room, climb onto the bed with her, and then proceed to sit on her chest in an apparent attempt to crush her. "I know it was evil," she says. "It's very hard for me to believe it was just a dream." Though she was quite shaken, she told a few friends about the incident at the time, and then ceased mentioning it. Imagine her surprise, though, when a few years later, she overheard her sister telling someone about a similar experience when she slept in that same bedroom!
Are such nighttime experiences merely dreams? Or are they waking encounters with otherworldly beings? To paraphrase famed University of Virginia psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, one of the world's foremost experts on parapsychology: It's not for us to determine whether there are ghosts; all we do is report what we hear. It is easy to define a dream as an experience we have while sleeping, but that simplistic definition becomes complicated when we are talking about experiences we have when we believe ourselves to have just awakened.
 
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Psi Dream Experiments
It is possible to incubate psi dreams, much as you incubate creative dreams. Working with a friend or family member, you can attempt to collect your own anecdotal evidence of psi dreams without laboratory supervision. These experiments are simple, and fun to try, and may give you or your dream partner some valuable information about your waking life. Some experiments, like the ones that follow, involve several friends or family members.
Experiment With Telepathyin Pictures
This experiment, adapted from Phyllis Koch-Sheras's
Dream On
, is especially effective when you have the opportunity to dream together in close proximitywith overnight guests, for example, or on a camping trip.
You will need: Six pictures about the size of a standard 8-by-11-inch piece of paper. These pictures should depict simple, identifiable subjects and be quite distinct from each other (such as a dog, a house, or a boat). You may cut the pictures out of a magazine or newspaper, or draw them clearly (or ask a talented participant to do so); remember, simplicity is key. You will also need pens and paper for the following morning, when the dreamers will record their dreams.
The procedure: One person agrees to be the sender and selects a target picture to transmit to the receivers as they sleep. The sender should concentrate on the image, visualizing it several times during the night. The sender could also envision a network connecting him or her with the receivers and sending the target picture in all directions. The receivers try to tune in to the pictures as they are falling asleep, and give themselves a strong suggestion such as "Tonight, I will dream about the picture that is being sent my way."
 
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The next morning, each receiver records his or her dreams privately, without saying anything to the sender or the other dreamers. The sender then shows all six pictures to the group, without comment; the sender might also offer some free associations he or she has with each illustrationthese sometimes surface as part of the "message." Each dreamer than makes a guess as to which illustration was in fact the target picture, based on his or her own dream. Then, before the actual target picture is identified, each dreamer recounts his or her dream and tells which picture seems most closely associated with it.
Finally, the sender reveals which illustration is the target picture. All things being equal, the chance of guessing which is the target picture is one in six. It is interesting to discover how psi dreaming improves these odds
Experiment With Telepathyin Words
For this experiment, you will need a receiver and a sender who is fully awake during the time the message is being sent. Again, a situation in which you are in the same location overnight is best. If you have a friend who is a night owl and you are a morning person, or if you sleep late and your friend rises early, you can coordinate your schedules so that this experiment works.
You will need: A piece of paper on which your friend can write down the message he or she intends to send you.
The procedure: Agree on a bedtime for the designated dreamer, and establish a game planfor example, the sender may choose to sit outside the bedroom door, to sleep in the same room with the recipient, or whatever other arrangement might work.
Before the recipient goes to bed, the sender privately jots down a clear and specific message that he or she intends to send the recipient. The recipient then goes to sleep. At the agreed-upon
 
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time (for example, ninety minutes after the recipient is likely to have fallen asleep), the sender then concentrates on the message, repeating the words in his or her head. You can do this several times per nightif the sender is willing.
The next morning, the recipient writes down all dreams and fragments, attempting to exact a message. Afterward, the sender reveals the intended message.
Experiment With Clairvoyance
This experiment must be conducted solo, to avoid the interference of other dreamers and their dreams.
You will need: Twenty or thirty color pictures, cut out from magazines, simple in theme and content and dissimilar from one another. Insert each picture into a separate large manila envelope and shuffle them well.
The procedure: When you have thoroughly mixed the stack, select one envelope and mark the
back
of it with an
X
. Without looking at the contents, place the envelope under your pillow or mattress. Before going to sleep, give yourself the following suggestion: "I will dream about the picture I have selected, and when I wake up in the morning, I will remember the dream."
The next morning, record your dreams, then remove the envelope and shuffle it with five other pictures from your larger stack. Lay these six envelopes out, face up, so the backs don't show. Open each envelope and examine the pictures, placing each on its corresponding envelope. Decide which one is your target picturethe one you slept on overnightthen check the back of the envelope. You may well see a match!
These experiments are certainly fun to try. And, amazingly, they really can work. If you have established a dream group, you might suggest an overnight dream retreat in which group
 
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members can try some of these remarkable exercises. Families who are together for the holidays might also give these exercises a try. College roommates or other housemates might also make use of these techniques as a way of getting to know each other or just having fun. In the next chapter, we discuss other ways to share dream experiences, from establishing dream groups, to co-dreaming with a partner or spouse. Dreams have power, psychic or otherwise, and sharing them with others only adds to that power.
 
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Chapter Nine
Dreamwork Teamwork Sharing Your Dreams
By now, you understand how you canand mustserve as the expert with the final say on your own dreams. Solitary dreamwork is a wonderful way to spend time alone, a tool for creative expression, a vehicle for self-exploration, and, for many, a time of meditation and focus. Sharing your dreams with others also has much to offer the dedicated dreamer. As you have experienced, just recounting your dream to another person can cement it in your memory and make it come alive. And, as you might imagine, the reactions and associations someone else might have to your dream can lead you to new insights and observations. Finally, it can promote intimacy and closeness. Social dreamworkdreamworking one-on-one or in a groupis not about having someone else interpret your dream for you. As you know, you are the source, and therefore the expert, on your own dreams. But imagine recounting a dream to an interested and supportive listener, then hearing that listener observe,
 
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"You seem like you really dislike that character. When you talk about her, your whole face tightens and you frown." You can then use this feedback to consider how your physical response relates to the dream's meaning.
Aside from offering support and potential new insights, social dreamwork offers the chance to practice your dream interpretation skills. Encouragement from others helps to keep these skills alive. Like sharing a personal story with a friend or loved one, sharing dreams with each other can enhance your relationship and build closeness and understanding, adding value to the dream itself. Montague Ullman, an important innovator of group dreamwork techniques, puts it this way: "The paradox of dreamwork is that the dream, the product of our most private and intimate being, can best be brought to fullest realization through being shared with another or others. The helpful insights outside emotional support and the stimulation of imaginative input brings the dreamer closer to his own production."
"Even Sleepers Are Workers And Collaborators In What Goes On In The Universe."
Heraclitus, seventh-century B.C. Greek philosopher
This kind of supportive listening can help to create the kind of safety and structure required for the deep inner work necessary for accessing the unconscious. Carl Jung called this safe, protective space
temenos
, which is a Greek word meaning "the precincts of a sacred temple"; Jungian psychoanalysts still use the term to refer to the special framework psychoanalysis provides. One such analyst, Karen Signell, suggests that you can think of dream temenos as the special "place" that is created when you share a dream with a committed listener. This forum for dreamwork can motivate you to explore your dream further than you would alone. A committed listener or group of listen-

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