FAQ about Dreaming

I was interviewed by a middle school student last year, and recently found the manuscript. I”m going to publish it here because she asked so many great questions about the current state of dream studies. The interview was a real education for me about how young people have the keen ability to seek out the blind spots in our theories and knowledge about dreams.

When are you interested in dream for the first time and why?
I wrote my first dream down at age 11, and have had a consistent interest in dreams since age 15. My early dreams were both exciting and scary, and I was not satisfied with most people’s answer “it’s just a dream, it doesn’t matter.”

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New Survey for Finding the Meaning of Dreams

Here’s another opportunity to participate in dream research.

Carey Morewedge of Carnegie Mellon University and Michael Norton of Harvard are conducting a short survey on dreams and memory. I took it in less than 10 minutes. The results will be reported in the New York Times, thanks to dream-enthusiast and journalist John Tierney.

Click here to take the survey.

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New lucid dreaming blogs

A couple quick blog recommendations today:

The first is a new blog about dreams and consciousness: Oneirology +.

The focus is on lucid dreaming and science of sleep. They post articles, images, and original blogs that explore the interconnection of mind and brain as well as cognition and consciousness in dreams and sleep states.

And for an original look at dreams and lucid dreams, go to Lucider Waking. Lucider writes about lucid dreaming from the perspective of transpersonal psychology, and also has some original pieces that explores the topic from an East-West vantage. He doesn’t update often, or have an RSS reader yet, but there’s plenty of material to whet your palate.

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Exploring Sex & Lucid Dreaming

For a topic as popular as lucid dream sex, it’s strange that there are few valuable guides. Part of this disconnect is because lucid dreaming is marketed as the ultimate “virtual reality ” but, in practice, erotic dreams are not so easy to control.

In fact, sexuality is hard-wired in our minds alongside terror just as much as ecstasy. That is probably why the world’s wisdom traditions have explored sexuality as a serious, and sometimes perilous, pathway to the spirit and the Divine.

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