This is a great dream studies even hosted online by the International Association for the Study of Dreams. September 21 through October 5, 2008. Two weeks of online presentations about some of the more fringe aspects of dream research, including psi research, lucid dreaming, ancestor dreams, dreaming & archaeology, and dreaming & the afterlife.

This not a stuffy, abstract conference but a dynamic and welcoming discussion for everyone who is passionate about dreams. This is Dreaming 2.0. And it’s only $25 (US) for students.

I don’t do a lot of “hawking” on this blog but I really stand behind this group of dreamers. Join us if you can! I”m going to be presenting some of my experiences of lucid dreaming from my MA thesis.

But there’s a lot going on in the consciousness studies community, and I am well poised now to share the latest news, trends, and happenings from my home beneath the redwood trees in Northern California.

For starters, the International Association for the Study of Dreams is hosting its annual conference in Montreal next week. I’ll be there, and I”m hoping to provide timely commentary as I tool around at the hundreds of presentations on everything from clinical research to anthropological narratives. I promised the same during the Anthropology of Consciousness Conference, but this time, I have a laptop that works.

I”m presenting as well, an ecopsychological critique of lucid dreaming and the method I”ve developed that addresses my own split from nature, focusing on receptivity and connectivity within the wilderness of the lucid dream.

I have big plans for the Dream Studies Portal in the next few months: a new look, new features, and more in-depth coverage of the dream studies community. If there’s anything you”d like to see more of (or less of), feel free to drop me a line.

The conference is, as always, open to the public. Click on the shiny dreamy logo for more information.

Times like this, it’s good to remember that the Int”l Association for the Study of Dreams still offers its free nightmare hotline. This service is staffed by professionals with decades of experience with frightening dreams and nightmares.

Here’s what the IASD suggests before making the call:

Nightmares and their associated feelings are normal reactions to non-normal, traumatic events. The Nightmare Response Line’s experienced dreamworkers offer debriefing, not counseling.

Research shows that a conscious focus on nightmares once they”ve occurred (just telling them to someone) can speed up coming to grips with the trauma and have a positive effect on an individual’s well being. Under “nightmares,” Cyberdreamwork loosely classify all dreams with strong overtones of fear, devastation, overwhelming shame, guilt, humiliation, or mutilation, as well as dreams of falling, burning, and so on. Calling the hotline, you’ll have the opportunity to tell your nightmare safely and anonymously.

Trick or treat!

I somewhat remember wine, at some point, and the wine tasting that was more like a cascading. At that point, dream performer Lana Nasser emerged from the trees as a bird and adventured around on the outskirts of civilized white tablecloth conversations in a decidedly bird-like manner. (Photo credit: Bhaskar Banerji)

There was science, too. Mark Schroll led a dynamic panel on the subject of Bohmian science and its implications for sacred sites, ecopsychology and spiritual emergence. Stanley Krippner presented his experimental dreaming research into megalithic sites in England and Wales. This pilot study is frought with issues, but paves the way for dream fieldwork in a new way, in which the content of dreams is considered in relationship with landscape, not merely a habit of cultural or personal predispositions.

The study was ultimately not convincing that the ancient sites affected the bizarreness of the researchers” dreams, yet Krippner acknowledges that his hope is that “someone takes it on from here.” I”m glad to see this presentation in debate; it goes against the scientific materialist paradigm, so the variables have to be isolated well. This is pioneering work nonetheless and close to my own research interests in imaginal archaeology.

Also, Curt Hoffman, dream researcher and archaeologist, presented his self-study on how visiting novel places (new cultures and landscapes) can permeate dream content. He found that the highest instance of dreams with elements of those places occurred within the month following his trips.

In particular, Hoffman suggested that the average delay of sense of place – or the spiritus loci – is about five days. So don’t feel too bad if you don’t have a powerful dream on a weekend camping trip that only lasts two nights. Wednesday night, get some sleep and it may well turn up, as long as you don’t fall asleep watching reruns of “Matlock” or engaging in other dream-snuffing behavior.

Personally, I”m a sucker for watching “Quantum Leap” in inappropriate intervals.