I had a really unsettling moment this week when I realized I’ve been unconsciously living out my life according to the plot of A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors.
In case you haven’t seen the movie, the central plot centers around a young woman named Kristen, who leaves her hometown to study dream research after suffering from realistic nightmares starring, you know, Freddy. She then returns home, and begins working in a psychiatric hospital to help others who have powerful but destructive imaginations. That’s when the nightmares begin again….
I had forgotten entirely about this movie, but apparently it lodged itself so deeply in my mind I decided to go ahead and model my life after it. Like Kristen, I suffered from lucid nightmares as a teenager – those dreams that you know you are dreaming but feel powerless to act in the dream or sometimes even wake up.
After six years of life on the road as an archaeologist, I went back to school to study dream research. I learned ways to combat lucid nightmares, and also how to transform these dreams into empowering experiences. With my freshly minted degree, I began a new life with the aim to encourage dream education. The Dream Studies Portal is part of this mission.
So now that I know, I guess I’m waiting for the next plot point: Freddy’s return. Any dream warriors out there got my back?
For a more in-depth version of my story –how I got into dream research and what I’m aiming to do, check out this interview of me by Robert Waggoner of the Lucid Dream Exchange (the link is for a pdf – download or right-click and choose “save as.”)
That movie (and the series in general) sparked my own fascination with lucid dreaming. I have even gone so far as to encourage lucid dreaming and dream-thinking/interpretation in my 9 year old.
It started when she was 7. I told her about the possibility of lucid dreaming and said maybe she could become a ‘dream warrior’ some day as a means of exploring her own dreams. She has been enthralled by the idea ever since. I now get weekly updates on her dream adventures – and at 9 she has even begun writing songs about them.
I rarely remember my dreams now, but I still think the possibility of lucid dreaming way way cool…
thx.
m-
Michael, that’s wonderful to hear how you are encouraging “dream-thinking” with your little girl. I wish that such activities were part of everyday preschool curricula.
Dream Warriors scared the pants off of me, because I was already having lucid nightmares. I can thank another movie – Poltergeist – for instilling horror deep in my six-year old psyche. (I was out with a friend and his step-father – we were supposed to watch ET but it sold out. My folks were really angry.)
BTW, I recently watched Poltergeist again for the first time since that incident and it was a great experience. The movie is excellent, very funny actually, and I released a lot of ancient dread.
Just read this. Glad you got rid of some old business.
thanks Mom. 🙂