New Book Exploring Visitation Dreams
From http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/32983:
“New book documents George Mason University Professor Luellen Hoffman’s breakthrough research into dreams where people everywhere are visited by deceased loved ones.George Mason University Professor Luellen Hoffman has completed and published her new book Special Dream.
“Her interest stems from the untimely death of her own husband, and her own resulting dream experiences. When she learned that her sister-in-law had a similar experience, she was inspired to begin conducting the necessary research to complete a book on the previously seldom examined phenomenon….”
Book Review: Teach Yourself to Dream
by David Fontana
This book has been used as the textbook for a dream course in at least one university that I know of, although its style is practical, intriguing, and far from the stodginess of many textbooks. An astounding range of topics is covered in its 159 pages, each section deserving of contemplation and exploration, so expect to feel enticed to spend some extra time as you go. Fontana, a Jungian, includes alongside the text many beautiful and evocative illustrations that make the book that much more inspiring.
If you’re looking for rambling prose, Teach Yourself to Dream is not the book for you. But if you’re looking for a whole lot of practical information and exercises packed into a relatively short space, buy this one. However, don’t be fooled by its relatively short length, and don’t expect to read it through all at once. I predict that you’re going to want to spend some time with each topic and savor each one.
The Table of Contents includes the following chapters (although this is somewhat misleading because each of these chapters contains a large number of titled subsections that read more like mini-chapters):
- Approaching the Dream World
- Contacting the Dream World
- The Art of Dream Control
- The Art of Interpretation
- A Dreamer’s Guide to the Whole Self
- Help from the Unconscious
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Book Review: The Universal Dream Key
by Patricia Garfield
I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a book that takes a different approach than those from the majority of other authors. The Universal Dream Key is based on a dream study that identified the themes tend to be dreamed about most often. Included is a list of the most common dream themes, such as being chased or having car trouble, along with frequency data for each.
The main body of the book examines these themes and their variations, influences (biological, cultural, personal), questions to ask to understand your meaning of the theme, how to analyze in-depth, and how to cope with your dream. Also included is a helpful, hierarchical outline including meanings of themes, variations, and sub-variations, as well as analytical tools in the appendix.
Each main chapter addresses one common dream theme:
- Being chased or attacked versus being embraced or loved
- Being injured, ill, or dying versus being healed, born, or reborn
- Car or other vehicular trouble versus pleasure
- House or property loss or damage versus improvement
- Poor test or other poor performance versus fine performance
- Falling or drowning versus flying, swimming, or dancing joyfully
- Being naked or inappropriately dressed in public versus being well dressed
- Missing the boat or other transport versus pleasant travel
- Machine or telephone malfunction versus smooth operation
- Natural or man-made disasters versus natural beauty, miracles, or rituals
- Being lost or trapped versus discovering new spaces
- Being menaced by a spirit versus being guided by a spirit
An excerpt from the editorial reviews on Amazon.com reads:
“Drawing upon the works of psychologist Carl Jung, structuralist Claude L‚vi-Strauss and folklorist Vladimir Propp, Garfield (Creative Dreaming), who cofounded the Association for the Study of Dreams, believes that all dreams despite significant differences in dreamers and their cultures fall into 12 archetypes. Most are common, easily recognizable narratives (”Being Chased or Attacked,” “Falling or Drowning” and “Being Lost or Trapped”), though a few may be less familiar to Western readers (”Being Menaced by a Spirit”). Each “negative” dream has a corresponding positive or healing version, such as “Being Well Dressed” instead of “Being Naked in Public or Inappropriately Dressed” or “Fine Performance” rather than “Poor Test or Other Poor Performance.” While it may seem reductive to limit dreams to 12 categories, Garfield acknowledges the biological and cultural influences on dream symbolism while taking pains to reiterate how every dream has a personal dimension specific to the dreamer. Most of her insights are commonsensical and unsurprising (”Making love in your dream = Wish to connect with waking person or quality of that person”), though readers who are willing to undertake the dozens of dream exercises Garfield offers will undoubtedly wrest new insights from their subconscious minds.”
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Book Review: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams
This book is an excellent starting place for anyone wanting an overview of dreams and sleep. And it’s a fun read, to boot! Presented in an easy-to-browse format, the content is generously sprinkled with graphics and other visuals, making it that much more entertaining and engaging.
In Lynn Robinson’s illuminating foreword, she talks about the process of how her dreams led her to write specific books that have been successfully published. The main content of the book is well organized into the following sections:
What are Dreams?
- Are You Dreaming?
- Dream Weavers: Dreams and Vision Quests of the Past
- To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
- What Psychology Teaches Us About Dreams
- Waking Up to Dream Messages
What Are You Dreaming About?
- Up in the Air: Dreams About Flying…and Falling
- Weighing Worth: Dreams About Money and Value
- The Thrill of Success, the Agony of Defeat: Dreams About Making the Grade
- Head to Toe: Dreams About the Body
- Dream Lovers: Dreams About Sex
- The Art of Losing: What Was Lost is Found
Decoding Your Dreams
- What a Nightmare!
- Learning from Signal Dreams
- The Language of Dreams: Wordplay and Numbers
- Visual Metaphors: Dream Pictures
Dreaming Through the Life Cycle
- Kids! Dreams of Children and Adolescents
- Grown-Up Dreams
- Mixing Memory with Desire: Maturity and Dreams
Dreams and Clairvoyance
- ESP, Precognition, and Prophecy
- Spirit Communication in Dreams
- Going Out of Your Body: Lucid Dreams
Recalling and Recording Your Dreams
- Dream Time!
- Keeping a Dream Journal
- Asking Your Dreams to Help You
- Dream Groups and Role-Playing: All the World’s a Stage
- Unleashing the Creative Power of Dreams
Glossary
Suggested Reading
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Sleeping and Dreaming
Sleeping and Dreaming, a book recently published in the UK, attempts to take a fresh look at why humans sleep and dream. A variety of experts from a range of countries and backgrounds, scientific and otherwise, try to explain what happens to the human mind, brain and body during sleep.
From UK Amazon, “Sleeping and Dreaming, which accompanies the exhibition of the same name at Wellcome Collection and the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum,Dresden, takes a fresh look at the apparently simple questions of why humans need to sleep and dream, and what happens to our brain and body during sleep. These fascinating lines of enquiry are explored by international experts from backgrounds as varied as neuroscience, linguistics, psychoanalysis, philosophy and fiction writing; and from organisations including the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Regensburg, the Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt, and the Royal School of Medicine in London. Illustrated by a stunning variety of visual material, from Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou, to sculpture by Ron Mueck and Katharina Fritsch, to photographs documenting US DJ Peter Tripp’s 1959 no-sleep marathon, these essays cover subjects such as the relationship between dream frequency and memory, the interpretation of dreams, and the causes and effects of sleep deprivation.”
An excellent review of the book appears in the UK’s Times Online site, written by A. S. Bryatt.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
arts_and_entertainment/books/article3336131.ece
