DreamUnit.net :: English

Dreamers United follows the format of a web log, or blog for short. Typically that means there is one main page that is frequently updated, and that there’s a newsfeed for those who like to follow multiple blogs through a newsreader like Bloglines.

I know of a several other dream blogs, all of them communities sharing dreams. Here they are:

- Abatons. Best appreciated through a newsfeed.
- Community of Dreams, hosted at LiveJournal, which has special addresses for the newsfeeds, in this case here. Unfortunately, the avatar pictures don’t show up at Bloglines.
- Dream Tribe, also easier to keep up with through the newsfeed.

Oh, and in case you missed it, Dreamers United has a newsfeed too.

You may have heard about the Senoi inspired hope to use dreams to create a nicer world. Mind you, the real Senoi people - or the Temiar - likely had and have different dream practices. Perhaps we should never use the words Senoi and dreams together again, but I have a question. If you look at the Western approach to dreaming, it is very personal, psychological, and somehow only appealing to very few people. Whereas the Senoi fantasy went far beyond that, and suggested that everyone discusses dreams on a regular basis, in a way that improves social relationships, and even the way society is organized.

Did anyone patent this idea already? Just joking. This all goes back at least three decades, and stories supposedly about the Senoi still turn up occasionally. Unfortunately, nothing much was ever done with these ideals. I’m not aware that anyone every tried to directly connect dreaming to group building and social action, although the World Dreams Peace Bridge comes close. Is there more we can do in this area?

For some background information, see G. William Domhoff, Senoi Dream Theory: Myth, Scientific Method, and the Dreamwork Movement. I got my own doubts after reading Marina Roseman’s book Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest (1991), that shows that the Temiar have a radically different view of the world. The picture comes from the Temiar website.

I dreamt about this last night. I read about it in Anthony Shafton’s book Dream-Singers, a few weeks ago. He describes how African Americans use dreams for numbers gambling. Although they may do it less than they used to. What I found interesting is that it only works with dreams of others. Which means that gambling motivates people to share dreams. They may not be much interested in the dreams themselves, but it still helps to create a setting in which dream sharing becomes common.

I’ve heard that Italians do the same. I tried to learn more about it, but I don’t know that many Italians. Do Italians need dreams of others as well? And, if African Americans and Italians use dreams for gambling, couldn’t there be many more people who do this?

Dreams often reflect important issues. Think of motives, interests, talents, but also current challenges or unresolved issues. People who frequently tell each other their dreams, show a lot of themselves this way. There are no false sentiments, no intellectual pretensions, or any other smoke screens, it all stays real. I think that this is special.

In a social sense there is relatively little experience with dream groups. I suspect that dreams are useful for resolving conflicts, because they can quickly point to the real issues, in a way that shows to all parties what really is at stake. Dreams are also very good for creative inspiration, which means there could be more fun social applications as well.

The picture comes from the Glasson Murray Group.

Juhani Kääriäinen, a Finn living in Sweden, has indexed 1000 of his dreams. He waits for his dream images to emerge in our daytime world, and some of them do.

Read more about the Kilodream project…

In the Dutch edition the subject of visualisation and regeneration came up. I mentioned having read about children being able to regenerate lost finger tops, but until now I never checked for sources.

I consulted with Google. Well… it seems possible. Here are some links, look for more with Google, and especially scholar.google.com for scientific publications:

- “[…] in the very young, a certain amount of regeneration occurs to compensate for lost tissue”, Med J Aust. 1979 Dec 1;2(11):580-2
- Possibly an adult? Case report: “the distal phalanx generated to give an excellent functional result”, J Hand Surg [Br]. 1993 Apr;18(2):230-3
- Torture on monkeys. “The new structures were cosmetically pleasing as in the human instances”, Anat Embryol (Berl). 1987;177(1):29-36.

Visualisation not even needed.

Sometimes I like to see life as a dream. I’m at day 8 of general fatigue, an ongoing fever, occasional loud coughing, throat pains, slightly burning eyes, my nose has gone from bleeding to stuffed to running, and my head feels stuffed. For a complete picture, throw in a strong uneasy feeling in the bones at especially day 4.

The symbol I understand best is the raised temperature. During the last week, I’ve become more and more angrier, while at the same time my fever seemed to get worse and worse. It didn’t help that I couldn’t figure out what I could be so angry about. But, in the evening of day 7 I realized that I have a few axes to grind with doctors and other authorities who have been fighting me while I was sick. After that insight, I had the best night of sleep so far.

Illness can be seen as expressing or releasing emotions that can not be expressed otherwise. Which makes me wonder. Two years ago I went through a period of releasing anger too. That concerned anger about the apparent injustice of having been ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for so long, and the many years of my life that I lost. That time it didn’t require fever, I directly experienced that anger for two whole weeks, and was very aware of where it came from. Clearly, this time around, there’s more at stake than only bottled up aggression.