The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (37 page)

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Authors: Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras

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BOOK: The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams
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people scrambling about in the surrounding sea; a change in plans prevents his getting aboard.
A few days after these dreams, the
Titanic
sinks, killing 1,500 people.
As a young soldier, Adolph Hitler dreamed of being buried alive by dirt and iron, with blood running from his chest. When he awoke, he felt a strong urge to leave the trench he was sleeping in. Not long after he escaped, a shell exploded where he had lain, killing everyone who remained.
Rational science has yet to explain paranormal dreamsdreams such as these that contain knowledge of events that have not yet occurred or are as yet unknown to the waking mind. But thousands of such dreams have been documented both anecdotally and in laboratory studies by such notable researchers as Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia and Drs. J. B. and Louisa Rhine at the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory. Scientists use the Greek letter
psi
to refer to paranormal occurrences such as extrasensory perception (ESP), mind over matter (psychokinesis), and mental telepathy. And while little is known about how and why psi dreams take place, there is much research documenting their occurrence. For some dreamers, a psi dream is an isolated event, occurring just once in their lives; others experience psi dreams more frequently. Women report more psi dreams than men, and death and accidents are the most common subject matter.
Understanding Paranormal or Psi Dreams
How can our dreaming minds know things that our waking minds cannot? We discuss some possibilities in the previous chapter. Information enters our minds through numerous channels: what
 
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we read, what people tell us, what we observe, what we overhear. In some ways, the mind is like a radio, with the dial tuned to one station, which comes in loud and clear, while the other stations continue broadcasting. If a part of our minds is able to tune in to these other frequencies, then perhaps psi dreaming becomes possible. Science has yet to solve this mystery. But, as Montague Ullman and Nan Zimmerman write in
Working with Dreams
, "The existence of these phenomena suggests that while asleep, we are not only able to scan backward in time and tap into our remote memory, but are also able to scan forward in time and across space to tap into information outside our own experience." There are four types of psi dreams: precognitive, clairvoyant, telepathic, and mutual.
"Men Have Conceived A Twofold Use Of Sleep: That It Is A Refreshing Of The Body In This Life; That It Is A Preparing Of The Soul For The Next."
John Donne, English poet
Precognitive Dreams
A precognitive dream depicts an event that later happens. You dream that your tire goes flat, then sure enough, within days, you have a flat tire. You dream that someone dies, and before you know it, the sad news arrives. Lincoln and Hitler apparently experienced precognitive dreams, as did those who had dream premonitions about the sinking of the
Titanic
. Although sometimes hard to verify, these dreams do occur, often in people who do not otherwise experience ESP. We know of one man who has had several precognitive dreams about the death of those close to him: In one instance, he dreamed his cousin would die in a motorcycle crash; within days, it happened. Another night as he lay sleeping next to the woman he lived with, he dreamed his great-aunt died, and awoke from the dream with a start; within
 
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hours, a call came in and he discovered it was not his great-aunt, but his girlfriend's grandmother who had diedat the exact time he had been having the dream!
Clairvoyant Dreams
In a clairvoyant or, to translate from the French, ''clear-seeing" dream, the dreamer sees an event or object that truly exists in waking life without any foreknowledge of it whatsoever. No one has described it to the dreamer, no one has shown the dreamer a picture of it. Yet the person, place, or thing turns out to be precisely the same as it appeared in the dream. People use another French expression, déjà vu. One woman we talked to, for exmaple, reported a feeling of déjà vu that she recognized as dream fragments that were recurring during her waking lifea person reaching for a glass, a police car moving into the traffic lane in front of her, and so forth.
Sometimes, a clairvoyant dream seems to allow the dreamer to view faraway events as they are taking place. A man we interviewed reported the following clairvoyant experience: "In a dream, I am watching my brother and a friend drive down a winding country road at night in a Japanese compact carI thought it was a Toyota. The dream seemed really vivid and real, so much that I woke up and decided I had to call my brother." Just then, the telephone in the dreamer's hotel room rangbut it was after midnight, and no one but his parents knew where he had gone on vacation. To this dreamer's surprise, it was his brother. "It was the weirdest thing," the dreamer recalls. "My brother said, 'I know you'll think this is strange, but I believe I saw you crossing the road tonight.'" A chill went up his spine and the dreamer responded, "Was it a winding road? Were you in a small Japanese car?" The brother answered yes. ''It was eerie," the dreamer recalls. "The only thing different was that the
 
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car was a Nissan." He laughs. "But I never could tell those two types of cars apart."
Telepathic Dreams
In a telepathic dream, direct communication takes place between the dreamer and another person. You dream that your cousin tells you she is pregnant, and a day or two later, she calls with the happy news. The following example appears to contain a telepathic message:
"Warning"
I run into David, my former boyfriend. He is glad to see me. "It's been a long time," he says. "Yes, it has been.'' I tell him I want to talk to him, but I will have to come back later.
Within minutes of awakening, this dreamer heard a doorbell ring. It was David, come to discuss a reconciliation after several months without contact. The dreamer had no inkling he might be on his way over. Fortunately, she says, the dream prepared her for the surprise. "I wisely took my dream's advice," she recalls, "and told him I wanted to talk to him, but needed some time to think things over first."
Mutual Dreams
Mutual dreams occur when two or more people dream strikingly similar dreams on the same night. Often cultivated in dream laboratories and workshops, these dreams are frequently offered as proof that telepathy exists. Although these dreams take place on the same night, they do not necessarily occur during the same period during the night. The following workshop example, in which four people dreamed similar dreams at various times throughout the night, contains remarkable similarities, and some interesting variations:
 
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"German Shepherd"
Dreamer No. 1: I'm in a room with some other people. A black-and-white German shepherd runs up excitedly and jumps on me, licking my face. I think to myself that the dog should be sent to obedience school.
Dreamer No. 2: I'm in a room with [Dreamer No. 1]. A black-and-brown German shepherd runs up and jumps on me. It wags its tail and licks my face. I turn to [Dreamer No. 1] and say, "There's nothing wrong with this dog. He just needs to go to obedience school to learn where to lick!"
Dreamer No. 3: . . . A gray German shepherd runs in and jumps on me . . .
Dreamer No. 4: . . . A gray lamb runs into the room and jumps up on me . . .
Mutual dreams can also happen spontaneously, particularly when people share the same space during sleep, or have a close personal bond, as with partners or family members. One dreamer recalls an incident in his teenage years when a friend who had shared his room for the weekend recounted a dream almost identical to his! This type of dream may occur more often than we think, which is reason enough to share your dream stories with others. You never know when someone will say, "You know, I dreamed about the same thing last night!"
The Scientific Study of Psi Dreams
Interest in dreams as paranormal occurrences dates back thousands of years, to a time when dreams were considered to be prophecies that foretold of future events. By the nineteenth century, a "scientific" interest in psi dreams led to numerous exper-

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