to  learn how to use dreams  as a guide to diet and health.
Others  were interested  in  psychological matters,  such
as   personal   and  family  guidance.   There   was  also  a
significant interest  in  more esoteric possibilities,  such
as   developing   memory   for   past   lives,   learning   to
prophesy,   and  encouraging  soul  development,   in  the
dream state.
      Yet the most commonly expressed desire was a basic
one— to  learn   how   to   remember   dreams!   Ranking
second   was  a  desire  to  learn   to  attend   regularly  to
dreams  and  to  make dream study a more natural part of
the day's activity.  Also  very  common  was the desire to
learn how to interpret dreams.
     I wanted to design our dream project to be responsive
primarily   to  these   most  commonly  expressed   basic
needs.   With   regard   to   these   basics,    I   had   some
observations  and  questions  that  served  to  guide me in
designing the project.
       First,   I   had  observed   in   my  previous  work  that
people  who  wanted  to improve their dream recall often
already  had  more  dream  memories  than  they  initially
acknowledged.  Frequently, however, dream material was
rejected as being incomplete,  and was not considered as
a dream.  If  these  people  would  accept  and write down
what they did recall,  then  they  would  either experience
an  improvement  in  dream  recall,   or  else  they  would
discover  a  conflict  which had been inhibiting the recall
of their dreams. I wondered, therefore, how much dream
recall  would  occur   simply   by   having   people   make
systematic  records  of   even   their   most   fragmentary
dream  memories.  Would  such  attention  to  dreams  in
itself improve dream recall, or would further instruction
still be necessary?
    Second, I suspected that many people have established
unrealistic standards  as  to  what constitutes an adequate
level  of dream recall.  When  people really begin trying
to remember their dreams,  they  often  encounter  more
dream  material   than   they  can  effectively  cope   with.
What constitutes  an  adequate  amount  of dream recall?
Some answers to this question might provide support for
people   who  have  difficulty  appreciating  their  dreams

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