loss,   not   knowing   what   the   future   would   bring.  I
meditated  to  free  myself  of  the negative feelings that
were draining my energy. That night, I had this dream:
      I am the observer of myself. I can see myself standing
in  the  living room of a house,  in  front  of a dark,  closed
door.  I can also see that outside the house, in front of the
closed door,  is  another door of golden light.  This door of
golden  light gradually replaces the dark door.  As it does,
a tiny white bird, so very lovely,  with a golden beak,  flies
through  the  golden door.  Singing  a  most joyous song, it
flies  to  me and touches my lips with its beak.  I  [both the
observer and the participant I]  am  filled  with  a sense of
lightness and youth.
    The following morning I began a series of meditations
on  the  dream  symbols,  which  resulted  in  a  sense  of
encouragement  and  faith  in  the  future.  I  don't believe
that  I  could  have had  this  dream  in  all  its  clarity and
vividness of meaning had I not meditated first.
                Rita Figulski, Buffalo, New York

EFFECTS OF MEDITATION ON DREAMS
Gregory Scott Sparrow

      Two  years  ago,  while we were graduate psychology
students  at  West Georgia College,  Mark Thurston (my
roommate)  and  I  attempted  an  experiment to measure
the effects of meditation on dreams. Our hypothesis was
that early morning  meditations would have an enhancing
effect upon the quality of dreams which occurred during
the sleep periods directly following the meditations.
      To obtain data,  we  awakened every morning  at 5:00,
and  on  some  of  the  mornings we meditated for 10-15
minutes  before  returning  to  sleep.  On other mornings
we simply remained awake  for 15 minutes.  This control
condition allowed us to ascertain whether it was actually
meditation   or  merely  wakefulness  that   affected   the
quality of the ensuing dreams.

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