fairly  complete,  with no frustrating gaps in the memory
for the dream,  although the beginning  of the dream may
be uncertain and some details may be lost.

Questions and Answers
     Question:   Sometimes   very  important  dreams  are
brief,  maybe  just  a  vivid  image.  Should  these still be
given low ratings?
      Answer:  Yes.  First of all,  the seven-category rating
scale  is  not  meant  to  evaluate  the value of the dream,
nor  its  vividness.   The  scale  is  meant  to  evaluate  the
relative  completeness  of  recall.  Here  are  a couple of
dream  examples  to  show that length  really has little to
do with the ratings:
      "There  was  this  boat.  It  was  quite  large,  with  two
masts,  and  the  boat was painted orange.  The sails were
blue and white,  forming Oriental designs.  I  have a vivid
memory  of  the  hand-painted, script letters spelling out
the name  of  the boat,  'Miss Nomad.'  The boat was well
cared  for  by its appearance,  and gave the impression of
being  sailed  only  on important missions.  I  can see the
boat  now  in  vivid  detail,  and  it  gives  me  a  sense  of
excitement."  Recall  of  the dream  is  vivid and detailed,
and the dreamer senses the importance of the image. Yet
there  is  no  knowledge concerning  what  the dream was
about,  other  than that there was this boat.  Recall would
be rated I.
      "There was this boat.  It sailed on important missions
and  I  was contemplating booking for a ride on it."  Here
the dream recall  is not particularly detailed,  but there is
present knowledge  of  one theme  of the dream— going
for a ride in the boat. Recall would be rated F.
      Question:  What  if  you remember only an image, as
in the example of the boat,  but you feel that that was the
entire  dream-should  you  rate  the  dream W,  since you
are  satisfied  with  your  recall,  or  should you apply the
standards of narrative flow, etc., and rate the recall I?
      Answer:  This  is  an  important  question  because  it
reflects   one   of   those  rare   instances   in   which  the
subjective,  dreamer-oriented  aspect  of the rating scale

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