After our group had finished, we met with the other helping groups who had participated in this particular ceremony so that we could exchange reactions. A poll was taken concerning common themes appearing in the dreams. In our group with Mary, six out of the nine dreams contained a water image, but in the other three helping groups, totalling over twenty dreams, only one dream contained a water image. It did seem that our dreams were specific for Mary.

Our dreams for Mary also displayed the type of psycho- dynamic patterns often found in cases of spontaneous telepathic dreaming, in which the "telepathic image" is blended with the personal needs of the dreamer. For example, my second dream, where my mother is interrupted from her shower, might be interpreted as employing telepathically perceived facts and fantasy images of Mary's that were readily associated with some of my personal memories in an attempt to work through the critical unresolved conflict that I intuited Mary and myself to share.

At the time of this ceremony, Mary and our group of helpers were very enthusiastic about the results of our experiment. Yet I was somewhat concerned that our dreams would not prove useful to Mary. Was there anything in the dreams that she could actually apply and test out, or did we just stir up a lot of "insights"?

Some time later, I received a letter from Mary, describing how her situation had improved. She was on a prescribed diet and had lost fifteen pounds. She had found herself employment at a computer tape "library." Most important, she and her mother had entered a group for assistance with their relationship. A year later, I met Mary again. I didn't recognize her and she had to introduce herself to me. She had lost quite a few pounds, and instead of appearing as a lost little girl, she was a radiant young woman! I had a hard time believing that it was the same person. Her life had changed considerably and she was living in her own apartment. As a result of our conversation, I concluded that our dreams for her were not, in their specifics alone, what was primarily helpful for her. It seemed instead that it was the intense and intimate sharing, made possible by the guidance the dreams provided, that gave Mary a new perspective on life and the energy and enthusiasm to pursue it.