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DREAM
SHARING AND SHARED METAPHORS
IN
A SHORT TERM COMMUNITY
by
Alexander
Randall V
Part 4
ANALYSIS
AND DISCUSSION
When
I first examined the data I did so in the same order as it has been presented.
The only difference is that I was faced with the raw dreams and a notebook full
of comments and observations on the group process. A number of observations
about this data were made before I looked at the data from the telepathy
experiment. Before I examine the dream content from the telepathy night I will
present a few of these other observations.
The
first unusual aspect I noticed about the dream material was the manner in which
the dreams refer to and comment on the daytime activity. Cryptic as these
messages often were, they spoke in a symbolic manner about each person’s
experience of the group, and his own activity in the group. Several examples
will illustrate this point.
One
of the first of these examples I noticed was Burt’s dream of the 3rd night
regarding my role in the group. It had become apparent by the third day that I
was making a comprehensive record of the group, both on tape and in my notes.
Burt, a scientist himself, had commented during the day on my activity and
questioned if I would be able to keep up the pace for the entire month. That
night his dream was of me going to the bottom of the ocean and building a ladder
to the surface. Both Burt and the group members in the dream had been concerned
if I was going to be able to hold my breath long enough to come to the surface.
The idea of going to depths to perform a task, step by step, appears as a
commentary on Burt’s perception of my place in the group. Morning discussions
indicated that he felt the comment was a natural outcome of our daytime
interaction and discussions. On the same night Jerry and Frank both dreamed of
Atlantic University by name. It would seem that it took several days for some
daytime material to become part of the dream realm. This idea of a delay between
daytime events and dream correlations has been examined and appears in the dream
literature (Garfield, 1973, and Stevenson, 1925).
On
the eighth night, Alice dreamed of someone else doing her laundry. On the eighth
evening she was responsible for meditation and suggested that we have a group
exchange of foot washing and massage. Alice also had another dream that
reflected on our waking reality, in which she dreamed of a colored blanket on
the night following our artistic endeavor with the dream blanket. The fact that
Don and Jerry also each dreamed of a colored blanket on the second night
following the dream blanket drawing further demonstrates the way dreams reflect
our conscious reality.
In
a similar manner, the excursion to the top of the mountain to place our singing
stones in the dream tent was of sufficient import to produce two dreams of the
tent, and dreams of the leadership. In one dream, Burt dreamed that Frank asked
Herman not to harm the group. All three had had principal roles in the excursion
up the mountain.
There
are other examples of this reflective process in the group’s dreams, and they
seem to peak on the night after the marathon encounter group. While the marathon
material is too extensive to reproduce here, it is sufficient to note that
particular emotions and relationships which were discussed in the marathon later
appear in symbolic form in the dreams, e.g. Cindy and Jerry.
My
interpretation is that dreams reflect real events and that this serves two
functions. The individual’s dreams are a record of his deep emotional
reactions to situations, events, and other personalities. Second, when this
dream material is shared with a group, it serves to maintain group cohesion. By
expressing emotions and impressions that appear in dreams, the group examines
itself, redresses grievances, clarifies misunderstandings, and promotes clear
relationships. Second, the reflective nature of these dreams when placed in a
context. of open dream sharing permits the group to redress grievances and guide
itself through the labyrinth of interpersonal pitfalls.
At
the individual level, whenever an intense experience occurs in the conscious
realm, it is integrated, developed, or at least noted in the dream level of
mind. When these images are discussed in the group, everyone has an opportunity
to clarify these matters. As an example, the appearance of violent images in
Don’s dreams served as the gateway to a group discussion and a psychodrama
that helped unravel this aspect of his personality. Several members of the group
commented after this discussion that Don had undergone a noticeable personality
change. The integration of these violent feelings and open airing of Don’s
feelings enhanced his relations within the group and resulted in a closer
feeling.
The
dreams were not always reflective. Some of the dreams dealt with issues and
events which later became part of the group activity. The clearest example came
when Herman dreamed of the medicine bags on the night before we began the
creation of the bags. While the idea of the bags had been discussed in the staff
meetings prior to that night, and the necessary materials had been purchased, it
until Herman had his dream that the group actually began to create the bags.
While this is not common in our culture, the Senoi of Malaya and other primitive
groups regularly rely on dreams as indicators and action determinants (Stewart,
1954, 1973).
Another
pattern emerged in looking at the whole collection of dreams. I did a content
analysis of the dreams looking for images of violence; either real or implied,
overt or planned. The numeric count of violent images showed a decline over the
course of the month, and qualitatively the violent images shifted from overt
mass violence to threats or pain. While the majority of these dreams of violence
were Don’s and Burt’s, others dreamed of violence on the 4th night. So much
mass violence appeared that it provoked some discussion in the morning. During
the rest of the month, there were occasional discussions of the violence and how
much it had diminished. Both Don and Burt dealt with their violent
subpersonalities in the marathon encounter and their violent dreams subsided.
The graph of the number of violent images per night of dreams indicates the
trend (Fig. i). It is also apparent that the night of the telepathy experiment
produced a peak in violent dreaming followed by near total diminution of
violence. While there are three peaks of violent imagery, there is no indication
of a cyclic pattern.
Further
examination of the content shows that the number of images of death or dead
people diminished even more strikingly than those of violence (Fig. 2).
Similarly, the number of images of bloodshed or bodily harm declined during the
month. My belief is that these declines in violence are indicative of the month
long trend toward cohesion and close interpersonal relationships.
The
pattern of sexual images in the group's dreams does not show a similar decline
(Fig. 4). There was an increase of sexual imagery on the night of the telepathy
experiment, but more interestingly there were no sexual images on the
Figure
1. Number of violence images per night.
Figure
2. Number of death images per night.
Figure
3. Number of bloodshed images per night.
Figure 4. Number of sexual images per night.
Figure 5. Number of “sundance” images per night.
night
following the marathon. It may be that the intense emotional experience left
emotional matters settled and there was no need for elaboration in the dreams.
The only other peak in sexual imagery came on the night following our second
massage. Since the first had been feet, and the second was more free form body
massage, it is reasonable to assume that the increased contact stimulated sexual
thoughts. To my knowledge there was no sexual activity among group members
throughout the month except for pre-existing couples.
Another
interesting anomaly is the appearance of dream images related to the Sundance
Theme (Fig. 5). Herman had invested a great deal of energy in the group making
us aware of the Plains Indians Sundance. Herman uses this image as a guiding
theme for his work. He made numerous references to Sundance through the month
and our closing ritual was designed with the Sundance in mind. By looking for
dream images of groups in circles and maypoles, I found that these themes
increased over the month with a cluster of sundance dreams toward the end of the
month. While the total number of sundance images is quite small, there were
three nights when sundance appeared in two separate dreams, the marathon
encounter, the telepathy experiment, and the closing sundance ceremony. These
three events appear to be the emotional high points of the month and they fed
into the whole sundance theme.
These
patterns are interesting in their own right, and show some of the ebb and flow
in the group’s dream consciousness. No one particular pattern was indicative
of the increased feeling of group cohesion. In looking at the total number of
dreams per night I observed a striking phenomena on the 19th night.
Figure
6 is a graph of the total number of dreams per night. While the trend over the
month is toward fewer reported dreams per night, the 19th night is outstanding
not only as the night of the greatest number of dreams during the month, but
also as a noticeable peak of dreaming amid several nights of’ less dreaming.
The 19th night was also the night of the dream telepathy experiment. In order to
get a handle on the unusual number of dreams on the 19th night, I performed a
further content analysis of the month’s dreams. I made an analysis of the
number of references to members of the group name in all the dreams.
Figure 7 is a graph of the number of references to members per night. It is
striking that on the night of the telepathy experiment there were 48 references
to group members name while on an average night there were only 8.3
references to group members. This is not inherently indicative of telepathy, but
does indicate that the conditions of the telepathy experiment were suitable for
dreaming of other people in the group. I believe that the mutual concern
engendered by 19 days of constant contact, plus the emotional effects of the
marathon encounter coupled with instructions from a leader to dream
telepathically provided fertile ground for dreaming
Figure 6. Total number of dreams per night.
Figure
7.
Dream images referring to group members per night.
of
fellow group members. I decided to examine the dreams following the marathon to
see if the intense emotional contact alone had produced similar dreaming of
fellow group members. Since the marathon encounter covered two days, with a
short sleep break, I looked at the dreams from that short break and those of the
night following the marathon’s conclusion. On the 15th night (the short break)
there was a total of 9 dreams of which 5 referred to group members. The 16th
night yielded 11 dreams with 11 references to group members. I translated these
figures into proportions, and found that during the break in the marathon 55% of
the dreams contained images of group members, while the next full night of sleep
produced 100% of the dreams containing images of group members. On the night of
the telepathy experiment 84% of the dreams contained images of group members.
This suggests to me that the emotional effects of the marathon also produced
dream images of group members, though not to the degree found on the telepathy
night. These proportions are misleading since they refer to the number of images
of group members compared to the total number of dreams. To be more
informative one would want the comparison of images of group members to total
number of images in the dreams. The problem of establishing the
definition of a dream image requires specific criteria. The application of the
criteria to my data involves the judgments of outside judges. There also appears
to be a qualitative difference in the dreams from the marathon and the telepathy
night. My qualitative reaction is that the dreams from the telepathy night show
more personal concern for the individuals in the dreams.
I
wondered if the instructions to dream of others in the telepathy experiment may
have encouraged the siblings and spouses in the group to dream of each other. I
wondered if their concern for each other was reflected in the unusual number of
group member images on the night of the telepathy experiment. Since there were
two couples and one pair of sisters in the group, their dreams of each other
could account for the unusual pattern. I wanted to see if the people who were
strangers at the beginning of the session had learned enough about each other,
and made sufficient emotional contact to appear in each other’s dreams. To
test this I eliminated all dream images of one’s spouse, or sister, from the
record of images of group members, and plotted this in a graph (Fig. 8), which
shows the number of times members of the group dreamed about people who had been
strangers at the beginning of the month.
While
the average number of “stranger images” is 2.8 per night, the night of the
telepathy experiment produced 35 images of non-family. The pattern remains that
the telepathy experiment set conditions suitable for dreams of strangers with
whom one has had intense encounter. While this is “fellow feeling at a
distance” there is no indication that
Figure
8.
Number of dream images referring to unrelated group members, per night
Figure
9.
Number of food images per night
dreaming
of an individual is equivalent to sharing dream content with that person.
Needless to say, dreaming of someone and dreaming with someone are quite
different activities. The former is an expression of deep emotional concern for
another person, while the latter would be indicative of an information channel
between the people.
Since
the design of the telepathy experiment involved attempting to give up one’s
own dreams and dream about the target individual (Herman and Alice) I decided to
examine the dreams from the experiment for any indication of success in dreaming
of the target. The group had been divided in half, and each half had a different
target (Herman or Alice). Since the groupings and the targets were a product of
chance, there were no overt emotions involved in target selection; however, once
the targets and the groups were known, the group members had definite feelings
about their targets. The fact remains that Herman was one of the group leaders,
and he was a very popular one at that. His elfin personality was the delight on
the group, and the marathon showed that no one had hidden hostility or malice
for Herman. Alice, on the other hand, had been very withdrawn from the beginning
of the month. She had stormed out of group meetings on two occasions. One was
when the group was meditating and the leader of the meditation began to talk
about Christ. This was offensive to Alice who was feeling independent, and left
the room. On another occasion she had stormed from the room because she felt
that no one cared about her feelings. She was one of two members in the group
who used her mask during the marathon, and there were open misunderstandings
between Alice and Burt. Even her dream account carries references to feeling
alone, alienated, unloved and betrayed. While some of the group had established
a rapport with Alice, the members of her telepathy group included several who
had had conflicts with Alice. An examination of the success of the two groups in
dreaming on target would show how the members reacted to these two very
different members of the group.
What
follows is a table of the number of times group
Herman —
12
Alice —
7
Nina-
5
Kirk-
4
Don-
3
Ellen —
3
Liz-
3
Alex -
2
Ginny
2
Burt-
1
Cindy -
1
Frank-
1
Ellen —
1
While
it is apparent that Herman
had an edge in number of references to him in dreams, Alice also commanded a
substantial number of dream references. Of greater interest than the raw score
is which group members dreamed of Herman and Alice and how close they came to
reaching their target. Herman’s group dreamed of Herman 7 times and Alice only
once, while group dreamed of Herman 5 times and Alice 6 times. While each group
had some success in dreaming about their target, there was a lot of cross—
dreaming among dreamers. This seems to indicate the effect of Herman’s
popularity and the overt resentment some felt for being in Alice’s group, and
supports the hypothesis that emotional contact can play a role in the subject
matter of dreams.
Looking
at the two group's dreams of non—target group members, group dreamed more of
Herman’s group members than of members of her own group. Herman’s group was
largely able to dream of themselves. On the level of direct dream references, it
is clear that Herman commanded more dream attention from the whole group than
did Alice. In this matter the dreams are reflective of the group’s behavior in
the conscious realm.
None
of this material is indicative of telepathy. Both images of group members and
success in dreaming about another person are easily explained as simply being
the concern of the individuals for one another, and the intention to dream about
one another. There is evidence in the literature to suggest that the desire to
have a particular dream is usually a sufficient condition to have that dream
image appear (Tart, 1969). The demonstration of telepathy must show dream
content that is beyond the mere desire of each dreamer to hit a shared target.
The
examination of the food images provides a unique example of dream content
outside the known realm. Looking over the month, there were an average of 2.2
images of food per night. On each of the nights with more than one food dream,
the images were always of different foods. The night of the telepathy
experiment, however, was different in the realm of food imagery. Not only were
there 10 images of food, but there was sharing of food images. There were 2
images of ice cream, and 3 of Italian food, but most striking was 4 overt
appearances of sea food. Several points enhance the unusual nature of this set
of images.
First,
since the dinner the previous evening was lasagna, this could explain the
Italian food images, but does not explain the four seafood images. Second, all
four who dreamed of seafood were in Alice’s group. Third, there way a cryptic
appearance in Frank’s dream of a “five—letter word that starts with G and
has double letters.” A little discussion in the morning group revealed that
Frank was searching for G. B. Shaw’s famous spelling of fish: GHOTI. The other
four images were less cryptic:
Burt
— “we are looking for clams”
Kirk
- “I’m eating oysters but it tastes like white tuna, and it catches in my
throat.”
Liz
— “two packages of lobster”
Alex
- “I am eating a large piece of fish that is wrapped in brown paper.”
As
a member of Alice’s group and a “fish dreamer,” I noticed that we were
taken aback by this unusual appearance of common images. In group discussion we
decided that the fish image was evidence of the presence of the symbol for the
Spirit in our dreams. This notion of the fish as a symbol for the Christ spirit
is substantiated in the literature on mythology symbolism (Campbell, 1959, 1969,
1970; Jung, 1964, 1973). Alice was the only Jewish member of the whole group,
and she had once left a meditation because of a reference to Christ.
While
the group itself was not particularly religious, the Association for Research
and Enlightenment has somewhat evangelical overtones to all its public actions,
and some of the members were quite anxious to help Alice release her alienation
and loneliness. The group decided during the dream group that the fish symbols
were symbols of the Christ spirit working through them and trying to heal Alice
of her alienation from the group. This takes on added significance in light of
the instructions from Burt and Herman on the evening of the telepathy
experiment.
One
of Herman’s theories of telepathic dreaming is that the phenomena is most
active when dreams are being used to heal other people. It was in this light
that the dream telepathy was directed toward the two target individuals in the
two sub—groups. It was intended that we who gave up our dreams would do so in
order to have dreams that would heal the target person of wounds, both physical
and psychological. This is supported in the psychoanalytic case literature which
indicates that the dream telepathy channel is often activated when other
channels of communication are temporarily blocked (Devereaux, 1953; Ullman et
al., 1973). The seafood symbols were not the only references to Alice’s
background and situation.
Later
in the dream discussion, the group members noted that there were several dream
images that concerned imprisonment, Germans and oppression that seemed connected
to her religious heritage, the group members were quite content with the idea
that their dreams had spoken to Alice’s dilemma and as such had helped heal
Alice. The group never expressed this as overt telepathy, though Burt called it
a “hit” on the target. Since Alice’s feelings had been openly discussed
during the marathon, their presence cannot be taken as evidence of telepathy.
Group concern for Alice is sufficient cause for the imagery that related to
feelings. What remains a puzzle, however, is the particular matter of the
seafood symbols. One of the early psychoanalytic studies involved an
investigation into common images. Eisenbud states,
By
examining 300 dreams for images of rain and then calculating low odds on chance
appearances of a dream, then low odds on two people having the same story line
with major theme, come up with minimum odds of 4 million to one.
(Eisenbud
in Devereaux, 1953, p. 245)
While
we are not trying to find odds on a common story line, we are trying to
understand why five people all shared a related dream symbol on a single night.
Hall and Van de Castle’s classic book on content analysis includes a breakdown
of the images in 1000 dreams of 1000 college students to give a measuring stick
for the commonality or uniqueness of any given dream image. Of 1000 dreams, fish
appear only 8 times and seafood not at all. In our group there were 5 images of
seafood other than fish on one night within the dreams of 7 people who had come
together in reverent meditation with the express purpose of being telepathic. I
could find no evidence during the month that indicated a latent interest in
seafood or factors that would lead me to believe that we had developed a
subconscious common seafood symbol.
While
many animals had been discussed during the month in connection with the
Shamanistic aspects of the session, fish or seafood were not overtly discussed.
Among the personal symbols frequently discussed were turtles, frogs, unicorns,
bears, hawks, snakes, and others; but no individual had expressed an interest in
fish. Further, none of the art reveals images of fish. There had been only one
prior image of a fish in a dream, and that was to a loaf of bread baked to look
like a fish.
I
cannot explain why five people dreamed in such a parallel course on the night of
the telepathy experiment. While this is the point where one is most prone to
tout telepathy as the only viable explanation, I hesitate. The strength of the
group cohesion was at its peak that night, the dreaming was at its peak. The
moon was new, and there is a small unpublished literature that suggests that
this phase yields greater dream recall (Reed, unpublished research). It seems
reasonable to conclude that the shared group experience, and feeling for
Alice’s personal matters, was sufficient for us to dream about a symbol
relating to a healing force, but what remains unclear is how the group members
all picked seafood images from among the many possible images that relate to
healing. It seems reasonable that the group members would all make dream
connections between our personal metaphor for an ailing person and our personal
metaphor for healing. I am surprised that we shared our metaphor for healing to
such an extent.
Ullman
et al. postulated in Dream Telepathy that during REM dreaming the human
mind is most susceptible to psychic impressions which are incorporated into the
dream. At these times the dreamer is scanning not only his internal environment,
but also his “psi field,” to see if any hostile or threatening influences
exist external to himself that require attention. Eisenbud was critical of the
idea, because he couldn’t accept that Zener cards and paintings could carry
enough emotional weight to break through the barrier of the mind.
It
should be clear that the members of Alice’s group were open to the idea of
telepathy and were also faced with a person to whom everyone reacted intensely.
In short, the conditions were ideal for dream telepathy to be operative.
At
the end of Dream Telepathy, Schwartz asks,
How
can the postulated emergency function of psi perception in dreams be tested in a
situation which is totally playful, and where the major experimentally induced
stress is that of not getting sufficient uninterrupted sleep and perhaps the
possibility of not turning in good scores? The entire experimental setup is, in
fact, so imbued with so—called “demand” characteristics, a kind of
implicit programming of the subjects and experimenters and maybe even the
judges——hidden hopes and expectations, that one could almost assume that
nothing at all would result if not for all this. Does the subject simply play
along with the experimenter’s game?
(Schwartz
in Ullman et al., 1973, p. 250)
Perhaps
the single strongest factor in this study is that there was no experimenter or
game. The members had come together simply to work with dreams, and I, as
natural historian, as unaware of coming events as each other member. The format
of the Atlantic University session is one answer to Schwartz’s question. While
the group did not produce the kind of content sharing found in Ullman’s lab,
it is apparent that non-psychics coming together for 25 days outside the
laboratory with a common interest in dreams and each other, and without the
virtues of REM awakening devices were able to share a symbol in their dreams.
The
question remains whether or not 5 fish dreams constitutes telepathy in a formal
sense. What is the criteria for telepathy? Is it enough to share an image that
has no root in daytime affairs, or is it necessary to actually share plot lines,
or does one only call it telepathy when people can meet in the morning and greet
with “wasn’t that a neat dream we had.” My criteria from the start has
been that telepathy is limited to those cases which give evidence of a
communication channel between people, and where information has been transferred
when no other channel of transmission was available. The dream material from the
telepathy experiment gives evidence of a communication channel, but there are
other possible channels other than the telepathic one. One must also bear in
mind that a channel is really no more than a set of shared metaphors, and by the
end of the 19th day the group had certainly begun to share its metaphors.
One
other approach to telepathy is to leave the matter entirely up to the dreamers.
By letting them decide if the material is telepathic to them, the natural
historian simply records the beliefs of the group under examination. This stands
in contrast to allowing outside judges to decide if there are correlations in
the dreams. In a natural setting like Atlantic University, it would be
impossible to compare dreams to target art prints, but it would be possible to
find out how the target people felt about the dreams “dreamed for them.”
Though I have no concrete data on the discussion in Herman’s group, he was
visibly moved by the power of his group’s dreams and their relation to his
life. Apparently several intimate matters were broached in the dreams. Alice was
very collected while hearing the dreams we had dreamed for her. Generally there
was little discussion of the dreams, but Alice did comment several times that
the content of her group’s dreams spoke to conditions in her own life and were
unusually insightful. The effect of the experiment was to loosen some of the
tension around Alice and draw her closer to the group as a whole. The fact that
we shared as we did with Alice is only a small indication of the cohesion
engendered by the Atlantic University group.
I
should like to return to the quest which initially sent me to live with these
dreamers. Can dream sharing help overcome the natural entropy in communication,
and create group cohesion? My conclusion is an unequivocal Yes. Not only
did the reflective nature of the dreams help to iron out interpersonal
differences, but the very act of sharing dreams put the members on a personal
level of intimacy. While the evolution of the group cannot be attributed
entirely to the dreams, as a focus point they directed the group throughout its
evolution from a band of strangers to a family feeling group of friends. There
have been a wide number of approaches to group dynamics and small group
development (Mead, 1964; Berne, 1963; Davis, 1969; Mead and Byers, 1968;
Olmstead, 1959) but to my knowledge there have been no recordings of attempts to
use dreams as a means of observing group cohesion. The fact is that the group
became extremely close——so close that they could express their common
concern for one member who had felt alienated. Alice became more integrated into
the group after the 19th night and I suggest that our dreams for her were an
integral part of her desire to be closer to the group. We had become a tight
unit by the end of the month. The idea of dream sharing effecting group cohesion
has a heritage of its own. A. F. C. Wallace points to a heritage of dreaming and
group cohesion. In his short paper, “Dreams are the Wishes of the Soul . . .
Among 17th Century Iroquois,” he describes a culture in which great attention
was paid to the dreamer. On the Feast of the Dreamers, a group would bear gifts
to a chosen dreamer until his dream gift was realized. The effect of sharing
dreams is profound, and was part of the glue that held the tribe together
(Wallace, 1958).
From
another source, Kilton Stewart, reports on the Senoi of Malaya who were a dream
sharing tribe with no evidence of either violence or mental illness. The Senoi
even appeared to have a social hierarchy based on one’s ability to dream
powerful dreams (Stewart 1972).
Both
cultures bear witness to my theory that dream sharing reflects group cohesion.
Since we each have some dream control, and have the ability to dream toward a
particular dream style, we have a natural ability to build group cohesion if it
is desired. The potential is excellent for dream sharing and group building to
eventually yield mutual dreaming, telepathic dreaming, or shared symbolism and
group growth.
In
conclusion, I would hope that the future would find Atlantic University, or a
similarly interested group designing a further experiment in this type of
dreaming. Ideally one would hope for an open ended meeting of people who had
come expressly for the purpose of trying to become telepathic. One might also
hope that the group would be somewhat smaller than the group at Atlantic
University. One would seek a group large enough to enhance the possibility of a
telepathic match yet small enough to permit everyone to share dreams at
breakfast and stay until all the dreams had been described and discussed. I
think one failing of the session was that by breaking the group into smaller
groups, interesting content parallels may have been lost. Had we done our dream
sharing as a group or two large groups, we might have enhanced our group
awareness, and found more content parallels. Ideally, the whole group would draw
upon the night’s dreams for guidance and direction on how to behave during the
day. The Atlantic University session seemed to use little of the group’s dream
material in the actual planning of our activities. My impression is that the
reflective nature of the dreams would be enhanced by daily discussions of how to
carry the dreams into action (Stewart, 1972).
Finally,
it seems clear from the laboratory research that telepathy with dreamers exists.
I do not feel that the material collected at Atlantic University can be called
indicative of telepathy though it certainly suggests a path for healing and
helping other people. I hope that in the future I will have a chance to be part
of a formal attempt to achieve telepathy and that a group dedicated to exploring
the human mind from the inside might one day be constituted. In the meantime, we
have lessons to learn from the de Becker account of a certain Sheikh,
Hudaieffendi, who
practiced
all the virtues, cultivated all the sciences, and read books in the majority of
classical languages. Obeyed by his disciples, feared by his adversaries,
flattered by authority, he devoted himself to the cultivation of collective
dreams. So master and disciples purified themselves bodily, mentally and
spiritually together: they got into an enormous bed together, a bed that
contained the whole congregation. They recited the same secret formula together
and had the same dreams.
(De
Becker 1965, p. 77)
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________.
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DREAMS
FROM THE NIGHT OF THE TELEPATHY EXPERIMENT
Alice’s
Group
Kirk
— A group of us is gathered for research and enlightenment. As we begin to
dance the sparks begin to fly. I’m eating oysters, but it tastes like white
tuna, and it catches in my throat and it takes me five minutes to pull all of
this out. . . Irene, Cindy, and Ellen in the dream had given me something else
to eat because the other stuff wasn’t any good.
Nina
tells Mary and there’s not enough spaghetti for her. Nina has a container of
spaghetti in front of her.
A
group of people being led by Alex is beginning to chant to prepare for sexual
intercourse.
Liz
— Herman buys two packages of lobster. . . . suddenly all my Jewish relatives
come to visit. . . Thanksgiving Dinner.
Jerry
— I heard someone say that a few people dreamed about me.
Alex
— I had been picked up by the police for driving with the choke out. I was
coming home . . . eating a piece of fish. . . . I wandered among vending
machines and at one time I got a large piece of fish and was wrapped in brown
paper.
Frank
— It’s good to see--he lives in California. He’s reading a heavy two
volume work dealing with the vice of Nazism. It’s like the Rise and Fall of
the Third Reich, but I know it deals with the occult things and is actually
the Spear of Destiny.
Don
and his fiancé who looks a lot like Alice.
I
see a little black spider and I get up and return from the bathroom after this
writing, of dreams, and it reminds me of the dream I had of Alice with the black
spider on her neck.
I
feel overshadowed by some other presence. I pray, I feel no one should exert
their will onto someone else in order to take them over. . . .Maybe dealing with
psychic matters .
We
go into the back left hand corner (of a store) where there is a specific name
that starts with a G. It has 5 or 6 letters in it, some of them are double
letters . . . (Story of a baby) It’s like having received a message from a
higher source or from the child itself informing them of this. We were all
impressed with the clarity of the ESP demonstration. Something about St. Peter
which represents the will who says silver and gold such that I have I give to
you to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. . .
I
leave a long uncomfortable room where a group meets because of its shape and its
becoming nonconducive to group unity . . . Burt is here and others too.
There’s a certain corner of the room and I can’t see too well (later
conversation in dream sharing confirm the corner image is Alice).
I
see a fancy Ford pickup truck at a dealer’s. Nina is there.
Burt
— There is another scene involving a truck or van like the camp bus of
Kirk’s. Ellen is there.
Then
some activity was about to begin, there was a group that lived out in back of
where we all lived and they were supposed to show up and put on some kind of
pantomime and it was supposed to activate this group. Herman appeared and he was
really jazzed up.
Several
of us were in a room working on painting or drawing. We could hear the program
over a P. A. set
.
. . (long description of a psychologist friend with negative connotations
regarding constant depression, and unpleasant personality). . .
Someone
said he was acting just like Alice.
I
was on a baseball team . . . Four of us were practicing to cover a position
between first and second. The object was to coordinate our efforts so that no
balls would get past us.
.
. . I was in Durham, North Carolina, doing dreams and sort of head of the ESP
Lab. . . . (Visit office) At one point I was walking across desks where people
were working and asked if there were usually this many people working this late
. . . I was impressed with their dedication to the job.
.
. . We were going to look for clams or something similar. I though I saw some
old mussels and asked if he wanted to try to pry them open to see how they
looked inside.
We
were participating in a telepathy experiment. I make a drawing which showed a
plant to the right that had a tomato on it. . . . It seemed that I was
disappointed that my dream didn’t fit Herman because there was a mix up in the
target person or at least I thought so, my orientation was toward Herman, but
now was for Alice. . . . So then I suggested that, and Alice looked at my
picture . . . (description of confrontation with Alice over telepathy drawing).
Sex
jokes, sex instruction talk with family.
Alice
— A brown paper bag containing one slice of eggplant and other ingredients for
a one—dish meal--tomato sauce, cheese, onion (with a couple, offering them
food). They are average people, not at all aware, not “into” all this.
Something
. . . involving people going around and having, taking chances.
Herman’s
Group
(two members not reporting dream records)
Don
— I’m at college and it is the last day to turn in work papers.
I
woke with a very distinct feeling this dream was for Herman. An older woman, a
great aunt type, is being interviewed by a T.V. personality or personalities
about her relationships to other members of her family. I walk into a large room
where it is filled by my relatives sitting together as couples at tables and
center toward some platform or stagelike area where someone sits. The old woman
is there talking about this gathering of the family together. I realize I am a
member of this family.
I’m
with a group of people, Atlantic University people or similar people or group.
It is a college campus, I believe. We are working with this very shiny
flashlight.
Mary
— A group of people——Kirk, Burt, Herman and Ginny . . . tennis court
crowded with lots of women . . . only one instructor. Everyone washes each
other’s feet and then steps into a vat of cream.
Large
group of people stating their qualities.
Herman
— Ceremony with Burt and Francis.
Ginny
— We’re all sleeping in this one room. . . . We’re sort of exposed to the
air and waiting for something that’s going to happen. Herman and Liz come in
and go to bed. Herman doesn’t Want to take off his clothes in front of
everyone, but it’s dark. He’s sort of embarrassed to do this. But he does.
We’re all asleep and I heard or at least felt a movement.
A
telephone rings and I answer it and someone asks if there is a girl there from
Florida. And I tell her she isn’t here yet. Then the next day the girl calls
and I tried to get her to tell me about herself and if she is in Florida and to
describe herself. And I wanted to know if she has long black hair and chunky in
build but she never really wanted to tell me exactly who she was. I thought it
was awfully strange that some woman called the day before looking for her and
then she calls the next day.
Something
about being outside and we’re all trying to get back into the house. Alice
made a suggestion to hang onto each other’s waist and go single file into the
house. And no one really wants to really follow that advice. Two people I think,
and I really wanted to be the first or the last and I wanted to do something
with Herman and Liz.
Being
in a house or designated place where people came to participate in workshops
like Atlantic University. Herman was asking for symbols, everybody to dream
about some symbols. Then over my bed I had three toys and one was a turtle. And
it was a plastic, inflatable turtle with a purplish—pink color. . . . An older
nun who needs help kneeling.
(During
Ginny’s description of an old woman in her dream, a female on the tape notes
that she dreamed about this same person and continually says yes to each
description. The group decided that the preponderance of older woman images are
of Alice.)
