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A brief history of how the Internet and computer mediated communications have facilitated the exploration of dream sharing and dream work.
With the advent of modems, devices able to connect computers via telephone lines, there arose regional Bulletin Board services (BBS). Now people could leave messages and communicate with others who weren't directly connected to the Bulletin Board at that particular moment. John Herbert used this system to conduct a study on the difference between dream groups that met only by posts to bulletin boards, and those meeting Face-to-Face.
But to connect to a BBS you have to call that phone number directly. If you don't live in the same Area Code, it can get very expensive. And so one BBS would be somewhat isolated from other BBS'.
When USENET became popular among the USA University crowd, the idea of the Regional Bulletin board was expanded nationally (and in some cases, internationally) and the discussion of dreams could be found in various Usenet Newsgroup topic boards.
By the 1990's all but the most wild of the newsgroups were accessible via the Internet, and it was clear that dreams needed their own Newsgroup.
alt.dreams was formed.
Although alt.dreams provided a global gathering spot, the un-moderated venue lacked something essential for those used to face-to-face dream sharing.
In response to this need, small e-mail groups formed to share and discuss dreams. One of these groups, Electric Dreams distributed a collection of the dreams and comments between the subscribers.
By the fall of 1994, the Electric Dreams community had grown to about 60 members, the shared dreams files had become an E-Zine, (and electronically distributed magazine via E-mail) and Richard Wilkerson took over at the general editor of the communities E-zine.
From Richard Wilkerson:
"I was fascinated by the possibilities of dream sharing in cyberspace and surprised that I couldn't find very much. I had also been very impressed with local offline dream networks and believed that this model would find its fullest expression on the Internet."
Electric Dreams grew from 60 to 500 subscribers in a year and added news, articles and experimental dream events. While the focus was on each person being his or her own authority in final decision of the meaning of the dream, comments were encouraged.
From Richard:
"One of the problems we faced with Electric Dreams was the two week delay in the dream being presented and responded to. I found a solution when I met John Herbert and participated in his AOL SeniorNet Dream Bulletin Board."
The process was modified for E-mail and the first Electric Dreams Dream Circles were created, where a dream was passed around round robin style from one e-mail address to another and added to with questions and replies by each participant.
"The ED Dream Circle was great for sharing dreams, but an administrative nightmare. Jay Vinton suggested we use a Mail List style approach and all the problem seemed to disappear"
Richard Wilkerson
These new mail list dream groups, the Dream Wheels , have evolved in several directions. Generally the process has been refined and newer sharing and distribution methods have improved.
Jayne Gackenbach and Sarah Richards modified the groups to include safety features that more clearly explained the process and offered feedback on the process through questionnaires.
These dream sharing groups have continued, and new forms, such as using bulletin boards on World Wide Web site have been explored. Chris Hicks has also been exploring how to allow the groups to form under moderation from the Electric Dreams community and then be allowed to form on their own and follow their own course.
A popular but less formal mode of dream sharing is IRC . IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, provides a group with a real-time screen that allows for several conversations via text to take place at once.
The advantage to IRC dream sharing is that there is immediate processing of imagery which leads to more emotionally toned sessions and the sense of the person being "there". I have not found any research on dream sharing on IRC, but participants have reported that the meetings are valuable to them.
Successful and favored techniques by the groups include non-directive questioning, such as variations of Gayle Delaney's Interview Method and Dream Re-entry approaches such as those of Fred Olsen .
These Chat Channels are also popular with the commercial online servers, such as America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy and Microsoft Network, and have spawned some very popular shows. On Compuserve, for example, Donna Campos host the Dream Studio regularly on Monday Nights in the New Age Forum, and Jeremy Taylor hosts the Dream Show on America Online at Channel One in the Hub on weekday mornings.
Often, these shows will combine with other dream resources, bulletin boards and information centers.
The past two years, 1995 and 1996 have released a multitude of dreams sites, many concerned with dream sharing.
It might be said that the Personal Dream Journaling sites are a form of dreamsharing, as many of them allow the reader to make comments. But the most active Web sites are the
DreamLink is continuing to explore the edge of Internet Dreamsharing with new programs that involve video-conferencing. There are many varieties.
Caution - dream sharing in progress!
With the rapid rise of technologies that assist dream sharing, so too comes the concern about these same technologies. Is it, for example, appropriate for a young child who is computer literate to masquerade as an adult and join an online dream group? And what is the role and responsibility of the group to police and monitor themselves? Are there boundaries to this new unbounded form of communication or are we all on our own, responsible only for ourselves? Some feel that there should be no dream sharing what-so-ever online. Others more moderately caution that interpretations out of context can be harmful and undermine the dreamers authority to find meaning and value in dreams for themselves.
It has been the experience of the Electric Dream community that the concerns about dream sharing online come from fears of the "idea" of dream sharing online, but after a direct experience of the event, these fears disappear. Why? We feel it is because of the public openness of the groups and forums where all that is said is seen by everyone else involved and moderated by this social openness. Will this eventually erode individuality?
Several groups and projects have been launched to address these and related issues. The first was the Electric Dreams E-zine, which offered to all those concerned to not only join the dream-groups and look around, but also offered space on the publication for the most negative of criticisms.
The Association for the Study of Dreams set aside funds to have dreams and computers publicly viewed at the July 1996 conference in Berkeley. The Internet Dream Education program and a Panel on Dream Work in Cyberspace were approved by the conference committee for the July Convention and the results of the conference will be published afterwards.
Jayne Gackenbach, who proposed and directed the building of the ASD homepage, established a public forum for the discussion of dream related topics.
In addition, Dream Education programs are now offered to the public to facilitate forms of dream sharing that are generally accepted by the dream concerned community.
Technically Speaking:
Look forward to new venues. With the rise of the i-phone, moving interactive graphics and tele-conferencing programs, there will be a wide variety of new venues. Some teleconferencing is simply I-see-you and You-see-me, but variations will include We-se-Us - all in the same room at the same time! (Hello The Naked Sun's Outworlders, Azimov's people who no longer could tolerate any personal contact that wasn't holo-projection!). Some cute variations include rooms you can enter that might look like you living room, and little cartoon characters represent you and other's there. Speech comes out like a cartoon balloon.
Some new venue use will just be us catching up with older offerings. Dan Cummings, for example, put up DreamMosaic in 1995, a site where one could share a dream by hyperlinking it to the rest of the web. The experiment is still waiting to be fulfilled.
Strategically Speaking:
Not only will the new technical innovations lead to new ways of sharing dreams, but many older channels still hold many unexplored potentials.
Even the most basic, e-mail, will evolve new ways of dream sharing - news ways as interested groups explore the imagery and text. Dreams will not be limited to e-zines, newsgroups and web sites specifically set aside for dreaming. They will be entered in literary venues, philosophical channels and larger statistical registries that give out a general "weather" report of what's going on in dreaming across the nation, the continent, the world for any particular time span. Will this be a silly fantasy about the Objective psyche or fabulous new way to see ourselves?
Face to Face dream sharing groups will be able to inexpensively connect with one another across the city, the country, and across the oceans via teleconferencing. What will this be like?
The Net has already seen a variety of breakthrough in the tradition ways of dream sharing. One of these is the idea that you share the dream only once, either with a professional in a clinical setting or to one dream group. Now its becoming clear that the dream text can also be like a piece of art that takes on and active history as it moves from show to show, or book as is interpreted by many readers and literary critics. On the net, one dream may be shared in a group, then posted to a Newsgroup, and then put in an open journal on the Web were commentators respond with their own dreams, interweaving a complex and life-like tapestry story. Much more of this multi-channeling will be seen.
The most exciting aspect of the Net is that it is a medium where the time from idea to event is very short - inspiration can become reality overnight. What I mean here is that *you* are called upon to come and join in this mutually supportive & creative platform. The most exciting thing about the future of the Net, be that on the present Internet or the upcoming, much faster Net, will be that you can participate in bringing your own visions and manifesting your own creativity in the areas you feel are the most concern to you. And all with the support of a larger community.
BBS Regional Bulletin Boards
Electric Dreams A popular dream sharing & news community E-zine.
John Herbert A Sample session of a Dream Sharing Group.
The Early Dream Circles A sample Session of the 1995 Electric Dreams Community dream sharing groups.
Dream Wheels- Sample Session A Sample session of the late 1995, Early 1996 Electric Dreams dream sharing groups.
IRC Internet Relay Chat Channels (text based multi-user environments). These chat rooms only last as long as someone is online and in them. (though the new programmed 'bots are the exception to this rule)
Dream Reentry Fred Olsen has experimented with remote dream sharing from telephones to direct link modems to IRC channel and Commercial Server Chat rooms for several years.
DreamLink Linton Hutchison and the DreamLink group has provided a model community and Web site for dream sharing and the exploration and promotion of dream awareness. Special features include a monthly profile of a dream concerned individual, places to receive more information on other dream projects, research and theories on dreams and dreaming.
DreamNet 900 An education and dream sharing phone line maintained by Roberta Ossana and DreamNetwork Journal.
Index to Dreaming Online Electric Dreams Links to other indexes and other dream related sites online.
CONFERENCE XIII PAGE
