Abstract Index
Conference Index

ASD 2000 Conference 17 Abstracts

Millennial Dreaming: Washington, D.C.

Can precognitive dreams save lives? Can they be used to change future outcomes? My own experiences and studies have proved the answer to be "yes". On a purely personal level, back in the late 1950s when I was working as a research chemist in the aerospace field my life was saved by a coworker who had dreamt of rescuing me from a fiery death several times before the laboratory accident occurred in waking realities. I am alive because of his dreams.

On a grand scale, world literature contains numerous examples of "big" dreams which foretold the future, dreams which were acted upon by the dreamers, often times saving lives, as with the dream of Pharaoh in the Bible, who stockpiled grain for the years of famine that visited his country, or by military leaders who won battles following dream advice. On a smaller scale, anyone who journals dreams will discover hints of the future contained in them, as well as examples of other psi phenomenon such telepathy, clairvoyance, deja vu, synchronicity, etc.

This information can be used in ways that can change our futures for the better, here and now, every day, if we pay attention and learn to recognize the messages that our dreams are presenting.

Dream telepathy and dream clairvoyance connect us with others and their concerns, especially those close to us. Edward Bruce Bynum,  Ph.D., in The Family Unconscious has written of the ways in which families receive valuable dream information about each other. Dreams are also very helpful in providing advice about health concerns, as described in The Healing Power of Dreams by Patricia Garfield, Ph.D. and Our Dreaming Mind by Robert Van de Castle, Ph.D.

Some of these dreams can be about concerns of those who are not close to us, even perfect strangers.  Exercises such as the Dream Helper Ceremony devised by Henry Reed, Ph.D., and Robert Van de Castle, Ph.D., have shown that dreamers who dedicate a night of dreaming to a person requesting dream help will often turn up advice which is practical and important to resolving the concern. Dale Graff in his books Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreams and River Dreaming describes his remote viewing experiences with Project STARGATE, in which downed planes were found, hostages recovered, and enemy facilities targeted, much of the information coming from dreams.

Precognitive dreams offer even greater resources for changing possible futures, warning us of large issues such as national  disasters, illness and death, threats to  lives, but also many smaller events that if avoided can smooth our life paths. Learning to recognize and utilize these dreams is greatly facilitated by long-term journaling of dreams, as done by Cynthia Pearson and careful regular  scanning of the information presented, as shown by Robert Moss in Dreaming True: How to Dream the Future and Create Better Futures.

We are blessed with these dreams, even if we are unsure of their origins. Whether from some deep part of our own psyches or from outside guidance of a spiritual nature,  we may not be able to  explain exactly the nature of these dreams or from whence they come, but  we can pragmatically use them for the wisdom they bring, to better our futures in ways big and small.
 

DALE GRAFF

I describe the significance that psi dreams had in bringing about and in contributing to my professional activities in STARGATE, the US government's (i.e., Department of Defense) 20 year program that sponsored research and explored the application potential of remote viewing phenomenon (an aspect of ESP or psi phenomena).  In some instances, the psi dreams by myself and by others were for personal and for management issues relevant to the STARGATE program.  Some psi dreams were in direct response to certain program needs and contributed to the overall mission.  I review a few specific operational examples involving psi dreams: the search for missing airplanes, the location of abducted Brigadier General Dozier (1981), the location of a fugitive in 1988 who had been featured on the TV program, America's Most Wanted.  I also discuss the communication potential of psi and psi dreaming and illustrate with results of a submarine communication experiment.  To provide a baseline for better understanding the psi dream contribution for STARGATE, I explain how I first accepted the possibility of psi; how this realization led to new discoveries for me, including the motivating influence of the classic book, Dream Telepathy, published in 1974.  I discuss how psi dreams and remote viewing have much in common, and conclude by pondering the future of psi dreaming for assisting individuals and as a collective enterprise.

CYNTHIA PEARSON

Since I began writing down dreams over 20 years ago, I have noticed the uncanny coincidences that so many dream journal keepers report. I was assisted in my ability to note these occurrences when I started using a computer database to index my dreams records in the 1990s. In my database, "synchronicity" serves as an umbrella category for precognition, déjà vu, mutual dreams, clairvoyance and related phenomena, for all can be characterized as "meaningful coincidence."  These are often domestic and of no noticeable consequence, as when-- to cite one example-- I had a dream about searching repeatedly for peanut butter to make a sandwich, and then opened the morning newspaper to find a picture of a 37-foot peanut butter sandwich at a "Peanut Butter Lovers Festival." Ultimately, the database enabled me to quantify my records, and learn that synchronicities occurred in 20% of my dreams      The practice of entering past dreams in the database led to discovering synchronicities that I hadn't known were there. For example, I hadn't remembered that I dreamt of my sister's house being damaged, but I had, one year to the day before it was rendered uninhabitable in the Los Angeles earthquake. The rule of precognitive dreaming is that one does not know until AFTER the dream that it IS precognitive, and my retrospection led to recognizing even more foreknowledge in my dreams than I had realized. Reviewing one's journal is the key to discovering such occurrences, and ideally, this should take place over the course of many years.

 The practice of entering dreams in the database also presented me with new a version of dream synchronicity. I began to note a number of occasions where the entering of a dream into the database coincided uncannily with events of the day I enter it, often years after I had the dream. These instances seem more complex than contemporary synchronicities, because of the
way they fold in on themselves and reach through time. I have come to call them "arabesques," after the ornate, complex designs of intertwined lines.  And I have since discovered and documented ornate synchronicities among members of a dream group.

My conclusions about these observations are that they are fascinating, worthy of my continuing study, and thus far, mysterious. In a book that was prominent in one arabesque, I'd found this quote: "Mystery...is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can understand." This also summarizes the one conclusion I can reach with certainty in reflecting on dreams that reveal themselves to be surprisingly meaningful in the future. Thus far, I am in the presence of more than I can understand. 

RITA DWYER, (Chair),Vienna, VA.

Rita Dwyer is a former research chemist, co-author of papers and patents in the aerospace field, ASD Founding Life Member, Chair of the Board (1987-90), Past President (1992-93), Executive Officer(1993-99).  A founder and facilitator of the Metro D.C. Dream Community (meeting since 1983), Rita is also a writer, lecturer, and certified pastoral counselor. 

Contact information: 

Rita Dwyer
Vienna, VA 
Email: DreamRita@aol.com

DALE GRAFF, M.S.,  Prince Frederick, MD:

Dale Graff is an internationally recognized lecturer and writer on psi topics. He is a physicist and a former director of project STARGATE, the government program for research and applications of remote viewing phenomenon. His books, Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness and River Dreams, present his experiences with remote viewing, psychic dreaming,  and synchronicity. 

CYNTHIA PEARSON,  Pittsburgh, PA

Cynthia Pearson, co-author of  The Practical Psychic and Parting Company: Understanding  the Loss of a Loved One, presides over "Dream Journalist: A Website for People Who Write Down Their Dreams." At past ASD conferences, she has chaired Long-Term Journal Keeping panels and given papers on extended synchronicities and precognition. 

ROBERT MOSS, M.A., Troy, NY

Robert Moss is a lifelong dream explorer, novelist and historian. His fascination with the dreamworlds springs from his early childhood in Australia, where he first encountered  the ways of a Dreaming people through his friendship with Aborigines. He teaches courses in Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of shamanism and dreamwork.  His many books include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamgates and Dreaming True: How to Dream the Future and Create Better Futures.. 

ROBERT VAN DE CASLTE, Ph.D., Charlottesville, VA

Robert Van de Castle is Professor Emeritus of the Health Sciences Center at the University of Virginia. He is a former president of ASD (1985-6), a former president of the Parapsychological Association. (1970),  co-author with Calvin  Hall of The Content Analysis of Dreams (1966), the author of Our Dreaming Mind (1994), and Consulting Editor of the SUNY Press Series on Dreams.
 

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