PART ONE

THE DREAM SURVEY

 I Had This Dream

Waking
A whisper of morning
Calling him.
Sieved light,
A moment to flicker
To consider …
But no
Not yet. Let go to fade.

Dreaming back to the seashore
Close warmth of jade waves
Calm, serene, liberated.
The blood splattered shells
Her severed hand
Still cradling
Her newborn child.
The deep let go.
Bliss.

Waking
Harsher light …
His wife’s red hair:
"Morning! How did you sleep?’
she asks.
‘I Had This Dream …’
words slowed.
Red hair like blood
Oh yes?’, she reaches for her watch.
Like blood.
‘It was nothing,’ he smiled
At peace.

Jane Anderson

Chapter 1

The Dream Survey

Tomato Soup: A New Journey

I sat in the audience watching a rather dull, preschool play when a messenger squeezed between the ordered rows of hard backed chairs to hand me an envelope. His sudden attention broke my reverie, for my mind had been far from the stage, resting instead upon the tall yachts shimmering on the horizon. I opened the envelope and read ‘Follow the Tomato Soup’. Nothing could be clearer, since this was a dream, and what seems bizarre to the waking mind makes perfect sense to the dreaming self. I stood up, left the dutiful audience and set out on my quest.

Upon waking I was left with the sense of pioneering, of seeking out a new direction with great purpose. Later that day I was browsing through a new dream dictionary and casually looked up ‘soup’ to find ‘something to satisfy your hunger’. ‘Tomato’ was listed as ‘a fruit representing passion’. This cut and dried approach to dream interpretation is far from my method, but the coincidence (or synchronicity as I now prefer to call it) was begging me to listen. The message now became ‘Follow your passions to satisfy your hunger.’ My passion, at that time, was writing, dream work and the media. I promptly dropped my other career pursuits and contacted a couple of radio stations to propose a dream talkback segment. Within a few weeks I had a half-hour live talkback spot on Queensland’s ABC radio.

I was a bit slow on the writing idea. Although I had much experience in writing short pieces and newspaper columns, I wanted to do more. I’d like to say a dream gave me guidance here, but it didn’t. In fact I was so close to the trees that I couldn’t see the woods. After three radio programs I had received many phone calls at home from listeners who were intrigued at my approach to dreams. Many were relieved to be able to talk about their dream experiences without the fear of being labelled weird and being rushed off to the nearest psychiatric ward. Many more asked where they could buy my book. It took another week before the penny finally dropped! I committed myself with a passion the next time I was on air, much to the surprise of my husband who watched from the other side of the glass. I asked for volunteers interested in sharing their dreams and their ideas on dreaming to contact me and contribute towards my research for my new book on dreaming. And here it is!

A year and what seems another lifetime later, I completed the research and fell asleep. My publishing contract had been signed on the basis of projected chapter headings and the pioneering nature of the research, well before anyone else knew what the survey results would show. As I entered my dream world, I took with me my concerns of how to present my findings in the best way. That was last night and only the second time in my life that I remember dreaming of tomatoes!

This time I was having difficulty breathing and two nurses were curing me with a scalpel by slicing into the nail bed of the little finger of my right hand. The pain was intense. They then placed tomato circles into the little cuts, leaving my finger looking much like a triple decker sandwich. The little boy who was watching asked what they were doing. The nurses replied: ‘We have to inject through the tomato so that she can breathe again.’

After that painful process they gave me pure oxygen from a gas cylinder. Since, in my understanding of our long-lost intuitive language, the fingers represent our creativity and how we handle things, while the right hand relates to our outer world (don’t worry, this will be second nature to you by the end of the book), I knew this dream was commenting on how I should express my writing. Yes, you’ve got it: with passion and a breath of fresh air. I only hope I can live up to that excellent advice. I fear, as I must lapse into numbers and data from time to time, that your passion may cool, or that the air may become harder to breathe, or the details harder to take in. I hope you will ride the roller-coaster with me and finally agree, as you turn the last page, that the journey into our dreaming life was well worth the ride.

The Researcher and the Reason

My formal academic background is in science, where I gained an Honours degree from the University of Glasgow, specialising in the biology of embryonic development. I entered the world of scientific research and narrowed my interests to the world of the developing nervous system. Intellectually I was excited by the intricacies and wonder of how embryonic or regenerating nerves find their way to the brain to make the appropriate connections which produce a fully functional, totally alive being. Little was known, so we could sit and muse upon imagined concepts and come up with the most bizarre ideas for later testing. My curiosity took me into the deep recesses of the brain until I felt I had stood in the shoes of the strictest reductionist (one who believes that life is merely the sum of its parts, and no more, like a computer made up of electronic bits and pieces).

Yet this was not the answer. I found it difficult to make contact with anyone in those mid-seventies days of science who was open minded enough to tip their hat in respect of an alternative, more holistic view of life. Now, some twenty years later, scientists and non-scientists alike have an inkling that quantum physics must inevitably change our understanding of life, and question the more stoic nature of our old scientific attitudes.

For myself, my quest for understanding life became more passionate the day I walked away from the National Institute for Medical Research in London, where I had enrolled to do my Ph.D., because I could no longer see any relationship between life and the anaesthetised, eyeless green goldfish left on a lab bench simply because it was time for lunch. I took my scientific knowledge and my questions out into the world and worked at communicating with people.

My career has taken me through teaching, writing, the media, counselling and motivating, while family life challenged my adaptability and understanding of the world and its people through time spent living in tropical Africa and the Andean peaks of South America. This background, my constant and fantastic dreams since childhood, my children, my divorce, my remarriage, my private reading on dreams and my experience as a dream counsellor constitute my qualifications for embarking on this research.

So, let’s turn the spotlight away from me and direct it to its rightful place: the dream survey.

Setting Up the Survey and Collecting the Data

This research is not based on a random sample. In the first instance, a random sample would have generated a large number of blank responses since many people have difficulty recalling their dreams to the extent demanded by this survey. Secondly, I wanted to sample what is happening for the strongly motivated dreamers; those who have a place of honour for their dreams, or those who had the burden of years of silence to release, who wanted to ‘come out of the closet’ with their dreams without fear of retribution from their family of friends. This was to be a book about what people are really dreaming about, where their thoughts and feelings about their dreaming lives have led them, and what possibilities their insights can offer you, the reader. My task was to find these strong and willing dreamers and then persuade them to spend hours thinking, recalling and filling out my lengthy Dream Survey Questionnaire. I was astounded at the ease with which this was achieved.

The survey dreamers came forward through my appeals on radio, through newspapers, magazines, television interviews and word of mouth. I also asked key people in various geographical areas to spread the word, which proved a viable source of excellent volunteers. This brought a good response because, I was later informed, merely contemplating the questionnaire and filling it in was good therapy in itself. Since each person was asked not to show the questionnaire to anyone else, the material itself became ‘hot stuff’ and the survey population was rapidly built. The popularity of the questionnaire as a tool to focus on one’s dreaming life made me realise that it should be included in this book, so that you, the reader, might start from the survey dreamer’s point of view, by completing the questionnaire at the end of this chapter before reading further.

Some 260 people contacted me to join the survey, although not everyone returned the questionnaires. I guess they either found the therapy of filling in the survey pages enlightening enough, or they found it all too hard, too intimidating or too personally revealing. I finally centred on 160 complete questionnaires as the basis for this research, and yes, their confidentiality has been guarded. Each has chosen a dream name for use in the book, and, where necessary, other names and places mentioned in their dreams have been changed to confer anonymity.

Many open ends were built into the questionnaire, partly to place less emphasis on the type of information I was particularly seeking, and partly to motivate the participant to write additional pages. Most people did this and frequently followed through with several letters over the following months.

At the end of the data collection phase of this research, I invited 25 of the strongest (mostly precognitive) dreamers who lived within a five hour drive of my home, to a Saturday afternoon discussion. That day was a fascinating opportunity to meet and talk with other dreamers, especially for those people who had felt some degree of isolation from those who share their waking lives but who have no compassion for their night-time world. Two hours of that discussion were taped, and, with the dreamers’ permission, later transcribed for use in this book.

At the end of the six month survey period, I sent a short ‘End of Dream Survey Questionnaire’ (reprinted here, along with the original questionnaire, at the end of this chapter) to investigate dreaming progress since the start of the survey. This was kept extremely brief in mindfulness of the amount of time and effort that everyone had already donated and in the hope that they would be swiftly completed and returned.

Analysing the Data and the Dreams

The data and the dreams have been analysed and handled on many levels. In line with my holistic approach, especially given the often illogical nature of the world of dreams, I have presented the research from both statistical and anecdotal viewpoints.

As a scientist I see great value in examining the hard data as a whole, while as a dreamer I give equal credence to the experience of each individual in his or her own dreaming life. No statistic can ever touch the pure emotional impact of a vivid dream, a sleeping experience which has the potential to change a person’s life, and often does. Neither is any statistic required to argue or prove to another the validity of a dream experience which is intuitively understood on a personal level. Our dreams and our dreaming worlds are our own and need no comparison to another, because they speak for themselves – once you recall their language, that is. In the meantime, we must relearn the language of dreams and discover how to get back in touch with this vital part of our being.

The more scientific handling of some of the data in this book is aimed at uncovering the road to that rediscovery. The data also serve to satisfy the hunger our rational brain has been trained, through our present educational system, to seek. Data analysis methods are summarised below*, but will not be discussed elsewhere at any length, in deference to maintaining the flow of the text, and I trust this approach shall meet with the reader’s approval.

Last, but far from least, the data, as much as the individual experiences and quotes, serve to tell the story as it is, to show that those dream experiences we may deny are shared by a wide range of people and backgrounds, and are more common than we may have previously realised.

* Data was assessed and correlated according to basic statistical methods including comparison of observed results for different groups to the results expected by analysis of the overall survey results, bearing the group (sample) sizes in mind. Data was also compared through the preparation of Ranking Lists which aimed to rank the impact of different variables to assess their relative importance. Hard data is presented in terms of averages, percentages and so on, while emphasis was also placed on novel presentation of the data through examining the ‘top’ dreamers of different categories of dreaming and determining which variables were common to each. This approach was used to compile the individual ‘Profiles’ illustrated in Chapters 3, 4 and 5 while the more conventional statistical approaches were employed to extract the material discussed in the main text. The ‘Ms Survey Dreamer’ insights were compiled from the most common (or, occasionally, when it was more appropriate, the mean) responses from the overall survey. (She is a Ms because the survey participants were most commonly female.)

Put Yourself First – the Questionnaire

After completing the Dream Survey Questionnaire, 73.8% of survey dreamers answered ‘yes’ to the question: Did you feel that you learned something about your dreams simply through spending the time to do this?

Stop right there! Before you go any further, find yourself a quiet corner for an hour*, pick up a pen and fill in the following Dream Survey Questionnaire, which is an exact copy of that completed by the survey dreamers. You may find that you flow on and start recalling dreams or thoughts, so consider writing these extras down in a journal, or recording them onto audio tape, as you will find your dreams easier to interpret when you come to Part Two of this book if they are recorded in some way other than free-floating in your head!

* The average time taken for survey participants to complete this questionnaire as 1.7 hours, although 16% took at least 4 hours!

SECTION A: PERSONAL DETAILS

Name: .........................
Address: .........................
Phone Number: .........................
Sex: .........................
Date of Birth: .........................
Nationality: .........................
Marital Status: .........................
Number of Children: .........................
Living with you: .........................
    (How many of these are step children?): .........................
    Living with ex: .........................
    Left home: .........................
Present Occupation: .........................
Last Occupation: .........................
Highest Educational Level Attained: .........................
Religion: .........................
Health (please circle):
    Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor / Very poor

SECTION B: WELLBEING AND LIFESTYLE

1. How often do you exercise each week? …….. times per week.
2. What type of exercise do you do?
3. Which of the following meditative exercises have you done in the past three months? (Please circle)

  
    Meditation / Yoga / Tai Chi / Float tank / Massage / Reiki / Other (please state): ……..

4. Do you do anything else simply for yourself for peace, relaxation and solitude? If yes, please list: ……..
5. What do you usually do when you have a problem on your mind? ……..
6. How stressed are you generally? (Please circle):
   

    Extremely stressed / Very stressed / Stressed from time to time / Mildly stressed / Rarely stressed / Never stressed

7. Which of the following foods do you eat at least once per week? (Please underline:)
   

    Vegetables / Fruit / Bread / Dairy products / Cereals / Red meat / White meat / Eggs / Fish / Junk food / Tea / Coffee / Sugar

8. In the above list, which foods do you usually eat every day or every other day? (Please circle.)
9. How many meals do you eat on an average day? ……..
10. How many snacks do you eat on an average day? ……..
11. Any other comments on your diet?
12. Do you take any dietary supplements (e.g. vitamins, minerals, nutritional drinks, remedies?) If yes, which? ……..
13. How many alcoholic drinks do you have in an average week? ……..
14. How many cigarettes do you smoke in an average week? ……..
15. Do you take any prescription or over-the-counter drugs regularly? If yes, which? (Please include tranquillisers, sleeping pills, pain killers) ……..
16. How many hours of television do you watch in an average week? …….. hours per week.
17. Please list your other regular leisure activities: ……..

SECTION C: STUDY

1. Are you presently enrolled in a course of study? ……..
2. What was the last course of study you completed? ……..

    When was this? ……..

3. Do you read or research any personal area of interest without the aid of a formal course? ……..

    What subject? ……..

4. Have you attended a workshop or lecture series recently? ……..
       What subject? ……..
5. Are you considering taking up a course of study within the next twelve months? ……..
       What subject/ course? ……..

    

SECTION D: SLEEP PATTERN

1. How many hours of sleep do you get on an average night? ……..
2. How long does it take you to fall asleep, on average? ……..
3. How many times do you wake in the night, on average? ……..
4. Circle which description suits you best:
   

    Deep sleeper / Medium sleeper / Light sleeper / Restless sleeper / Insomniac

5. Do you work shifts? ……..
       If yes, are these regular or irregular? ……..
       How does this shift work affect your sleep? ……..

    

SECTION E: WAKING UP PATTERN

1. Which of the following descriptions best indicates how you usually wake up on a working day? (Tick as many as you like.)

Alarm wakes me
I wake up naturally
I get up as soon as I wake up
I lie in bed for a while
I go back to sleep
I have great difficulty waking up
I think about my dreams before getting up
I plan the day before getting up
Someone wakes me up gently

 

SECTION F: DREAMING PATTERN

1. How many times per week, on average, do you:

    Remember your dreams? ……. per week
    Remain aware that you have dreamt, but cannot recall your dreams? ……. per week
    Have no dream recall? ……. per week

2. How often, on average, do you:

    Dream in one night? ……. per week
    Wake up in the night remembering a dream? ……. per week
    Write down a dream in the middle of the night? ……. per week
    Write down your dream later in the daytime? ……. per week

3. Do you keep a journal of your dreams? …….
   
4. Do you ever talk about your dreams with (please tick):

Your partner
Close friend
Friends
People in general

5. How much do you dream now compared to past years? (Please circle)

    More / About the same / Less / Much less

6. Looking back over your life, at what age did you have most dream recall (dream most)? …….
       How would you describe your life during that time? …….

SECTION G: SENSES IN DREAMS

1. Do you dream in colour? …….

    If yes, is colour normal or intense? …….

2. Do you ever dream in black and white? …….
3. Do you ever dream with no visual sense (no pictures, e.g. sound only)? If yes, describe briefly: …….
4. Do you hear other sounds apart from speech in your dreams? If yes, please give examples: …….
5. Do you dream smells? If yes, please give examples: …….
6. Can you feel touch in a dream? (e.g. textures, hot, cold). If yes, please give examples: …….
7. Are you aware of any other senses coming into your dreams? If yes, please describe: …….

SECTION H: RECURRING DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

A recurring dream is any dream that you have regularly.
A nightmare is a terrifying dream.

For this questionnaire, if you have a recurring dream which is a nightmare, please count it as a nightmare, not a recurring dream.

1. Have you experienced recurring dreams in the last two years? …….
2. How many different recurring dreams do you have? (Please circle):

    One / Two / Three / Several / Many

3. Please think about the recurring dream you have experienced most often during the past two years.

    How often do you have this dream? …….
    What feeling does this dream give you? …….
    Is the dream always exactly the same in great detail? …….
    Briefly describe the main points of this dream: …….

4. Have you experienced nightmares in the past two years?

    How often? …….
    Do you have recurring nightmares? …….
    How many different nightmares have you had during the last two years? (Please circle):
        One / Two / Three / Several / More

5. Please think about the nightmare you have had most often in the last two years. Briefly describe the main points of this nightmare: …….
6. Looking back over your life, do you remember a period when your recurring dreams or nightmares were stronger or more repetitive than they are now? …….
       If yes, please describe briefly: …….
      How would you describe your life during that time? …….

SECTION I: UNUSUAL DREAM EXPERIENCES

1. Have you ever dreamt you were having an out-of-the-body experience? …….

    When was the last time? …….

2. Have you ever had an out-of-the-body experience? …….

    When was the last time?

3. Have you ever had a psychic, ESP or prediction dream which came true? …….

    If yes, how often do you have such dreams? …….

4. Have you ever realised, in the middle of a dream, that you were dreaming? …….

    If yes, have you ever decided to change the course of the dream while you’re still in it? …….
    If yes, how often have you been able to do this? …….

5. How often do you experience deja vu? …….
6. Have you had any other ‘unusual’ dream experiences? …….

    If yes, please give a brief outline: (I have received much interest in this area of dreaming and I am keen to collect examples of unusual dream experiences for research. Your comments are much appreciated so please use additional paper if necessary.) …….

7. Any other comments on this section? …….

SECTION J: UNDERSTANDING YOUR DREAMS

1. In general, how many of your dreams make sense to you or have some meaning? (Please circle):

    None / A few / Several / About half / More than half / Most / All

2. Have you ever studied dreams or dream interpretation? …….

    How? (e.g. books, magazines, courses): …….

3. Do you ever take guidance from your dreams? …….
4. Have you ever carried out a decision based on a dream? …….
5. Have you ever made a major lifestyle change based on a dream? …….
6. Where do you believe your dreams come from? …….

SECTION K: SPIRITUAL BELIEFS

1. Do you believe in life after death? …….
2. Do you believe in reincarnation? …….

SECTION L: TRANSPORT IN DREAMS

(Please note, for all remaining sections, please consider only dreams you have had in the last two years.)

1. Tick transport which regularly appears in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Bicycle     
Plane     
Car
Bus
Motorbike
Train        
Boat       
None               
Other (please specify): …….

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common transport (one item only).
3. Tick which of the following situations most regularly occur in dreams involving transport. (Tick as many as you like):

 

I reach my destination
I am chased
I get lost
I am chasing someone else
I miss the bus/ whatever
The ride is slow and difficult
The transport breaks down
The ride is fast and easy
The transport crashes
I go uphill
I drive / ride
I go downhill
Someone else drives
I get delayed
Other (please state)

4. In the above list, put an ‘A’ beside the most common situation (one only).

SECTION M: BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following events occur regularly in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Death – serene             
Death – accident      
Death- murder
Marriage/ engagement
Sexual encounter
Kissing/ cuddling
Pregnancy
Birth
Cradling an infant
None of these

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common event (one only).

SECTION N: HOUSES, HOMES AND ROOMS IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following regularly appear in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as any as you like):

 

Your present home         
Home lived in before        
Dream home (unknown)      
Holiday house                  
Hotel                                 
Lounge room                  
Kitchen                          
Bedroom                          
Bathroom                         
Cellar/ basement
Attic
Upstairs
Staircase
Lift
Door
Window
Dining room
None of these
Other (please specify) …….

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common place (one only).
3. Do you often dream of being in a house which looks like the house of someone you know in life? .……

    If yes, how closely is this person/ are these people related to you? …….

4. Any other comments you would like to make? …….

SECTION O: GETTING AROUND WITHOUT TRANSPORT IN DREAMS

1. Tick the following to show the various ways you usually move in dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Walk     
Swim     
Stand still
Run     
Fly      
Sit still
Other (please state) …….

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common method (one only).
3. Tick which of the following speeds you commonly move at in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Fast and easy          
Fast but hard work
Normal (like life)  
Fall
Slow
Very slow
Stuck/ held back                        
Other (please state) …….

4. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common speed (one only).

SECTION P: OUTDOOR LOCATIONS IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following outdoor locations regularly feature in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

Your garden             
Dream garden              
Farm                              
Forest                      
Plain                             
Desert                      
Valley                     
Mountain                      
Coast/ seashore              
Bus/ train stops              
Jungles o                      
Shopping centres o    
Playgrounds              
Rich areas                      
Other planets
Cliff
Foreign country
City streets
Small town streets
Village streets
Main roads
Back streets
Highways
Bridges
Airports
Car parks
Parks
Bushland
Poor areas
Poor areas
Sea/ afloat
Other places (please state): …….

1. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common location (one only).
2. How often do you dream of locations unknown to you in waking life? (Please circle):

    Never / Occasionally / Sometimes / Often / Most of the time / Always

3. Any other comments you would like to make? …….

SECTION Q: WATER DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following regularly occur in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Deep sea         
Edge of sea
River                 
Stream         
Waterfall          
Lake                  
None
Swimming pool
Pond
Tidal wave
Surf waves
Tank
Bath
Other (please state): …….

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common water scene (one only).

SECTION R: COMMUNICATIONS IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following regularly appear in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Telephone             
Numbers
Fax                     
Television
Radio
Letters              
Notes/ messages     
Words
None
Other (please state): …….
(1999 edition: e-mail was not a likely category for the original 1992/3 survey!)

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common and a ‘B’ by the second most common form of communication (two only).

SECTION S: PEOPLE IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following people appear regularly in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Yourself                                
Close relatives                             
Other relatives                            
Other people in your life now         
Other people from the past            
People you know to be dead        
Mostly men                            
Mostly women                             
Spirits                               
Extraterrestrial
Strangers, who are:
Dead
Elderly
Middle aged
Young
Adolescent
Children
(Please note above list are all strangers)
Other (please state): …….

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ by the first, second, third and fourth most common people or groups of people who appear in your dreams.
3. Any other comment about people in your dreams? …….

SECTION T: EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following regularly appear in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

Kindergarten      
Primary school     
High school      
College             
University
Place giving short courses
Weekend learning retreat
Library
None
Other (please state): …….

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common place (one only).
3. Do you ever teach in these places in your dreams? …….
4. Are you ever a student in these places in your dreams? …….
5. What do you do mostly in these dreams: teach or learn? …….
6. Do you appear in other roles in these dreams? …….
       If yes, which? …….

SECTION U: ACTION IN DREAMS

1. Tick which of the following actions you commonly take in your dreams (last two years). (Tick as many as you like):

 

I take part in the action
I take control                  
I make decisions          
I lead others
I watch and observe the action
I don’t take part I the dream
I follow others                 
I act against my will

2. In the above list, put an ‘A’ by the most common action (one only).

SECTION V: FURTHER COMMENTS

Any further comments on matters raised in this questionnaire or in any other area of dreaming that you feel is important to point out: …….

For my future reference, how long did it take you to complete this questionnaire? …….

Did you feel, incidentally, that you learned something about your dreams, simply through spending the time to do this? …….

END OF DREAM SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

Since completing your original Dream Survey Questionnaire:

1. Have you recorded your dreams regularly in your journal? Yes / No
2. Has your dream recall:
       Improved / Stayed the same / Decreased?
3. In general, how many of your dreams make sense to you or have some meaning?

    None / A few / Several / About half / More than half / Most / All

4. Have your dreams changed in any other way?
       If so, please comment below: ...