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APPENDIX AMeet the Rest of the Survey Participants
Age, Education and OccupationThe survey dreamers range in age from 10 to 82 (10-20 years 10.6%; 21-30 years 20.6%; 31-40 years 23.1%; 41-50 years 24.4%; 51-60 years 13.1%; 61-85 years 6.3%). In geographical location they are scattered from the far north of Queensland to Melbourne in the south and across to Perth in the west, and also include a couple of participants living overseas. Not all were born Australian, with input from America, South Africa, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and other areas of the world. The survey dreamers’ occupations span a wide range, from writers to sales people, from artists to company directors, film producers, actors, pensioners, teachers (6.3%) and students (11.8%). They vary from home-based parents (16.8%) to unemployed (10%), retired (4.4%), health professionals (5%), computer experts, researchers of economics/ land management, bank officers and bar workers. They came forward from secretary to petrol tank driver, cabinet maker to cook, psychiatric nurse to astrologer, town planner to parish priest, from architect to lecturer and landscape gardener to tax consultant. In short, they are a diverse group! Of the survey dreamers, 31.9% are tertiary educated (college or university), with an additional 9.4% having attended a further education course, while 6% were still at school.
Marital StatusMarried 40.6%; Single 35%; Divorced 11.3%; De facto 5.6%; Widowed 4.4%; Separated 2.5%.
ReligionNo religion 36.8%; Anglican, Presbyterian or
Protestant 24.4%; Catholic 17.5%; ‘Open’, ‘New Age’, ‘Love’,
‘Oneness’, ‘Universal’ etc. 7.5%; Spiritualist 6.3%; Single
individuals representing other religions* 5.6%; Buddhist 1.9%.
Source of DreamsIn response to the question ‘Where do you believe your dreams come from?’ 17.5% said they didn’t know or left this blank. While 21.3% wrote the single word ‘subconscious’, most offered a short list of possible sources.
HealthOf the survey dreamers, 30.6% rate their health as excellent, while 10% consider themselves to be fair and 2.5% assess their condition as poor or very poor. When it comes to alcohol, 5.1% drink 15-21 glasses a week, while 2.5% take more than this. High stress (‘very’ and ‘extreme’) accounts for 14.4% of the dreamers, while 28.8% feel they are ‘mildly’ or ‘rarely’ (21.9%) stressed.
Coping with ProblemsMeditating on a specific problem to seek a solution was favoured by 12.5%, whereas 10.6% look for guidance either through prayer or through other metaphysical sources. A solid 16.3% stoically stated they coped with their problems by ‘solving then’, while smaller percentages read books, exercised, kept themselves busy, drank alcohol, listened to music, wrote their worries down or went for a walk. The self-confessed worriers accounted for 9.4% of the survey, while 13% either ignored their problems or positively worked at relaxing and letting go, knowing that it would ‘sort itself out’ later.
Sleeping and Waking RoutinesOf the survey dreamers, 28.1% fall asleep in 5-15 minutes, while 24.4% drop off in somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. Lying awake for an hour or more is common for 12.5%. The dreamers sleep from 4-10 hours, and while 22.5% usually wake up during the night, 25% regularly wake three or more times before morning. Even so, only 5.6% describe themselves as ‘restless’ sleepers; ‘light’ sleepers accounting for 20%. People were asked to tick the waking patterns that generally applied to them, so most picked several categories. The majority wake up naturally or are woken by others; 28.8% rely on an alarm clock. Almost a third get up as soon as they wake up; 67.5% generally lie in bed for some time. Just under another third go back to sleep again, while 16.9% have great difficulty waking up the first time round. Thinking about their dreams before jumping into the day is favoured by 68.1% and 25% also plan the day before climbing out of bed.
Understanding their DreamsOf their dreams, they estimated they understood:
APPENDIX BThe Precognitive Dreamers’ DiscussionIntroduced to you already in Chapter 19, this group of survey precognitive dreamers met in June 1993. Parts of the discussion are presented below for your further thought. On Being Lucid:I tend to remember dreams better now than I can
remember what happened to me yesterday! I’m not so interested in the interpretation
of dreams, perhaps that’s waiting for me, but I’m really trying to understand
what it is that’s inside my mind. This may sound a bit way out, but having access
to all my senses in a lucid dream, I want to come back with something material. I always
want to get to bed quickly to get on with it. Daytime is boring compared to this! I
don’t think you can separate daytime life from dreams. Dreams are an extension of
daytime life. I think you should try your best because it helps you to grow. I think
you’re supposed to do that. Have you asked anyone in the dream if you may
have something? You must request. You must reach a level before you are allowed to bring
something back. You are looking for proof that the dreams are
real, to reassure yourself. No, I don’t need to prove to anyone else
that my dream is real. I know it’s real. I just want to experiment. I want to go as
far as I can until the time is finished. Lucid dreams can also be escapism. I think mine can be. I lucid dream when I’ve
been having a scary dream and I am trying to escape so I start doing the kind of things
they do in Die Hard II. Have you ever found yourself, in a dream,
conscious, being warned that you are in someone else’s dream? Yes, commonly. I have many times resolved
personal problems with other people through dreams. Resolution is made and when I meet
that person again later, the past has been cleared. No hard feelings remain and we move on
from there. I was trespassing in someone else’s dream
and I was told to get out. I was met by a man who explained that I shouldn’t be there
and I had to drive behind him in his four-wheel drive to get out. We drove on a highway
through a miniature city or community with miniature skyscrapers. It was absolutely
fantastic. I got out of my car and was invited into a room, but again this man followed me
and told me I was in the wrong place and I had to get out. He told me to walk ten steps in
the other direction to go through my door. I stepped out and watched the dream going on. I
was watching someone else’s dream.
On Time:If you’re open minded enough to believe that
all dimensions of time exist simultaneously you can pick out anything at will. And
that’s it. I feel we’re bound up in time in our waking life but our dream state gives us the opportunity to explore other realms.(Chiron, astrologer) Physically and mentally you’re locked into a
segment of time and space in your waking life, whereas in your dreaming period you are
released. You can choose to go and do, observe, correct whatever you want, but you have to
make that choice. You have to be willing to make that choice. That is where you walk from
your dark room into your bright light. You’re conscious, you know you’re
dreaming and you know you’re doing something.
On Learning in Dreams Does anyone have any experience of learning at a
place, where you are taught or something is explained to you in the dream? When you wake
up it doesn’t seem significant, but within a short period of time it comes up and you
actually draw on the whole knowledge without even realising that you’ve got the
knowledge? I go to a classroom in my dreams. I see myself
float in. One night I went to bed really late and by the time I got into the dream
everyone was waiting for me! They said, ‘Where have you been?’ I have had the experience of going into the great
halls of learning, and you can ask to do that. Has anyone gone to an actual library in a dream
in search for something? I went to a library and walked around. The
librarian said, ‘You’ve got to have this book’ and gave me a title. The
next day, when I woke up, I went to the book store to see if they had it and bought it.
It’s probably one of my favourite books now: The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. Sometimes you are given titles of books in dreams
because there’s something in them to open the door to the next stage. I had a dream where I was shown three huge old
books, one entitled Beginners, one Intermediate and one Advanced. I went straight for the
Advanced, but was told I had to read all three, starting with the Beginners! I did, but
when I woke up I had no recollection of what I had learned. In another dream I died and
went to a ‘holding place’ where I was given a leather book with my surname on
it, which seemed to be a Book of Karma or a Life Plan. I sat down and read it cover to
cover, but have no memory of the contents. Maybe I shouldn’t look at my library dreams
as being about work then, but as being more than that.
Which Reality?Perhaps as we get older our dreams are a way of
allowing us to continue to have a full life. That’s why I’m so rapt with lucid
dreaming. At one stage, since I believe in euthanasia, I convinced myself that I would
commit suicide when I became useless. Now I’m lucid dreaming I don’t think I
will. I feel that dreaming is an aspect of my life which is now improving. As my physical
life is now starting to deteriorate, my lucid dreaming life is just starting to explode. So it’s the slow slide from one reality to
another? That’s how I feel about astral travel. As a
child I wanted to travel and would read over atlases. I haven’t had the opportunity
to travel so now I do it in my dreams. And you do often see a lot more than you would in
a photo or book. It’s just as real. If it’s real to you, you don’t have to
prove that to anyone. If it felt real to you and it was an experience which changed your
life for the better in some way, it was real. or return to the
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