Dreamways

For those of us who still harboring doubts as to the value and need for sleep dreams, reporter Robert Moss informs us: "Current research indicates that dreaming has a real, practical function but also that it can spark our imaginations in unexpected ways. Best of all, one doesn’t have to be especially 'adept‘ at dreaming: The power of dreams is accessible to everyone.“ ("Waking Up to Our Dreams“, Parade Magazine, 29 Oct 07) Sleep dreams are not only physiologically necessary, but they also are a source of creativity that is accessible to all of us.  read more »

EMPIRE OF DREAMS

On the first page of my dreambook
It’s always evening
In an occupied country.
Hour before the curfew.
A small provincial city.
The houses all dark.
The storefronts gutted.

I am on a street corner
Where I shouldn’t be.
Alone and coatless
I have gone out to look
For a black dog who answers to my whistle.
I have a kind of Halloween mask
Which I am afraid to put on.

- Charles Simic

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‘The Song of Deborah and Barak’ from the Old Testament is re-told by Mark Twain in his 1869 best-selling book, The Innocents Abroad, a travelogue Twain penned describing his journey to Europe and The Holy Land with a group of religiously minded American tourists as part of the first-ever luxury cruise. “Somewhere in this part of the country – I do not know exactly where – Israel fought another bloody battle a hundred hears later. Deborah, the prophetess, told Barak to take ten thousand men and sally forth against another king Jabin who had been doing something.  read more »

“In the Face of Royalty” reads the headline above the color photo showing a man and a woman. To the left of the picture, we see a middle-aged fellow wearing a suit, white shirt, and striped necktie. His hair is dark and short. He has a VanDyke beard. There is nothing unusual about his appearance. However, he has contorted his face, eyes crossed, nose flattened out and his mouth drawn up into a silly pucker of a grimace. With both hands he is holding onto a large, black leather horse collar that sits atop his head and around his shoulders.  read more »

“Vilnius is a city of dreams.” This compelling assertion appears in an article about the capital city of Lithuania (“Vilnius: Dreaming with Eyes Wide Open,” Baltic Outlook, October/November 2007). Indeed, both Lithuania and its capital have had a number of major dreams come true, with significant goals realized and long-held ideals made manifest.  read more »

"The instructions are simple: 'Read the Prayer … / Drink the Water … / Believe in God! / Believe in Yourself!‘ Spiritual Water, the faith-inspired venture of two Sunrise, Fla., businessmen, offers its drinkers clearer focus, positive thinking and connection to a higher power.“ This fascinating waking dream is desribed by Audra D.S. Burch in her article "Sip your way to salvations with Spiritual Water?“ (The Denver Post, 06 May 08).
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"The practice of equanimity is particularly helpful for nightmares. Of all the practices you could apply, it is most helpful and comforting, after you have awakened, to generate a sense of equanimity – the similarity of aim – between yourself and the dream-monster.“ Jeffrey Hopkins offers a Buddhist, meditative perspective on interacting with sleep nightmares ("Dealing with Nightmares,“ Snow Lion newspaper & catalog, Spring 2008).
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"If you can’t tell which futures are better than others, it’s hard to find happiness. The truth is, bad things don’t affect us as profoundly as we expect them to. That’s true of good things, too.  read more »

"Antonia Shapovalova, ‘a commissar in the pro-Kremlin movement Nashi’, has designed lingerie with a view to persuading the young ladies of Russia to have more babies.” This sounds like quite the titillating daydream in post-Soviet Russia. What does the lingerie look like? How does it work? Of all things, the dainties address (hoping to undress?) and appeal of solidarity to Russia’s political Big Boss Man, Vladimir Putin (whose nickname is Vova.) "Vova, I'm with you," is printed (stitched? branded?) across the front of the tiny briefs. Imagine

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The post-waking-nightmare dream was grandiose. "In March 2007, city officials finally unveiled their plan to redevelop New Orleans and begin the move out of the post-hurricane morass. It was billed as the plan to end all plans, with Paris-like streetscape renderings and promises of parks, playgrounds and 'cranes on the skyline' within months." However, more than a year later, it seems that the dream has not gained much waking-life traction, as reported by Adam Nossiter in

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