| When the first panel on long-term journal keeping met at ASD-13, chair Dennis Schmidt noted: "…In the tradition of the naturalists whose patient observations prepared the ways to elegant understandings of physics, chemistry, and biology, home journal keepers record and discover events and regularities that astonish and enlighten…the personal journal is a uniquely sensitive instrument that may enlighten not only the individual dreamer but the whole field of dream study." Since then, journalers have met at every IASD conference to discuss long term record keeping and continue our cross-fertilization. In 2009 the theme will be "Living and Learning," featuring presentations by journal keepers who have learned things from their dreams they would not otherwise have known Dreams of a Lifetime: Highlights from A Sixty-Year Journal
Patricia Garfield
Can long term dream journaling support life’s outstanding transitions? At age fourteen, the author made her first entry in a sixty-year dream journal, April 15, 1949. In this paper, Garfield cites seven life-changing dreams from different stages of existence (schoolgirl, maiden, wife-mother, lover, worker, spiritual seeker, widow) and discusses repercussions.
Dream Journaling in Relationship
Sandy Ginsberg and David Ginsberg
Living together provides a wonderful opportunity for dreamworking. When couples attend to their dreaming by journaling, they can be exceptionally helpful to one another when it comes to understanding dreams, and can enhance their opportunities for a deeper appreciation of their dreams, their relationship and their inner lives.
Dream Words, Dream Meanings
Gloria Sturzenacker
Long-term journal-keeping allowed me to discover a meaning thread connecting three dreams widely spaced across time. Each contained a different foreign word that, pursued out of curiosity, led to a deep spiritual meaning.
Abyssinian Dreams: What My Cat Taught Me
Robert Waggoner
When his precocious Abyssinian cat, Penny, appears in his dreams and makes requests, not only does the presenter acquiesce, he begins to re-think the possibilities of animal communication. Thus begins a new level of experimental interaction with his cat and a new respect for animal life forms. |