lack of empirical data does not make it not real...
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
in fact, it may even make them more real.
Empath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
..
For other uses, see Empath (disambiguation).
An empath or telempath is a person who has who has an acute or highly developed sense of empathy. In the paranormal and in some works of science fiction and fantasy, empathy is a paranormal or psychic ability to sense the emotions of others. It is distinguished from telepathy,
which allows one to perceive thoughts as well. Occasionally empaths are
also able to project their own emotions, or to affect the emotions of
others.
..
......
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Examples of empaths
* 2 See also
* 3 References
* 4 External Links
..
//..
..
[edit] Examples of empaths
Examples from television and motion pictures include the character Deanna Troi (who, being half-Betazoid, is empathic, rather than telepathic) from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the demon Lorne of the American television show Angel. In Superman (Pre-Crisis), Lex Luthor's younger sister Lena Thorul is also an empath. One of Teen Titans character Raven's powers includes empathy. Also, in the Marvel Universe, the mutant Empath has, as his name suggests, empathic abilities, both to sense and manipulate emotions. Also on Smallville The Character Chloe Sullivan has the power of Empathy described as the ability to heal others by taking on their pains and making it her own.
Additionally, in Charmed, Prue (temporarily) and Phoebe Halliwell become empaths, in addition to a race of empathic magical creatures. In the Charmed
universe, magical powers are said to be tied to the user's emotions.
Due to this concept, the empath Phoebe Halliwell is able to not only
feel the emotions of others, but also to tap into them in order to
control and channel a magical being's powers. Charmed also displays empathy as a way of strengthening a being's own magical powers. Finally, in the series finale, Forever Charmed,
Phoebe discovers that she is able to conjure her future-husband Coop
simply due to the strong emotional bond they share. This may be as a
result of her empathic power and/or her psychic, clairvoyant abilities.
The character Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast
is constantly empathically connected with his love, Catherine, and is
considered by many fans to have at least a partial empathic sensing of
others around him, fading with distance. In the movie Equilibrium,
members of the Grammaton Clergy claim to be able to feel someone's
feelings, sometimes before the other person is even aware of their own
feelings, although this is portrayed as intuition, rather than mental
ability.
Also, in the television series, Scout's Safari, Scout is a
young girl living in Africa who has the empathic ability to feel the
emotions and thoughts of animal. She uses this ability to help the
animals and help humans understand them.
In printed fiction, several characters in Anne McCaffrey's novel To Ride Pegasus
and its sequels are telempathic, empaths who are also able to broadcast
chosen emotions. The character Flinx from Alan Dean Foster's ongoing
"Flinx and Pip" series is telempathic as well. In the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey,
a prominent American fantasy writer, characters are imbued with
different abilities, including empathy, most notably the Queen's Own
Herald, Talia. Octavia Butler's classic science fiction novel Parable of the Sower also features a character who is an empath. In Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn Chronicles, some characters have the ability to project their own emotions and to 'feel' the emotions of others around them. In the Twilight series
by Stephenie Meyer, a vampire character named Jasper has a strong
ability to feel any emotion in anybody and change the emotions of the
people around him. He often uses this power to calm others in hostile
situations.
The book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (on which the film Blade Runner
was based) directly explores a number of issues surrounding empathy and
the emotions, most notably a test which distinguishes humans from
androids ("replicants")
based on involuntary empathic reactions; it also tells of a religion
based on collective experience and empathy for animals, as well as the
'mood organ' (a device which arouses any chosen emotion). Empathy and
lack thereof are the major themes of several other Dick's novels,
including Dr. Bloodmoney and Martian Time-Slip.
Rose Rosetree describes how an empath learns to explore her empathic talent and to use it more efficiently in her novel The Roar of the Huntids.[1].
In several anime, characters have much empathetic capabilities. In Naruto, Naruto is able to empathize with most of the characters, including Gaara and Sasuke, due to his childhood loneliness. In Gundam Wing,
Heero Yuy is noted by Quatre to be able to empathize with most
colonists because he had been orphaned and oppressed by war. Kazahaya
in Legal Drug is affected by the emotions of others through contacting
them or objects they have recently touched. In the Pokmon manga series Pokmon Adventures,
the characters Yellow, Lance/Wataru, and Giovanni/Sasaki have empathic
powers towards Pokmon creatures. Some other examples are Hisoka
Kurosaki from Descendants of Darkness, and Camus Pfalzgraf von Silvaner Lneburg from Meine Liebe.
In the pen and paper role-playing game Rifts,
empathy is a psychic ability used to "feel" or "read" the emotions of
others. The super psychic ability "empathic transmission" enables the
psychic to affect the emotions of others, with negative or positive
results. For example, the psychic can force his victim to feel extreme
sorrow, or extreme joy.
In the RPG Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and its sequel Radiant Dawn,
the three heron characters Leanne, Reyson and Rafael are all empathic
along with the second games cover character Micaiah. Leanne is the only
Heron to exhibit her empathic ability (when she reads the emotions of
Lady Lucia and Queen Elincia) but it is mentioned that her two brothers
share her ability. Micaiah only exhibits her power when she reads the emotions of Empress (apostle) Sanaki and deduces her thoughts (through ingenuity).
[edit] See also
* Indigo children
* Deanna Troi, Phoebe Halliwell (notable fictional examples)
* Clairsentience, feeling expanded sense.
[edit] References
1. ^ published by Women's Intuition Worldwide
[edit] External Links
* Joyful Work for Sensitive People
* www.empathconnection.com
Precognitive dreams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
..
..
......
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. See talk page for details. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)
Precognitive dreams are dreams
that have been credited with foresight or precognition. It is a
phenomenon that has fascinated and puzzled mankind for thousands of
years. Precognition is typically defined as knowing or perceiving events before they actually occur. According to Carl Jung, [1] psychic energy might be operative.
..
......
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Anecdotal evidence
* 2 Clinical evidence
* 3 Skepticism
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 Further reading
* 7 External links
..
//..
..
[edit] Anecdotal evidence
The anecdotal evidence for precognitive dreaming has been documented since before Biblical times. Prior to invading Italy, Hannibal
asked for a dream about his future military activities. He was shown
winning decisive victories and decided to persevere in his conquest of
Italy. An Egyptian prince slept one day in front of the mighty Sphinx and wondered if he would ever become king of Egypt.
In his dream, he was told to clear away all of the debris that had
buried most of the Sphinx statue and he would then become king. Upon
awakening, he had his slaves clear away the debris so that the Sphinx
would be totally visible again. The prince later became King Thutmose IV
and erected a stone tablet in front of the Sphinx to document that he
and the God figure in his dream had both kept their bargain.[2]
Napoleon won many famous battles but his adventures at Waterloo
were doomed and foretold in a dream. On the eve of that historic event,
he dreamed of a large black cat that moved back and forth between his
army and his opposition. Finally this dreaded symbol of bad luck came
back to lie down with his French troops. On the following day, his army
was dealt a stunning defeat by the opposing armies. Elias Howe labored for months working to invent a practical sewing machine.
He was using a needle with a hole in the middle that made good
stitches, but they quickly pulled apart. Then in a dream, he found
himself surrounded by savages brandishing spears at him. All of the
spears had a hole in the point. Upon awakening, he quickly realized
that he needed to modify his sewing needle and rapidly completed his
amazing invention.[citation needed]
There are hundreds of other dream examples. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his famous poem the Kubla Khan in 1797 following a dream during an afternoon nap. The German chemist Kekule discovered the highly elusive ring structure of the benzene molecule based on a dream. The Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev worked out his Periodic Table after having seen its complete outline in a dream. Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own death just days before his assassination. Pompey dreamed of defeat and Caesars death was foretold in a dream. Descartes dreams shaped his outstanding career, and Constantine I dreamed of a flaming cross before embracing Christianity. The San Francisco earthquake and the Jewish holocaust were both predicted by dreams. Numerous people dreamed of the sinking of the Titanic.[citation needed]
Anecdotal documentation for precognitive dreams that did not come
true is extremely rare. No doubt the individuals did not like to report
on their failed experiences. In some cases, the dream may have been
incorrectly interpreted.[citation needed]
[edit] Clinical evidence
Dr. Robert Van de Castle summarizes some of the key progress points in the area of psychic dream research in his book Our Dreaming Mind.
In 1819, H. M. Wesserman successfully projected messages to
experimental subjects while they slept and dreamed. While the general
content of the dream was successfully received, some of the characters
in the dreams were changed.[3]
An Italian psychiatrist, Dr. G. C. Ermacora, published a paper in 1895 titled Telepathic
Dreams Experimentally Induced. This work documented successful efforts
of a medium to transmit dreams to a young girl. Perhaps the best-known
research in this field was conducted at Maimonides Medical Center, in Brooklyn, New York by Stanley Krippner
and Montigue Ullman in 1964. These trials clearly showed positive
correlations for transmitting information to dreamers who had no prior
knowledge of the subject material. Dr. Van de Castle himself was a
subject during these sessions and achieved considerable success in
having dreams that were closely correlated to the target pictures.
Dr. Van de Castle further documents the evidence for psychic
dreaming based on a fascinating questionnaire approach. Survey
questions sent to several thousand individuals listed in Whos Who In
America resulted in 430 replies claiming some kind of ESP experience and dreams were involved in 25 percent of these cases.[citation needed]
Dr. Louisa Rhine at the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University
compiled by far the best-known and largest body of such dream evidence.
Dr. Rhine collected over 7000 accounts of ESP experiences. The majority
of these accounts were dream related and were precognitive in nature.
The material for this work was collected by advertisements in various
well-known popular media.[citation needed]
Dr. David Ryback, a psychologist in Atlanta,
used a questionnaire survey approach to investigate precognitive
dreaming in college students. His survey of over 433 participants
showed that 290 or 66.9 percent reported some form of paranormal dream.
Using very rigid standards, Dr. Ryback examined those responding to the
survey. He rejected many of these claims and reached a conclusion that
8.8 percent of the population was having actual precognitive dreams. [4]
[edit] Skepticism
An early -and perhaps the first formal- inquiry into this phenomenon was done by Aristotle in his On Divination in Sleep.
His criticism of these claims appeals to the fact that "the sender of
such dreams should be God", and "the fact that those to whom he sends
them are not the best and wisest, but merely commonplace persons." Thus
"Most [so-called prophetic] dreams are, however, to be classed as mere
coincidences".[5]
Other researchers in this area are more guarded in their reports on the value or use of dreams. In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not and devoid of psychic content. In his discussions with Carl Jung, he referred to parapsychology and precognition as nonsensical.
Phillip Goldberg favors the use of intuition but endorses the idea that dreams are sometimes a doorway to the intuitive manifestation of a prophecy, a solution, and a result.[6]Yet
dreams are riddled with symbolism, and only a good dream psychologist
together with the subject dreamer can fittingly translate the dream
into reality. David Meyers [7] was even more guarded in warning against a reliance on intuition or related psi experiences and found little of any real value in dreams.
Dream researcher Ernest Hartman comments on current dream theories
proposed by biologists. One such theory suggests that dreams are
basically random nonsense and are the product of a poorly functioning
brain during sleep. If there is any meaning to dreams, it is added on
later as our brains try to make the best of a bad job. A second theory
suggests that dreaming is an unlearning process in which our brains
bring up material to be thrown out like a computer attempting to clean
itself of things we do not need to remember. In either case, the
predictive value of dreams is moot. [8][9]
Michael Shermer, author of the book "Why People Believe Weird Things", also notes that dreams and precognitive impressions are of limited value in predicting future events [10]. In a companion publication, "The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience",
this same author refers to the images and stories arising within dreams
as merely products of a fertile and easily overwhelmed imagination.[11].
Dreams which appear to be precognitive may in fact be the result of the "Law of Large Numbers". Robert Todd Carroll, author of "The Skeptic's Dictionary" put it this way:
"Say the odds are a million to one that when a person has a dream
of an airplane crash, there is an airplane crash the next day. With 6
billion people having an average of 250 dream themes each per night,
there should be about 1.5 million people a day who have dreams that
seem clairvoyant."[12]
[edit] See also
* intuition
* precognition
* metaphysical
* dreams
* Parapsychology
* Notable dreams throughout history
see also http://www.dream-detective.com
[edit] References
1. ^ Jung, C.G., On the Nature of the Psyche , Princeton University Press, 1960
2. ^ Alchin, L.K. King Tut e.g. Retrieved February 16 2007 from www.king-tut.org.uk
3. ^ Van de Castle, Robert, PhD. Our Dreaming Mind. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
4. ^ Ryback, David, PhD. Dreams That Came True. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1988.
5. ^ Aristotle, On Divination in Sleep
6. ^ Goldberg, Phillip, PhD., The Intuitive Edge Los Angeles, Jeremecy P. Tarcher, Inc, 1983
7. ^ Meyers, David, G. PhD, Yale University Press, 2002
8. ^ Hartman, Ernest, MD, Biology of Dreaming, Charles C. Thomas Publications Ltd, 1997
9. ^ Hartman, Ernest, MD, Boundaries In The Mind New York, Basic Books, 2002
10. ^ Shermer, M, Why People Believe Weird Things, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1997
11. ^ Shermer, M, The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, ABC-CLIO, Inc, Santa Barbara, CA, 2002
12. ^ Law of Truly Large Numbers
[edit] Further reading
* Dreams My Lamp Unto the Darkness
* Barrett, Deirdre, PhD .The Committee Of Sleep. New York: Crown Publishers, 2001
* Quinn, Adriene. Dreams of History That Came True. Tacoma: Dream Research, 1987.
* Reed, Henry, PhD. Getting Help From Your Dreams. Virginia Beach: Inner Vision Publishing, 1985.
* Thurston, Mark. PhD. Tonights Answers To Tomorrows Questions. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
[edit] External links
* International Association for the Study of Dreams Guidance on dreams from a clinical approach with little emphasis on precognition
* Skeptical Inquirer
* Intuitive Connections
* www.edgarcayce.org
* stockdreams.org
* President Abraham Lincoln's Presentient Dream About the Assassination
in fact, it may even make them more real.
Empath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
..
For other uses, see Empath (disambiguation).
An empath or telempath is a person who has who has an acute or highly developed sense of empathy. In the paranormal and in some works of science fiction and fantasy, empathy is a paranormal or psychic ability to sense the emotions of others. It is distinguished from telepathy,
which allows one to perceive thoughts as well. Occasionally empaths are
also able to project their own emotions, or to affect the emotions of
others.
..
......
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Examples of empaths
* 2 See also
* 3 References
* 4 External Links
..
//..
..
[edit] Examples of empaths
Examples from television and motion pictures include the character Deanna Troi (who, being half-Betazoid, is empathic, rather than telepathic) from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the demon Lorne of the American television show Angel. In Superman (Pre-Crisis), Lex Luthor's younger sister Lena Thorul is also an empath. One of Teen Titans character Raven's powers includes empathy. Also, in the Marvel Universe, the mutant Empath has, as his name suggests, empathic abilities, both to sense and manipulate emotions. Also on Smallville The Character Chloe Sullivan has the power of Empathy described as the ability to heal others by taking on their pains and making it her own.
Additionally, in Charmed, Prue (temporarily) and Phoebe Halliwell become empaths, in addition to a race of empathic magical creatures. In the Charmed
universe, magical powers are said to be tied to the user's emotions.
Due to this concept, the empath Phoebe Halliwell is able to not only
feel the emotions of others, but also to tap into them in order to
control and channel a magical being's powers. Charmed also displays empathy as a way of strengthening a being's own magical powers. Finally, in the series finale, Forever Charmed,
Phoebe discovers that she is able to conjure her future-husband Coop
simply due to the strong emotional bond they share. This may be as a
result of her empathic power and/or her psychic, clairvoyant abilities.
The character Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast
is constantly empathically connected with his love, Catherine, and is
considered by many fans to have at least a partial empathic sensing of
others around him, fading with distance. In the movie Equilibrium,
members of the Grammaton Clergy claim to be able to feel someone's
feelings, sometimes before the other person is even aware of their own
feelings, although this is portrayed as intuition, rather than mental
ability.
Also, in the television series, Scout's Safari, Scout is a
young girl living in Africa who has the empathic ability to feel the
emotions and thoughts of animal. She uses this ability to help the
animals and help humans understand them.
In printed fiction, several characters in Anne McCaffrey's novel To Ride Pegasus
and its sequels are telempathic, empaths who are also able to broadcast
chosen emotions. The character Flinx from Alan Dean Foster's ongoing
"Flinx and Pip" series is telempathic as well. In the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey,
a prominent American fantasy writer, characters are imbued with
different abilities, including empathy, most notably the Queen's Own
Herald, Talia. Octavia Butler's classic science fiction novel Parable of the Sower also features a character who is an empath. In Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn Chronicles, some characters have the ability to project their own emotions and to 'feel' the emotions of others around them. In the Twilight series
by Stephenie Meyer, a vampire character named Jasper has a strong
ability to feel any emotion in anybody and change the emotions of the
people around him. He often uses this power to calm others in hostile
situations.
The book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (on which the film Blade Runner
was based) directly explores a number of issues surrounding empathy and
the emotions, most notably a test which distinguishes humans from
androids ("replicants")
based on involuntary empathic reactions; it also tells of a religion
based on collective experience and empathy for animals, as well as the
'mood organ' (a device which arouses any chosen emotion). Empathy and
lack thereof are the major themes of several other Dick's novels,
including Dr. Bloodmoney and Martian Time-Slip.
Rose Rosetree describes how an empath learns to explore her empathic talent and to use it more efficiently in her novel The Roar of the Huntids.[1].
In several anime, characters have much empathetic capabilities. In Naruto, Naruto is able to empathize with most of the characters, including Gaara and Sasuke, due to his childhood loneliness. In Gundam Wing,
Heero Yuy is noted by Quatre to be able to empathize with most
colonists because he had been orphaned and oppressed by war. Kazahaya
in Legal Drug is affected by the emotions of others through contacting
them or objects they have recently touched. In the Pokmon manga series Pokmon Adventures,
the characters Yellow, Lance/Wataru, and Giovanni/Sasaki have empathic
powers towards Pokmon creatures. Some other examples are Hisoka
Kurosaki from Descendants of Darkness, and Camus Pfalzgraf von Silvaner Lneburg from Meine Liebe.
In the pen and paper role-playing game Rifts,
empathy is a psychic ability used to "feel" or "read" the emotions of
others. The super psychic ability "empathic transmission" enables the
psychic to affect the emotions of others, with negative or positive
results. For example, the psychic can force his victim to feel extreme
sorrow, or extreme joy.
In the RPG Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and its sequel Radiant Dawn,
the three heron characters Leanne, Reyson and Rafael are all empathic
along with the second games cover character Micaiah. Leanne is the only
Heron to exhibit her empathic ability (when she reads the emotions of
Lady Lucia and Queen Elincia) but it is mentioned that her two brothers
share her ability. Micaiah only exhibits her power when she reads the emotions of Empress (apostle) Sanaki and deduces her thoughts (through ingenuity).
[edit] See also
* Indigo children
* Deanna Troi, Phoebe Halliwell (notable fictional examples)
* Clairsentience, feeling expanded sense.
[edit] References
1. ^ published by Women's Intuition Worldwide
[edit] External Links
* Joyful Work for Sensitive People
* www.empathconnection.com
Precognitive dreams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
..
..
......
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. See talk page for details. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)
Precognitive dreams are dreams
that have been credited with foresight or precognition. It is a
phenomenon that has fascinated and puzzled mankind for thousands of
years. Precognition is typically defined as knowing or perceiving events before they actually occur. According to Carl Jung, [1] psychic energy might be operative.
..
......
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Anecdotal evidence
* 2 Clinical evidence
* 3 Skepticism
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 Further reading
* 7 External links
..
//..
..
[edit] Anecdotal evidence
The anecdotal evidence for precognitive dreaming has been documented since before Biblical times. Prior to invading Italy, Hannibal
asked for a dream about his future military activities. He was shown
winning decisive victories and decided to persevere in his conquest of
Italy. An Egyptian prince slept one day in front of the mighty Sphinx and wondered if he would ever become king of Egypt.
In his dream, he was told to clear away all of the debris that had
buried most of the Sphinx statue and he would then become king. Upon
awakening, he had his slaves clear away the debris so that the Sphinx
would be totally visible again. The prince later became King Thutmose IV
and erected a stone tablet in front of the Sphinx to document that he
and the God figure in his dream had both kept their bargain.[2]
Napoleon won many famous battles but his adventures at Waterloo
were doomed and foretold in a dream. On the eve of that historic event,
he dreamed of a large black cat that moved back and forth between his
army and his opposition. Finally this dreaded symbol of bad luck came
back to lie down with his French troops. On the following day, his army
was dealt a stunning defeat by the opposing armies. Elias Howe labored for months working to invent a practical sewing machine.
He was using a needle with a hole in the middle that made good
stitches, but they quickly pulled apart. Then in a dream, he found
himself surrounded by savages brandishing spears at him. All of the
spears had a hole in the point. Upon awakening, he quickly realized
that he needed to modify his sewing needle and rapidly completed his
amazing invention.[citation needed]
There are hundreds of other dream examples. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his famous poem the Kubla Khan in 1797 following a dream during an afternoon nap. The German chemist Kekule discovered the highly elusive ring structure of the benzene molecule based on a dream. The Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev worked out his Periodic Table after having seen its complete outline in a dream. Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own death just days before his assassination. Pompey dreamed of defeat and Caesars death was foretold in a dream. Descartes dreams shaped his outstanding career, and Constantine I dreamed of a flaming cross before embracing Christianity. The San Francisco earthquake and the Jewish holocaust were both predicted by dreams. Numerous people dreamed of the sinking of the Titanic.[citation needed]
Anecdotal documentation for precognitive dreams that did not come
true is extremely rare. No doubt the individuals did not like to report
on their failed experiences. In some cases, the dream may have been
incorrectly interpreted.[citation needed]
[edit] Clinical evidence
Dr. Robert Van de Castle summarizes some of the key progress points in the area of psychic dream research in his book Our Dreaming Mind.
In 1819, H. M. Wesserman successfully projected messages to
experimental subjects while they slept and dreamed. While the general
content of the dream was successfully received, some of the characters
in the dreams were changed.[3]
An Italian psychiatrist, Dr. G. C. Ermacora, published a paper in 1895 titled Telepathic
Dreams Experimentally Induced. This work documented successful efforts
of a medium to transmit dreams to a young girl. Perhaps the best-known
research in this field was conducted at Maimonides Medical Center, in Brooklyn, New York by Stanley Krippner
and Montigue Ullman in 1964. These trials clearly showed positive
correlations for transmitting information to dreamers who had no prior
knowledge of the subject material. Dr. Van de Castle himself was a
subject during these sessions and achieved considerable success in
having dreams that were closely correlated to the target pictures.
Dr. Van de Castle further documents the evidence for psychic
dreaming based on a fascinating questionnaire approach. Survey
questions sent to several thousand individuals listed in Whos Who In
America resulted in 430 replies claiming some kind of ESP experience and dreams were involved in 25 percent of these cases.[citation needed]
Dr. Louisa Rhine at the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University
compiled by far the best-known and largest body of such dream evidence.
Dr. Rhine collected over 7000 accounts of ESP experiences. The majority
of these accounts were dream related and were precognitive in nature.
The material for this work was collected by advertisements in various
well-known popular media.[citation needed]
Dr. David Ryback, a psychologist in Atlanta,
used a questionnaire survey approach to investigate precognitive
dreaming in college students. His survey of over 433 participants
showed that 290 or 66.9 percent reported some form of paranormal dream.
Using very rigid standards, Dr. Ryback examined those responding to the
survey. He rejected many of these claims and reached a conclusion that
8.8 percent of the population was having actual precognitive dreams. [4]
[edit] Skepticism
An early -and perhaps the first formal- inquiry into this phenomenon was done by Aristotle in his On Divination in Sleep.
His criticism of these claims appeals to the fact that "the sender of
such dreams should be God", and "the fact that those to whom he sends
them are not the best and wisest, but merely commonplace persons." Thus
"Most [so-called prophetic] dreams are, however, to be classed as mere
coincidences".[5]
Other researchers in this area are more guarded in their reports on the value or use of dreams. In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not and devoid of psychic content. In his discussions with Carl Jung, he referred to parapsychology and precognition as nonsensical.
Phillip Goldberg favors the use of intuition but endorses the idea that dreams are sometimes a doorway to the intuitive manifestation of a prophecy, a solution, and a result.[6]Yet
dreams are riddled with symbolism, and only a good dream psychologist
together with the subject dreamer can fittingly translate the dream
into reality. David Meyers [7] was even more guarded in warning against a reliance on intuition or related psi experiences and found little of any real value in dreams.
Dream researcher Ernest Hartman comments on current dream theories
proposed by biologists. One such theory suggests that dreams are
basically random nonsense and are the product of a poorly functioning
brain during sleep. If there is any meaning to dreams, it is added on
later as our brains try to make the best of a bad job. A second theory
suggests that dreaming is an unlearning process in which our brains
bring up material to be thrown out like a computer attempting to clean
itself of things we do not need to remember. In either case, the
predictive value of dreams is moot. [8][9]
Michael Shermer, author of the book "Why People Believe Weird Things", also notes that dreams and precognitive impressions are of limited value in predicting future events [10]. In a companion publication, "The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience",
this same author refers to the images and stories arising within dreams
as merely products of a fertile and easily overwhelmed imagination.[11].
Dreams which appear to be precognitive may in fact be the result of the "Law of Large Numbers". Robert Todd Carroll, author of "The Skeptic's Dictionary" put it this way:
"Say the odds are a million to one that when a person has a dream
of an airplane crash, there is an airplane crash the next day. With 6
billion people having an average of 250 dream themes each per night,
there should be about 1.5 million people a day who have dreams that
seem clairvoyant."[12]
[edit] See also
* intuition
* precognition
* metaphysical
* dreams
* Parapsychology
* Notable dreams throughout history
see also http://www.dream-detective.com
[edit] References
1. ^ Jung, C.G., On the Nature of the Psyche , Princeton University Press, 1960
2. ^ Alchin, L.K. King Tut e.g. Retrieved February 16 2007 from www.king-tut.org.uk
3. ^ Van de Castle, Robert, PhD. Our Dreaming Mind. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
4. ^ Ryback, David, PhD. Dreams That Came True. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1988.
5. ^ Aristotle, On Divination in Sleep
6. ^ Goldberg, Phillip, PhD., The Intuitive Edge Los Angeles, Jeremecy P. Tarcher, Inc, 1983
7. ^ Meyers, David, G. PhD, Yale University Press, 2002
8. ^ Hartman, Ernest, MD, Biology of Dreaming, Charles C. Thomas Publications Ltd, 1997
9. ^ Hartman, Ernest, MD, Boundaries In The Mind New York, Basic Books, 2002
10. ^ Shermer, M, Why People Believe Weird Things, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1997
11. ^ Shermer, M, The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, ABC-CLIO, Inc, Santa Barbara, CA, 2002
12. ^ Law of Truly Large Numbers
[edit] Further reading
* Dreams My Lamp Unto the Darkness
* Barrett, Deirdre, PhD .The Committee Of Sleep. New York: Crown Publishers, 2001
* Quinn, Adriene. Dreams of History That Came True. Tacoma: Dream Research, 1987.
* Reed, Henry, PhD. Getting Help From Your Dreams. Virginia Beach: Inner Vision Publishing, 1985.
* Thurston, Mark. PhD. Tonights Answers To Tomorrows Questions. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
[edit] External links
* International Association for the Study of Dreams Guidance on dreams from a clinical approach with little emphasis on precognition
* Skeptical Inquirer
* Intuitive Connections
* www.edgarcayce.org
* stockdreams.org
* President Abraham Lincoln's Presentient Dream About the Assassination
i am, and i have.
shaine:
you *totally* ditched me the other night
rydell:
very nice....empaths alike we are then