The content aspect

I want to use content in dream journals. But because the content of dreams is so universal, I'm having finding what I want to write about.

I want it to have a dream-like quality to it, but still follow parts of the form of cookbooks.

Dream records

Since I can't find any published dream journals, I've been reading some recalled dreams on http://dreamjournal.net.

Since anyone can record their dreams here there is no particular style of writing. In general they're told from a first person point of view. A lot of sentences start with "I". The events are sometimes recalled just by stating what happened. Although the amount of detail and explanation about how they felt depends on the dreamer. And also how much they remember. When users use specific names of their friends it means nothing to me because I don't know the person. I don't want to do that in my hybrid genre unless I use repeated characters and explain who they are.

Strange happening

Another nap dream
Dreamed about riding in a car with a girl down my hall who was driving. I was in the back seat and next to me was a baby's car seat. We got pulled over even though we hadn't done anything wrong. The cop was trying to provoke us and was yelling a screaming at us, trying to make us fight back I suppose. He took the car seat out and slammed it onto the ground and it broke. I stayed inside the car, not saying anything. Eventually I think he wrote her a ticket for arguing with him or something ridiculous.

The weird thing about this is I told the girl about my dream, and she told me the other day one of her friends came to visit and she brought a car seat into her room. I didn't see this at all, yet I dreamed about it. Oddity.

Telepathy sympathy

I came across a term that really intrigues me - dream telepathy. This is usually regarded as a paranormal phenomenon.

“(I had to remove this quote because I got some email about copywrite infringement even though I linked the source)” – from Telepathy Dreams article

I've experienced something that really felt like I was connecting with and communicating with someone in my dream, like his existence in my dream had been more than just my mind making it up. This was a dream I had about someone shortly after he had died. It may have just been me needing to see him again, my wish that our relationship hadn't remained unsettled. But it's easier to tell myself he wanted to see me again too, so he visited my dreams.

I don’t really buy all the online “psychic” stuff, but this article presents interesting ideas about this subject.  http://www.psychics.co.uk/telepathy.html

I think it would be so cool to be able to dream with another person, to go into someone's mind. I'm not sure if that can really be done. 

Useful websites

I found a site where you can record your dreams electronically and other people can read and interpret your dreams.

http://dreamjournal.net

Dreams can be interpreted in all kinds of ways, so what one person thinks it means may be entirely different from someone else. 

http://www.dreammoods.com/ is another site that has a lot of information on both dream interpretation and the science of dreams. 

I have the craziest nap dreams

I was on stilts and had trouble balancing. It was more like I was on a pogo stick, jumping trying to reposition my feet. A guy in a loft was trying to push me over. He was saying cruel things and making brutish faces at me. Fighting back did nothing.

Earlier in my nap dream, I was back in my hometown, but there were new underground structures. I was following my mom, but she wouldn't talk to me or even look back at me.

As soon as I woke up, details of the dream started slipping away from me. It's been an hour since I woke up, and this is basically all I can recall. Even though it was an unpleasant and eerie dream, waking up released a more hopeful feeling. But that may have been due to sleeping next to an open window, with spring scents trickling their way into the air.

Definition

There is no definition for "dream journal" in the dictionary or from dictionary.com, but it essentially is a place where someone records their dreams, whether on paper or electronically.

I decided to look up the definitions of "dream" and "journal/diary" separately.
The most interesting thing for dream I found were the synonyms.

Dream : –noun

1. a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.

2. the sleeping state in which this occurs.

3. an object seen in a dream.

4. an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.

5. a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream;  reverie.

6. an aspiration; goal; aim:

7. a wild or vain fancy.

8. something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.

—Synonyms
1. Dream, nightmare,  and vision  refer to the kinds of mental images that form during sleep. Dream  is the general term for any such succession of images. A nightmare  is a dream that brings fear or anxiety: frightened by a nightmare. Vision  refers to a series of images of unusual vividness, clarity, order, and significance, sometimes seen in a dream. 


Diary :

–noun, plural -ries.

1. a daily record, usually private, especially of the writer's own experiences, observations, feelings,attitudes, etc.

2. a book for keeping such a record.

3. a book or pad containing pages marked and arranged in calendar order, in which to noteappointments and the like.

—Synonyms
1, 2.  journal, daybook, log, chronicle

Turning the world upside down

Had a crazy dream during my nap earlier.

Disobedient elevators. I was going to the top floor, but the elevator kept going up for another two nonexistent floors. The sign inside read "FL1", then "FL2" and the doors never opened, but it tilted like it was about to fall apart. The elevator brought me back down to the basement before letting me out. The walls in the basement were crumbling. Destruction, like the end was coming, was a theme. I somehow found out that the earth was off-balance.
If you've ever seen the children show "Adventure Time", you'd know the characters Jake the dog and Finn the human, and possibly the Ice King.

I had to adventure with them to save their (and in my dream, my) world. Ice and snow was taking over the whole planet (for some reason snow was in the southern hemisphere and warmth and pink candy land in the northern hemisphere). I don't remember how exactly we did it, but we tied something around the equator and squeezed. The Ice King was furious when he saw us fighting back. We flipped the planet over, so that the northern hemisphere was now the south and vise versa. Balance was restored. At the same time, a new kind of world was created from this.

Pretty epic.

Dream on Feb 15

Last night I had a dream that there were two tombstones in my backyard. And I was really upset about it. In my dream they graves had been there for years, but the actual markers had just appeared. I saw them through the window.

According to 10,000 Dreams Explained by Pamela K. Ball, a grave may signify the loss of emotion or part of our personality that has been killed off. It could also be about dealing with the feelings of someone we know who died.

If this is the case, then it's all in my subconscious, because I don't see this relating to my everyday life. The dream setting was at my house, not my dorm room. Even in the dream I felt distant from it.

About dream journals

A lot of the time people will keep dream journals when they want to learn how to lucid dream. Lucid dreaming is when in a dream, the dreamer becomes aware that he or she is dreaming. Once this is recognized, the person can control the dream and what happens and the possibilities are limitless. A few times I have realized I was dreaming while I was still asleep and changed the outcome of my dream. I want to do this more often.

The best time to record a dream is right after you wake up. The longer you wait, the more details and memories of the dream slip away. Half the time I won't be able to do this because I have to get ready for my day as soon as I wake up. But when I get the chance to write down my dreams I will.

Keeping dreams in a journal can help a person find repeated imagery or events. Lucid dreamers can learn to recognize certain signs in a dream that alert them that they are dreaming. I'm also interested in dream meanings and interpretations. What a person dreams about has different meanings. I've learned from that book that dreams are rarely prophetic, but rather they are more often about the circumstances and feelings a person has in their life currently.

So I've only read a little bit about lucid dreaming from reading wikipedia and from talking to someone who practices this, but further research will be done.

First Post

This blog will have research and exploration of dream journals.
Hopefully I can also learn to lucid dream...