Abstract Index Conference Index

ABSTRACT

The Odyssey of Long Term Journal Keeping

Content Analysis as a Dream Journaling Ally (Kelly Bulkeley); A Layman Looks at Fuzzy Logic (Jean Campbell); The Computer as an Instrument of Discovery (Peggy Coats); Long-Term Journaling as an Individuation Process (Ed Kellogg); The Hauntings of Long Term Journal Keeping (Martha Peacock)

Cynthia Pearson (chair)
cpearson@nauticom.net

3. PANELISTS:

Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., is a former President of ASD and the author of several books, most recently Transforming Dreams (John Wiley & Son, 2000) and Visions of the Night (SUNY, 1999). He teaches at Santa Clara University and the Graduate Theological Union, and he received his doctorate in Religion and Psychology from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Jean Campbell, former director of Poseidia Institute, is the author of Dreams Beyond Dreaming, the forthcoming Group Dreaming: Dreams to the Tenth Power, and numerous articles. Trained in Energetic Metatherapy under Dr. Hector Kuri-Cano, she currently works as an educator, dream worker and writer, conducting individual sessions and workshops in DreamWork/BodyWork.

Peggy Coats, M.P.A., is Director of the Dream Tree, an online and offline resource center for dreamers since 1995, and the News Director of Electric Dreams, an online e-zine dedicated to developing a global dream community. A journal keeper since 1972, Peggy also serves on the Board of the ASD.

Ed Kellogg earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Duke University. A proficient lucid dreamer with a long-standing interest in the phenomenology of dreaming, he has presented numerous papers and workshops including: the lucidity continuum, lucid dream healing, lucid dream incubation, out-of-body experiences, and the use of magic in lucid dream reality.

Martha Peacock is a Ph.D. candidate in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In addition to her mythological pursuits, she is a teacher and student of dream images, a freelance writer and lecturer,
focusing on phenomenological and archetypal patterns of the unconscious. Martha resides in Tampa, Florida.

Cynthia Pearson (chair),* co-author of The Practical Psychic and Parting Company: Understanding the Loss of a Loved One, presides over Dreamjournalist.com, "A Website for People Who Write Down Their Dreams." At past ASD conferences, she has chaired Long Term Journal Keeping panels and given papers on extended synchronicities and precognition.

4. SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION:

The panelists have kept dream journals for many years and have become intrigued with phenomena that have emerged over time. After highlighting their own approaches and discoveries, they will engage in open discussion with audience members and explore techniques, findings, benefits and the research value of the personal dream journal.

5. Three learning objectives of the panel will be:

1) understanding of the variety of personal dream experience;
2) recognition of the depth and breadth long term dream study; and
3) appreciation for personal journal keeping as a tool of naturalistic research.

Three evaluation questions which participants should be able to answer after attending the panel presentation are:

1) Why is the personal dream journal important to the study of dreams?
2) What types of phenomena have long term journal keepers observed?
3) What are some of the ways that journal keepers have discovered and documented interesting phenomena?


8. ABSTRACT

The Odyssey of Long Term Journal Keeping

At ASD-13, Dennis Schmidt chaired the first panel on long-term journaling, framing and exploring the personal dream journal as the fundamental instrument of dream study. The concepts and issues that emerge from this appreciation are still as Dennis described them in 1996:
"…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…Scholar and journal?keeper alike need to recognize that 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, long-term journalers have met at each ASD conference to describe our approaches to long term record keeping and continue our cross-fertilization. In 2001, panelists will present their reflections of their personal dream odysseys.
Kelly Bulkeley will discuss the values and limitations of using the Hall and Van de Castle content analysis system to enrich long-term dream journaling in "Content Analysis as a Dream Journaling Ally." If used carefully, content analysis can serve as a point of departure for detailed qualitative investigations of dream patterns over time, and it can also provide an excellent basis for comparing one's own dreams with the dreams of others.
Jean Campbell, who claims to have slept through syllogisms as a doctoral student in philosophy, will present "A Layman Looks at Fuzzy Logic." She will describe discovering the friendly warmth of Fuzzy Logic as a way to work with dreams.
In "The Computer as an Instrument of Discovery," Peggy Coats will focus on how the development of a computerized journal keeping system has aided in discovering correlations between the evolution of personal dream symbols and underlying patterns of personal history; and how attention to these patterns and symbols has created a bridge between technology and being, serving as an impetus for dream explorations in cyberspace.
What compels some people to keep up the time consuming practice of long-term dream journaling for decades, and even for lifetimes? In "Long-Term Journaling as an Individuation Process," Ed Kellogg will argue that the answer lies in the fact that the work - recording dreams, rereading them, indexing them, acting on them, etc. - in itself accomplishes a kind of deeply satisfying healing-individuation process that brings about a kind of spiritual integration and growth that no other activity provides.
One advantage of long term journal keeping is the ability to trace a dream symbol through time. In "The Hauntings of Long Term Journal Keeping," Martha Peacock will trace the dream image of a haunted house that over the years has become less haunted, and discuss the psychological unfolding represented by the archetypal image of "house."
Cynthia Pearson will moderate the panel, and facilitate discussion with audience members following the presentations.
Whatever facet we focus on during our panel presentations, our ultimate objective remains constant-- to stress the importance of journal keeping, and to highlight the unique and invaluable instrument that is the dream journal.