Welcome to Psi Dreaming and its investigation of abilities of the dreaming mind as old as humankind but still not explored to the satisfaction of some scientists and those dreamers who have exceptional dream experiences, commonly labeled as psychic or paranormal. Anecdotal stories fail to meet the rigorous standards of scientific research, but that doesn't stop dreamers from having the experiences nor believing in their value, despite the current scientific paradigm.

Richard C. Broughton wrote in Parapsychology, The Controversial Science, "Occasionally you will hear some scientific pundit proclaim there is no evidence for parapsychological phenomena, therefore parapsychology is a pseudoscience with no subject matter to study. That is patent nonsense. For over two thousand years people have been reporting a class of human experience---the kind commonly called psychic---and for almost as long, scholars and scientists have been trying to understand them. Two millennia of human experiences IS subject matter."

Years ago, I worked as a research chemist and would have scoffed at things psychic. All that changed when I was saved from death by a coworker, Ed Butler. He'd had recurring dreams of saving me from a laboratory accident and when it occurred in waking life, he pulled my burning body to safety, performing his heroic act without thinking, doing exactly what he had done in his dream "rehearsals" as he calls them. At that time, neither of us had heard of precognitive dreams nor of their life-saving benefits, but incidents like this do occur and make believers of the biggest skeptics.

It has been my joy to edit this special issue, but choosing the material was difficult. There is so much that can and should be said in defense of psi dreaming, but so few pages available here. I've tried to bring you a sampling of experiences, beginning with a brief excerpt from Charles Tart's book, Body Mind Spirit, addressing the valuable research done by the Society for Psychical Research proving the existence of abilities of the mind, such as precognition and telepathy, and the opposition to accepting that research generated by scientism and its skepticism. Dr. Tart's become a role model for me in his position as both a scientist and a spiritual seeker. Visit his Web site, The Archives of Scientists' Transcendent Experiences (TASTE) (www.issc-taste.org). for postings by scientists of their own exceptional experiences.

Richard Wilkerson's "Cyberphile" will put you in touch with other Web sites of interest, and ASD's Bulletin Board host Jean Campbell points out in her article that so many people report paranormal dreams that they should be considered "normal" in our nightly grab bag of dreams. You're also invited to join the ASD PsiDreams E-Study group (asd-PsiDreams@yahoogroups.com) which links those of us with similar interests to share information, experiences and experiments.

Stanley Krippner and Laura Faith's cross-cultural study of many hundreds of dreams that have a psi component, including telepathy, precognition, visits from the deceased and other anomalies, shows that psi dreaming is a current worldwide phenomenon. Anthony Shafton writes about specific African-American cultural beliefs which honor dreams of the deceased. Jeffrey Mishlove, president of the Intuition Network, details two dreams that changed his direction in life, including one which featured a deceased relative. Marc Barasch relates his first precognitive/ synchronistic dream experience which opened a door to a reality that eventually led to his physical and spiritual healing, beautifully recounted in his new book, Healing Dreams.

Swiss researcher Art Funkhouser gives us some insights into the phenomenon of deja vu, and physicist Dale Graff, former director of the U.S. government's project stargate, discusses dreams and altered states of consciousness in experiments in telepathy and remote viewing, based upon his own experiences and a long-distance study done with Austrian researcher Brigitte Holzinger. Although remote viewing already has been successful in locating downed aircraft, prisoners, and other targets. Dale hopes to find additional actionable cases in which psi dreaming can be put to practical use. More importantly, he's offering a Dream Time Interactive opportunity to "Try Your Psi." (Winners of the Conference 2000 telepathy contest are also listed in this issue.)

The field of physical health and well-being offers many examples of the practical use of psi dreams, including prodromal warning dreams and dreams providing advice or actual healing, as documented in Ed Kellogg's account of a lucid dream healing. This current issue barely warms up the topic which will be fully addressed in a subsequent special section of Dream Time, guest edited by Wendy Pannier.

Prodromal and precognitive dreams appear during pregnancy, as described by Robert Van de Castle, who has done extensive research in the area, backed up by the personal dream experiences of ASD member Karen Hagermann Muller. Though in my collection of marriage and wedding dreams (and I'm still soliciting samples), I have found many examples of dreams-come-true, I particularly like Rosemary Ellen Guiley's story in Dreamwork for the Soul of a persistent dreamer who through dream incubation was led to her perfect mate. Check out Richard Russo's "Bibliophile" for other psi-related readings.

This issue is creatively graced with the exquisite Touch Drawings of artist Deborah Koff-Chapin, and the poetry of ASD members Edward Bruce Bynum and Gail Grynbaum, and Richard Monckton Milnes. My gratitude to all our contributors, to Editor-in-Chief Alan Siegel for allowing me the privilege of editing this special issue, and to Richard Russo and Catherine Campaigne for their expertise in wrapping up the pieces into a beautiful gift for all of us readers.

My wish is that these pages will remind you of the wider world and expanded abilities of mind available in the dreamtime. I have learned to respect what some call "Divine Order," a plan which mandates that everything in the universe has a purpose, even though it is not always obvious. With a spirit of adventure and wonder, tempered with reason, each of us can learn to fine tune our psi dreaming talents to help ourselves and our world. As Robert Moss writes in Dreaming True, "Our experience of reality, like our experience of linear time, is a mental construct. Change the construct, and we change our world." Blessings and love as you go for it!