|
About Cynthia Pearson
|
I first joined IASD in 1987 because I was trying to design a computer index for my burgeoning dream records. I reasoned that there must be someone in this organization who was already computerizing dream records--which was true, but only of academics who coded other people's dreams for their studies.
Since then, I have given presentations at IASD conferences on using a preinstalled database to index one's own dreams; on performing a public experiment in precognitive dreaming; and on the complex, long term synchronicities that I found upon entering past dreams into my database. (I called them "arabesques.") I have participated on or chaired a panel discussion on "Long Term Journal Keeping" since 1996.
When I began keeping a dream journal in the late 1970s, my dreams seemed to reward me for my interest. More than once, I woke in the night with a sudden solution for a problem I'd been struggling to resolve, in writing or in life. My dreams seemed to encourage me to harvest them. One featured a glistening net being cast onto waters against a starry night sky, and I awoke in a state of wonder. This dream seemed an affirmation of the value and depth of the practice of netting my dreams.
I soon found that my dreams often included inexplicable hints of upcoming events. Seeking some explanation, I found the work of C.G. Jung especially useful, as he had developed the concept of synchronicity, or "meaningful coincidence." Jung led me to study the I Ching, a means of observing "what likes to happen together," and eventually, I discovered Jane Roberts' Seth books. These were the basis for my hooking up with John Friedlander, who had studied personally with Jane, and our writing The Practical Psychic together. It was published by Samuel Weiser and is now in six languages.
When writing my second book, Parting Company: Understanding the Loss of a Loved One--The Caregiver's Journey (Seal Press, 1999, with M.L. Stubbs), I asked caregivers to tell about significant dreams they'd had of loved ones who were passing on. Their responses were often profound and moving. I reported on their dreams at the 1999 IASD conference, and this and other presentations, by myself and others, can be read at my website, "Dream Journalist: A Website for People Who Write Down their Dreams." In 2000, I helped to form a nonprofit organization to help people dealing with end-of-life issues. You can learn more about that work at takechargeoflife.org.
From 2002 to 2004, I served as the secretary of the board of IASD and in 2004, was elected to 3 year term on the board. In November 2004, I hosted a regional IASD conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Society for Contemporary Craft during its exhibition of "Perchance to Dream," presenting works influenced by dreams. This was a thrilling experience, in which the art and the program seemed to coalesece into a two-day waking dream. And thus fortified, I have an ambitious artistic objective this year -- to finally finish my third book, a mystery about dreaming.
|
