Posts Tagged ‘parapsychology’
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Everyone, welcome “Dr. C” back to the Dream Theories club house! You’re gonna like her “real world” take on dream inages, to go along with my more metaphysical ramblings ;o)
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Dream Imagery: “Where did that come from?”
Dream imagery has both straightforward and random aspects to it. I know Anna has covered some of this in earlier posts from a layperson perspective, so I’m here to give you the skinny from a psychological professional who deals with it on a weekly basis. First, I’m going to review some major theories of dream imagery and interpretation using a case study familiar to us all:
Client Name: Ebenezer Scrooge
Age: 70-ish (adjusted for modern life expectancy, etc.)
Occupation: Banker and Curmudgeon
Presenting Problem: Very vivid nightmares, particularly around the holidays.
“You don’t believe in me,” observed the Ghost.
“I don’t,” said Scrooge.
“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?”
“I don’t know,” said Scrooge.
“Why do you doubt your senses?”
“Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
- “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, 1843
When clients tell me about their dreams, a common statement is, “I have no idea where that image came from!” (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, creativity & inspiration, dream emotion, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy, fantasy author, Legacy Series, parapsychology, Tallulah Falls
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Monday, February 6th, 2012
More Dream Theories tomorrow from Dr. C, but Michio Kaku is obsessed with the application of “impossible” physics to every day life, and today in the Psychic Realm, so I am I. He has a lot to say about reverse engineering the brain to understand seemingly “out there” psychic phenomenon, the soul, consciousness and teasing apart neural pathways to one day model (artificially) how all the things we think and sense and feel and don’t fully comprehend work. I’m taking copious notes, every time I dive into one of his books, as I build a contemporary fantasy world around three new Legacy novels. And I’m sharing, ’cause I can’t seem to help myself.
I want to dive deeper into this science with my new family who are discovering they have latent, powerful psychic gifts. What could be better than to have the government’s “Center” taking apart the brain, neuron by neuron, so that computers and other technologies can simulate how empaths and the like do what they do. Imagine my love of Kaku’s books, as they talk about how possible something like this really is!
Basically modern neuro science is developing the ability to understand how the brain works, exactly the way a motor works. Which isn’t to say they’re all the way there yet. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, fantasy, fantasy author, fiction, fiction writer, Legacy Series, Michio Kaku, neurons, Optogenetics, parapsychology, psychic, sci-fi, society of minds
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Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Welcome back guest blogger “Dr. C” to Drem Theories. She’s sharing her in-house know how about the sleeping mind. Today, let’s spook our way through the confused and abnormal disruption (and potential trauma) parasomniacs endure.This is the kind of science I LOVE to play with in my contemporary psychic fantasies. Understanding more about how our brains work in sleep and out, makes me a happy geeky girl ;o) And it opens worlds of plotting happiness for even bigger and more exciting stories about worlds that play out in our minds alone. Bwahahahaha!!!
So read on, then come back to Dream Theories often to hear more of my meanderings about my personal dream research–and more from Dr. C., as she feeds my (and your) imagination about the physiology behind oursleeping brains’ most intriguing, if disturbing, patterns. If you look closely enough, even in today’s post, you’ll see the bones of the “fringe” science on which I crafted the parapsychology of my first two Legacy books. No, NOT Exploding Head Syndrome (though I don’t know HOW I missed that one!).
Don’t forget to ask Dr. C. your strange dream/sleep questions in the comments… She’s SO much fun to talk to ;o)
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Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. ~William Dement
Lady Macbeth: Out, damn’d spot! out, I say!—One; two: why, then ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow’r to accompt?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? ~William Shakespeare, Macbeth
What do these two quotes have in common other than being by men named William who like to ponder the weird things people do in their sleep? It is often assumed that parasomnias, or “…unpleasant or undesirable behavioral or experiential phenomena that occur predominantly or exclusively during the sleep period,” (Mahowald & Bornemann, Principles & Practices of Sleep Medicine, 4th ed.) have their roots in some sort of psychological distress, including guilty consciences. However, the cause is more physiological than psychological.
If you’ve learned to drive a stick-shift car or been in a car with a failing transmission, you know how it stalls out or moves jerkily from one gear to another if something is off, either with the driver’s clutch timing or in the transmission itself. Remember that hypnogram from last week showing the different sleep stages? Sometimes the brain doesn’t shift smoothly from one stage to another, or it gets interrupted, and that’s when parasomnias can occur.
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Tags: dream emotion, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy, fantasy author, Legacy Series, parapsychology, psychic
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Dr. C. will be back in our Dream Theories series next week, giving us more inside skinny on cool sleep know-how. But first–let’s dip into The Psychic Realm and talk about the power of the subconscious in day dreams!Wonder what the Doc will think about my wacky take?…
This grey area of dreaming became the premise for the fringe science in Dark Legacy for a reason–many believe the “alpha” brain activity we enter during states like meditation, biofeedback and daydreaming is where our subconscious mind is at its most accessible and potentially powerful. Hence, in my first psychic thriller this was the “active” state dream scientists were attempting to trigger behavior in, using a persons “programmed” subconscious connection to what had already happened while they dreamed. In my books, the unconscious/unaware mind was programmed by psychics, so that the sub-conscious mind could be triggered when the brain is at it’s peak “concentration efficiency”–that is, during walking, waking daydreams.
But what does this mean for you and me? A lot of really cool stuff, if you’re looking for ways to plug into your creativity and awareness and the power of the mind-body connection. Our minds move through natural cycles, or at least they try to. Alpha, Beta (full consciousness), Theta/Delta (sleep) rhythms. We need all of them to function well, and factors like stress, nutrition, chemicals, and fitness/exercise can contribute or disrupt the way our minds function in each state. How balanced our brain function is as our thoughts move through these states determines how in touch we are with the worlds both outside and within our own thoughts. And some would say, the reality within our minds is the key to being fully aware and fully engaged in our existence.
75% of our waking minds (in Beta state) are wrapped up in keeping our bodies functioning and moving. That leaves only 25% to deal with conscious thoughts. But in Alpha, when we let our minds wander (even in focused ways such as meditation), the efficiency of our subconscious thoughts peaks at 95 to 100%.Mystics and psychics would say this is the brain rhythm to tap into, to be at your most aware to messages and signs. Parents would say this is when they see the true potential of their children shine through. Writers and other artists would say that this is the world they must “dissociate” into, in order to create. What do they see, these “seers,” when they let their undirected minds wander? What would you see, if you set aside time daily to do the same? (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dream Theories, dreams, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, parapsychology, psychic
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Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Long silence on blog = Anna’s sick. You know that by now, right? I’ve crawled out of my cave. Let’s talk about what the famous people in our dreams mean, before I collapse again. Flu SUCKS, btw. Whine. But I digress. What does it mean when we dream about famous people and fictional characters?
Yeah, I’m going to riff on animated and over-the-top, real-life characters throughout this post. And you’re not going to see any of my recurring dream buddies. Not a chance. I believe too strongly in this topic to pull my cyber panties down and give you a microscope into my psyche!
Well, okay. I’ll give you one real dream character of my very own. But I’m not gonna tell you which one. So, enjoy the side show and try to figure out which of these images really has come out to play, during my nocturnal wanderings ;o) All votes are welcome. You won’t guess it. You’re never gonna guess it… And I’m absolutely not including political or religious “greats” in this post. I may be a sick girl, but I’m not stupid.
Okay, back to business. First of all, we can invite anyone we want to our dreams. So you have to ask yourself who you’ve brought along for the party, and why. Do you feel negative or positive about these characters?
Actually, is there just one famous person and you, or are you in a crowd of those you admire or publicly despise?Are you interacting with them, or standing back to watch. Are we talking tv/movie/entertainment famous, or dead/living politicians, writers, great thinkers, etc? Oh, and where are you all getting together for this shindig?
As I’ve said, the emotions of your dreams are key. They’ll point you to the better understanding you seek of why the people in your dreams do and say what they do, especially your famous guests. Dream analysis will first tell you that these characters may represent aspects of our own personalities that we either aspire to improve or long to negate.
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Tags: Anna DeStefano, creativity & inspiration, dream emotion, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy, fantasy author, parapsychology
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Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
While we get serious about sleep science in next week’s Dream Theories, lets go fantastical about flow of energy between this dimension and others. In other words, how the “other” worlds around us mess with things in ours.
One of the cool things about researching sci-fi/fantasy novels where I get to make up my own rules, is starting with some already-defined dynamics that I get to lift from particle and quantum physics. You know, the physical laws that tell us how things move and flow, and how this type of matter interacts with that kind, and what the boundaries are, and the state of things as we know them. Then, as the writer, you get to blow things out of their defined buckets and have some fun.
Add in the parapsychological world of thought, which some of the physical laws lend themselves to if only we could bend a few known factors here and there, and we’re cooking with gas.
Apportation is one of these areas, where if you can suspend belief about how we currently think light and matter flow, and if you will accept that multiple dimensions exist on different planes within the same space, moving at different speeds so they’re typically invisible to one another, then you can arrive at the premise that someone or something from one dimension could be capable of moving objects within another. (more…)
Tags: Apportation, fantasy, fantasy author, Legacy Series, metaphysics, parapsychology, particle physics, psychic, quantum physics, Skeptic's Dictionary
Posted in The Psychic Realm | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
To continue this weeks animal theme, let’s talk about the loyalty and protection of the animal spirits we attract. Yep. Totems. You know, metaphysical protection and guidance. Don’t scoff, like I did at first. Animal imagery has played a large role in my fantasy work, at first unintentionally. The images you see on my covers came to me as my characters’ dream sequences organically evolved. Then I began researching the underlying meanings of the animals I was weaving into my work, then the animals I’ve invited into my own life, the ones that fascinate me, and I began to wonder… What is it about animals that seem to comfort and inspire and challenge us creatively, the way nothing else does?
Keep in mind that I’m doing non-stop reading and research into all things interesting and barely there, to help me build an alternative contemporary world that will support the next series of books I’m crafting. The theory goes that we choose our animal totem or guidea in another dimension, before we begin our lives in this one. From birth, these loyal creatures then are powerfully attracted to us, bringing us what we need for our journey.
So, I guess it’s pretty important what totem you choose, huh?
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Tags: creativity & inspiration, fantasy, fringe science, Legacy Series, metaphysics, parapsychology, psychic
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Friday, March 25th, 2011
It’s easy to forget our feelings. In fact, many of us prefer it. Except… Our dreams tend to take their own path when we sleep, and often they time travel–as my psychic twins experience all over again in Secret Legacy. Things that we’ve forgotten we’ve thought or felt in the past come back to us in our dreams. Something in life turns our mind back, and our sleeping world follows. There’s something we haven’t dealt with, something we must feel from that time.
In Dark Legacy, yesterday dreams were how one twin (the psychotic one ;o) finds her sister again and begs for her help. You know, while she’s trying to kill her and everyone she feels has abandoned her to her terrifying gifts and the government scientists experimenting on them. In Book 2, Secret Legacy, now that Sarah Temple’s free of her mad scientists and her mind is healing (or so she thinks), dreams from the past come for her again–only this time under someone else’s control. Discovering who’s using a secret child to send Sarah to the brink of madness once more becomes an odyssey in facing the past and the emotions and the near childhood breakdown she’s forgotten all these years is the only way she’ll save herself and her twin, the child whose amazing mind is being weaponized, and every dreamer that could become the next dream target.
Lucky for us, others aren’t driving what we remember in dreams (at least, most of the time they’re not). Unlucky for us, we don’t have a brotherhood of watchers helping us decode the symbols and images, the clues, our sleeping minds leave to help us figure out what we need to deal with so we can see more clearly how our past is forming our future.
Our dreams are, more often than not, showing us what’s happening in our subconscious minds when we’re awake. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Inception, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, parapsychology, physics, precognition, psychic, psychic children, Psychic Realm, psychokinesis, Secert Legacy, time travel
Posted in Dream Theories, The Psychic Realm | 7 Comments »
Friday, March 18th, 2011
“We teach others how to treat us,” I told a group of students last weekend, when we shifted into the communication skills portion of our weekend together. In the Psychic Realm I’ve created in my Legacy novels (and in the fringe science I base my psychic world building on) our minds teach our dreams how to transport us while we sleep. Our “every day” programs our resting realities.
I’ve promised for a while now to post regularly about what I’ve learned writing Secret Legacy and what I’ve created in both it and it’s sister book, Dark Legacy. We’re grooving toward an exciting May/June launch/re-launch season for both projects, so let’s get busy talking about the spooky and not-so-spooky stuff that enthralls me about the mind’s power to create.
Yes, our dreams are for encoding memories and filtering out the chatter and rebooting for a new conscious day. But sometimes the unconscious noise is too important to move on from, no matter how determined we are to lock it away. And it’s these the seeds from which our strongest, most recurring dreams evolve.
As we stay unaware when we’re awake, our dreams tend to crank up the dial on dealing with whatever need/goal/fear is being repressed. They actually take on the challenge of getting us back on the track of facing the inevitable truth, that the energy we most avoid is the reality we most need to confront. So we do. Over and over. In dream cycles that keep the emotions of whatever’s challenging us in the forefront of our minds, even if we turn away from the details themselves.
Does this mean we’re subconsciously programming the very dreams we need, in order to confront our demons?
Some believe so.
No, not THAT somebody, but it is a cool album. You should check it out ;o)
In Secret Legacy, the programming is more intentional. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream curcit, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, good vs. evil, Inception, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, parapsychology, physics, precognition, psychic, psychic children, psychokinesis, Secert Legacy
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Friday, March 4th, 2011
I get a lot of emails asking to know more about how my Legacy Series is similar to the popular movie Inception.My first thought when this happens is that Dark Legacy sold and was published long before the movie–so why isn’t everyone asking how Inception is similar to my popular Legacy Series of novels?
Of course I love to hear everyone’s thoughts–even those who dig the movie more ;o) So keep emailing. But it’s especially cool to get feedback from those who’ve seen the movie AND read the first book. I’m dying to know more about what you think about Secret Legacy, which is FINALLY out in May. So, here’s a place to leave those comments. Let ‘er rip!
I’ll give you some highlights to work from–the cool things in both Inception and Dark and Secret Legacy that you’re not seeing out there an anything else right now.
Dream Theory
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People can’t get enough of the parapsychology and metaphysics behind the movie and my Legacy novels.Including me! I’m currently reading books on particle physics as I work on proposals for new Legacy family (and what I’ll be pitching for books 3 – 5). It’s technical stuff that a new sci-fi/fantasy audience will dig while others might find it to much. But the thing about Inception and the Legacy series is that everyone who’s seen and read them thinks is–Cool! Even people who think the premise of both is too fast paced and complicated, are fascinated with the dream theory and the frantic speed of the the scenes that give us amazing images to explain just our sleeping minds work. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, clairsentience, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, dream curcit, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Inception, Legacy Series, lucid dreams, parallel universe, parapsychology, physics, precognition, psychic, psychic children, psychokinesis, Secert Legacy
Posted in Dream Theories, The Psychic Realm | 12 Comments »
