Posts Tagged ‘parapsychology’

Dream Theories–Emotional Touchstones…

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

The emotion in your dreams is the key. Not what you see, or even the specifics you remember after waking, but what you feel. Emotions are the common thread between the waking and the sleeping worlds. When I write about dreams, even in HFB which is for a contemporary romance audience, I keep the dream theory as real life as possible. Which means crafting a story that shows how powerful the mind can be as it leads us through the work we need to do.

Unlike my heroine, your dreams likely won’t safe your life–or possibly get you killed. But they can show you a path you’ve been avoiding, or another you might otherwise stay consciously unaware of until it’s too late. Our dreaming minds are always talking to us about things we need to see. LISTEN to your dreams, folks. Here’s a little bit more about how…

emotion image

Dreams are emotion come to life. Longing and disappointments and fear and hope and anxiety and excitement…and all of that is all of who we are, in our waking an sleeping worlds. 

Think about it–what’s the one dream you can remember most? Why is that dream so easy for you to recall, when others have slipped away?  Was it frightening? Special and supremely happy? Were you seeing someone again for the first time in a long time, or travelling somewhere meaningful, or facing your sworn enemy or struggling through your worst nightmare come true, etc.?

All of that is about the emotion still lingering, and bout how it was  still scaring or thrilling you when you woke.

It’s been largely accepted by scientists that dreams are a method for us to process emotional information (among other things).  Some go so far as to suggest you write a dream report immediately upon waking–and that you focus on feelings and emotions first, before getting to the lingering visible sights and symbols that remain.

The most common emotion experienced during a dream?

Fear.

Does this mean we’re being threatened by either the sleeping or the waking world. Not at all. (more…)

Dream Theories: Embrace what goes bump in your nightmares!

Monday, June 4th, 2012

I’m guest blogging today about the dream theory in Her Forgotten Betrayal. Link over, enjoy, and leave a comment for your chance to win a free digital copy of HFB.

Dreaming blog

The underlying message of Her Forgotten Betrayal is to follow your dreams—even the scarier ones. Because your dreams are just that—yours. They’re your thoughts and your intuition and your memories. And when your dreams go dark, it’s often your mind’s way of focusing you on the tough stuff you’re avoiding in your every day…”

I Hear the Craziest Things: Solar Flares, Kenetic Energy, My Dysfunctional Reaction to Stress

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

This should be a Psychic Realm post. Sadly (comically?), instead it’s my life. On the way to being scanned for possible signs of returning cancer (there were NONE, so YAY!), my reality went haywire, as it often does on already-difficult days. “Solar Flares,” some said. “Your kinetic energy misbehaves when you’re stressed,” my alternative friends remind me. “Karma?” others asked. You be the judge.

solar flare

When I’m stressed, I do tend to have an electric/magnetic effect on the world around me. And I was stressed last Thursday. This was the final ultrasound/biopsy that would tell me (hopefully) that I could stop seeing this particular specialist except for future once-a-year, no-big-deal, you’re-all-clear-but-let’s-just-check followups.

This is the specialist, after a long string of doctors, who 2 1/2 years ago blew my world apart and said, “Your chances of this being cancer are too high NOT to have the surgery.” End my thriving publishing career. End every part of my life since (until recently) that wasn’t about getting healthy again, after surgery destroyed what was until that point my “disgustingly healthy” endocrine system.

stress bang head

So, no, my state of mind each time I visit this particular medical office isn’t at its zen best. (more…)

Dream Theories: Dr. C Wades in on Imagery!

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

scrooge

When clients tell me about their dreams, a common statement is, “I have no idea where that image came from!” (more…)

The Psychic Realm: Reverse Engineering the Brain

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.

consciousness

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!

NeuralPathways

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…)

Dream Theories: Parasomnia, Brains Gone Wild!

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!).

exploding_head

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.

brain (more…)

The Psychic Realm: The Subconscious Mind’s Power

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?…

daydreaming2

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…)

Dream Theories: The Famous Amongst Us

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?

characters simpsons

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? 

characters pluto

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.

characters powerpuff

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The Psychic Realm: Apportation Rocks Our World!

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.

apportation hands

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.

apportation cat

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…)

The Psychic Realm: Animal Totems

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?

animal totem owl

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?

animal totem skunk

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