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By Science News
Although the physiological basis and purpose of dreams may be uncertain, we need to recall that Freud was more interested in what his patients said about their dreams than in the dream content itself. Humans are inveterate interpreters. We are constantly reading our surroundings, our inner states, even our pasts and futures. Those interpretations often say more about us than about our actual surroundings, inner states, pasts, and futures.
If dreams are indeed laden with strong emotional feelings via the brain stem, why not read our dreams as we might read a novel or a puzzling poem to discover, in the intersection between dream and interpretation, something of ourselves?
Anthony Kubiak
Tampa, Fla.
The mention of lucid dreaming was particularly noteworthy. After years of involvement, I am most amazed and excited about the work done by Stanford University affiliate Stephen LaBerge, through his Lucidity Institute. His work with lucid dreamers in the 1980s, developing a code for them to communicate out of their dreams with eye signals, has been the scientific milestone that has gained him recognition in the scientific community. Why and how we dream is interesting, but what people can do in lucid dreams is fascinating.