The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

F.B.I Confirms Existence of Vampires in U.S.
18:41 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 466

WASHINGTON - A terrifying FBI interoffice memo reveals that the U.S. Government not only believes in vampires, but considers them a major threat to our country!



The memo was leaked by an FBI staff member who came into its possession during the course of his work. The source asked that his name not be revealed.



The note is written in brief, broken sentences but its meaning is chillingly clear : "Here is info you requested. 60,000 vampires currently active on America's streets. Mostly large urban areas. At least 9,000 American lives claimed so far this year. Number of deaths likely to climb as creatures are becoming bolder.



We recommend begin National 'War on Vampires' immediately."



FBI officials will neither confirm nor deny the information contained in the memo, but vampire expert Charles Gulton says he believes it's high time the government starts taking actions against what he and his colleagues have said for years is the most serious problem facing America. Gulton heads up Vampire Hunters, a 294-members group of physicians, researchers and detectives who specialize in tracking vampire activity in the United States.



"The greatest weapons these bloodsuckers have are secrecy and misinformation," says Gulton. "Most people believe vampires are just phony Hollywood-created monsters. But nothign could be further from the truth. They represent a clear and present danger to us all!



Vampires have existed in the written histories of every country in the world since the dawn of civilization. They crave human blood and are highly intelligent.



Our police sources in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York tell us the vampire prowl those cities by the thousands. So far, most victims have been homeless vagrants. Since no one cares about them anyway, police are reluctant to face ridicule by officially reporting the deaths as vampire-related.



But the victim profile is changing. Since nothing has been done to stop them, the vampires are becoming brazen, less disciminate.



Last month, a prominent New York socialite was attacked and killed as she walked from her private limousine to her home less than 20 yards away. Pathologists found fang punctures in her neck and every drop of blood drained from her body.



It's my profound hope that the FBI takes this memo seriously and begins taking action soon on this national crisis."

_____

Mirrors
14:45 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 472

From fairy tales to real life, mirrors, reflective surfaces, and still water all have something in common. They can be used for divination, magic, stealing souls and repelling evil. The first reflective surface used for divination was a body of still water. Mirrors are a basic tool for magical work (Greer, 310). The Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks made their mirrors from bronze or silver. The Chinese and Hindu also used metals. It wasn’t until the 13th century in Venice that glass mirrors were introduced (Guiley, 372).



In tribal societies it is the belief that ones reflection is actually ones soul. And by exposing ones soul it is made vulnerable to evil influences and even death. It is believed that mirrors are tools in which souls may be stolen for evil purposes. Mirrors have been used as tools to increase clairvoyance and/or to gain knowledge of past lives. All class levels have used mirrors to tell their futures. From the middles ages to the 19th century, mirrors have been used by everyone including Catherine de Medici and Henry IV (Guiley, 372).



It’s not only mirrors that have created concern for people’s souls. The Motumotu of New Guinea believed their reflections were their souls the first time they saw their likenesses in a looking glass. The Basutos believe that the crocodiles have the power of killing a man by dragging his reflection under the water. Saddle Island residents in Melanesia believe there is a pool in which a malignant spirit lives. When someone’s reflection is seen in the water, it is feared that they will die and the spirit will do evil with his soul. The Greeks regarded seeing ones reflection in the water as a death omen for they feared the water spirits would capture the person’s reflection (soul) and drag it into the depths of the water thus leaving the person soulless (Bartleby.com)



Mirrors are often associated with evil, either as a means to repel evil or as a way to further evil growth in the world. Mirrors are thought to be portals into another dimension or world allowing evil, spirits, etc. to wreak havoc on the world. Superstitions about mirrors are many. For example, if one breaks a mirror one can expect at least seven years of bad luck, disaster or death. If the mirror falls on its own, then it is believed that death is coming for someone in the house. If a dead person is in a house with mirrors, their soul could be trapped forever in the mirror unless the mirror is covered (. And if one looks into the mirror on the night of a full moon, repeats “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary” then evil is let loose upon you with no mercy!



If it is true that one sees their soul in the reflection of a mirror, then that must be why vampires can not be seen in them. Vampires have no soul. We also have it on good authority that vampires do not have reflections. After all, it was Bram Stoker’s Renfield who noticed the lack of mirrors in castle Dracula (Melton, 170)! Taking Stoker’s lead in vampires, Hollywood has reinforced this belief.



It has been a belief that mirrors can be used to protect one from vampires and witches. In Europe it became fashionable for one to wear small looking glasses on ones hat. This was done to repel the evil eye and protect the wearer from evil (Guiley, 373).



For paranormal investigators mirrors or other reflective surfaces wreak havoc. When taking photographs (35 mm or digital) especially whenever there is a flash involved, the reflection of light can create images that are not really present. One example of this occurred when taking a photo of some clothes hanging from a metal rod located in front of a mirror. The clothing and the reflection gave an illusion of a nose within the clothes as if someone was peaking out. Mirrors draped with lace or near hanging lace can also present the illusion that someone is present within the folds and design on the lace. The same can be said of still bodies of water. Water in a pond or the bottom of a bowl will also create illusions which I am sure helped to fuel these beliefs.



Bloody Mary Face in the Mirror

Do you believe in the legend of the Bloody Mary face in the mirror? The following outline is one version of the ritual that many people claim will cause the haunted spirit of this female phantom to appear in the mirror behind you. Invite over your friends and dare one of them to follow this guide while closed inside a dark bathroom.



Bloody Mary Face in the Mirror: Just a Game?



Before anyone takes part in the Bloody Mary ritual, it's important that you understand the origins of Mary's spirit and why her tortured soul is trapped within the spiritual world of the mirror. Never put one of your friends in the bathroom unless they have read about Mary's terrifying past. Understanding what the female phantom wants will help you properly protect yourself in the event that the frightening entity appears in the form of the Bloody Mary face in the mirror.



Setting Up The Room

The first step in the ritual is to make sure that the room is set up in a way that will ensure that the border between the physical world and the spiritual world is thin. Most paranormal researchers agree that a darkened room reduces the energy that a spirit requires in order to appear. Secondly, lit candles seem to add spiritual energy to a room and often provide a spirit with the additional energy it needs to materialize. Finally, no one is positive if the phantom that appears is truly evil, so it's important to use a special incantation to protect yourself from any evil that may materialize. Taking these factors into account, setting up the bathroom as follows will help encourage the entity to appear during the ritual, and that the person practicing the ritual will be protected from harm.

The ritual must be performed exactly at midnight.

Turn off all of the lights in the bathroom and the lights in any hallway or room outside the bathroom.

Light one or two candles and place them on the bathroom counter near the sink, under the mirror.

Light an incense stick and place it near the mirror; many people believe the smoke offers protection from evil.

The Ritual

Once the bathroom is prepared and one of your friends has accepted the dare, place her in the bathroom and close the door. Before beginning the ritual, she must first repeat the protection chant so that she will be encircled with protection. Have the participant close her eyes and repeat the following words.For thine protection I now pray,

Let all evil turn away,

Protect me night,

Protect me day,

And keep misfortune well at bay.

Once the chant is completed, your friend must stand in front of the mirror and stare into her own eyes for about a minute. When ready, it's time to slowly repeat the following chant thirteen times (some people claim three repetitions are enough) in a row while staring at her own eyes in the mirror.

"Bloody Mary (thinking "one")...bloody Mary ("two")...bloody Mary ("three")..."

According to those who believe in this ritual, upon reaching the thirteenth bloody Mary, an actual female spirit will materialize directly behind the person looking into the mirror. For many people, it first appears as a vague shape, but in only moments the figure of Mary, with her terrifyingly disfigured face, allegedly becomes very clear.

Rules for Ending the Game

At this point, if your friend sees that she has summoned a real spirit, she will most likely scream. No matter what, never keep your friend locked in the bathroom. One claim is that some people have gone insane from the effects of prolonged terror after seeing this female ghost appear behind them. Immediately enter the bathroom with your friends and turn on the lights. According to most stories, it's at this point that the ghost will disappear.

The Unsolved FBI Case of the Exploding Old Lady
14:03 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 475

Many times the FBI receives calls from local law enforcement agencies for help on various cases.



It is widely known that the FBI receives a lot more funding and possesses much more resources than our hometown police force. However, no matter how much funding they have or how many resources are at their fingertips, there are some cases that even the FBI cannot solve.



In July of 1951, the FBI was called to investigate a possible arson/murder at an apartment building in Miami, FLA. Only one apartment was involved in the fire and there was only one reported death to the fire – the owner of the apartment, Mrs. Mary Hardy Reeser.



The case stumped local law enforcement along with the fact that there was nearly nothing left of Reeser’s body. Reports state that body was entirely cremated with the exception of her left foot and skull. The report goes on to describe that the skull had apparently shrunk to the size of a teacup.



Usually, any fire hot enough to cremate a human is also hot enough to burn down the structure the body was found in. Yet, this was not true in the Reeser case.









Her apartment was not only intact, but only certain parts of it sustained any damage. Where she was sitting had burned to the point that only the springs were left behind. The side table next to the chair was nearly gone only leaving behind two legs. The plastic outlet covers were melted, but the electric outlet themselves were undamaged.



To complicate the case further, a chemical analysis showed no signs of oxidizing chemicals, petroleum hydrocarbons, or other substances used to initiate or accelerate combustion.



The piece of physical evidence found at the scene of the fire was part of a cigarette found near the charred remains. These clues sparked a wide variety of theories; however, the most “out there” theory is Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC). SHC is the burning of a living human body without an apparent external source of ignition.



However, because of the lack of evidence or scientific proof that SHC exists, the FBI cannot close the case at it remains open to this day.

Famous Cases: Terror on the Interstate
14:01 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 476








Report Number: 7498

Date: Spring, 1967

Location: Interstate 95, eastern United States



Background: Although the vaccine finally gave society the upper hand in the struggle with vampires, containment and capture became more difficult with the creation of a national interstate system. Case in point: the I-95 killings of 1967.





The Oasis, Burlington,

New Jersey

Incident: On March 3, 1967, trucker E.G. Robinson failed to show for a scheduled delivery in Florida. As Robinson was carrying a valuable cargo of stereo equipment, the trucking company put out an All Points Bulletin for him. A day later, Robinson's truck turned up in an industrial park in Burlington, New Jersey. The stereo equipment was still there, but Robinson was gone, leaving behind only a small trace of blood in the cab of his truck.



That same day, Darlene King of Sebago Lake, Maine, reported her truck-driver husband Jake missing. Jake King's truck was also found in Burlington, this time in an alley behind a shopping center. In the ensuing days, three more trucks (two with traces of blood in the cab) were found, and local police started to fear there was a serial killer on the loose. Witness testimony, along with receipts found in the trucks, indicated that all of the truckers had been at The Oasis, an enormous truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in Burlington, shortly before their disappearance. Police increased their presence at the truck stop, and the disappearances stopped.



A week later, two college students on their way to Florida for Spring Break disappeared from a rest stop in Maryland. Their car was found in the parking lot. The disappearances continued over the next several days: two students in Virginia, a trucker in North Carolina. The FBI was brought in on the case.





The Flying J,

Summerton, South Carolina

Investigation: Investigators got their first break on March 17, when a night watchman at a South Carolina lumber yard spotted a man leaving an eighteen-wheeler at the truck depot across the street, then getting in a pickup truck driven by a woman. The next day, police traced the abandoned eighteen-wheeler to Lou Gaudette, a Canadian trucker who had last been seen at the Flying J truck stop in Summerton, South Carolina.





One of the

Burlington victims

While these developments were unfolding in South Carolina, FVZA agents from the New York office had been summoned to a grisly scene in Burlington, New Jersey. The bodies of two men had been found in a swamp not far from the Oasis truck stop. Both bodies had been drained of blood, then dismembered. Thinking that the bodies were those of the missing truck drivers, the FVZA asked to take over the I-95 investigation, but the FBI already had plans of its own.



That night, several FBI agents posing as truckers went to the Flying J in South Carolina. Sometime after midnight, they spotted the suspect pickup truck cruising among the big rigs in the parking lot. There was a middle-aged man at the wheel, and a woman alongside him. The Feds moved into position, blocked the pickup and drew their weapons. When the driver tried to ram them, the Feds opened fire, but the pickup truck managed to get away. The investigation was then turned over to the FVZA.





Police inspect

the suspect truck

An FVZA team from Atlanta took control of the case about the same time that a convenience store clerk near Jacksonville, Florida, reported seeing what appeared to be a male and female vampire abduct a man and drive off in his car. Police responding to the call found a bullet-riddled, abandoned pickup truck in the store parking lot registered to George Muzischenko, a truck driver from New Hampshire. The next day, a dismembered, bloodless body was found in the trunk of the stolen car about five miles from the store. A large search operation was conducted in the nearby swamp, but the conditions made tracking difficult, and night fell with no capture. However, with the net closing around them, the two vampires became more desperate. On the night of March 23, the vampires abducted a driver and stole an oil truck in front of several witnesses at a gas station. The driver was later heaved from the truck and died from his injuries. The Florida Highway Patrol spotted the stolen truck heading south toward Miami and gave chase. On I-95 just north of Miami, the truck careened off the road, crashed and exploded. Both vampires were incinerated.





A fiery end for

George and Tina

Post Mortems: The vampires were identified as George Muzischenko and his sometime-girlfriend Tina Piro, a waitress from Greenfield, Massachusetts. Based on witness testimony, FVZA officials were able to piece together the following scenario. Muzischenko, who lived alone in a cabin in the New Hampshire woods, was likely a victim of the Kancamangus Pack, an elusive vampire group that had been terrorizing hikers and residents in the White Mountains for much of the previous year. After Muzischenko awakened as a vampire, he apparently drove his pickup truck south to Greenfield and waited outside the greasy spoon where Tina worked.



Once Piro turned, she and Muzischenko concocted an insidious hunting scheme. Muzischenko would drive his pickup truck around the parking lot of truck stops, while Piro, posing as a hooker, solicited the truckers via CB. Once a "john" was found, Piro would be left off at his truck. She would disable the trucker, then Muzischenko would join her for a feeding. After they finished, Muzischenko would dispose of the body and drop the truck in a secluded location. The couple avoided detection by scrupulously disposing of the bodies, and never staying too long in one place. They easily found new victims in rest stops and motels as they moved down the east coast. There is speculation that their ultimate destination was a lakeside cabin Muzischenko owned in central Florida.



It is difficult to estimate the number of victims that Muzischenko and Piro killed during their interstate spree. A dozen bodies were eventually recovered, but a number of other unsolved disappearances may be attributable to the two vampires.



Comments from Dr. Pecos: Successful vampires learn to cover their tracks, and move along when they fear detection. An efficient highway system made them more elusive than ever. This case also underscores the importance of communication between various law enforcement agencies and the FVZA. Had the FBI handed the investigation over to the FVZA right away, the lives of at least two people might have been saved.

Common Questions About Nightmares
12:47 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 485

What is a nightmare?



A nightmare is a very distressing dream which usually forces at least partial awakening. The dreamer may feel any number of disturbing emotions in a nightmare, such as anger, guilt, sadness or depression, but the most common feelings are fear and anxiety. Nightmare themes may vary widely from person to person and from time to time for any one person. Probably the most common theme is being chased. Adults are commonly chased by an unknown male figure whereas children are commonly chased by an animal or some fantasy figure.

Who has nightmares?



Just about everyone has them at one time or another. The majority of children have nightmares between the ages of three or four and seven or eight. These nightmares appear to be a part of normal development, and do not generally signal unusual problems. Nightmares are less common in adults, though studies have shown that they too may have nightmares from time to time. About 5-lO% have nightmares once a month or more frequently.

What causes nightmares?



There are a number of possibilities. Some nightmares can be caused by certain drugs or medications, or by rapid withdrawal from them, or by physical conditions such as illness and fever. The nightmares of early childhood likely reflect the struggle to learn to deal with normal childhood fears and problems. Many people experience nightmares after they have suffered a traumatic event, such as surgery, the loss of a loved one, an assault or a severe accident. The nightmares of combat veterans fall into this category. The content of these nightmares is typically directly related to the traumatic event and the nightmares often occur over and over. Other people experience nightmares when they are undergoing stress in their waking lives, such as difficulty or change on the job or with a loved one, moving, pregnancy, financial concerns, etc. Finally, some people experience frequent nightmares that seem unrelated to their waking lives. These people tend to be more creative, sensitive, trusting and emotional than average.

What can be done about nightmares?



It really depends on the source of the nightmare. To rule out drugs, medications or illness as a cause, discussion with a physician is recommended. It is useful to encourage young children to discuss their nightmares with their parents or other adults, but they generally do not need treatment. If a child is suffering from recurrent or very disturbing nightmares, the aid of a therapist may be required. The therapist may have the child draw the nightmare, talk with the frightening characters, or fantasize changes in the nightmare, in order help the child feel safer and less frightened .

The nightmares which repeat a traumatic event reflect a normal psychic healing process, and will diminish in frequency and intensity if recovery is progressing. If after several weeks no change is noted, consultation with a therapist is advisable.

Adults' nightmares offer the same opportunity as other dreams for self-exploration and understanding. With practice, the dreamer can often learn to decode the visual and symbolic language of the dream and to see relationships between the dream and waking life. The nightmare by nature is distressing, however, and the dreamer may need to reduce the distress before looking more closely at the meaning of the dream. Some techniques for reducing the distress of the nightmare include writing it down, drawing or painting it, talking in fantasy to the characters, imaging a more pleasant ending, or simply reciting it over several times. The more relaxed the dreamer can be while using these techniques the better. A number of good books are available for learning how to understand dreams. Alternately, the dreamer may wish to ask a therapist for assistance.

Sometimes nightmares are related to intense stress or emotional conflict that is best dealt with in consultation with a therapist. One should not hesitate to consult a therapist when in doubt.

It may be surprising to learn that many people are not really disturbed by their nightmares, even though the experiences themselves are distressing. Research has shown that about half of people who have quite frequent nightmares regard them as fascinating and creative acts of their minds, and either view them as very interesting or dismiss them as "just dreams". This illustrates the fact that one's attitude toward nightmares is quite important.

What about night terrors?



Night terrors are something quite different. Nightmares tend to occur after several hours of sleep, screaming or moving about is very uncommon, the dream is usually elaborate and intense, and the dreamer realizes soon after wakening that he or she has had a dream. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur during the first hour or two of sleep, loud screaming and thrashing about are common, the sleeper is hard to awaken and usually remembers no more than an overwhelming feeling or a single scene, if anything. Nightmares and night terrors arise from different physiological stages of sleep. Children who have night terrors also may have a tendency to sleepwalk and/or urinate in bed. The causes of night terrors are not well understood. Children usually stop having them by puberty. They may be associated with stress in adults. A consultation with a physician may be useful if the night terrors are frequent or especially disturbing.

Frequently Asked Questions
12:45 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 486

Does everybody dream?



Although many people do not recall their dreams in the morning, REM-sleep evidence suggests that people who do not recall their dreams do just as much dreaming as people who can recall their dreams. If you take people who have sworn that they never dreamed in their life, put them in a dream research laboratory and wake them from REM sleep, you will get dream recall at rates comparable to other people. If someone says "I never dream," what they mean is that "I can't recall my dreams." These are the people who only wake during NREM sleep and about half our population does so. It has been suggested by some psychologist that these people unconsciously wake themselves at a time when they are not dreaming, because they want to repress the fact that they dream.





When do dreams occur?



Most dreams occur during REM sleep. People who are awoken during REM sleep almost always can remember what they were dreaming, whereas those woken during NREM sleep have around a 15% of remembering their dreams. Also, the type of dreams reported by people awoken from REM sleep are often illogical, bizarre, and the type we often associate as a dream. On the other hand, people dreaming in the NREM state often have dreams that are more like normal thinking, not nearly as emotionally or visually charged as the other dreams during REM sleep. So actually we can dream at any given time during the night, but the only dreams that we remember, on average, are the ones during REM sleep.





How long do dreams last?



Dreams can vary in length depending on how long we have slept. When we first go to sleep it takes us about an hour to have our first dream, which lasts about 15 minutes on the average. From then on we have a dream about every hour with the time shortening the more sleep we have. By the end of the night, some of our dreams can last nearly 45 minutes or more.





Do dreams occur in color?



Virtually all dreams are in color. For a long time it was thought that only a fraction of the population dreamed in color, and these people were said by many to represent the more creative of our population, but this is not true. Most dreams contain color, but take place in a dim half-light such as we normally experience under moonlight.





Do people know when they are dreaming?



Sometimes yes. People can teach themselves to recognize that they are dreaming, and their awareness does not interfere with the dream's spontaneous flow. This is known as lucid dreaming, and is a skill which can be learned.





Can people control the content of their dreams?



Some control of dream content is possible by making suggestions to subjects in the pre-sleep period and then analyzing the content of the dreams that followed. Most times it is very difficult to control the content of your dreams unless you are lucid dreaming, in which you are able to control the course of the dream, but the degree of control will vary from dream to dream and from dreamer to dreamer.





Why does it take me so long to get to sleep?



People often underestimate the time they spend asleep. They may believe that it has taken them an hour or two to get to sleep, when they have really only lain awake for fifteen to twenty minutes. Others who do actually lay awake tend to have to solve today's problems and plan what they will be doing tomorrow before they go off to sleep. If you think it takes your body too long to fall asleep it might be worth receiving advice from a physician.





Can dreams be interpreted?



The common theory today is that dreams can be interpreted, and can give us valuable insight into our lives. However, don't run out and buy Madame Woozel's Dreaming Dictionary or a book that similar. These books claim that dream symbols mean the same thing for everyone. Dreams are very personal things, and the interpretation should be done by the dreamer, not some person who should be working down at your local Chinese restaurant making up fortune cookie sayings.





Do dreams ever come true?



It is generally accepted that dreams do not predict the future. However, there are cases when people say that they dreamt about something that later happened in waking reality. Most times this is because someone constantly thinks of an event that is coming up in their life. During the night they dream or what could possibly happen to them during the important time coming up in their life. This commonly is your body thinking to itself, "I am not prepared mentally for this upcoming event." This is why we dream about it and then it happens, although it is rare that someone would experience an exact replication of their dream.





Is sleepwalking/talking related to dreaming?



Even though it has been found that sleepwalking, sleeptalking, and enuresis take place in NREM sleep. Since it has been found that our body experiences sleep paralysis during the REM stages of sleep. However, there may be links between them and dreaming, because dreams can happen in NREM sleep. The reason for sleepwalking and sleeptalking could be the firing of motor and speech mechanisms in the brain, but no conclusive evidence has actually been found.

Dream Glossary
12:43 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 487

Alpha Waves (8-12 cycles per second) - These are found mainly in adults who are awake, have their eyes shut, and are deeply relaxed. They facilitate inspiration, fast assimilation of facts, and heightened memory. Less than half and epoch (about 30 seconds) of continuous alpha rhythm indicates sleep onset.





Apnea - This is a relatively rare but serious sleep disorder. In sleep apnea, the individual stops breathing while asleep. There are two main reasons for apnea attacks. One reason is that the brain fails to send a "breathe" signal to the diaphragm and other breathing muscles, thus causing breathing to stop. The other reason is that muscles at the top of the throat become too relaxed, allowing the windpipe to partially close, thereby forcing the breathing muscles to pull harder on incoming air, which causes the airway to completely collapse. During an apnea, the oxygen level of the blood drops dramatically, leading to the secretion of emergency hormones. This reaction causes the sleeper to awaken in order to begin breathing again. Apnea, in most cases, has been found to be an inherited trait.





Beta Waves (13 - 25 cycles per second) - These are found mainly in adults who are awake, alert, whose eyes are open and who may be concentrating on some task or other activity. They are most reliably recorded from the front and middle of the scalp, and are related to activity in the sensory and motor cortex.





Cognition - An individual's thoughts, knowledge, interpretations, understandings, ideas, awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgement.





Consciousness - We are conscious when we are aware of external events, reflect on past experiences, engage in problem solving, are selective in attending to some stimuli rather than others, and deliberately choose and action in response to environmental conditions and personal goals.





Delta Waves ( 0.5 - 3 cycles per second) - These are dominant waves of deep, dreamless sleep, which take place in stages three and four of sleep.





Dream Initiated Lucid Dream (DILD) - This term describes a lucid dream in which the dreamer becomes lucid while involved in an ongoing dream. Usually this occurs when you notice that you are dreaming and something is definitely not normal.





Electroencephalogram (EEG) - A record of brain activity obtained by attaching electrodes to the scalp and amplifying the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The results are recorded on a polygraph machine.





Electromyogram (EMG) - This is a mechanism used to measure muscle activity. It is usually attached to a subject's chin in sleep and dream experiments.





Electrooculogram (EOG) - This device measure the movement of the eyelids during dreaming periods.





Enuresis - This is an occurrence common in children and is better known as bed wetting.





False Awakening - A false awakening occurs in a dream when you think you have just woken up from a dream, but really you have not. An example of a false awakening would be that in a dream you find a bag of money, then you wake up and find the bag of money beside your bed, and then you really wake up to find that the money bag is gone. This can happen more than one time within a dream and tends to make you quite confused.





Insomnia - This is one of the more common sleeping disorders where a person is either unable or afraid to go to sleep. This disorder is also sometimes caused by sickness of disease.





Light Initiated Lucid Dream (LILD) - This type of lucid dream is usually initiated by some form of electronic device that emits light when it detect a person has reached REM sleep. It is used to help a person realize that they have begun dreaming, thus bringing them into the lucid dreaming state.





Lucid Dream - A dream in which the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming, and can carry on the dream with unbroken awareness. Dreaming in this state is a skill which can be learned. Lucid dreams, like all dreams, usually occur during REM sleep. Most of us have had a lucid dream during our life, whether we remember it from childhood (a high-level lucid dream) or from two days ago (a low-level lucid dream).





Myoclonic Jerk - A sudden jerk that occurs while you are falling asleep. Sometimes these jerks are so sudden that they wake you from your sleep. It usually occurs between stage one and stage two of sleep. It is actually caused by your brain and thinking that your body is falling into a coma, sends an electric charge throughout your body causing it to convulse.





Narcolepsy - This is a severe sleeping disorder. A person who has narcolepsy may fall asleep while writing a letter, driving a car, or carrying on a conversation. Individuals with this dysfunction have recurring, irresistible attacks of drowsiness, and simply fall asleep at inappropriate times. These can occur for a period of a few seconds anywhere to 30 minutes and in severe cases occur several times in a day.





Nightmare - Nightmares are dreams that usually occur in the last three hours of sleep during a REM period. Nightmares are terrifying dreams in which our worst fears are brought to life in convincing detail. Nightmares are almost always long and intense. Some people may wake up after a nightmare in a cold sweat and can sometimes keep people from getting a good nights sleep. But as all problem dreams they can be overcome by facing up to what they can mean in your life.





Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) Sleep - Stages 1-4 of sleep are often categorized into NREM sleep. In this stage the body is in a higher state of wakefulness than that of REM sleep. Observations show that NREM sleep is characterized by an idle brain and relaxed body. It is in this stage which sleep walking and sleep talking both occur.





Out of Body Experience (OBE) - An OBE is a personal experience where a person feels they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside their physical bodies. OBEs usually have a highly positive lasting impact on the people who have experienced them.





Parapsychology - Meaning "beside psychology," parapsychology is a subfield of psychology that studies psi phenomena, things such as extrasensory perception, telepathy, and psychokinesis. It is also known as psychical research.





Perception - A general term to describe the whole process of how we come to know what is going on around us: the entire sequence of events from the presentation of a physical stimulus to the phenomenological experience of it. Perception is viewed as a set of subprocesses that occur in a multi-level, interactive system. The lower levels in this system, the parts closely associated with the sense organs, are called sensory processes.





Physiology - The study of the physical and chemical processes that take place in living organisms during the performance of life functions. It is concerned with such basic activities as reproduction, growth, metabolism, respiration, excitation, and contraction as they are carried out within the fine structure, the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems of the body.





Polygraph - A device that measures simultaneously several physiological responses that accompany emotion; for instance, heart and respiration rate, and blood pressure. It is commonly known as a "lie detector" because of its use in determining the guilt of a subject through responses while he or she answers. It is commonly used in sleep research to monitor EEG, EOG, and EMG readings of a subject.





Reality Testing - Reality testing is a method for inducing lucid dreams. There are many techniques and different people have different ways of doing so.





Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep - Also known as paradoxical or active sleep, this stage of sleep is where dreaming usually occurs. It is recognized by very alert brain waves and high muscular tension. Sometimes the brain has been known to be more active in this state than in a wakeful state. The name is given from a noticeable eye movement during this stage of sleeping.





Schema - Psychologists use this term to designate specific theories and ideas about mental events. This term refers to cognitive structures stored in memory that are abstract representations of events, objects, and relationships in the real world. It is a key ingredient of cognitive theories psychological phenomena.





Sensory Processes - The subprocesses of the perceptual system that are closely associated with the sense organs. Sensory processes provide selectively filtered information about the stimuli that impinge on us; higher-level processes use this information to form a mental representation of the scene.





Sleep Paralysis - Sometimes known as REM atonia, is a motor inhibition of the legs, arms, and body of the sleeper during REM sleep. It is our own bodies security against acting out our own dreams or else we would be active throughout the night. The sleep paralysis of REM sleep does not always automatically turn off when you come out of the REM state. This is why you may wake up and not be able to move for a few seconds. It may seem a bit terrifying, but it happens to everyone during the night, and nothing bad can come of it.





Somnambulism - This term is better known as sleep walking. Some say that this occurs from people acting out a dream, but this is not the case. Since the body is paralyzed during REM sleep it would be unable to act out a dream. People that have been woken after sleep walking very rarely remember what they have been dreaming.





Spindles - Short runs of rhythmical responses of 12-16 hertz that have been recorded on an EEG.





Theta Waves (4 - 7 cycles per second) - These are found in adults who are extremely relaxed. They are associated with creativity, high suggestibility, and flashes of inspiration.





Wake Initiated Lucid Dream (WILD) - This describes a lucid dream where the dreamer went straight into a lucid dream from the waking state with unbroken awareness. WILD's are not nearly as common as DILD's.

Creative Dreaming
12:42 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 488

Having Some Fun



You may ask, "How can I dream creatively? Isn't dreaming creative by itself?" Well the answer is "yes" and "no." You see, dreams are part of the mind creating sometimes completely different worlds. However, there are ways of teaching yourself a few techniques to let you have a little fun with your dreams, as well as possibly learning something you never knew before or rather that you never knew that you knew. Dreams can sometimes help us out in ways that we don't realize, but those who have realized it have benefitted.







Saving Some Time



One of the biggest occurrences of creative dreaming that we can relate to is a dream of Lewis Carroll's. The complete story of Alice in Wonderland came to Carroll in a dream he had. Although Carroll's dream occurred during a period of sickness, the fact is that anyone can have a dream which could become what his did. All one needs in the creative imagination and the ability to put your dreams down on paper, as you would in a dream journal.



Do you realize what this could mean to all of us dreamers? This could mean that we don't have to spend our waking lives trying to think of a blockbuster idea for a movie or story. All we have to do is remember what we have dreamt and perhaps it will just be crazy enough to become a legendary story. The thing is that our dreams are usually closer to representing real life than we could imaging ourselves, since our subconscious mind tends to pick up a few of the little details our conscious mind leaves out.







Solving Problems



We may not be aware of it, but we always have the answer to a problem. Sometimes we just don't know where to look. Other times we think we know the answer, but it ends up not producing an effective result. So what are we supposed to do? You guessed it, we take a look at it from the dreaming perspective. Often times we look too far into a topic when we can just "sleep on it." Yes, these sayings were created because they actually work. Some of the time we can get a direct answer from our dreams, by acting them out how we would in waking life. The other incidences we get a dream which we must interpret. Either way we have the answer to our problem.



Perhaps you have had an argument with a friend. That night you dream where you were acting a certain way, in could be that action that got you in the argument in the first place. If the cause of the problem doesn't present itself in this way, it will in another way. You just have to be able to notice and decipher what you dream is trying to tell you. We do have dreams for a reason, and that is to keep our bodies healthy. Whether it's coping with stress or plainly resting us up for another days activities. It's up to you whether you want your dreams to help you, or if you want your dreams to entertain you. Hopefully, you can find a comfortable medium.

Dream Occurrences
12:40 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 489

Dream Occurrences



Once and awhile we stumble upon certain dream occurrences that we feel are extremely interesting or some that may even scare us. These happen to all of us whether we like it or not. These occurrences can range from a pleasant daydream or a horrifying nightmare. But sometimes we have a dream experience that we merely can't explain. Whatever happens in your dreams before, after, or during, the following examples will help you better understand you dreaming.





Hypnogogic Images



Between being awake and falling asleep, your mind enters the hypnogogic phase. In this stage you begin to lose touch with the world around you without showing the physiological stages of sleep. Pictures form inside our heads like still photographs and although you may have never noticed them, they are there.

If you think you have never experienced this phenomenon, you will probably recall a time when you were listening to a song. Not a song from the radio, but on playing inside your head. You can actually hear the song playing, but once you become aware of this, it escapes you.



Becoming aware of these images is extremely difficult, mostly because once we can see we are becoming aware we get excited and drop out of it. So the skill we need to try and develop is to remain relaxed and stay under control while you enjoy these images. The main element to gaining control over these images is to watch the process as it unfolds. Let yourself drift off to sleep while allowing a part of your mind to watch the process unfold. This tends to lead to prolonged periods of wakefulness in the beginner, so you shouldn't try this every night unless you can afford to lose some sleep.



A lot of people put too much energy into watching these images, so keep your eyes relaxed. Sometimes in the beginning stages we mistake pictures from our own imagination for hypnogogic imagery. But this is a conscious effort, just like we would imaging something during the day. The point that has to be made about a hypnogogic image is that it just suddenly appears, and there is no mistaking between it and something you put there consciously.



When you realize that something has appeared, don't get too excited, and don't try to hold onto it or prolong it. Just let it appear and go away. This process usually takes a bit of practice. As in most lucid dreams, if you don't remain calm it will probably disappear. Do not think that by observing the hypnogogic images that you are somehow creating this state. It happens every night to every one of us, the only thing is that most of us don't pay attention or aren't aware of them. After a few of these images, you will probably drift off to sleep.







Recurring Dreams



It is safe to assume that a recurring dream will have something important to say to us about the way we are conducting our waking lives, so it will be worth trying to discover what its message is. We may think that the dream is exactly the same each time it occurs, but in fact this is rarely the case. Often there are differences, usually very small, between the dreams. These are the details we should pay attention to, because they hold the clues to the meaning of the dream. Such a dream is usually the result of some emotional weakness in our nature that can, over the years, cause us to be hurt. It is when this happens that our dream often recurs , and although the dream may remain the same in its essential elements, in our waking lives it can apply to different sets of circumstances that provoke us to display the same weakness. This type of dream should vanish after you have resolved our original problem.





Nightmares



Everyone at some time in their lives has had a nightmare. What is a nightmare, really? What creates a nightmare? People who record their dreams extensively and actively work on personal dream analysis seldom have nightmares.

Nightmares are the way in which our subconscious scolds us and says, "pay attention!" Anyone who has had a vivid nightmare, knows it is very difficult to forget it once you awaken.



If a nightmare occurs, your subconscious is trying to tell you something very important, perhaps something you have been ignoring or refusing to accept as a truth withing your life situation. The nightmare may be highly symbolic and very difficult to analyze, but the fact that you brought it to your waking mind is that your subconscious wanted to accomplish. Recurring nightmares usually have some very deep subliminal meaning. To get at this meaning requires patience, dedication, and a desire to know.



Nightmares born of subconscious influences need to be dealt with, one way to do this, is to go to sleep actually "requesting" the nightmare to recur. Why? Because you also program yourself that when it occurs, you will change it somehow. If you created the nightmare subconsciously, why shouldn't you be able to alter it? Think of a way to conquer your dream. Take it on and defeat it. This same practice has been also been portrayed in movies. I'm sure many of us have heard of the dream nightmare Freddy Kreuger. The only difference that he is the nightmare that can actually hurt you. In real life this could never happen, or course, which is what makes it a good movie rather than a depiction of real life. The point is that, just like in the movies we need to attempt to conquer these nightmares by not being afraid of them and until we step up to our dreams we will continue to have them.







Dreams In Series



Dreams tend to come in a series. After you have recorded a significant amount of dreams, you will begin to see that a certain dream theme was being dealt with for several nights in a row. Consider this like a school course, and each dream a lesson pertaining to your life. If you learn from the dream theme, and alter your behavior or belief system, the series will end. Just like graduation!

Sometimes we aren't as reluctant to pass the first time. We then go on to something else, intending to get back to the other subject at a later date and go over it again, since we need that subject to go further in our life. Your subconscious will try for a long time to teach your something, but if you just aren't getting it, it may be pulled from the dream curriculum for a period of time.



However, sooner or later, you have to deal with it again, and the dream theme will recur, maybe weeks or months later. These dream themes generally pertain to your waking behavior and your actions and reactions to life experiences.







Out of Body Experiences (OBE'S)



What is an OBE and how does it differ from dreaming? An OBE is quite different from any of the other dream experiences. The only difficulties is studying these phenomenons, since no one has had one under the study of a dream psychologist. It is similar to lucid dreaming only in the fact that consciousness is present. It is not uncommon to see the body, as we drift upward and out of it, sleeping upon the bed. Most everyone has heard of people who have been clinically pronounced "dead" but then return to their body. This is referred to as a NDE or Near Death Experience. These two are quite similar except for the fact that during an OBE you aren't clinically dead and neiter are you even close to death.

Many don't acknowledge that OBE's even exist. Those who do believe in them say there is another part of us called the "astral body." This astral body is and energy that surrounds our body, but during an OBE it separates from the body, although it does not disconnect. If the astral body is disconnected from the physical body altogether it is referred to, a term used more commonly, death.



Now that you know this don't think you can't ever go to sleep again, very few dreamers are ever able to get to this state, so don't think for a second that you can die from dreaming. In a normal OBE, one not associated to a near death experience, it is said that the spirit simply departs from the body for a short time. The astral body may not even leave the room. However, speed is sudden, thinking of a place you would like to be would cause you to go there almost instantaneously.



Unlike lucid dreams, a person who is experiencing an OBE will sometimes hear a loud roar, described as the sound of a speeding train, a howling wind, or a thundering waterfall. What is happening is that as the astral body lifts from the physical, the energy level is raised suddenly, like a burst of power and since the body is still connected by a thin line of astral matter, this is transferred to the mind as "sound." Nevertheless, once the astral body reaches it's higher vibratory frequency level, the sound disappears, through the sensations of speed, enhanced clarity of vision, sound, and sight take over. The main point is that there is no mistaking a lucid dream for an OBE and you will know, when you wake, if you have had an Out of Body Experience.







ESP In Dreams



Extrasensory perception, better known as ESP, is response to external stimuli without any known sensory contact. Many scientists refuse to accept the existence of ESP, along with OBE's, mostly because they go comprehensively against the laws of nature. Yet, many people have claimed to have dreams in which they have predicted future events, learned about a subject that they had no previous knowledge of, or even met up with a friend in a dream only to find upon awakening that their friend also dreamt about the meeting. These are all cases of ESP in dreams.

Precognition - This is one of the most common types of dream ESP people talk about. Apparently, they seem to dream about an event before it happens in reality, and in startlingly accurate detail. Some do not even realize that their dream are precognitive until the event starts to happen in real life exactly as they had in the dream. If these dreams really do predict future events, this could have great implications. It may be that they future has already been decided and that we are just following a set path in our life. There are people without a precognitive dreaming background that believe this as well, but even though it may sound a bit strange, it could confirm their beliefs if ESP in dreams in found to be factual.



Dream Psychometry - This is the most uncommon of the three areas of dream ESP. These too, are accounts that cannot be proved because they are based purely on what the dreamer experiences. Dream psychometry is gaining information about an object in your dreams of which you know nothing about in waking life. The easiest way to do this would be to take a picture of a person you don't know and think about this person before you go to sleep at night. Then, when you wake up in the morning, record your dream and analyze them for any meaning that could relate to the picture. You may even want to try this with a book, such as calculus, the night before you have a test on the subject and see if you learn anything. This is not suggested unless you have no other options, this is referred to as osmosis, when you aren't in the dreaming state.



Synchronous - These are dreams in which the dreamer encounters another familiar character in a dream, and upon awakening and talking to that person they also recount the same dream experience during the night. If shared dreams are possible, it could prove the astral projection theory that goes along with OBE's. Even though most people are skeptical about this idea, that is the way we have been brought up, especially in western culture, which is not believing something unless there is sufficient scientific evidence to back it up. We may never be sure whether any of these theories will be proven, since the study of these rare occurrences is very difficult, so the only thing we can do is keep dreaming and know what we believe for ourselves.

Lucid Dreaming
12:39 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 490

History of Lucid Dreaming



Lucid Dreaming has been around for quite a long time, although it is just now becoming a widely discussed topic. The earliest recorded lucid dreams date back to as early as the fifth century, in fact, the record came from a written letter by St. Augustine in 415 A.D. Another well- known record of lucid dreaming came in the eighth century came from Tibetan Buddhists in their Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Buddhists spoke of a form of yoga designed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state. These ancient dream yogis possessed an unequivocal understanding of dreams, which was said to be more advanced than the knowledge we posses today.



In the nineteenth century, after many obscure dream practices took place, such as finding another reality within the dreaming state or trying to conjure spirits from the past through dreaming, people began to look past these practices and accepted dreams as a happening of everyday life. This set off many people into researching the scientific reasons of lucid dreaming.



Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys was the most popular of the scientists to emerge. In 1867, he published his book Dreams and How to Guide Them, in which he documented more than twenty years of his own research into dreams. Marquis described the sequential development of his ability do control his dreams in within this book. First, increasing his dream recall, then becoming aware that he was dreaming. He was a pioneer to the dreaming field, in that he was the first person to demonstrate that it is possible for anyone to learn to dream consciously.



Next, came the man who we owe the term "lucid dreaming." Frederick Van Eeden, a Dutch psychiatrist and dream researcher. Though he was interested in all aspects of dreaming, he found that lucid dreams aroused his interest the most. His first work was created as fiction, so he could freely present his ideas without concern of the public on such delicate matters, this work was entitled The Bride of Dreams. Then, in 1913, he boldly presented a paper on lucid dreaming to the Society for Psychical Research, reporting on 352 of his lucid dreams collected between 1898 and 1912, this paper was entitled A Study of Dreams.



Several others continued to do research on the topic of lucid dreaming, but none became as popular as Stephen LaBerge who continues to do research on the topic of lucid dreaming today. In September of 1977, LaBerge applied to Stanford University, wanting to study lucid dreaming as part of a Ph.D. program in psychophysiology. This was approved, and he began his work on lucid dreams. He soon gained access to the Stanford sleep lab, where he began his research into lucid dreaming with the help of Dr. Lynn Nagel, a researcher who shared the same interest in lucidity as LaBerge. The research, at first, was not successful, but as he went further he found the answers to a few long unanswered questions, such as "How long do lucid dreams last?" and "When do lucid dreams occur?" To him we also owe all of the recent study into lucid dreams, as he sparked the interest of modern researches with the answers to such questions.







What is Lucid Dreaming?



Lucid dreaming is when you become aware that you are having a dream. Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream, when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as meeting someone from far away in a strange place, flying, or creating objects with their mind. Sometimes people become lucid without noticing having any particular cue. Some lucid dreams are even the result of returning to REM sleep directly from an awakening with unbroken reflective consciousness.



The basic definition of lucid dreaming is becoming aware that you are dreaming. Yet, the quality of lucidity varies. When lucidity is at a high level, you are aware that everything experienced in the dream is occurring in your mind, that there is no danger in anything that you do, and that you are asleep in bed. When lucidity is at a low level you may be aware to a certain extent that you are dreaming, perhaps enough to do an action that would be impossible in waking life, but not enough to realize that you could be hurt, or that you are actually sleeping.





The Usefulness of Lucidity



Some people, hearing about lucid dreaming for the first time, often ask, "Why would I want to lucid dream?" If you consider that in dreams, if you know that you are dreaming that is, you are in free to do anything that you want to. The only restriction is you ability to imagine. This can be a very good tool in relieving stress, since you will are able to take all of your frustrations out during dreams, perhaps even acting out what you would like to do in real life.



Lucid dreaming can also help people achieve goals in their everyday life. People have used lucid dreams many times before to help prepare for some aspect of their life. This could include things such as an important rehearsal for trying out a new behavior, problem solving, artistic inspiration, overcoming social problems, or coming to terms with a loss of something, or someone, you cared for.



As you can see, lucid dreaming can be a useful tool. All you need to figure out is your way to better yourself at this technique. There are many different theories on the best way to go about achieving lucidity, but you must decide what works best for you. After the skill becomes easy for you, you can begin to realize the potential that this type of dream has and how it can benefit you in your life.

Dream Interpretation
12:37 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 491

Recording Your Dreams



For all of those people out there who are interested in learning about what their dreams mean to them in their life need to live by one rule. Always write down your dreams whenever you have them, soon after you have them. However well you think you can remember your dreams, you should have a record that you can work with to help you see any patterns that occur in your dream. The best way to interpret your own dreams is to first begin with having your own dream journal. You should allow yourself an area where you can write the dreams on the left side of the journal and the interpretations on the right side, or vice-versa. By having this journal will already get your mind set into the idea of having dreams, since you already have the journal to record them in.







Interpreting Your Dreams



The first thing you need to know about interpreting your dreams is that you should never use a dream dictionary, except for entertainment reasons. The reason I say this is because dreams are yours and yours only to interpret. What you are doing by looking in a dream dictionary, though some objects may relate, is opening up a fortune cookie and expect what you read inside will come true. Often times it will come true, for the simple fact that the topics are so broad that your "fortune cookie" could happen to any person on any given day.



Now that dream dictionaries are out of the picture, we must find our own way to interpret our own dreams. The best way seems to be asking your dream questions. By doing this you can gain valuable insights into what the dream means. You may want to start large with the dream itself and asking it questions, such as:



1. What were you doing in the dream?

2. What are the major contrasts and similarities in the dream and how do they relate?

3. What are the major symbols and relationships between these symbols?

4. What are the issues, conflicts, and unresolved situations in the dream?

5. What relationship does this dream or the symbols in the dream, have to do with any other dream?



After you have answered all these questions to yourself you can begin getting to the specifics:



1. How am I acting in the dream?

2. What symbols in this dream are important to me?

3. What are the different feelings in this dream?

4. What are the major actions in this dream?

5. Who or what is the adversary in this dream?

6. What is helping in this dream?

7. What would I like to avoid in this dream?

8. What actions might this dream be suggesting?

9. What does this dream want from me?

10. Why did I need this dream?







Interpretation Problems



It's not uncommon to have problems with interpretation. The main thing that you have to realize is that you have the answer. Sometimes it's easy to see. Sometimes it isn't. The best approach to tackling a tough dream is to relax. If you become worried easily and find that when trying to work with and analyze one of your dreams you quickly begin to become exasperated by its difficulty, it may be a good idea get relaxed first. Just because it doesn't come to you right away could be a good sign. It has been found that the more difficult the dream, the more important it is to your life.



The main thing you need to realize is that the dream will come to you, whether it takes a few mintues, hours, or possibly the next day. Give it some time, because it may not be ready to reveal it's true meaning. All you need to do is make a record of the dream and one day it may make so much sense to you that you couldn't possibly imagine why it gave you so much trouble. Give it some time, because it may not be ready to reveal it's true meaning.

Dream Recall
12:36 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 492

Remembering Your Dreams



Before you start interpreting or even recording your dreams, a skill you must learn is dream recall. Once and awhile something that we do during the day will trigger a dream that we had the previous night, but if you are serious about working with your dreams this will not be good enough. The first step that we need to take is to find a way to help yourself remember these dreams at least long enough to get them down on paper.



Why is it that the contents of dreams, something that we actually see for ourselves, are so hard to remember? You would think that it should be as easy as remembering what we ate for breakfast, or a movie that we saw last week. Perhaps it's because our conscious mind is reluctant to allow us full understanding of our dreams. Most think it's because the events in dreams are usually entirely irrational to our waking minds and finds it difficult to grasp.



After reading through the following information and working with it, you will find that after a few weeks you should be able to remember at least three to four dreams a week. If you can already do that then these exercises should benefit you even more. Some people, if fact, give up trying to work with their dreams, because they find themselves having too many dream memories and are satisfied. After you get to this point, and enjoy dreaming but not writing what they are about, then just stop and have fun with your dreams. However, no time that you spend working on your dreams will be wasted, since you will find yourself suffering from less stress.







Reality Testing



These methods will help you realize that you are actually dreaming and in turn will help you remember your dreams easier. Beware that some techniques may not work for you, in not try a different one. The following techniques are the most widely used out of the many techniques:



The Dream Illiteracy Test - Everyone has tried to read something in their dreams before, although it is most difficult, it can be done. Even if you are able to read in a dream, if you would like to be sure that you are dreaming, read back over what you read before. Most likely the information that you have already read over will have changed.



The Flying Method - When you want to do a reality test, jump into the air and try to prolong how long you stay up for. Even if you stay up for a split second longer than you would in waking life you must be dreaming.



The Past Recall Method - Attempt to remember what you have been doing in the past few hours. If you are awake it should make perfect sense to you. However, if you are dreaming you will find that you have either no past at all or a very strange and illogical one.



The Hand Breathing Technique - Try breathing with your nose and mouth plugged. To do this squeeze your nose with the sides of your thumb and index finger and cover your mouth with your hand. If you are awake it will be difficult for you to dream, impossible if you attain a good seal over your mouth. If you are dreaming, then you will find it quite easy to breath through your hand.



Control the Unchanging - This is by far one of the most reliable techniques, in that you will easily recognize you are dreaming. Pick out an object, preferably one that is stationary and doesn't change, and try and bend or move it just by thinking. If the object you pick out does what you want it to then you are definitely dreaming.







Helpful Hints for Better Dream Recall



Before you go sleep

1. Expect to remember your dreams.

2. Review past dreams.

3. Get ready to record your dreams.

4. Be prepared to stay awake to make a record.

5. Review the previous day back to morning.



Upon waking

1. Follow your dream backwards.

2. Try and remember all the dreams you can.

3. Think of events that may have triggered dreams.

4. Don't be discouraged if there is no recall.

5. Don't forget the dream before you write it down.



Daily Attitudes

1. Value each dream.

2. Accept all dreams.

3. Approach recall as a skill.

4. Expect to recall dreams during the day.

5. Don't compare recall ability.







Five Quick Steps



1. The night before keep a pad of paper and pen beside your bed. Date the paper the night before. When you awake, in the night or in the morning, write something down. Even "I recall nothing this morning" is good to write down. If you are keeping a journal, read the last dream you had.



2. When you go to bed, relax your body and review the day in reverse. How did I get ready for bed? What was I doing just before going to bed? What did I do this evening? What was it like coming home, what I did today, what I had for lunch, and so on, all the way back to how you got up and either recall your last dream or recall your writing down "I recall nothing this morning." This exercise is very relaxing and helps us learn to reflect back and focus the way we need to focus to recall dreams.



3. As you are getting close to falling asleep, repeat over and over to yourself, "When I wake up , I will remember my dream." Also you should associate a physical trigger along with that, such as snapping your fingers as you say each word.



4. When you wake up in the morning, don't move! Stay in your same position, relax your body and let your mind drift closer to your dream. Remind yourself that you want to remember your dream. Shutting your eyes may help. Thinking about what you are going to do in the future, like shower or activities you need to do later in the day is the best way to miss a dream.



5. Once you being to recall the dream, start writing. Write down what ever you remember right away so you're not trying to remember that material while trying to recall new material. If after a minute you don't have any recall, write down "I don't recall anything," or even better wrote down a short made-up story of what you would've liked to have been dreaming. If you have other dreams in the journal, read one of them.

Why We Dream
12:35 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 493

Dream Theorists



There is no proven fact on why we dream, which is why there are so many theories on the topic. There is Freud's theory that dreams carry our hidden desires and there is Jung's theory that dreams carry meaning, although not always of desire, and that these dreams can be interpreted by the dreamer. After these theories, others continued such as the Cayce theory in that dreams are our bodies means of building up of the mental, spiritual and physical well-being. Finally came the argument between Evans' theory and the Crick and Mitchinson theory. Evans states that dreaming is our bodies way of storing the vast array of information gained during the day, whereas Crick and Mitchinson say that this information is being dumped rather than stored. Whichever theory is true, we may never know, but from these following theories we can decide for ourselves what we believe to be true and further help us into understanding our dreams.







Freud's Theory



Out of all theories before his, and all of those today, this is the one that stands out the most. He believed that a dream represented an ongoing wish along with the previous days activities. They may even portray wishes that have been inside us since early childhood. In fact, he believed, every dream is partially motivated by a childhood wish. Another interesting idea was that nothing is made up during a dream and that they are biologically determined, derived completely from instinctual needs and personal experiences.



Probably one of the most interesting ideas among these theories is his theory of dream occurrence. Dreams occur in a state of "ego collapse" when the demands of the Id (imperative bodily needs) and Superego (conscience ego ideals) converge upon the Ego (personal desires and mediator between the Id and Superego). In easier terms, a dream will occur when the unconscious wish is bound to the preconscious instead of just being discharged.



Many of Freud's theories still stand true today, but most of all in the area of defense mechanisms our body uses while we dream. If our minds have been dealing with too much denial, regression, or repression, it causes an internal conflict, a dream in this case, to take place. This prevents us from building up intolerable states of psychological tension in waking life. This is why, if you become too emotional, it actually works to "sleep it off."







According to Jung



Jung, disagreeing with Freud's theory, quickly developed his own which contradicted Freud's. Jung believed the most effective method for dream interpretation was the use of series correlation. Freud didn't even believe interpretation was possible by the dreamer and that dreams could only be interpreted by a trained psychologist. Jung was the one who gave hope to all dreamers who were looking for the meaning in our dreams without having to hire a "professional."



Series correlation is a process involving the analysis of dreams over time. Jung suggested taking similar dreams from you dream journal and merging the dream images together forming a larger dream. Try and gather these images into your head, he suggested, and from these images determined if there are any waking situations that might be related. From this information write out a physical action that could be taken based off of the information learned through using this technique.



Like Freud, Jung categorized the mind into three parts: the collective unconscious, the personal unconscious, and the conscious. The collective unconscious consists of imbedded deposits of world processes. It does not depend on personal experience, only the images which are prefigured by evolution. The personal unconscious is a receptacle or storage mechanism for that which is not contained within the consciousness. It holds forgotten association, unnoticed experiences, observations, moral questioning, repressed and discarded thoughts, half-thoughts, seemingly irrelevant details, and incongruities. Finally comes the consciousness, wich develops through sensing, thinking, and intuition.



When Jung interpreted dreams he found that the most important thing to do was ask yourself questions about the images in your dreams and from these questions, write down all of the associations you can think of. Here are the questions he would ask himself:



What is the shape of the image?

What is the function of the image?

What alterations does the image go through?

What does the image do?

What do you like and dislike about the image?

What does the image remind you of?







Cayce's Experience



When it came to the idea of dreams having purpose, Cayce's theory was a bit different then the others. He believed dreaming to be the bodies way of "self edification," which is the building up of the mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. It was a way of quickening the dreamer to his/her own human potential. By getting a good nights sleep, any person could develop more mature values, stretch their thinking, and right one's self.



According to Cayce, there are five different levels that dream's stem from. These different levels are the body level, subconscious level, level of consciousness, level of superconscious, and the level of the soul. What they can do for you is anything from presenting messages of your body calling for aid during sickness to stating problems which must be solved within the conscious.



Cayce believed that if you were to interpret your dreams correctly you must thoroughly study yourself. Once you know how you feel about dreams and what they can do for you can you begin to study your dreams. If you have a dream, according to Cayce, it's primary focus is to either solve problems and adapt to external affairs or awakening and alerting the dreamer to new potential within the self. The first step to Cayce's method of interpretation is to determine which of the two major functions of dreams is the primary focus of the dream.



The second step is the process of taking inventory. You need to know your conscious and subconscious mind inside out. Know future plans, goals, interests, stances, and decisions. Know your hidden fears, longings, dependencies, and defenses. Know the cycles, needs, habits, and stresses of the body. Once you finish with these two steps you can begin to interpret your dreams and decide how they can help you better yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually.







Evans' Organization



According to Evans, every time we go to sleep our brain disengages from the external world and uses this time to sort through and organize all the information that was taken in throughout the day. Sleep, especially during REM sleep, is when the brain becomes isolated for the sensory and motor neural pathways. During this time our data banks and program files are opened and become available for modification on re-organization, based on what happened during the day.



In this theory, we are not aware of the full array of processing that occurs during REM sleep. While we dream the brain comes back on-line for a short period of time and the conscious mind is allowed to observe a small sample of the programs that are being run. The brain attempts to interpret this information in the same way it would during the wakeful state, what is created from these samples of information is a dream. In a nutshell, dreams are nothing more than a minute amount of the information that is being scanned and sorted during REM sleep.







Crick and Mitchinson's Cleanup



Crick and Mitchinson base their theory on the fact that the cortex, unlike other parts of the brain, is made up of richly interconnected neuronal networks in which each cell has the capacity to excite it's neighbors. It is believed that memories are encoded in these networks and when one point of the web is excited a pulse travels through the network prompting recall. The problem with such network systems is that they malfunction when there is an over load of incoming information. Too many memories in one network may produce either bizarre associations to a stimulus, which creates our fantasies, the same response whatever the stimulus, creating obsessions, or associations triggered without any stimulus, which creates hallucinations.



To deal with information overload, the brain needs a mechanism to debug and tune the network. This debugging mechanism would work best when the system was isolated from extermnal inputs and it would have to have a way of randomly activating the network in order to eliminate spurious connections. This method, they say, is REM sleep and that the halluinatory quality of dreams is nothing more than the random neural firing needed for the daily cleanup of the network.



According to this theory, these signals somehow erase the spurious memory associations formed during the previous day and we wake up with the network cleaned up. They believe that people remembering their dreams could help retain patterns of thought which are better forgotten, the same patterns that your system has attempted to clean out. This is why, they say, if you don't write down your dreams they will be forgotten because your brain is still working to clear these memories out.

Dream History
12:33 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 494

Ancient Egyptian Theories



Originally dreams were thought to be part of the supernatural world. Dreams were messages from the gods sent to the villagers during the night perhaps as an early warning device for disaster or good fortune. From what we can tell, the Egyptians certainly were the first dreamers to attempt interpretation of their dreams, because of the fact that they published a book on some of the conclusions they had come to about dream symbols. In fact, Egypt was where the process of "dream incubation" began. When a person was having troubles in their life and wanted help from their god, they would sleep in a temple, when they would wake the next morning a priest, which was then called a Master of the Secret Things, would be consulted for the interpretations of that nights dreams.





Greek Philosophy on Dreaming



The Greeks didn't begin seriously considering dreams until 8th century BC. Homer, in his Iliad, describes a scene wherein Agamemnon receives instructions from the messenger of Zeus in a dream. Greeks also believed that dreams carried divine messages, but they could only be interpreted with the aid of a priest similar to those of the Babylonians and Egyptians. It was from these two groups the Greeks also inherited many occult techniques. Dreams also aided in their practice of medicine, sending sick people to particular temples in those places where the "gods of the body" had their shrines. The ailing Greeks would visit these temples, perform various religious rites, sleep, and hope to have a dream that assured a return to good health. Night after night they would sleep and sometimes this would go on for weeks or even months until they had the "right" dream. The most famous for dream pilgrimage was the Aesculapius at Epidaurus.

It is uncertain whether or not the first dream interpreters were legend or reality. Pliny the Elder suggests that the earliest interpreter was a man named Amphictyon, son of Deucalion. It was Deucalion, who in Greek mythology, was the son of Prometheus. Yet, Herodotus, an early historian claimed that the people of Telmessus, which was located in southwest Asia Minor, specialized in dream interpretation. In fact, it was even heard that King Croesus, the last king of Lydia, consulted them for an interpretation of an important dream.



The first steps into modern dream interpretation were taken in the 5th century BC when the Greek philosopher Heraclitus suggested that a persons dream world was something created in their own mind. This went against the other philosophers who believed dreams were the result of outside forces, such as the gods. Most Greek philosophers, in that time period, pondered drams and what they might mean. Plato was one of these philosophers, and realized how much dreaming could affect a personality or someone's life. In the Phaedo, he tells how Socrates studied music and the arts because he was instructed to do so in a dream.



Aristotle finally put an end to Heraditus' idea that dreams were messages from the gods. He began to study dreams and the dreaming process in a rational way. In his De divinatione per somnum, he states, "most so-called prophetic dreams are to be classed as mere coincidences, especially all such as are extravagant," and later includes that "the most skillful interpreter of dreams is he who has the faculty of absorbing resemblances. I mean that dream presentations are analogous to the forms reflected in water." Aristotle's Parva naturalia suggests that dreams are in fact believed to be a recollection of the days events.



Aristotle also helped advance the theory that dreams reflected a person's bodily health. It suggested that a doctor could diagnose a person illness by hearing a dream that they had. Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine supported this theory, and is still practiced by some doctors of today. Galen of Pergamum, a Greco-Roman physician, picked up where Aristotle had left off. A patient of his dreamed that his left thigh was turned into marble and later lost the use of that leg due to palsy. A wrestler, he had treated, dreamed that he was standing in a pool of blood that had risen over his head. From this dream Galen concluded that this man needed a bloodletting for the pleurisy which he labored. By this means of treatment the man was cured.







Roman Ideas



Although the Egyptians created one of the earliest documents on dreams, know as the Chester Beatty papyrus, the Oneirocriticon or The Interpretation of Dreams by the Roman Artemidorus (c. AD 150) is the first comprehensive book on the interpretation of dreams. In this five-volume work, Artemidorus brought out the idea that dreams are unique to the dreamer. He believed that it was the person's occupation, social status and health would affect the symbols in a dream. Although he was a brilliant man, his interpretations were often extremely shrewd. A man by the name of Astrampsychus wrote a second Oneirocriticon, which somewhat resembled the dream books produced by the Victorians. This book,however, contained a few ideas that were somewhat outrageous.





Biblical Visions



When Christianity came along they revived the idea that dreams were of the supernatural element. The Old Testament of the Bible holds an abundance of dreams. Probably the most famous of these dreams was Jacob's dream of a ladder from Earth to Heaven. Nebuchadnezzer, the King of Babylon who died in 562 BC, had an interesting dream reported in the Book of Daniel. It was in this dream that he dreamed of a beautiful tree with green foliage that the birds nested in and beasts took shelter underneath. But one day a messenger from Heaven ordered the tree to be cut down and the King to be chained to the stump. The King was left alone to feed on the grass as a beast would. Nebuchadnezzer summoned Daniel, an expert on dreams, who told him that the tree represented the Kings power and glory. When it was cut down he became nothing but a beast, living off the grass. Daniel explained that this dream was to teach him to acknowledge the heavenly power above him in the same way as he was above the beasts in the field. The dream was, as it turned out, thought to be prophetic.

Many men of Christianity began preaching that God revealed himself through dreams. Among these men was St. John Chrysostom who said that we are not responsible for our dreams, and should be ashamed of what we dream or any images that appear therein. Two other men of the church, St. Augustine and St. Jerome, claimed that the direction of their life were dramatically affected by dreams that they had. Even other religions believed in the significance dreams had to offer our lives. Mohammed "received" much of the text of the Koran from a dream he had, as well as interpreting dreams his disciples'.



It wasn't long until others came along and went against the ideas that were presented in the past. Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, was a believer in the idea that dreams were the work of the Devil. Luther said that sin was, "the confederate and father of foul dreams." Since the church interpreted God's word, revelations made to individuals in dreams could only have been diabolic.







Middle Eastern Dreamers



The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Christians weren't the only ones interested in dream interpretation in the early stages. An anonymous Persian writer determined that to truly interpret a dream it must be done during the day of occurrence. The Zoroastrians were a religious group that followed this theory, which set rules for each day of the month, such as, "The second day is that of Bahman . . . Events dreamed of will occur in four days, but the hopes which may be cherished will be disappointed."

Gabdorrhachamn was the earliest and most well-known of the Arabic dream interpreters. He was a strong believer in that dreams were prophetic and could only be interpreted by a person with "a clean spirit, chaste morals, and the Word of Truth." But his dreaming aphorisms are thought to have been based on his own feelings rather than a true understanding of dream symbols.







Europeans and Dreaming



The Europeans were very curious about dreaming around the beginning of the 19th century. Robert Cross Smith was one of the first to start this "dream craze." Under the pen name of "Raphael" he published a book called The Royal Book of Dreams and was immensely successful. But it wasn't until Alfred Maury, a french doctor, came along and led us into modern dream interpretation. It was said that he had studied over 3,000 different dreams. External stimuli is what he believed to be the catalyst to all of our dreams. It was a particular dream that Maury had that suggested to him that dreams came about so quickly that they were almost simultaneous with the stimulus that produced them. He had dreamed that he had been condemned to the guillotine and as it fell, he woke up to find the top of the bed had fallen and hit him in the spine at the exact time the guillotine would have struck him.

However, this idea later was proved to be relatively unimportant, and it was this theory of the unconscious that developed into the modern attitude toward dream interpretation. Maury wasn't too far off with his prediction however. Later, it was discovered that these external stimuli only triggered an earlier dream from the night. Since this would be the last thing remembered from that nights sleep, you believe that the dream you were having when you woke up.







Modern Philosophies



Probably the most well-known of the modern dream philosophers was Sigmund Freud. His theory was that although dreams may be prompted by external stimuli, wish-fulfillment was the root behind most of our dreams. Freud's idea was that our dreams were reflection of our deepest desires going back to our childhood. To Freud, no dream was of entertainment value, they all held important meanings.

Carl Jung, a student of Freud for some time, disagreed on the theory that erotic content was the basis behind most of our dreams. Jung believed that dreams reminded us of our wishes, which enables us to realize the things we unconsciously yearn for, and helps us to fulfill our own wishes. Contradictory to how Freud believed dreams were a product of our desires that were too outrageous for our own belief, and were in our unconscious to help conceal these desires. These dreams were messages, Jung believed, from ourselves to ourselves and that we should pay attention to them for our own benefit.



Today, most psychologists agree with Jung's theory, and it is this theory that makes dream interpretation something that we can use in our everyday lives. If Freud were alive today his would disagree with every theory that says you are able to interpret your own dreams. Jung believed that, although it was difficult, dreams were meant to be understood.







Other Ideas



Ever since the Freud/Jung rivalry, other theories about dreams and dreaming have flourished and are continuing to be developed today. There are some though that believe that any theory on dreams is basically pointless to have a theory on dreaming because it is just another fact of life. Dreams, to some, are meaningless to us and just another one of those things that comes along with life. Then there are others who say that dreams are either the clearing of fragments from our memory banks or that they are the storage of these fragments. Either way they are believed to be unimportant to us and should be disregarded. However, there are the people that argue against this and say that dreams are important to living full and complete lives. Until there is a definite way to study how dreams work and where they come from for sure, we will only have to decide which theory we believe for ourselves.

Sleep Mechanics
12:32 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 496

Sleep Mechanics







Do We Need Sleep?



One of the most common questions about sleeping is that, "Do we actually need sleep?" The answer is yes, although our bodies can be trained to do with gradually less sleep. There may be some people who claim that they need no sleep at all, but you will find that they tend to take occasional five to ten-minute naps during the day. We need sleep for our body to relieve stress, to grow, and also to balance our bodily chemicals.



Around the beginning of the century it was thought that chemicals such as lactic acid, carbon dioxide, and cholesterol were collected in our brain while we were awake and were depleted during sleep. But about sixty years later we began experimenting on how long a human body could go without sleeping. Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high-school student from San Diego, stayed awake for eleven complete days. Although he felt nauseous at times, had difficulty reading, and suffered temporary memory lapses, he had no long term emotional or physical side-affects of the experiment. Measurements have been taken, however, to prove that there are some chemical changes during sleep deprivation that concludes the fact that our body needs sleep.







Why We Sleep



So now that we know why we need sleep, we need to know what is the thing that actually puts us to sleep. Some may recognize the name melatonin, because it is sometimes prescribed for jet-lag or sleep deprivation. But we also create this chemical inside our bodies, although it is in much smaller portions. Melatonin is a hormone secreted from the pineal gland in the center of our brain. It is released when our eyes begin to register that the sun is beginning to set and darkness begins to fall. This is what makes you go to sleep and is also used in our body to regulate our sleep-wake cycles. If you wonder why older people tend to sleep less then younger people, it is because the amount of melatonin produced in our body seems to lessen as we age.



The term of "rapid eye movements" was coined in 1952 by Fredrick Van Eeden. Van Eeden discovered this while doing a study on sleep noticed the eyes of his subjects moving beneath their closed eyelids. He watched as they moved back and forth, as if they were watching an intense tennis match. From then on sleep was characterized into two areas, REM sleep and NREM sleep, properly coined by non-rapid eye movement. These two areas are quite different from each other in that people awakened from REM sleep could usually remember vivid dreams whereas only six percent of people awakened during NREM claimed to have been dreaming. In fact, people in the REM state show more brain activity than those in a wakeful state. But those in NREM sleep show more characteristics toward the unconscious brain.



REM sleep seems more psychologically important and less physically important. If someone has a night deprived of REM sleep they tend to become overly sensitive, have bad memory recall, and unable to concentrate. While people lacking NREM sleep are clumsy, sluggish, and look to be very tired. Whereas people deprived of NREM sleep only suffer a temporary inconvenience, people who have lost REM sleep have more trouble coping with stress over a long period of time and are irritated very easily.







Stages of Sleep



A typical night's sleep consists of a number of cycles lasting about 90 minutes in length. Each of these cycles is made up of four separate stages.



The Hypnagogic Phase - This stage is the transitory stage between closing our eyes and sleeping. This is a brief period where we have visions that aren't dreams but would rather resemble still images. These images often go unnoticed or are forgotten.



Stage 1 - During this period we are just falling asleep. Our heart rate begins to slow and our muscles relax. The EEG is irregular and lacks consistency of alpha waves that occur when we are awake and relaxed.



The Myoclonic Jerk - It is not abnormal for a person during stages one and two of sleeping does a short convulsion of the body occur. Researches are quite undecided on this subject. Common views are that this occurrence marks a transition between these two stages and that your brain, noticing your heart and breathing rate decreasing more rapidly than normal, sends out a burst of electrical activity to your muscles.



Stage 2 - A deeper sleep than stage one. The EEG would show bursts of activity called "spindles", and an occasional sharp rise and fall in amplitude.



Stage 3 - Sleep becomes deeper and spindles disappear from the EEG. The spindles are replaced by long delta waves. The sleeper is more difficult to wake during this stage, but can be aroused by calling out a familiar name. Often times a loud sound, such as a door slamming, will be ignored.



Stage 4 - At this stage the sleeper enters "delta sleep" and will spend nearly 30 minutes in this stage.

The Bermuda Triangle
12:28 Apr 14 2011
Times Read: 498




The Bermuda Triangle



The "Bermuda Triangle" or "Devil's Triangle" is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States of America, which is noted for a supposedly high incidence of unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft. The apexes of the triangle are generally believed to be Bermuda; Miami, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The US Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name. The US Navy does not believe the Bermuda Triangle exists. It is reported that Lloyd's of London, the world's leading market for specialist insurance, does not charge higher premiums for vessels transiting this heavily traveled area.

The most famous US Navy losses which have occurred in the area popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle are USS Cyclops in March 1918 and the aircraft of Flight 19 in December 1945. The ship probably sank in an unexpected storm, and the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean -- no physical traces of them have ever been found. Another well known disappearance is the civilian tanker SS Marine Sulphur Queen carrying bulk molten sulfur which sank in February 1963. Although the wreck of Marine Sulphur Queen has not been located, a life preserver and other floating artifacts were recovered. These disappearances have been used to provide credence to the popular belief in the mystery and purported supernatural qualities of the "Bermuda Triangle."



Since the days of early civilization many thousands of ships have sunk and/or disappeared in waters around the world due to navigational and other human errors, storms, piracy, fires, and structural/mechanical failures. Aircraft are subject to the same problems, and many of them have crashed at sea around the globe. Often, there were no living witnesses to the sinking or crash, and hence the exact cause of the loss and the location of the lost ship or aircraft are unknown. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida and the Bahamas. All too often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area's hazards, and a lack of good seamanship.



To see how common accidents are at sea, you can examine some of the recent accident reports of the National Transportation Safety Board for ships and aircraft. One of the aircraft accident reports concerns an in-flight engine failure and subsequent ditching of a Cessna aircraft near Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas on 13 July 2003. This is the type of accident that would likely have been attributed to mysterious causes in the Bermuda Triangle if there had been no survivors or other eyewitnesses of the crash.



A significant factor with regard to missing vessels in the Bermuda Triangle is a strong ocean current called the Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent and can quickly erase evidence of a disaster. The weather also plays its role. Prior to the development of telegraph, radio and radar, sailors did not know a storm or hurricane was nearby until it appeared on the horizon. For example, the Continental Navy sloop Saratoga was lost off the Bahamas in such a storm with all her crew on 18 March 1781. Many other US Navy ships have been lost at sea in storms around the world. Sudden local thunder storms and water spouts can sometimes spell disaster for mariners and air crews. Finally, the topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals around the islands to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With the interaction of the strong currents over the many reefs the topography of the ocean bottom is in a state of flux and the development of new navigational hazards can sometimes be swift.



It has been inaccurately claimed that the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on earth at which a magnetic compass points towards true north. Normally a compass will point toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 60 degrees at various locations around the World. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, navigators can find themselves far off course and in deep trouble. Although in the past this compass variation did affect the "Bermuda Triangle" region, due to fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field this has apparently not been the case since the nineteenth century.



We know of no US Government-issued maps that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle. However, general maps as well as nautical and aviation charts of the general area are widely available in libraries and from commercial map dealers.