April/May 2002
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DREAMS FOR DUMMIES Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg |
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This book opens with a tribute to the Senoi of Malaysia. Members of this remote tribe, the author asserts, learn as children to control their dreams, discuss their dreams at breakfast with their families, review them later in a tribal council, and base community actions on them. This story is false, anthropologists determined decades ago. It originated in the 1930s in a report by an adventurer, Kilton Stewart, who allegedly observed the Senoi for only a short time and never learned their language. The so-called “Senoi dream theory” stays alive, dream researcher William Domhoff, PhD, suggests in his 1985 book, The Mystique of Dreams, because people like the “take-charge” attitude it embodies. The story also has the allure of a fairytale suggesting that simple societies possess wisdom that more urban, Westernized societies lack. Authors sometimes cite the Senoi to highlight the purported benefits of paying attention to dreams. That’s author Penney Peirce’s intention, too. By presenting this myth as factual and giving it such prominence, however, she raises doubts about the quality of her reporting. Readers who associate the “Dummies” series with practical authoritative guides will find instead that this book falls into the more speculative New Age realm. The author is a California counselor and motivational speaker. Pierce maintains that dreams can help you “develop the capacity to know things that are in the past, the future, and in other locations,” a grandiose claim that goes way beyond the usual “know yourself better” message common in pop-psychology dream books. She tells how to use crystals to improve dream recall, offers reports on “out-of-body” experiences in dreams, and suggests meanings for numbers, colors in dreams. “Seven” allegedly refers to “universal laws and metaphysics, love of knowledge, study,” and more. “Blue,” she says, "stands for mental clarity, insight, truth, neutrality…." Pierce also provides a guide to the meaning of dream symbols, a task most specialists in dream psychology avoid, maintaining that the meaning of symbols is specific to each dreamer. Peirce’s writing is conversational, and her examples entertaining. But much of this book is no more grounded in evidence-based research than is the story of the Senoi. |
Copyright (c) 2002
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