Normally when we have a scary or troubling dream we try to push it out of our minds as quickly as possible. There it stays, for months and sometimes years, gathering dust in a corner of our psyche. Whenever we happen by chance to think of it again, it feels...

I pay close attention to my dreams when I am far from home. When we go away our dreams take on a different character, particularly on overseas or extended journeys. As we become unmoored from normal habits and routines, our dreams are likewise free to roam, and often show us...

Everyone has anxiety dreams. Even fabulous cable and radio show hosts like Rachel Maddow have their share of dreams where things go wrong in major ways. I just came across this video from Maddow's recent appearance at a Mother Jones fundraiser in San Francisco where she gives a...

There is no shortage of dire news these days. Even Paul Krugman is fond of quoting Yeats: "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." And when respected economists start quoting Irish poets in their daily columns, you know something is not right.

In this time of economic upheaval,...

Midway through a sound sleep you suddenly wake up, heart pounding and head filled with horrible nightmare images. Instantly wide awake, you replay the bad dream over and over, wondering what it means and why it had to happen to you. While everyone else is asleep, rest eludes you as...

I think everyone who practices yoga should also work with their dreams. As spiritual practices go, the two are very complimentary -- one emphasizes body and breath, while the other emphasizes psyche and emotions. And something that is not widely talked about in spiritual circles is that cross-training in more...

Don't get me wrong, I am practically giddy at the thought of Bush getting the hell out of the White House. I cried with everybody else as Pennsylvania and then Ohio went for Obama on election night. But I am already being driven to drink by the hoopla over this...

It happened again last week: at a business meeting here in Sonoma County, an otherwise intelligent, creative professional started talking about how we are in for big changes in the year 2012. I did what I always do, which is to make sure my face didn't betray my utter...

Astrologer Rob Brezsny made an interesting statement recently about the state of our culture going into 2009. He was asked in an interview about people who make predictions for the future, and had this to say:

It depends on how much authority they have. It's easy to dismiss...

I hate making New Year's resolutions. The one resolution I made this past year was to have more of all kinds of fun. And while I did have more fun, it didn't prevent lots of really tough things from happening too. So why go through the motions in the first...

One of my favorite things to do, besides thinking about what dreams mean, is thinking about what real-life events would mean if they were dreams. So for my last post before the Big Three holidays (Solstice, my daughter's birthday, and Christmas), I thought I'd have some fun analyzing some of...

I have never seen a ghost -- at least, not the kind that leaves you shaking in your shoes, white as a sheet, with eyes as big as saucers in a face that looks permanently stricken. But yesterday I spent about 45 minutes watching someone who obviously had.

I thought...

Winter is a natural time to have big dreams. As the old year winds down and we make plans for the new one soon to begin, our dreams also go through a process of introspection. On these long winter nights, we dream about all that we have been through in...

When I was in grade school we learned all the old patriotic songs. The "Star Spangled Banner" of course (which came in handy during the 1970s Oakland A's winning streak). But we also learned

Most people know when their dreams hand them a big helping of insight to chew on. A 32 year-old woman has a recurring dream of being lost and hungry at summer camp. A 54 year-old man dreams that he rides into work on a white horse, but nobody sees him...

This was a great election cycle for dreamworkers. For the first time that I am aware of, dreams were part of the public conversation about who each of the candidates were and what they stood for. Sheila Heti from Toronto set up blogs for people to share their...

Everyone dreams, whether we remember them or not. Many of us do remember our dreams, and think about them until they slowly fade away like a radio signal as we drive out of range. Sometimes a vivid dream comes like a bolt of lightning, and we reverberate from the shock...