ABSTRACT

ET Dreams: Part II B Explanations

Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Ph.D.
reguiley@aol.com

Carol D. Warner, M.A., M.S.W.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Ph.D., is the author of 30 books on such topics as dreams, intuition, mysticism, metaphysics, paranormal phenomena and spirituality; her work has addressed the subject of visionary and otherworldly experience. She has done lay dreamwork facilitation for groups for more than a decade. She is president of Visionary Living, Inc., and is a former member of the board of directors of the ASD.

Guiley will present the second part of ET Dreams, co-authored with Carol D. Warner, M.A., M.S.W. Warner has been involved with ASD since its second year, and has been on the Board of Directors for many years, including being Chair of the Board and current Ethics Chair. She has graduate degrees in Religion and Clinical Social Work, and is a clinician in private practice in Falls Church, VA. Books include At the Feet of the Master, and the soon-to-be out Return to the Self: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of the Journey.

Summary of Presentation

Part II of ET Dreams examines explanations of ET dreams and places them in historical and folklore context with dreams involving other supernatural entities. Jungian and exceptional human experience perspectives also will be discussed.

Learning Objectives.

1) To educate the dreaming community about ET dreams

2) To place ET dreams in a broad historical and cultural context

3) To offer ideas for constructive dreamwork involving ET dreams

Evaluation questions:

Abstract 

Since the beginning of modern ufology in 1947, dreams involving encounters with extraterrestrials have been on the rise, markedly so since the 1980s, when mass media began featuring stories of abductions and contacts. Many who have these dreams feel they are more than A ordinary,@ i.e., symbolic dreams, and may involve A real@ experiences that take place during dreaming. Such dreams may be part of A exceptional human experience@ B a wide range of anomalous or extraordinary states of consciousness, events and experiences.

Dreams of extraterrestrials and UFOs form an important core of the ET experience, including abductions. Many of them feature unusual characteristics, among them: incidences of mutual dreams B diverse people having the same dreams, sometimes on the same night; shared precognition about future events; and dreams that leave behind physical evidence in the A real@ world. ET dreams often repeat.

Dreamwork facilitators are likely to encounter subjects who have these dreams. While some experiencers genuinely feel they are ET contactees, others feel no connection with ET= s yet have ET dreams. Still others give a high degree of spiritual import to their ET dreams. So, how can dreamworkers approach these dreams to make sense out of them?

In his book Abduction, Harvard psychiatrist John Mack reports that typical of abductions are A frightening dreams that seem more real than ordinary nightmares.@ The victim may recall the A dream@ upon awakening, or may need hypnosis to remember. Mack divides ET dreams into three types: 1) abductions distorted as dream experiences; 2) dreams that relive abductions; and 3) ordinary dreams that contain UFO material.

Mack states that our modern concepts of dreams need to be reexamined and even redefined:

When abductees call their experiences A dreams,@ which they often do, close questioning can elicit that this may be a euphemism to cover what they are sure cannot be that, namely an event from which there was no awakening that occurred in another dimension...

Allow for the time being that there is little knowledge about the domain from which the alien beings derive B perhaps not even language or concepts to describe it. Yet acknowledge too that something is going on that cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Carol D. Warner and I have undertaken an examination of ET dreams. Our project stands to break new ground; while ET/UFO literature includes numerous accounts of dreams, and ET/UFO dreams are discussed in some dream literature, little has been done in terms of a comprehensive study of them.

Due to the depth of the material, we are presenting this in two related papers, Part I which looks at the characteristics of ET dreams and the views of ET dreamers, and Part II which offers explanations for this modern dreaming phenomenon. ET dreams share common ground with humanity= s dreaming history of dream encounters with otherworldly beings. Folklorist Thomas Bullard and UFO expert Jacques Vallee were among the first to compare ET experiences in general to fairy lore; however, comparisons can be broadened to include a wide range of dreams of demonic entities, angelic entities and so forth.

Are these dreams solely symbolic, or do they involve an adventure of consciousness into unknown realms? The answer may be both. Certainly ET dreams contain symbolic content related to the context of the dreamer= s life. They may also be projections of collective stress, as Jung suggested in his examination of the UFO. Personality and personal experience may be factors, as Kenneth Ring suggests in his A encounter-prone personality profile@ comparing ET experiencers with near-death experiencers. But these ET dreams may also be something more, related to a part of dreaming we do not yet fully understand.

The aim of ET Dreams: Part II B Explanations is to provide dreamworkers with information and ideas for consideration. I believe it is important to approach these types of dreams from different perspectives in order to honor the full integrity of the experience. For example, looking at these dreams as only symbolic material may not address the core experience for the dreamer.

My work for the past 20 years in the paranormal, mystical, metaphysical and spiritual fields has given me a broad perspective for putting ET dreams into a meaningful context of exceptional human experience.

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