Developments in Space / Pandemic Dreams

In the first half, science journalist and historian Robert Zimmerman discussed the latest news about private space enterprise, including SpaceX's launches and their various projects. Zubrin also shared commentary on COVID-19 and what he considers scare tactics by politicians and the press. SpaceX's success demonstrates that private companies can do space exploration better than NASA, he remarked. Their next-generation rocket, Starship, planned to be entirely re-usable, will have superior capabilities to the Saturn V rocket. They've actually deliberately blown up some of their prototypes of it, he noted, in order to test it for failure and build it better.

SpaceX's manned Dragon capsule, which recently brought astronauts to the ISS, was built for a tenth of what it would have cost NASA and in a much shorter space of time, he said. The best way our planet can protect itself from asteroid attacks, he added, is to have a competitive and robust space industry that is situated in space, as they will develop the technology and know-how to deal with such a threat. Regarding COVID, Zimmerman believes the virus isn't as dangerous as we've been told, and the lockdowns and government controls are an entrenchment on our rights and freedoms.

-----------------

In the latter half, Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., a dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, talked about how answers, ideas, and inspiration do indeed come to us in dreams, and why many people are experiencing 'COVID' dreams during the pandemic. She began an online survey on pandemic dreams on March 24th and so far has received over 9,000 responses, some of which are featured in her new book. Many pandemic-related dreams help process our fears and concerns, she noted, though sometimes they get caught up in repetitive anxieties. At the start of her survey, a lot of what she collected pertained to catching the virus-- sometimes more literal, other times more symbolic, such as a woman seeing blue stripes on her stomach, which in her dream was one of the first signs of the infection.

In her survey, there were also many metaphors for the virus, including earth catastrophes like tsunamis and earthquakes (similar to dreams she studied after 9-11), as well as bug attacks, which she found to be an apt visual representation of virus particles. As the survey continued, Barrett began to see more responses related to secondary effects of the pandemic, such as the lockdown (respondents described being in prison in some dreams). She has recently seen dream reports related to fears around the re-opening of society and having to go back to work. As a way to shape your dreams or increase lucidity, she suggested the practice of dream incubation-- making mental suggestions to yourself about the kind of dreams you want to have just as you are falling asleep.

News segment guests: Howard Bloom, Mish Shedlock