Layne Dalfen founded The Dream Interpretation Center in Montreal in 1997. In the first half, she talked about her dream analysis process and why nightmares are not always terrible but can offer solutions for solving problems. The most prevalent emotion behind nightmares is fear, but they "inevitably grab your attention, and that's the function of the unconscious," she remarked. In the case of nightmares where we're being chased, they might serve a beneficial purpose according to Threat Simulation Theory. This hypothesis suggests that nightmares could prepare people for real threats during their waking lives, akin to benefits gained from play fighting.
A dream is simply a conversation that you're having with yourself, she further explained, and to decode them, she looks at issues that have recently troubled a person. Dalfen named six points of entry that anyone can use to decipher what situation in their life triggered a current dream. These include feelings, repetition, symbols, action, plot, and puns (play on words). There is a multitasking aspect to dreams, she noted, with several different processes going on simultaneously. "We're problem-solving using memories from the past, from the present, and sometimes from the future," with elements of ESP and precognition coming into play at times, she marveled.
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Michael Brein, aka "The Travel Psychologist," is an author, storyteller, and publisher of travel books and guides. In the latter half, he shared tales he's collected of people's unusual experiences, including ghosts, paranormal phenomena, synchronicities, time slips, visions, and more. A good friend of the late author Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Brein collaborated with her on two of his "Road to Strange" books. Because of her intense interest in the afterlife, some have wondered whether she would attempt to communicate back to the living. So far, there hasn't been anything definite, he said, though a friend of hers claimed she heard Rosemary's distinctive voice coming through on a radio, saying, "it's me, it's me." For more, check out Brein's related photos.
Brein detailed how people often have moments of precognition, especially when they're traveling. He described his own experience after he parked his vehicle in a Barcelona suburb and had an ominous feeling that something was wrong with it while he was walking around the city. Indeed, when he returned to it, he found that one of the windows had been broken. Brein recounted the tale of a ghost dog told to him by one of the scriptwriters of "Touched by an Angel." She would feel the imprint of the dog's paws on her bed as if it was looking for its owner. Strangely, one of her coworkers reported having similar ghost dog experiences at a different location. He also delved into his work with ufology, and a "time slip" case, in which crop circle researcher Ron Russell, while in a field, said he felt like he fell into another reality where the tram lines merged. It seemed to be a medieval scene with fires burning in the distance. Later, when he went to show a friend, the tram lines no longer converged.
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Steve Kates