Showing posts with label M. T. Crenshaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M. T. Crenshaw. Show all posts

The Third Reich of dreams: The nightmares of a nation, 1933-1939 by Charlotte Beradt & Bruno Bettelheim (1968))

, 17 Oct 2020


I came across this book thanks to an article in the New Yorker and an interview with the psychotherapist Martha Crawford (who has recently carried out a research project on Trump dreams) in which she quotes this book as a source of inspiration.
 
This is a terrific book that feels as fresh and poignant as ever. The book covers the period that precedes WW2. Many of these dreams came to light before the racial laws, persecution, denigration and killing of Jews started.
 
The book is short and fascinating, but not an easy read by any means. The dreams Beradt selected are really interesting, most of them very expressive.

 

Dream Reports.
Charlotte Beradt was a German Jewish journalist. After the Nazis got in power, she was forbidden to publish anything. Besides, she was arrested during the first mass detentions of Communists carried out in Germany. After her release, she started gathering dream reports. By 1939, she had gathered dreams from more than 300 people. I am not sure whether that equals to 300 dreams, as The New Yorker says, because that is not stated in the book, or at least in the edition I've read. In fact, Beradt mentions that some of the dreamers had recurrent dreams about a certain subject, so I guess the volume was higher than 300 dreams.
 
She gathered some of them by candidly asking people about their dreams. Others were obtained through friends, especially thru a doctor friend who asked his patients during consultation. The dreamers came from different social backgrounds, had different ages and gender, and were both Jews and non-Jews. A common denominator was the deep impact that the dream had had in them.
 
After writing the dreams and changing leading Nazi leaders' names to coded family-like names, she hide the transcripts inside the binding of her personal books. When the burning of books and home intrusions began in Germany, Beradt mailed her notes to friends overseas.
 
 
Publication.
During WW2, in 1943, the magazine Free World published a small selection of 'her' dreams titled, "Dreams Under Dictatorship". Beradt says in her book that the time circumstances prevented her from evaluating all the material. She published the book in German in 1966 and in English in 1968.  She recognizes the advantage of having delayed the publication. By the time she started the book, a good amount of archival and historical information was ready available, something that helped her to better contextualize the dreams she had gathered.
 
 
Types of Dreams.
Each chapter deals with a type of dream reaction to the then current political situation. Several types of dreams can be clearly distinguished.
 
Propaganda Dreams.
Political propaganda and Nazi imagery start to 'infect' dreams and appear as specific dream motifs -- banners, posters, media messages and tones. Dreamers begin to feel that life is losing its joy.
 
 
Spied-on Dreams.
Dreams involving household objects that record the dreamers' voice or thoughts at home, for the regime to spy on them. Some dreamers would censor themselves in the dream so that they couldn't be spied, even if it is by speaking in images or languages they don't even understand; this was not a dream ego's decision, but an unconscious decision.
 
 
Unable-to-Speak Dreams.
In these dreams, dreamers are reluctant or unable to speak their truth when there are Nazi people in the  dream. Another person, usually a foreigner, comes forward and speaks their mind, replicating the dreamer's thoughts.
 
 
Dissociative Dreams.
The dreamer wants to dissociate from Jewish family members, friends or love interests, even if they had just a tiny amount of Jewish blood. The regime's pressure invades and pervades their dreams, so the dreamer feels that there is nothing one can do but to comply.
 
 
Wrong-Race Dreams.
Dreamers, in their dreams, would be marginalized, confronted or punished for having physical features that weren't those belonging to the "superior" race -- Nordic traits, white skin, and blond hair. In this group, Beradt also includes dreams of dreamers suffering the same treatment not because of their race, but because they adhered to ideologies that weren't that of National Socialism.
 
 
Resistance Dreams.
Dreams from people who offered active resistance to the regime. Their dreams clearly reflect their waking life attitudes. They take action, and neither parodied, morphed or degraded themselves to conform, fit in or hide.
 
 
Wishy-Washy Dreams.
In these dreams, the dreamer has a readiness to deceive and construct alibis for oneself while getting closer and moving towards the dominant force, people and ideology. That is, there is an ambivalence between not liking what is occurring in the dream, or the people in the dream, but also longing for being part of that very group or situation they dislike. 'I don’t have to always say no anymore” summarises well this attitude of belonging.
 
 
Pals-with-Hitler Dreams.
The dreamer is friends with or advisor of Hitler, Goering, or Goebbels. Beradt says that these dreams clearly show the connection between power and the erotic. They seem to be more prominent in women, replicating the pro-Hitler voting patterns of women. By the way, these dreams came from people who weren't part of the system or didn't desire to submit to it.
 
 
The Jews' Dreams.
Their dreams dealt with problems of disorientation, depersonalization, loss of identity, continuity, emigration, nostalgia, and fear of losing one's mother tongue, among others. Fear and anxiety pervade them. More than any other dreamers, Jews were able to recognize the aims and principles of totalitarianism and foresee their consequences. Their dreams ring prophetic in retrospect and have a dream imagery with an almost-naturalistic clairvoyance. These dreams had dramatic events involving passports, visas and personal documents.
 
 
Nuggets.
Feelings.
The totalitarian regime produced alienation, isolation, loss of identity, dislocation, and feeling of not being able to psychologically escape the horror, even when the dreamers had already flown Germany.
 
We witness dreamers' anxiety, helplessness, and near absence of wish to fight back. This is so because totalitarian systems build on people's inner anxiety. At its turn, this anxiety prevents one from directing his/her resentment towards the source that generates it, and deflect it to people or situations that aren't the source of their suffering.

The dreams that reflected the dreamer's anxiety about being dark-haired or dark-skinned echo the Afro-American's attitudes toward their own skin. (It clearly shows in a  speech that Lupita Nyongo gave speaking about her feelings of inadequacy about her skin colour and her beauty.) That is, they felt that there was something undesirable within them; this feeling opened them to psychological defeat as those who saw things that way took advantage of that.

 
The Unconscious.
The Nazi regime destroyed the healthy balance between submission and self-assertion. It invaded and controlled the deepest most private recesses of the mind until, even in the unconscious, only submission remained.

Dreamers had the unconscious need to purge their own unconscious mind of any desire to fight back, of any belief that rebellion can succeed, as any expression of hatred or resistance endangered one's life.

To the personal unconscious the cost of  fighting for freedom against the regime is too high, so it considers bondage and submission a better option. That's the case even in the dreams of people who believed that they could still salvage some things.

Weaknesses.
Totalitarian regimes succeed because they aggravate people's inner weaknesses, feed on them, depriving people from the strength to fight back.

When a dictatorship establishes itself in the paternal position, it starts treating everyone as an incompetent child. Even more, everyone unconsciously assumes that that's their position. The result is a regression in the person's unconscious to the infantile stance, which further favours their manipulation and control.

If people had been unequivocally clear about their alliance or rejection of the Nazis, there wouldn't have been room for inner conflict. People in the resistance clearly stood up against the Nazis in their dreams,  and their unconscious didn't show any hesitance, conflict or double alliance.
 
 
Epilogue.
Bettleheim's Layer.
The epilogue is an essay by the then prestigious (now infamous) Austrian psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, a Jewish who was in two concentration camps but was lucky enough to survive. Beradt wasn't a psychologist, so Bettelheim commentary offers an extra layer of analysis an sums up things for the reader quite well. He's able to explain how dictatorship does to destroy people's uniqueness, inner resistance, and how it reverts adult consciousness. Using Berad'st dreams he also explains how totalitarianism can turn people into alienated fearful unconscious psychological pawns at the regime's service.

At times, Bettleheim shows a patronising attitude towards Beradt, something that I didn't like at all.

Concentration Camps Dreams.
He compares Beradt's selected dreams and dreamer's attitudes with those that the Jews in concentration camps had. Bettelheim says:
"The concentration camp prisoner hardly ever dreamt about the dangers that stalked him, nor about persecution by the Nazis. (...)  There was no more struggle in the unconscious between the wish to be oneself and the wish to give in to the Nazis, for most of what mattered had already been destroyed. (...) Most of their dreams were of the good times they had had or were going to have—reassuring themselves that the nightmare of the camps was not permanent. Others were dreams of escape or revenge. (...). We know of the dreams of resistance fighters (...) Hardly any of them were about forcing oneself to obey the enemy by suppressing one's will".

Premonitions.
Bettelheim explains the prophetic and premonitory nature of many of the dreams presented in the book as a natural phenomenon. They are a wise guess/reading of the subconscious, which clearly foresees what the situation is, and where things are heading.

The 'It' Question.
He makes the million-dollar question,"If all of us abhorred the Third Reich, why did it exist? Must there not have been feelings, unknown to our conscious mind, that condoned it, accepted it, willed it? Even among those who lived in fear and trembling of the Nazis, might there not have been in them somewhere, deep down, a layer of soul closely kin to that regime of terrible domination?"  Although his comments seems a bit insensitive and confronting, they are actually a reflection on what Jung called the Shadow, the collective version of it.
 
 
My Thoughts.
Freshness.
This book feels fresh despite the many decades elapsed since Beradt wrote it. In the current times of revival of extremism, fascism and populism, this book is a powerful reminder of how totalitarian regimes can easily mince and amalgamate our individual psyche into a mass of nothingness.

Methodology.
The fact that Beradt and/or her friends transcribed the dreams and not always the dreamer, poses some methodological questions.  Were all the reports reliable and trustworthy? Did Beradt & Co. transfer psychological personal stuff into their transcriptions?

Complex Language.
Beradt and Bettleheim's political and psychological analysis is excellent. However, the language they use is sometimes complex, and many lay readers might struggle with the authors' digressions.
 
 
No Beradt or Bettleheim's Dreams.
Beradt was a Jew and lived in Germany in the period of her study. Why didn't she share any of her dreams? Were her dreams disguised in the book?  I would have loved her comments on how the regime affected her personal dream world.
 
Bettleheim speaks about the dreams of Jews in concentration camps. However, he neither mentions anything personal. Perhaps what he says refers to himself, but I would have loved something more explicit coming from him because he had first-hand experience.

No Nazis' Dreams.
I agree with Bettleheim that it would have been good collecting dreams from the Nazis, their supporters, or those who didn't mind the regime, and then compare them with those presented in the book. However, one cannot expect Beradt to collect them because she was a prosecuted Jew and it would have not been wise to approach Nazi sympathizers and ask them about their dreams.
 
A study of this type would be really revealing. It would give us a glimpse into the collective unconscious overall, and what really created the monster. Were the regime's sympathizers also secretly resisting? Did they feel superior in their dreams? Did this people's dreams show fear of the Jews? Of the Nazis? Was their dream world much different from the non-supporters?

Nightmares or Bad Dreams?
Despite the title, there is no clear statement in the book about whether the dreams commented on were true nightmares, bad dreams or normal dreams with bad stories. We just know that some of them were recurrent and distressing. This differentiation is important to evaluate the real impact they had in the dreamer's life, and to see where the trauma sat, in which stage the trauma was.

Belonging.
I am not sure whether the best-pals-with-Hitler dreams are solely a reflection of the eroticism of power. I'd  say that, if you are in danger because a bully wants to hurth you, you would secretely wish to be friends with them so that you wouldn't be attacked. Besides, you would not understand why you you were being singled out and bullied, so it would be just natural wishing that they knew how lovely you are, and accept you for who you are, so their peers woud also see it. I also think that the transparency myth might be playing a role here. One expect well-manered warm passionate people to be good, not a killing monster.

Identity Papers.
Dreams revolving about passports and visas are  common among immigrants, even if they live in a democracy. Yet, the dream motif rightly points out to how strongly our identity and our papers are linked in the modern world.

Social Dreaming.
Beradt's book shows how dreams are both the fruit of our personal unconscious and of the collective unconscious. She says that these dreams were conceived independently of their authors’ conscious will and were dictated to them by dictatorship. We can consider it a precursor of Social Dreaming, which departs from the premise that our dreams offer infinite insight into the world we live in. "The unconscious is a source of thinking for systems and for society, and that dreams are an unconscious form of thinking that may give access to what is not otherwise known or thought."

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The Premonition Code: The Science of Precognition by Theresa Cheung & Julia Mossbridge (2018).

, 3 Dec 2019

The Premonition Code is a book that intends to explain precognition and promote controlled precognitive training called controlled precognition based on positive grounds and well-rounded ethics; the trainees are called Positive Precogs.

The book starts with an introduction to how the book came to be, the stories that inspired it, and the analysis of some scientific information that relates to precognition: the nature of time, causality law, retrocausality, causal loops, and multiple futures. The second part is actually where the training to develop or further your precognitive abilities and skills is discussed and explained in detail. Part three is mostly devoted to the FAQ and to speculation about what the future holds for precognitive people and precognition.

 

THE CORE OF THE BOOK

  • There is more to this life than meets the eye, precognition exists. The definition of precognition that the authors use is consistent with the many-futures theory.
  • There may be a spiritual dimension to precognition.
  • Most of the precognitive stories that people have, despite being real, they are not scientifically verifiable, or easily verifiable either. How do we know that someone has had a genuinely precognitive dream experience is nothing can know with 100% certainty at present.
  • There is a lot of disagreement about how the flow of time works and how or whether one thing causes another. 
  • The criteria necessary to validate that a precognition is genuine: 1/ Two or more correspondences between the precognition and the event. 2/ Less than two weeks delay between the precognition and the event). 3/ One could not have the way to predict the event using the conscious mind. 4/ You recorded the experience before the event happened.
  • The training to become what they call positive precogs, i.e. rained precognitive people who follow a code of contact and use their abilities for good purposes.  This code is based on:
    •  Following the R.E.A.C.H. principles: Respect for the unknown — Ethics in our use of precognition — Accuracy of our precognitive skills — Compassion for ourselves and others —Honesty in all our dealings. 
    • Adhering to the Positive Precog Time Worldview: 1/ Events in the future can influence events in the past and vice versa. 2/The future isn't fixed. 3/ No one has complete control of the future.
    • Daily practicing on controlled precognition, and record of dreams, premonition experiences, and strong impulses an insights related to future events. 
    • Following the six steps for controlled precognition: Step 1: Prepare physically, mentally and practically. Step 2: Reverse the polarity: write down an intention that supports you, and open yourself to receive. Step 3: Connect to the target: give your session a random 4 digit number, draw a squiggle, and set the intention of connecting with the target. Step 4: Learn and discern. Step 5: Disconnect from the target. Step 6: Experience the target.
    •  Following a professional code of ethics with clients.

CURIO

  • The frequency of precognition increases as the event being predicted nears. It’s really rare to have a precognitive dream that predicts an event as far as a year after the dream itself, although it happens.
  • Some personality traits are more conducive to performing well at precognition experiments in the lab. These are: Openness to experience, extroversion, belief in precognition, agreeableness, neuroticism and conscientiousness.  They are enhanced by meditation and affected by hormonal changes.   
  • Alpha and theta entrainment might help with controlled precognition.
  •  Pursuing controlled precognition in an environment that is not supportive can be destabilizing, and affect patients mentally, especially if they already have underlying psychological problems, or have a history of mental illness in their family.

I LIKED

> The authors are direct and honest about the subject, and show an unwavering enthusiasm about the benefits that training in controlled precognition can bring to one's life and the future of society. 
> The different approaches that both authors bring to precognition: science and spirit, academic and lay.
> The book is written in a very direct personal way, plain English, and is easy to understand by any lay person.
> I especially loved this statement by Dean Radin in the foreword:
"Some scientists today assert (with the same misplaced confidence displayed by Lord Kelvin) that now we understand just about everything there is to know about the physical world. They are sure they know what is and is not possible. To them, precognition is flatly impossible because today’s theories don’t allow for such nonsense. Some philosophers also believe that precognition is impossible because they think the idea of knowing the future is logically incoherent. What these scientists and scholars forget is that our theories about reality are always provisional. Our college textbooks are revised into new editions every couple of years because our understanding of reality is continually advancing." (p. 6).
> The precognitive and premonitory personal stories included in the book. I don't think there are too many!
> The controlled precognition system. It is really well explained and structured. Although they suggest the use of paper, I think it can be easily done on a tablet where you have stylus to draw.
> The presence of summary  boxes throughout the book. Also, the way the authors stop to summarize what has been said and what lies ahead. It's very didactic and helpful for the reader.
> Some of the scientific stuff related to precognition is not easy to process by lay readers. Mossbridge has really made an effort to explain those things as simple as possible, and present us with the complexity of issues that relate to precognition explained in a simple way.
> Their definition of precognition (a “memory” of the future) and the explanation on what's the difference between precognition and premonition.
> The reflections on the nature of time in chapter 2 are among my favorite thing in the book. I especially liked seeing how neither physicist, philosophers nor psychologists agree on the flow of time existence, and how little we know about this subject. I wonder if this is like the "flat earth" fallacy of our times.
> The way the authors question the law of causality using real precognitive dreams.
> The information about retrocausality.
> The code of ethics and REACH protocol that they want 'positive precogs' to follow.
> The use of proper academic notes, something especially important when some heavy scientific stuff is mentioned.
> The FAQ in part 3.
>  The controlled precognition troubleshooting guide. 
> Appendix A, which contains an example of controlled precognition, step by step. 
> Appendix B, contains a list of bibliography, websites and phone applications related to precognition. All up to date, hyperlinked and ready to use. Something that I never take for granted and that makes using any book a pleasure.
> Mentions to figures in the book are hyperlinked. Thank you. 

I DIDN'T LIKE.

> Use of the expression Higher Self to mean subconscious/the unconscious. It is confusing because HS  is commonly used in New Age books and has a standard and a status that might confuse readers.
> They call the training on precognition they promote "controlled precognition", but it is just a form of remote viewing. If they had made that clearer in the book description, I might have not purchased it. Whey? Because there are some very good books by the remote viewing masters themselves, and some of them have websites where to practice, as well.
> They speak of precognition as a gift. I think it is just an ability that one can develop, like playing an instrument, or playing sports. Of course, if you are at the top of your game in any activity you might really have a gift. Otherwise, I don't think so.
> I found difficult wrapping my head about causal loops. It might be just me, but it relates to precognition but it is not the same, but it might be  related... confusing.
> Some parts of the book are highly speculative and generic. This is especially the case when they describe how life will change if you practice controlled precognition, and the last words devoted to imagine how the future might be if controlled precognition was a mainstream activity.
>  Constant promotion of their website. Granted, they don't sell anything or charge you for joining their training program. However, it is a bit tiring, and at a certain point the reader feels that the book is just an accessory to the website.
> I don't like precognition being used or recommended to be used in anything related to the stock market. The stock market is highly unethical, so why would anyone with a good code of ethics have anything to do with a system that is populated by companies and corporations that contribute to global warming, war, poverty and destroy nations and  ruin complete families who have nothing to do with it?
> Despite the fact that they state that most spontaneous precognition arrives via dreams, there is little space devoted to discuss how premonitory dreams can come to be; leaving aside the specific dreams that they mention in the book, the information that they present on dreams is really basic.
>  One of the criteria mentioned for a genuine precognition to be valid is that there should be less than two weeks separation between the precognition and the event it referred to. My personal experience says that this is not always the case. Besides, I've read tons of books on dreams, and there are cases of premonition that take years to occur.

WHERE WAS THE EDITOR?

 I think the book needs of another reading by the editor. I found the following examples of bad edition, some of which might be just the result of the conversion of the book to electronic format. Others, no.
  • Bad bullet list —  the sentence "Wait, you might now ask – what exactly is a causal loop?" should go underneath the numbered list that summarizes what the authors had said before.  (p. 42).
  • Badly done bullet list — There is a list of the traits that 'positive precogs' tend to have, it is an example on how to make a list. The list start with three items bulleted, then comments on others, which are also part of the list but not bulleted. Homogenize please! (p. 83)
  • Not formal or really good English — "updates on what she’s found". (p. 87).
  • Badly written — "First, it’s because remote viewing an event not known until the future is not really what it sounds like – as if you see something far away in space" (p. 90).
  • Missing hyphen or space — "complex decisionmaking" (p. 93) or "anxietyproducing" (p. 162).
  • Repeated words — "can be experienced by by practicing" in (p. 123).
  • Footnotes seemed to have converted badly, and some numerical ones alternate with lettered ones.
  • Besides, some of the lettered notes are not hyperlinked (K and M especially) while others are. 

IN SHORT

Overall this is a good book, packed with information, which touches on subjects that go from the mundane to the highly scientific, from the personal to the transpersonal.

I was expecting something different from what I got, as their controlled precognition training is pretty much remote viewing revamped. However, I also think that they have a fresh new approach to it, and that their system is uncomplicated to put it into practice, although it needs of training and constant practice. 

For the rest, the book reads well, is very enjoyable, and it has a good mix of personal stories and complex scientific matters digested for the masses. However, I would have liked it more if it was written a bit less colloquially, it had been better edited, and had less references to their website. These ladies depart from ethical principles for the use and training on precognition, something that must be praised.

A very enjoyable reading and I learned a lot about things I knew nothing about.

The Premonition Code is such a great title!



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Dream Wisdom: Uncovering Life's Answers in Your Dreams by Alan B. Siegel (2015)

, 29 Jun 2019

Dream Wisdom is a book that focuses on dreams in specific phases and development stages of one's life, from the womb to death.

 THE GOOD

Dream Wisdom is a roundup book because it has everything you want to know about dream recall, dream writing, dream tending, specific types of dreams.
You will learn why attending to your dreams is important to highlight emotional discomfort, anxiety, insecurities and fears associated with life transitions to integrate them.
The book is written in a very accessible language and, therefore, easy to read, engaging, and entertaining.
The dreams selected and short and sweet and are perfect to exemplify what Siegel is talking about. Right to the point, and never too convoluted, to lengthy or too personal not to be understood by the reader.

I especially loved chapters 11 and 12. In chapter 11 Siegel goes through the history of dreamwork and examines the contribution of different dream schools to the field, but explained in a simple language.  I agree with Siegel that an eclectic approach to dreamwork, instead of siding up with just one system or school, has many advantages and allows a multifaceted approach to dreams that, in the end, benefits the dreamer. Chapter 12 is a practical guide to work with your dreams. Among other things, you'll learn:
  • How to remember dreams.
  • How to write a dream diary.
  • How to use active imagination to work with them (he calls it dream space, dreaming the dream onward, dream reentering), gelstat (dream dialogue), dream art, embodied dreamwork through dramatization.
  • How to create your very own dream symbol and theme dictionary.
  • How to work with nightmares.
  • How to use dream incubation.

Chapter 8 on PSTD nightmares, plus what he says on nightmares in general in chapter 12, highlight the healing properties of our dreams and how important is to paying attention to them after traumatic events to heal that trauma and possible preexisting ones.
I especially loved the chapters on children's dreams (chapter 3) and the dreams related to pregnancy from expectant parents (chapter 4) . Especially fascinating are what Siegel calls fetal identification dreams, something of which I knew nothing: "In these dreams, the father-to-be unconsciously expresses the power of his prenatal bond with his child by taking on a role that is directly parallel to the experience of the fetus in the womb. Late in pregnancy, it is not uncommon for men to dream of popping out of caves or emerging from underwater bubbles." (p. 23)
The advice Siegel gives to therapists on how to incorporate and use dreams in therapy is also important:   "therapists working with dreams should not overemphasize or push an agenda of seeking out recovered memories. They should weave a balance between taking upsetting dreams and their possible connection to past trauma very seriously and being cautious about taking dream symbols too literally." (242-243).

 

 THE SO-SO

The Structure

The two final chapters seem to me to be the foundation of dreamwork, and therefore should have been at the beginning of the book. I think people who pick up the dream and have never read anything about dreamwork, would appreciate these being at the beginning, not at the end.

Repetitive

The same concept and ideas are repeated over and over again with different words and applied at most dreams in different phases of one´s life. From that point of view, there is nothing specific about those dreams, they provide the sort of information one find in all dreams if one pays attention to.

Some chapters

I didn't find the chapter on grieving and dreams especially inspired. 

In the chapter on middle age, Siegel states: "Menopause requires mourning the loss of identity as a woman able to bear children. When a woman’s grief can be expressed and resolved, a new birth occurs: the beginning of a new phase of life that offers the excitement and challenge of new roles and identities and new sources of fulfillment. (p. 150).

I found this to be a bit of crappola and bordering offensive. Statements of this type basically stand on the principle that women define themselves by their womb, by having children and by being able to conceive forever ad infinitum. There must be women like that, certainly, women for which giving birth and being fertile are the core of their being, but I don't think most women would accept Siegel's statement without frowning or being irritated. Menopause has undeniable hormonal changes, which affect the body, but these effects vary from woman to woman; however, menopause can also be a period of sexual freedom and heightened libido (so many men want to forget that altogether because they don't want to hear it)  and a period of true maturity. Of course, if you are in your 30s or 40s, wanting to conceive and get an early menopause, that's a terrible thing. I think that the crisis that many women experience at middle age is not related to their fertility but mostly to upheavals in their relationships, career and empty nest syndrome.
The bibliography at the end of the book is a bit outdated, something that can be easily fixed on the Kindle edition. 

NOT SURE   

One of the items of advice that Sielgel gives to favour dream recall is: "Review the day’s events in the evening before going to sleep. You can write your review in your journal or share it with your partner. Focus on interactions and events that provoked strong feelings. This can make you more sensitive to the issues that you’re most likely to dream about and heighten the probability that you’ll remember a dream." (p. 246). This might be useful, especially if you are starting to write your dream journal. However, in my experience this is not necessary. I find revising some stressful events in my day at night a way to keep me away, not to induce me to sleep well and recall more dreams.  It might be just me.

 

KINDLE EDITION

Overall, this is a polished Kindle edition with not typos or oddities on sight, and with notes and most cross references properly hyperlinked. I say most, because there are some that aren't. The hyperlink to Siege's own website directs to a Japanese unrelated site. Also, some parts of the text might have been linked, especially references to the book index; e.g. p. 254. Also the link to the educational page  of the Association of Study of Dreams devoted to nightmares in p.  8. has changed from the one in the book to this one. 

OVERALL

This is a very nice and readable book with plenty of practical information about dreams on transitional periods of life. It can be read from beginning to end, or by choosing isolated chapters. Its price is a bonus!

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This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See by Seth Godin (2018)

, 31 Mar 2019

This is the first book I read by Godin, and I've enjoyed it so much that I will certainly read more of his works in the future. In the past I read marketing books for pleasure, not to be 'manipulated' by advertisers, i.e. as a shield kind of thing.Cialdini's first book ('Influence') has always been a book of reference for me in that regard. However, I've always felt that it fell short for the needs of the modern contemporary Internet-dominated society and market.

This is Marketing fills the gap, adding elements that are relevant to the social, cultural and marketing reality of the 21st century; elements that I can use to think about selling my services without having to think about learning psychological tactics that are already well-known, have been used and overused for decades, and no longer work.

 

TARGET READER

Godin's book is a a book that gives you food-for-thought more than a book that provides you with a proper system to implement things. Godin himself states that this is not a step-by-step set of tactics but a compass and, to me, that's true. To me that's inspirational.

I see the book more targeted to lay people and small biz entrepreneurs than a book devoted to professional marketers, who might react with a 'what?!" to some of the points that Godin makes. 

 

GODIN'S CORE MARKETING PRINCIPLES

+ Marketing seeks more market share, more customers, and more work. 
+ Marketing is driven by better service, better community, and better outcomes.  
+ Marketing creates culture:  Status, affiliation, and people like us.  
+ Marketing is change: Change the culture, change your world. Marketers make change happen.  
+ Each of us is a marketer and has the ability to make more change than we can imagine. 
+ Our opportunity and our obligation is to do marketing that we’re proud of.

 

GREAT THINGS 

+ The thing I like the most about this book is Godin's clear understanding of contemporary group dynamics, conformity trends, cultural disruption, and cultural influence. Above all, what stands out to me is the author's emphasis on serving the client or customer, treating them with respect, and not selling yourself too short in the process.

+ Probably because I experience the over-dominance of Facebook and Google as something dangerous and even burdensome, I loved Godin's insistence on narrative instead of advertising, and on care as a way to obtain profit.

+ Godin debunks the fallacy of the efficiency of FB and Google paid adds in marketing small businesses. 

+ The book reads with gusto, and has a very simple language.

+ Some of the examples that Godin uses to exemplify his points are really good, too.

+ The explanation of why the same book gets both 1-star and 5-star reviews is really good.

+ The advice on how to treat loyal customers who ring a call center to complain.

+ The definition of goal, and how it differs from a strategy and a tactic. 

+ The difference between direct marketing and brand marketing, and why the latter is better for your biz. 

+ The selected readings list at the end of the book is really good. 

+ Godin's remarks on permission. 

MY FAVORITE NUGGETS

>  "Online advertising is also the most ignored advertising ever created. It’s not unusual to run an ad in front of a hundred thousand people and get not a single click. It’s not unusual for an entire ad campaign to start, run, and finish without making any impact on the culture. (p. 169). 
>  "If you’re buying direct marketing ads, measure everything. Compute how much it costs you to earn attention, to get a click, to turn that attention into an order. Direct marketing is action marketing, and if you’re not able to measure it, it doesn’t count." (p. 172).  
>  "The lifetime value of a new customer rarely exceeds the cost of running the ads necessary to get a new customer. People are so distrustful, and the web is so cluttered, that the ads rarely have enough power to pay for themselves."  (p. 210).
> "Lowering your price doesn’t make you more trusted. It does the opposite." (p. 185).

 WHERE TO START READING

~ The Simple Marketing Sheet at the end of the book, especially if you get to book to help you market something you want to sell.  

~ Chapter 23, as it summarizes the main points discussed in the book .

 

DOWNSIDES

 __ The core message is repeated over and over again, sometimes unnecessarily.

__ I would have loved that Godin provided a few more examples on certain points he makes to make his advice more precise and less generic. 

__ Some statements are a bit vague. An example: "And then, with this knowledge, overdo your brand marketing. Every slice of every interaction ought to reflect the whole. Every time we see any of you, we ought to be able to make a smart guess about all of you." (p. 175). 

__ The book reads like an upgraded collection of blog entries, which makes a great read, but lacks the patina of seriousness that makes things trustworthy for the newcomer. When you get a footnote system where you back what you say, the trust is immediately there; when you don't do that, I have the doubt whether some of the statements are hyperbolic or just a way of speaking. No doubt, Godin is  a powerful voice in the marketing world, but I have difficulties taking bombastic statements at face value, no matter how much I like the speaker.  

__ Godin defines marketing in p. 2 as "the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem". I consider that BS, sorry. I think marketing is the act of selling something to people who might need or not need it, might want it or not, especially the act of selling to people who would initially say no to something.

__ Godin repeats over and over that marketers create change. I think that's a bit of BS, too. The way I see it is, marketers sell change, and that's great in itself. People who really make change in the world, do so mostly outside the marketing world, sorry. The world of ideas, the word of science, the world of art, the world of technology. I see change coming from scientists, philosophers, artists, and innovators, not so much from marketers. Navel-looking hyperbolas work when giving a conference, in a book, not so much. 

MIND

Godin himself states that the book is based on a hundred-day seminar that involved both lessons and peer-to-peer coaching around shared work. (p.2), and that some bits of his blog are also incorporated (p. 259). 

BAD ENGLISH 

> “Treat the others the way you’d want to be treated.” (p. 234). 
> “Build a team with the capacity and the patience to do the work that needs doing.” (p. 235).


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Cicada by Shaun Tan (2018)

, 21 Feb 2019

This is a short story about a cicada who works in a  human corporate building, and feels mistreated and unappreciated.

The way the story is painted and the main character are an example of Tan's artistic mastery.  I love the grey and green main tones of the story, the wondrous Etcher-like settings, and the awesome atmosphere, something that looks effortlessly easy because Tan is a genius at what he does.  The precision of his drawing pen and the artistry of his paintings are totally awesome, as well as his chiaroscuro work. The book has a cinematic feeling to me, too.

The story, though, is simplistic, which is understandable as the target readers are both children and adults.  As an adult who has read almost everything published by Tan, I feel that the story is a bit sketchy and might not resonate with everyone. That's my case. Yes, for sure I can get the story lesson. I'm sure that it will help children and adults see that one can always escape oppressive circumstances, people and settings and fly away, choose how one lives; however, the way the story is narrated feels a bit lacking to me. Put it differently, the book feels more like a sketch of a story to be further developed than a round story.

I love everything that Tan draws and paints, and buy almost everything he publishes, but the storytelling here feels a bit hurried up and not polished enough to me.


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Healing the Nightmare. Freeing the Soul. A Practical Guide to Dreamwork by Margaret Bowater (2016)

, 10 Feb 2019

If you have never read a book about nightmares and want to start with one that is written in lay language, simple to understand, enjoyable to read, and with a good selection of nightmares, this is your book.

The first part of the book, Groundwork, the conclusion chapter, and some of the bulleted items of advice presented at the end of each chapter are the most useful items of advice you'll find in the book. The Further Reading selection and some of the information collected from secondary sources referred to throughout the book is excellent; the footnotes are really professional, and linked back and forth, nothing I take for granted.
The collection of dreams used throughout the book is really good and show well how trauma appears in dreams and how dreamwork can heal the psyche and the soul wounds. The book is organized around different specific traumatic experiences that generate bad dreams or nightmares. Thus, we find examples of:
> War veterans, after-surgery, work-related stress, and natural disasters dreams.
> Children nightmares related to bullying, sexual abuse, domestic violence of hospitalization.
> Nightmares resulting from physical and mental illnesses.
> Nightmares related to spiritual issues like, for example, loss of meaning, loss of love, religious crisis, encounters with the evil, spiritual emergence, spiritual invasion and spiritual healing.
> Psychic nightmares like telepathic and telesomatic dreams, precognitive warning dreams, clairvoyance, past-life and prophetic dreams. 
> Dreams related to psychological death and dreams that appear before dying. 


REALLY USEFUL TIPS
One of the main takes of the book for the lay reader is how beneficial dreamwork is for people who suffer from nightmares and bad dreams, and how transformational it can be.
Some of the things I found more useful and practical are the following:
> The seven-step model to start working with a dream: 1. Ask the dreamer to tell the dream and sketch it. 2. Notice the setting. 3. Identify what the ‘I-figure’ of the dream is feeling and doing. 4. Ask how this fits with the dreamer’s life context at the time. 5. Get the dreamer's associations with dream elements. 6. Does the dream story need a better ending? 7. Consider possible meanings. To which an eight can be added: choose a nightmare and imagine a new ending for it.
> What to do if a child shows trauma reactions: 1. Calm the child down and reassure them of your protection. 2. Encourage the child to tell you the nightmare in detail and to draw it. Don't minimize the feelings involved. Help them to create a different ending that  supports the child's self-esteem. 3. Take seriously repeating nightmares in which the child’s body is invaded and listen to the child without making any suggestion. If the child’s behavior is seriously disturbed, consult a child psychotherapist.

> The five stages of healing process that appear in series of nightmares: 1. Self-protection. 2. Acknowledgement. 3. Effects. 4. Growth and understanding. 5. Renegotiation.
> The method to work with our shadow in dreamwork.
> The 'Martian Interview', which is a kind of gestalt technique.
CORE MESSAGES OF THE BOOK
> Dreams in general and nightmares in particular have all a beneficial function for the psyche if they are dealt with appropriately.
> All dreams present a similar format, except for the fact that the storyline is interrupted at the heated point in nightmares.
> Series of nightmares, when working on them, through dreamwork, tend to show a favourable positive progression, until the core fear or issue is faced and resolved, and then the nightmares also stop. However, those series of nightmares that are persistently or increasingly disturbing need of psychological or medical attention.
> Children having nightmares need to be listened to, and attention given to their dreams to see what is creating stress in their waking life. Never disregard a child's dream or tell them that it is only a dream.
  

DOWNSIDES
Bowater has great experience working with traumatic dreams and nightmares; however, her voice  is muffled by herself and she appears more like a dream compiler than an independent strong voice. It is a pity because she could have provided us with more practical tools to explore nightmares and rely more on her own experiential work as dream-worker. Unfortunately, some of the most interesting information used in the book comes not from direct experience but from secondary sources.
The chapter on psychic dreams barely has any nightmare in it except for those associated to the past-life section. 

Some of the items of advice Bowater gives are too generic or too common sense to be of help or something you expect to find in a book written by an experienced dream practitioner. Some of the self-help items mentioned at the end of each chapter can be easily found on the web.
I would have loved a bit of more detail about how to work with dreams, more specifically directed to people starting as dream practitioners, and a bit of more personal reflections derived from Bowater's own experience and less references to other people's work.
Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven, which Bowater mentions in her book, has been highly criticized as untruthful or scientifically questionable, and labelled a con by many people.

EXTRA
Some of the dreams are illustrated, and the illustrations are really fun and cute.However, the quality of reproduction is not good on Kindle for Android or in Kindle for PC.

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The Enlightened Sex Manual: Sexual Skills for the Superior Lover by David Deida (2007)

, 12 Jan 2019

If you have never read Deida, want to read one of his books and are undecided on which one to  choose, this is, to me, your book. Whether you read it or listen to it in Audible format, this is the clearer more practical Deida, still with all the points that make him one of the must-reads in couples relationships.

If you have read other books by Deida, you'll find that many of the things he  says here, no surprise, are a rehearse of what he said in Intimate Communion and It's a guy Thing or Instant Enlightenment :
>  The difference between love, fall in love and sexual polarity; 
> The differences between the ways the masculine and feminine energies manifest and relate.
> The core qualities of the masculine and the feminine. 
> What attracts to the masculine and the feminine.
> The three stages of being of the masculine and feminine and the three stages of relating.
However, he's more to the point and clearer here than in the other books I mention.  Deida also goes into a bit of more depth regarding sexuality and discusses:
> The six levels of sexuality.
> The darkest aspects of the masculine/feminine and sexuality. 
> Monogamy, polygamy and commitment.

This audible version has three sets of guided long exercises to do, one on your own and with your partner. The aim is to create an open circulating connection of the breath, the body, heart, the divine and energy, very Tantric in essence. They help to connect partners in very powerful ways, enhancing orgasm and heart connection. Copulating with the divine is an image that I won't be able to forget.

Two little thingies.:
> The first is that Deida uses the word primitive-civilised in ways that are outdated and not considered appropriate, as they are western-centric; really some primitive cultures are way more evolved than 'civilised' ones, in many things about being civilised aren't that evolved, are an involution.
> As I've commented in other books by Deida, his comments on women abused by domestic violence should be re-written so his message is expressed in a way that doesn't sound like it's the victim's fault. I get that this is not what Deida intends at all, but most women out there might feel uncomfortable, to say the least, at reading/hearing some of the connections about feminine energy and being abused that Deida makes.  

The audible edition of the book has a great sound quality, and it is wonderfully neat and well-structured. The book is narrated by Deida himself. Deida has a great diction and is a natural in the way he narrates the book, without the listener feeling that Deida is reading anything; he also has a wonderful voice, very masculine, velvety, and sensual, which might turn on some of the ladies and get an extra bonus.

The best thing I've read from Deida, still with his usual Tantric, sexy, spiritual, untamed no-BS approach to relating.

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How to Survive Change You Didn't Ask For: Bounce Back, Find Calm in Chaos, and Reinvent Yourself by M. J. Ryan

, 18 Aug 2018

I have read a few books on crisis and change in the last couple of years and this is, despite the modest ratings and small number of reviews on Amazon, the most helpful of them all in you are in the middle of a life and/or career crisis.

Above all, this is a book on how to change your mindset, the one that freezes, depresses and angers you and prevents you from seeing things clearly, from being fully rational, and getting into action. The book offers a set of tools, techniques, attitudes and behaviours to avoid or minimise the fight, flight, or freeze response to increase your ability to adapt and move on. There is also a quest for meaning, to see the silver lining in your crisis, to see it as the step before to something better, to accept change with grace and resilience still being true to who you are. The process of change, as discussed in the book is shown in the figure below: 


GOOD POINTS
> I expect a book on how to overcome crisis to be written by people who have been there and succeeded. However, most of the books out there have never truly experienced it; it is all abstract studies on patterns of behaviour seen on business people and so they re elitist and unrelatable for anybody who is not in those privileged circumstances, which is most o us. On the contrary this books' author has personally gone through hell several times and came out victorious, so I can relate to anything she says and any the advice she gives.

> Ryan's talk is helpful because it makes you feel understood and even cared for. She describes quite precisely what is going on in your life and in your mind even though she doesn't know you or your specific circumstances.

> One of the things that unwanted change brings up is a perennial state of anxiety, fear, shame and despair, a state of mind that is really damaging because it is not rational, it brings up all the personal complexes and fears that we have ever experienced and freeze us on the spot. Learning to understand why that happens and how to stop it, is priceless.

> The book is clearly written and very well structured. As the author herself states, it is based, on her own experience and pragmatism, and on a a vast number of books on brain science, organisational and positive psychology, and spirituality.

>  There is a bit of positive wishful thinking but you didn't get this book to get depress, right?


I LOVED
> All the figures in the book are very simple but extremely clear  to understand Ryan's points.
> The list Top Ten Change Sinkholes.
>  The Seven Truths about Change:
# Change is the one thing you can count on.
# It's not personal.
# Your thinking is not always your friend.
# Change isn't the enemy, fear is.
# There is a predictable emotional cycle of change.
# Your are more resilient than you may think.
# Your future is built on a bedrock that is unchanging.
> The actions of a change master: 1/ Accept change. 2/ Expand your options. 3/ and take action.
> The twenty quick tips for surviving the change you didn't ask at the end of the book.

SOME WEAK POINTS
> There are too many examples of real-life cases.

> There are way too many quotes in the book.

> Some times the main point of three pages is just a repetition of what the title of the section has, so what follows is a bit repetitive and redundant.

> I found Ryan's comments on networking the weakest part of the book. Firstly, introverts' ways of relating aren't even considered. Secondly, she ignores the fact that sometimes your network (personal or professional)  might not have any expertise on how the job market is nowadays. They could be vomiting onto you old adages that aren't helpful at all ('when a door closes another opens', 'you'll find something' or my favourite 'take care'). Your network might not be able to give you financial help even if they wanted, or you could have no family or friends in your country of residence, or they might be too old or sick to attend to you and your crisis. The variables are infinite.  Besides,  Ryan herself says at the beginning of the book that one of the characteristics of modern life is the speed of change, and how different the job market is from the past, meaning 10-20 years ago (not last century) so you should not be asking your current network for any advice, perhaps just for hugs and kisses. Ryan says that it is best to cultivate a varied peer network when you aren't in a crisis, but that is a bit unrealistic and manipulative. Most people, when things are going on OK, won't think  "I need to diversify my group of friends just in case I get into trouble in life and I need to use them" do you see what I am saying? That has put me off in the past, and I guess many genuine people would also be put off for that sort of 'build a network' that is useful to me.

> Ryan asks you, “What's the worst thing that could happen?” Much of the time they realise it's not that big of a deal". I'm all for not being too negative, but hey, really, there are so many examples of normal people who end living in poverty or in the streets nowadays that we cannot ignore it. Normal people who, like you and me, had houses, business, great jobs and families, and would have never thought that the street would be their home.  People who lost their jobs and were renting and cannot rent any more so they sleep on a park. There was item of news on this on the news the other day. Normal people.

> One of the exercises is 'Ask you future self for help", really...?  You are confused, I am confused, we are confused and lost, remember? Ring ring to the future. No answer, sorry. 

KINDLE EDITION
The links to her coaching website are generic, so the specific tools she recommends are no longer accessible at the front page.

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