Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I have thousands of dreams in journal books. It will take me forever to type those in. Is there a faster way?

A: First of all, it isn't necessary to have them all typed in to get valuable information from DreamSpinner. As soon as you've type one dream in, you are getting patterns and thought provoking information. Start with the current dream of the day and as you have time, add the others, bit by bit.

Second, there are two voice recognition software packages out on the market that finally are worth using: Dragon Dictate and IBM ViaVoice. You train the software to your voice and then speak your dreams into a microphone. The words appear on the screen as though you had typed them in.

Third, you can find a very fast typist and pay or barter for their services. As a counselor and teacher, I bartered teaching communication skills to my typists. It worked out well for both of us.

Q: It seems to take a long time to DreamLink a dream. I don't want to spend this much time on my dreams. Can I make this easier?

A: Yes you can. You have total control over how much you DreamLink. I have set up the database so everything can be DreamLinked. However, all you have to do is decide certain words are not important and click on AutoLink or Skip when you come to that word in the DreamLink window. That AutoLinked word will not be highlighted for you again. Keep in mind, however, there is a trade-off: every word you AutoLink can only be counted as one meaning. Adding subtle distinctions later will mess up the count. Skipping a word will mean it was not counted. Should you decide later it is important to track that you have to relink every dream the word is in!

Also, keep in mind that every time you DreamLink a dream, you are shortening the time it takes to do the next one. Each word or definition you add as new is less time taken in future dreams. DreamLinking takes longer when you are first starting up.

Q: Ok, I've DreamLinked my dreams and got the word frequency counts, but where are the metaphors??

A: DreamSpinner is based on the idea that all words are metaphors. This is because we all, we believe, think in metaphor as our basic thought process. It seems silly to us to create a short list of a thousand or so words (all nouns) and call them metaphors (such universals as Water, Sky, Pain, Dog, Tree). All the Dream Dictionaries have them. In our view, this simply ignores all the other thousands of metaphors that we use in our language. Verbs are metaphors. Prepositions are metaphors. So, the metaphors are captured in the categories. Like words are put together so you can get a sense of how often these concepts are in your dreams. For example, in the category "Object Relationships" there are sub categories of 'Blending', 'Separation', 'Connected', and so on. Verb type words are put there. The action of blending objects can be a metaphor for blending actions in relationship, work or spirituality.

DreamSpinner captures the same concepts together in the categories for you. You then can check out the uses of these words in your dreams, come to your own conclusions and put that information together in the DreamWork window.

Example: I created a dream set called Hands. I chose the words hand and fist from the category, "Body", sub category "Anatomy", sub category "Extremities". DreamSpinner generated a list of those 35 dreams. I used the "Get Specific" button in the Dream Set form to look at each dream and created the following table in the DreamWork window.

8/11/98

Out of 400 linked dreams, 35 "hand" dreams

I chose to link this dreamwork to the Worklet "Hands". From now on, any other thoughts I have about hands and the metaphors I use will all be linked to the same Worklet, keeping my threads linked together.

I now can go to each sub listing of how hands are used in my dreams and run the frequency counts on the categories I am interested in. For example, the People Touching People" listing can be examined from a Social Interaction direction, Is the touching friendly, sexual or aggressive? Or I can concentrate on the emotions in those dreams. Or the characters who are touching or are touched by me.

So I build my knowledge about how I use the metaphor hands in my dreams and what it means for me. Almost everybody has hands, so it is a universal dream theme. But each person will give different importance and meaning to that metaphor.

In addition, you can get information about what other people think about the metaphor hands and keep that information in the Knowledge Base window. Soon you have built an amazing collection of important information related to you and your current life.