In Your Dreams: Falling, Flying and Other Dream Themes - A New Kind of Dream Dictionary [Paperback]

Gayle M. Delaney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 1997

At last, an 'intelligent' dream dictionary – by an internationally renowned dream expert! No one-size-fits-all dream formulas here: Gayle Delaney provides simple, personalized tools to uncover the unique meaning in 'your' dreams.

Ever wake

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many a morning begins with "I had the oddest dream," followed closely by a narrative of missed buses, naked performances, killer exams, chase scenes, mystifying sex, malfunctioning cars, and chocolate sauce (though perhaps not all in the same dream). Gayle Delaney's dream interpretation is remarkable because it's more than comprehensive and clear: it's flexible enough to be pertinent to everyone. With guiding questions (How did you feel in the dream? Is something happening in your life that makes you feel the same way?), she helps us understand our symbols, relate our dreams to our own circumstances, and get insight into our lives.

From Booklist

Every time she discusses her work publicly, Delaney, a serious dream theorist, is asked the same questions: What does it mean when I dream of falling? of flying? of making love with a famous person? Knowing that dreams are highly individual statements whose meanings vary according to the dreamer's personal symbolism, Delaney tries to answer such questions with a generalized "It depends." But that never satisfies the curious dreamer. To answer those insistent questions in a way that still honors her belief that dream themes have no universal meaning, Delaney has assembled this antidictionary of dreams. The themes appear, their likely meanings are described, and the dreamer is continually urged to examine the particular dream's uniquely personal possibilities. Falling, for instance, may indicate loss of control or fear of losing status. Maybe an incipient depression or giving birth. It depends . . . Patricia Monaghan

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Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco; 1st edition (May 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062514121
• ISBN-13: 978-0062514127
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Founding President, International Association for the Study of Dreams, Summa Cum laude Princeton University, PhD in Clinical Psychology, Union Graduate School, Co-Director with Loma K. Flowers, MD, Delaney & Flowers Center for the Study of Dreams.

Pioneer in the use of dreams for problem solving and in the interpretation of dreams using "Dream Interview" questions rather than preconceived beliefs, myths, psychological dogma, or the interpreter's projections often called intuitions.
My approach will appeal only to those who do not need a guru, and want to figure out what their own brains are telling them at night in their own private language.

I have presented this non-denominational dream work on hundreds of TV shows including Oprah, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, GMA, Anderson 380 and at many Universities and private and professional societies. My goal is to get the superstition out of dream work, to teach people how to understand the meaning and usefulness of their dreaming minds that are so very adept at helping one to recognize, assess, and resolve daily problems and opportunities.

If you remember that even your nightmares are there to help you, you can save yourself years of confusion, conflict, and in come cases, bad marriages and unwise decisions. Your dreams don't do the work for you, they do not decide things for you, they give you the fuller picture of the situation so you can make better choices.

My books focus on practical applications of my Dream Interview method which I began to formulate one day in 1971 in a class on dreaming at Princeton when I was a senior. I tell the story in Living Your Dreams.

My favorite book? Ah! For teaching the "Dream Interview" method, Breakthrough Dreaming: How to Use the Power of Your 24-Hour Mind. For sheer fun: Sensual Dreaming. For the beginner, In Your Dreams. For problem solving in Dreams: Living Your Dreams. For an overview of my work and the field, All About Dreams. All are described on my site: www.gdelaney.com. There you will also find a couple of videos from my Today Show talks on dreams.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Buying my second copy., May 27, 2001

By 

Nancy Sonntag (Minnetonka, MN USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: In Your Dreams: Falling, Flying and Other Dream Themes - A New Kind of Dream Dictionary (Paperback)

This is the most helpful dream interpretation book I've owned to date, and I've wasted lots of money trying out other books. This book is great for beginners, easy to read and understand and may offer a fresh approach to seasoned dream interpreters. I use my copy like a dream dictionary - looking up themes and characteristics of my latest dreams, but it is intended to make you your own dream expert if read from cover to cover. It's approach is to offer you interpretations of many common dream themes. The opinions range from classic interpretation (Freud & Jung) to modern interpretations. Ultimately, the author's goals is to teach the reader the key to dream interpretation - the individual and their feelings. Sample dreams are given in each chapter to illustrate this style of interpretation. Each chapter also ends with a series of questions to ask yourself that help you clarify what's important in your dreams. I have learned skills from reading this book that have unleashed my power to understand my dreams. It really gets you thinking.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One-half Cliffs Notes, One-half Quick-Reference, March 9, 2005

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fast_matt (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: In Your Dreams: Falling, Flying and Other Dream Themes - A New Kind of Dream Dictionary (Paperback)

Definitely the most instantly-usable of Gayle Delaney's books I've read, this one largely skips heavy-duty theory and concentrates on quick, practical application.

It starts with a short, very to-the-point and understandable explanation of Delaney's dream interview technique, in which one describes elements and actions in the dream and answers questions about them to arrive at one's OWN meaning for them, rather than a cookie-cutter explanations.

This is followed by a section of common dream themes, elements, and settings, with a set of interview questions for each to get a jump-start on figuring out your dream. For those of us who procrastinate on actually DOING dream interpretations, this is a great help. She gives a few examples of actual dreams and interpretations for each, as well as an etymology of traditional meanings for such a dream. The questions are highly useful, the etymologies somewhat interesting but not very applicable. I would have preferred to see a third less etymology and half again as many dream examples, but the etymologies are easily skipped.

Useful and a quick read, this would be the perfect Delaney book to start with.

If you can find it, her audio course "Your Sleeping Genius" (1999) includes elements of several of her books and is also excellent.

"Sensual Dreaming" (1995) is fascinating and highly readable, but focuses solely on sexual/relationship dreams and a bit longer. "Breakthrough Dreaming" goes into greater depth - so much so that important points may slip by unnoticed if you aren't looking for them. I think her writing style has grown more direct; "Breakthrough Dreaming" was one of her earliest efforts.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Gayle Delaney, Ph.D., September 10, 2009

By 

Mary E. Steely - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Your Dreams: Falling, Flying and Other Dream Themes - A New Kind of Dream Dictionary (Paperback)

I was very disappointed in this book. I found no value in it at all. I do not have a Ph D and years of study to aid in my dream interpretation. I personally like having a dream dictionary. I was hoping so much more from this book.