Topic 22 Need info on alt.dreams

jherbert alt.dreams 5:13 pm Mar 5, 1991

I would like to get some information about the founding of alt.dreams. Does anyone remember how it got started, or know who the originators were? If anyone can help, or put me in touch with someone who can help, please contact me.
Thanks, John Herbert

John W. Herbert, P.O.Box 9250
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Message 1 (38 lines)
From uunet!mcsun!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack Thu Mar 7 07:40 PST 1991
>From mcsun!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack Thu Mar 7 08:45:56 1991 remote from uunet
From: Jack Campin <uunet!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack>
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 91 12:00:11 GMT
To: cdp!jherbert
Subject: Re: Need info about alt.dreams
Newsgroups: alt.dreams
Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie, No Mean City

I suggested it. The idea came from surrealism: to provide a window onto what we all really feel about the present age by revealing thought processes that can't be censored as easily as conscious ones. It hasn't done that as well as I hoped (too much paranormal crap) but I'm reasonably happy with the result.

I don't know who actually posted the newgroup message; I'd like to know if you find out.

best wishes - jack

Jack Campin Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,
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Message 1 (37 lines)
From jherbert Sun Mar 10 09:29 PST 1991
To: jack@glasgow.uucp
Subject: alt.dreams
Cc: jherbert
For:Jack Campin

Dear Jack - Thank you for responding. I stumbled on Newsnet while compiling a directory of conferences available to PeaceNet. I do not yet know who does what or who monitors what it posted. I am a student at Saybrook Institute in San Francisco in a doctoral program in psychology and am interested in finding out how effective computer conferencing can be in working with dreams. I conduct dream groups using the Ullman-Zimmerman method, and am currently doing a study on comparing responses from a face-to-face dream group process with responses posted on alt.dreams.

Would you mind a few more questions? Approximately when did you start alt.dreams? Did you have a core group or did you just start it up alone? Did it ever function as a meeting place following your original intent, or was it always as scattered as now? Have you ever structured a closed conference working with dreams? Are you actively working with your or others' dreams?

I would appreciate any comments you could share. I am trying to structure my essays and dissertation within a dreams/computer framework, if possible. I am not in clinical practice - the U-Z method is a people-people process, not a therapist-client process, although many therapeutic results follow working with dreams, if you use the knowledge presented.

Thanks, John Herbert

Message 1 (65 lines)
From uunet!mcsun!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack Mon Mar 11 10:51 PST 1991
>From mcsun!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack Mon Mar 11 10:00:28 1991 remote from uunet
From: Jack Campin <uunet!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 14:11:47 GMT
To: cdp!jherbert
Subject: Re: alt.dreams

> I conduct dream groups using the Ullman-Zimmerman method

Never heard of this. Might be worth posting a referenced introduction to it to the group.

> Would you mind a few more questions?
> Approximately when did you start alt.dreams?

About a year ago.

> Did you have a core group or did you just start it up alone?

I followed the usual procedure for an "alt" group: I posted note to alt.config and other relevant groups (sci.psychology, rec.arts.misc, and talk.politics.misc, I think) asking if anyone else was interested in the idea. When enough people had followed up saying that they were, someone went ahead and sent out a creation message.

I had to post a followup to my original note, as one quite intelligent person had misread it - he thought my intentions were subsumable under sci.psychology, but I always regarded the artistic and political aspects of dreaming as more important. I did mention surrealism in the original note, but most people didn't know enough about it to decode my reference. I was very explicit about wanting minimal discussion or interpretation, but people had a hard time seeing why.

There's a book called "The Third Reich of Dreams" you might have seen; I intended this group to provide the same sort of insights into our time.

> Did it ever function as a meeting place following your original intent,
> or was it always as scattered as now?

I expected something "scattered", as you put it. I've been on the net for a very long time and have a fair idea of how its sociology works. I had expected rather more raw material than has actually emerged.

> Have you ever structured a closed conference working with dreams? Are you
> actively working with your or others' dreams?

No. No, but I might at some future time.

cheers - jack

The founding of alt.dreams
End