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Lauri Jean Crowe on Dreams
By Jeffrey the Barak, Publisher, the-vu.
Published September 2002

As we begin to publish Lauri Jean Crowe's series on Dreaming and Dreams, I thought I would like to reintroduce Lauri Jean Crowe as an authority on the subject. Many readers of the-vu are familiar with her writings on sex, but how did she become an authority on dreams?

I asked Lauri Jean about this, and she replied:

Am I self taught dream authority? Yes, but I also have almost a bachelor's worth of college level psychology credits. The mind has always fascinated me, no doubt because of two things:

Firstly, I have no memories prior to about age 12. Nothing, nada, zip.

My first memory is of being in the hospital, surrounded by medical students and an attending doctor while they were poking and prodding me. Eventually they figured out my thyroid was overactive and I had to have it nuked. But, I was one of those weird cases they hadn't seen in someone so young. Nice introduction to your body and adolescence, eh?

Probably says a lot about how I view myself, my body, and why I can be so open about sex -- while it can be an emotive experience mainly its another clinical function on a lot of levels. Anyhow, experts say sometimes extreme bodily stress related to hormonal levels can cause a memory lapse and apparently my condition had been going on a long time. Although one part of me knew that trees had leaves, visually they looked like the kids drawings with the big puffy cloudily green. It was amazing when they got my thyroid under control and I could actually see that trees had leaves once my optic nerves had the pressure relieved from related eye complications.

Secondly, I had very bizarre nightmares from an early age. Ever seen the movie, The Cell? Shortly after it came out, my ex told me I should see it. Reminded him of the dreams I told him about. I have to say its on par. Very Technicolor, vivid, and often horrifying. Actually, one of the reasons I began writing way back when, in relating dreams, someone said to me "those aren't dreams, they're nightmares, but they'd make damn good horror stories". While my short fiction never really took off, although I never really actively promoted it either, it got me writing out my thoughts which is quite habit forming.

Eventually, I realized I had encompassed a large body of work on dreams and that no doubt there were other people who could benefit from my own personal researches. The opportunity to write for Suite 101 came up, and suddenly my topic and expertise were born. Since I've published a few dream study journals, participated in and formulated a few research studies and am continually sponging up research to define who I am from the perspective of my dreams.

I don't really believe any one particular mindset or theorem about why dreams occur. I simply recognize that I have them, they are an active facet of my daily living and that at times I should pay attention to them. I've had precognitive dreams, somatic dreams which were an indicator of personal illness and also just your basic dream that makes absolutely no sense but is very pretty. I've also been a lucid dreamer for several years and find that a fascinating way to take control of the dream realm.

Anyhow, am I an authority? On myself, but that's the only one who really matters isn't it? LOL!! Seriously though, although I can help and have helped many through their own dream trials by pointing out patterns and personal myths which evolve I think we are all our own best dream analysts.

I had already made the decision to feature this series when I asked Lauri Jean Crowe if she was a self-taught dream authority, but the above passage, written originally as a personal e-mail to me is a perfect introduction to the series.

This series of articles, previously published at Suite 101 and elsewhere, will grow with each update of the-vu into a volume of fascinating reference on the subject of dreams.

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