cover image Dream Power: How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life

Dream Power: How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life

Cynthia Richmond. Simon & Schuster, $22 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-684-87094-6

Richmond's weekly dream-analysis column in the Los Angeles Times contains the disclaimer that it ""should be read for entertainment purposes only."" And so it is with her first book, a collection of sample dreams followed by possible meanings and questions to help dreamers analyze their own reveries. Richmond claims that dreams relieve stress; impart self-knowledge, inspiration and warnings; and solve problems. She even touches upon ""astral projecting,"" in which the soul leaves the body during sleep to communicate with or visit ""that which exists in spirit."" But readers seeking an exhaustive examination of the age-old, worldwide tradition of dream analysis may be disappointed. Richmond invokes Freud, Jung and Joseph Campbell only once, and makes such questionable assertions as ""studies show that as many as 12 to 15 percent of dreams may predict the future"" without citing her sources. Instead, she offers prosaic advice for remembering dreams (e.g., write them down) and mostly superficial explanations for such common dream elements as water, vehicles and sex. Nonetheless, readers who enjoy checking their daily newspaper horoscopes may find this dream-analysis-lite equally entertaining. (Jan.)