Editor’s Introduction
BoB Nunley (real name), has a Ph.D. in Geography and is trained in Population Geography, Cybernetics, Computer Graphics, Geographic Information Systems, and Geodemography. He is a Full Professor at the University of Kansas. In addition to being the PI on various research projects such as a 1972 NSF project which developed the first computer color CRT, he has served as a Co-President of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM). His experience occurred during an orientation seminar for new graduate students at Brindabella Farms, 10 miles north of Springfield, Missouri, on May 27, 2000.
CoDream a Little Dream with Me!
BoB Nunley
On Friday morning, May 26, 2000 I met with Norm Shealy and twenty new graduate students for a four-day seminar. Norm and I were providing them with an orientation to graduate work in Energy Medicine at Greenwich University. One of the students was a lady who does theater and dance; she reminded me of a dancer for whom I had played classical guitar in an improvised dance session fourteen years earlier. It was a most pleasant experience, which I had not recalled to consciousness for a long time.
I made no explicit statement to her about how she reminded me of the earlier dancer who, by the way, was Martia Paludin. I don’t think I even told her that I was a classical guitarist. That first day was one of the few days I have ever spent in such a group in which I did not even bring the guitar into the meeting room.
That night (or, more correctly, the next morning) I had a most wonderful vivid dream in which the former classical guitar/dance experience began to be replicated, with the new student (let’s call her Terry) being the dancer. In the dream Terry transformed the dance into her one-woman show which she had described the previous morning–The Enchanted Journey: Finding the Key that Unlocks You.
A little after 8:00 a.m. Terry was picked up at her hotel by another new student (David Eichler (real name),who greeted her with the question, “Did you have any good dreams last night?” She replied that, as a matter of fact, she had. She proceeded to relate in some detail how she was dancing and I was playing classical guitar for her! The two of them arrived just as the seminar was getting underway. Terry asked if she could see me privately during the morning break, and we agreed to meet.
At the beginning of the break we were walking out of the seminar room when I asked if I could tell her about a dream I had before we took up the matter she wanted to discuss. She seemed to me to be unusually surprised, but she agreed. I related my dream to her utter amazement. She asked if I had talked on the phone with David before he picked her up. I indicated that I had not. She, then, described her virtually identical dream to me.
The two of us had a wonderful time speculating on how such co-dreaming could occur. We also felt blessed with the way David was the perfect objective observer and validator of the process. We delighted in relating the co-experience to him. We discussed with him the uncanny similarity of the two dream–hers as she related it first to David, later to me, and mine as I related it to her, prior to her relating it to me.
We have each had similar co-dreams with other people, and we always enjoyed discussing the synchronicity of the experience. But, for the first time, we had a very trustworthy third person exquisitely placed for verification.
We would welcome email (nunley@ukans.edu) about similar co-dreams that have been somehow objectively verified by a third person. “Co-dream a little dream with me!”
Editor’s note: The witness to this exchange, David Eichler, sent me the following note:
On the morning of our second (or third? the days are now blending together. . . .) day at Brindabella Farms, Terry and I were driving to the Farm and I asked her “Did you have any interesting dreams last night?”. It’s not a question I typically ask someone, but it was an intuitive “nudge” I received to ask her that question. Terry responded that she had been woken from her sleep at 4:30 AM that morning, having had a dream in which BoB was present. She said that she journaled about the dream and would share it with BoB that day. As it turned out, BoB said that he had a dream in which Terry was in it, occurring around 4:15 AM, both obviously experiencing very, very similar content.
Interestingly, Terry had been mentioning during and after the previous day(s) at the farm that she had a need to get up and dance, referring to the fact that it was difficult for her to sit for so long.
You asked about my background, since you are wanting to ensure people providing you with these data are scientifically grounded. Academically, I am working toward a Ph.D. in behavioral and developmental psychology at the Univ. of Kansas, with an emphasis in applied research and program development. I have had at least 30 – 40 hours in graduate training in the area of research design, methodology, statistics, etc. My thesis was an empirical look at the relationship between praise statements (as made from direct care providers to those in their care) and consumer satisfaction in residential treatment facilities. I’ve assisted with other empirical studies in the areas of both experimental psychology and behavioral psychology.
Contributor’s Comments on the Experience
It has mostly helped me to resolve to be more open to the shared experiences we know we have but have difficulty verifying.
