loss, not knowing what the future would bring. I
meditated to free myself of the negative feelings that
were draining my energy. That night, I had this dream:
      I am the observer of myself. I can see myself standing
in the living room of a house, in front of a dark, closed
door. I can also see that outside the house, in front of the
closed door, is another door of golden light. This door of
golden light gradually replaces the dark door. As it does,
a tiny white bird, so very lovely, with a golden beak, flies
through the golden door. Singing a most joyous song, it
flies to me and touches my lips with its beak. I [both the
observer and the participant I] am filled with a sense of
lightness and youth.
    The following morning I began a series of meditations
on the dream symbols, which resulted in a sense of
encouragement and faith in the future. I don't believe
that I could have had this dream in all its clarity and
vividness of meaning had I not meditated first.
                Rita Figulski, Buffalo, New York

EFFECTS OF MEDITATION ON DREAMS
Gregory Scott Sparrow

     Two years ago, while we were graduate psychology
students at West Georgia College, Mark Thurston (my
roommate) and I attempted an experiment to measure
the effects of meditation on dreams. Our hypothesis was
that early morning meditations would have an enhancing
effect upon the quality of dreams which occurred during
the sleep periods directly following the meditations.
     To obtain data, we awakened every morning at 5:00,
and on some of the mornings we meditated for 10-15
minutes before returning to sleep. On other mornings we
simply remained awake for 15 minutes. This control
condition allowed us to ascertain whether it was actually
meditation or merely wakefulness that affected the
quality of the ensuing dreams.

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