Page 297 - Use Your Memory

26 Catching Your Dreams

Standard ability to remember dreams varies enormously from
individual to individual. Some people, in fact, have such bad
memories for their dreams that they sincerely believe that they are
nondreamers. This is not the case, for research during the past
twenty years has shown that every human being has regular
periods throughout the night during which dreaming takes place.
This is evidenced by Rapid Eye Movement, in which the eyelids
flicker and flutter, and occasionally the entire body twitches, as the
body internally 'sees' and 'moves' with the imaginary story. If you
have a cat or a dog, you may have noticed this kind of activity while
it sleeps, for most higher mammals also dream.
The first step in the memorisation of your dreams is the actual
retrieval of the dream itself. This you can accomplish by 'setting'
your mind just before you go to sleep. As you begin to drift off,
gently and firmly repeat to yourself, 'I will remember my dream, I
will remember my dream, I will remember my dream.' This will
'programme' your brain to give priority when you awake to the
recall of the dream. It may take as many as three weeks before you
'catch' your first one, but the process is infallible.
Once you have caught a dream, you enter the second stage of
dream memorisation. This is a tricky and 'dangerous' moment,
for if you become too excited by the fact that you have actually
caught one, you will lose it. This is because, for this type of
memorisation, your brain needs to remain, for a while, in a
nonexcited state. You must learn to maintain an almost medi-
tational calm, gently reviewing the main elements of the dream.
You then very gently select two or three of the Key Main Images
from the dream, and attach these, using the Basic Memory Prin-
ciples (which are dreamlike in themselves) through one of your
basic Peg Systems.
Let's imagine, for example, that you had dreamed that you were
an Eskimo stranded on an ice-floe at the North Pole and that you
were writing, with gigantic felt-tipped pens, messages for help in

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