Using the internet to take classes is a really great idea if you have children as I do. I took a few classes using wild blue satellite internet as an undergrad and I really enjoyed the freedom. During my undergrad the classes I took were through my regular commuter university, but using wild blue Tennessee service to do my masters completely online. I am even taking my classes from a university that is about a thousand miles away from my home. Since the program is set up entirely online I never have to visit the brick and mortar campus at all.

When my husband and I first moved to our new home with our three small children I decided I wanted to get a master’s degree. Since I wasn’t a resident yet I would have had to wait a year to take classes at the nearby university for in state rates. After I thought about it I decided to look into online classes, this way I could get my Master’s and stay home with the kids.

Thanks to wild blue satellite, (we live so far in the country we couldn’t get cable) I have had no problem meeting the demands of an all internet course load. I am going to school online, full time while my kids sleep. I am getting a full accredited Master’s in Education. The classes are no more difficult than they would be in person and I have the freedom to work at my own pace. I will never go back to a traditional campus setting.

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by Jared Long

I had waited till my senior year of college to finish one of my general education courses. Since I did not want to stick around to finish the course, I decided to take the class online. I bought on of the hughesnet packages and I took Intro to Philosophy online over the summer. I was somewhat apprehensive about taking an online course, especially over the summer. I used my satellite internet to get acquainted with the basics of the course, which made me feel a lot better about the course. I specifically liked the fact that the instructor was very good at keeping the lines of communication open. He easily answered every question I had about the course and the requirements.

I was initially worried about the fact that there were no specific deadlines with this class. Instead, there were two major requirements that had to be turned in over the course of the summer. I was worried about waiting till the last minute to get everything turned in, because that is usually how I work. Instead, I gave myself a specific date to have the first assignment completed. Having hughesnet made the entire experience much easier since I was able to ask questions and get quick answers from my professor. I was also able to keep all of the documents I had submitted through the course website.

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Image by mliu92 via Flickr

Car dreams can be scary. And they can have a lot of meanings. For example, if you are obsessed with getting a new car, you may dream about them at night. That much is obvious.

But some automobile dreams are puzzling. What caused them is not clear, and you may start thinking that they are premonitions of disaster. But their meaning may not be so simple.

Some people dream of car crashes. Those could be warnings. But if there has been a rash of spectacular wrecks on TV news, we may write off the whole idea. Still it is good to be extra careful when driving anytime.

Dreaming of a malfunctioning car, though, may have very different meanings: metaphor for the body, business or relationships; automobile malfunctions not yet consciously noticed, or…?

Car as metaphor for the body. Your car is your vehicle—-and so is your body. Pay attention to such dreams carefully. They can be warnings about the state of your health.

Car as metaphor for a marriage. I used to dream that I was in the backseat of a speeding car—-and no one was driving. That was during a bad marriage that was lacking in partnership. My spouse was driving our lives recklessly forward with no input from me—and no apparent plan. It was scary.

Car as a metaphor for business or career. Just as we sometimes know there is something wrong with our body or relationships but ignore the signs, we may also miss signs of problems in our company or career. Malfunctioning car dreams may be the tipoff.

Car malfunction as a subliminal perception. Some of us are very aware of our cars on an unconscious level but do not consciously pay enough attention to keeping them in good repair. As Freud said, when speaking of metaphors in dreams, ” Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

If the brakes are wearing out, the tires are a tiny bit lumpy (indicating dangerous wear), or the engine is running rough or using too much gasoline, part of your mind registers that. And dreams are when our unconscious minds have the best chance of communicating with us. So you may be warning yourself to get your car checked before you have a wreck or get stranded somewhere because of a breakdown.

So before you start worrying that your dream of a sputtering engine means that the love of your life is about to leave you, or that the rusty car dream means you could have cancer, check on the obvious. Take care of any car repairs you have been putting off—before they get worse.

The peace of mind is well worth the time and trouble. Once you know your car is safe, you can sleep better—and concentrate on figuring out what your sputtering car dreams mean—-if you still have them. With the car fixed, the troubling car dreams may very well stop.

To ease your mind about finding a good mechanic, take practical steps. Go to the Repair Pal website to find customer reviews and ratings for mechanics and repair shops in your local area, with a list of services and specializations for each one.

So for Chicago auto repair, for example, you can find out which mechanics in your neighborhood specialize in your type of car, such as Toyota Corolla, and other information, such as, for example, why you may need a new water pump.

So if you are having scary car dreams, check it out. It will help you sleep better.

After all, you have better things to dream about.

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Children are especially likely to have nightmares. In fact, nightmares are common in children. Nightmares typically start at around age 3 years old and continue till about age 7 or 8.

People with anxiety disorder might also experience what experts call night terrors. These are actually panic attacks that occur in sleep. It is especially difficult to remember these types of dreams since they conjure up terrifying images that we would just as soon forget.

In poetic myth, the Night Mare is a “small nettlesome mare, not more than thirteen hands high, of the breed familiar with the Elgin marbles: cream-colored, clean-limbed, with a long head, bluish eye, flowing mane and tail.”

Mares’ nests, “when one comes across them in dreams, lodged in rock-clefts or the branches of enormous hollow yews, are built of carefully chosen twigs lined with white horse-hair and the plumage of prophetic birds and littered with the jaw-bones and entrails of poets.” Thus, in a pagan world of myth and blood sacrifice, the Nightmare was a cruel, fearful creature.

Our modern word nightmare derives from the Middle English nihtmare (from niht, night, and mare, demon), an evil spirit believed to haunt and suffocate sleeping people. And so, in today’s world, when we speak of a nightmare we mean a frightening dream accompanied by a sensation of oppression and helplessness.

The blood-thirsty aspect of the mythic Nightmare, provides a clue about nightmares in general. In psychodynamic terms nightmares are graphic portrayals of raw, primitive emotions such as aggression and rage that have not been incorporated into the conscious psyche. Thus we tend to encounter these “ugly” aspects of our unconscious lives as terrifying dream images in whose presence we feel completely helpless.

Nightmares are quite common in childhood because this is a time of our emotional development when we all have to come to terms with, well, raw, primitive emotions such as aggression and rage. Traumatic nightmares can also occur as one of the many symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Repetitive, intrusive nightmares following a trauma often contain symbolic themes that mirror the original trauma and relate to threat to life, threat of abandonment or death, or loss of identity. Therefore, traumatic nightmares need to be treated differently than other dreams.

It is not enough to know intellectually the psychological reasons why you have these nightmares. An event is traumatic because it disrupts your previously secure—and illusory—sense of “self.” And so, to heal from a trauma, you must take the initiative to make conscious changes in your life to accommodate the traumatic shattering of your illusions about life and identity.

Some believe that nightmares have a physiological aspect. Edgar Cayce believed that Nightmares, which bring with them an inability to move or cry out, usually indicate the wrong diet. To end the nightmarish dreams, he advised that you change your diet.

We found a technique on line that can help people who suffer from recurrent nightmares. It is not meant to be a cure-all. It is just a suggested treatment to deal with frightening nightmares. The idea is to use this therapy every night until the nightmare has been resolved. It is called Imagery Rehearsal Therapy.

Here are the steps of Imagery Rehearsal Therapy:

1. Write out the text of the nightmare. Tell the story, no matter how frightening, in as much detail as you can remember.

2. Create a new ending for the nightmare and write it down. Be careful, though, to make the new ending peaceful. Remember that the nightmare is grounded in emotions such as raw anger that have been provoked by a trauma. The point of a new ending is to “tame” the emotions, not merely vent them in violence and revenge.

3. Rehearse the new version of the story in your imagination each night just before going to sleep. Do that as close as possible to falling asleep without any other activity between the rehearsal and sleep.

4. Do a relaxation exercise. Do this immediately after the rehearsal, as a way to fall asleep peacefully. You may use any technique with which you are familiar. This could be meditation, yoga, or breathing exercises. The “cousin” of nightmares is disturbing dreams with unpleasant images.

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Edgar Cayce, a world-famous prophetic dreamer in the early 20th century, was able to obtain virtually an unlimited amount of knowledge on an unlimited number of subjects. One of these subjects was dreams and dream interpretation.

Cayce astounded people by interpreting their dreams and giving them insight into their psyche, lives and even past lives. From his own experience, and from the feedback he received from others, Cayce believed that dreams are actually journeys into the spirit world.

Edgar Cayce once said,“Dreams, visions, impressions, to the entity in the normal sleeping state are the presentations of the experiences necessary for the development, if the entity would apply them in the physical life. These may be taken as warnings, as advice, as conditions to be met, conditions to be viewed in a way and manner as lessons, as truths, as they are presented in the various ways and manners.”

Cayce believed that our dreams serve several functions. Somatic dreams—dreams referring to the body—are extremely important to pay attention to. Very often dreams will offer solutions to health problems.

For example, one man was plagued with food allergies for many years, but was unable to find the source of his discomfort. Then one night he went to bed and he dreamed of a can of coffee. He quit drinking coffee and his symptoms disappeared.

Like many of us, Cayce also believed that deceased friends and family members sometimes visit us in dreams. Such dreams may be communications from our loved ones. Or they may allow us to resolve our feelings about their deaths. Any person who appears in a dream may also represent some aspect of themselves or some part of us that is like them in some way.

While dreaming, we pass through different levels of consciousness and, according to many, different realms of the spirit world. While dreaming, we have special access to our own inner spirit. According to the Edgar Cayce readings, there is no a question that cannot be answered from the depths of our own consciousness.

According to Cayce, a dream may deal with physical, mental, or spiritual issues. It may include any kind of psychic manifestation, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, prophesies, astral travel, past life recall, communication with other realms, including friends and relatives who have passed away, spirit guides, angels, Christ, or even the voice of God.

Dreams can also give invaluable information on our health. Cayce felt that every aspect of life—emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, financial, or social—could be dealth with in dreams.

Dreams are ambiguous messages. They can warn or encourage, confuse or clarify, tease or explain clearly. Dreams can potentially offer a vast range of information and experiences.

What we get out of dreams depends on how we work with them. Dreams reflect our own attitudes, motivations, and degree of enlightement. What we receive in dreams also depends on how much we have heeded and applied information we received in earlier dreams and in messages we receive while awake.

Do you pay attention to your dreams? Edgar Cayce did, and he was able to help thousands of people while he was alive.

Millions more have gained insight into their lives, health, and psyches through reading the records of Cayce’s dreams and the many books about them.

As in many of his theories, Freud associated dreams with sex. Fundamental to his view of dreams was the belief that the purpose of dreams is to allow us to satisfy in our fantasies the instinctual urges that society considers unacceptable, such as certain sexual practices. That was partly why he experienced such the enormous opposition and criticism from scientists and the public alike.

When Freud was young, only men were thought to have powerful sexual urges. When Freud showed that repressed but obvious sexual desires were equally at work in women this created a social uproar. Perhaps his second finding in regard to sexuality surprised even him.

During Freud’s analysis of women patients, sexual advance or assault by the woman’s father was often revealed. Freud struggled with this, wondering whether the assault was memory of an actual event, or a psychic reproduction of it. He eventually came to the conclusion that hysterical and neurotic behavior was often due to the trauma caused by an early sexual assault by the parent.

Where there was not evidence of physical assault, Freud felt that the neurosis was due to sexual conflict or a trauma caused by some other event. That conflict was often manifested through dreams. That led to his theories being rejected by university colleagues, fellow doctors, and even by patients.

The more Freud allowed his patients to go in their own direction, the more they talked about their dreams. Also, talking about the dream often enabled the patient to discover a new and productive chain of associations and memories.

Freud began to take note of his own dreams and explore the associations they aroused. In doing so he was the first person to consciously and consistently explore a dream into its depths through uncovering and following obvious and hidden associations and emotions connected with the dream imagery and drama.

Although earlier dream researchers had noticed how dream images correlated with personal concerns, Freud broke new ground, seeing the connection with sexual feelings, with early childhood trauma, and with the subtleties of the human psyche.

Freud explored his dreams to deal with his own neurosis. He wrote of that period, ‘I have been through some kind of neurotic experience, with odd states of mind not intelligible to consciousness, cloudy thoughts and veiled doubts, with barely here and there a ray of light.’

Using dreams for his self analysis, Freud found that he could remember forgotten details from his childhood along with feelings and states of mind that he had never before experienced.

Freud wrote of his period of personal dream analysis,

“Some sad secrets of life are being traced back to their first roots; the humble origins of much pride and precedence are being laid bare. I am now experiencing myself all the things that, as a third party, I have witnessed going on in my patients, days when I slink about depressed because I have understood nothing of the day’s dreams, fantasies, or mood.”

Sigmund Freud actually called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious.” That statement will probably remain true in psychology forever.

Freud’s classic book, The Interpretation of Dreams, includes some of his finest work. Freud wrote that every dream is a wish fulfillment. He continued to believe that theory to the end, even though he gave up his initial idea that all dreams have a sexual content.

For Freud, the concept of wish fulfillment did not necessarily mean that the dream indicated that the dreamer was seeking pleasure. He said that the dreamer could just as well have a wish to be punished. Nevertheless, this idea of a “secret” wish being masked by a dream remains central to classical Freudian psychoanalysis.

Freud said,

“Dreams are not comparable to the spontaneous sounds made by a musical instrument struck rather by some external force than by the hand of a performer; they are not meaningless, not absurd, they do not imply that one portion of our stockpile of ideas sleeps while another begins to awaken. Dreams are a completely valid psychological phenomenon, specifically the fulfillment of wishes. They can be classified in the continuity of comprehensible waking mental states; they are constructed through highly complicated intellectual activity.”

After Freud noticed how allowing his patients to freely associate ideas with whatever came to mind, he began to seriously explore what he called spontaneous abreaction. Freud himself suffered bouts of deep anxiety, and it was partly this that led him to explore the connection between association of ideas and dreams.

In 1897 Freud wrote this to his friend, Wilhelm Fliess:

“No matter what I start with, I always find myself back again with the neuroses and the psychical apparatus. Inside me there is a seething ferment, and I am only waiting for the next surge forward. I have felt impelled to start writing about dreams, with which I feel on firm ground.”

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Dreaming can be seen as your spirit and soul leaving your body every night and going to visit an actual place. The ancient Chinese people traditionally believed that the soul leaves the body to go into that dream world.

In traditional Chinese belief, if a dreamer was suddenly awakened, their soul might fail to return to their body. Because of that traditional belief, some Chinese people, even today, are wary of alarm clocks.

Some native North American nations and ancient Mexican civilizations shared the belief that there was a distinct dream dimension. They believe that their ancestors lived in their dreams and could take on nonhuman forms like plants.

People in many cultures of the Americas traditionally saw dreaming as a way of visiting and communicating with their ancestors. Dreams also helped to them to find their mission or role in life.

In contrast, in Europe during the Middle Ages dreams were seen as evil. Dream images were believed to be temptations from the devil. In the vulnerable sleep state, the devil was believed to fill the minds of humans with evil thoughts. He did his dirty work though dreams attempting to mislead humans down the wrong path.

In the early 19th century, dreams were dismissed as mere physical effects. Dreams were thought to be caused by anxiety, a household noise or even indigestion. So they believed that there was really no meaning to it.

Late in the 19th century, Sigmund Freud revived belief in the importance of dreams and in their significance and the need for interpretation. Freud revolutionized the study of dreams.

Returning the study of dreams to an important place in European and American thought and the science of the mind: What a blessing!

Egyptian woman of the Roman era. Image by Maia C via Flickr

Back in the Greek and Roman era, dreams were often seen in a religious context and messages from the gods.

Temples called Asclepieions were built around the power of dreams. It was believed that sick people who slept in these temples would be sent cures through their dreams.

In Egypt, priests also acted as dream interpreters. The Egyptians recorded their dreams in hieroglyphics.

People with particular vivid and significant dreams were believed to be blessed and were considered special. People who had the power to interpret dreams were looked up to and seenas divinely gifted.

In the Bible, there are over seven hundred mentions of dreams. Tracing back to these ancient cultures, people had always had an inclination to interpret dreams

Dreams were also seen as prophetic and an omen from outside spirits. People often looked to their dreams for signs of warning and advice from a deity, from the dead or even the works of a demon.

Sometimes they looked to their dreams for what to do or what course of action to take.

Dreams often dictated the actions of political and military leaders. In fact, in the Green and Roman era, dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battle to help.

Some interpreters aided the healers in diagnosing illnesses. Dreams offered a vital clue for the healers in finding what was wrong with the dreamer.

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