Dream Sets for Content Analysis
by Nori Muster
I have kept a continuous dream journal since 1979 (summary of the entire collection.*) When I turned sixty in February 2016, an alarm clock went off in my head. I knew I had to do something with the journal. I searched for someone who studies dream journals, and met Prof. G. William Domhoff in mid-2016. He taught me about Quantitative Dream Content Analysis.*
Later that year, I drove to UCSB where my journals are stored, and transcribed a thousand dreams. I got 250 dreams from each of my decade years (the year I turned 30, year I turned 40, year I turned 50, and year I turned 60).
Around the end of 2016, Prof. Domhoff gave my Decade Years dreams to Dr. Kelly Bulkeley to conduct a blind study.
2017 IASD Presentation
In 2017 I joined the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and attended their 2017 conference. I met Dr. Domhoff in person, and sat on a panel with Dr. Bulkeley. On the panel, Dr. Bulkeley presented the statistics he gathered from "Beverly," my pseudonym in the decade dream study. I also shared my findings, including a series of dreams from 1996 about a Buddha Zen garden. Click here to read the presentation.
2018 IASD Presentation
At the Dream Studies conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, July 19, 2018, I presented "Dreams from Ten Years with the Hare Krishnas."
Click here to read the presentation.
Click here for .mp3 of panel discussion
Nori Muster:* Dreams of Ten Years with the Hare Krishnas (first)
Dr. Shanee Stepakoff: Dreams of the Divine in a Woman from Young Adulthood to Late Middle Age (starts at 25:10)
Dr. Kelly Bulkeley: Dreams of Lucrecia (starts at 1:02)
Summary of All Notebooks
Notebook Set 1 My Twenties - ISKCON Years
10 years in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) - 39 notebooks dated February 1979 to January 1989. This covers my ages 23 to 32; I left ISKCON just before my 33rd birthday.
Daytime notations: 2,018
Dreams: 1,367
Dream sketches: 7
Transcript word count: 296,135
Notebook Set 2 My Thirties
7 years - 69 notebooks dated 1989 to 1996, my ages 33 to 39.
Contents: After leaving the temple, I moved to Oregon and earned my master's degree. In 1992 I moved to Arizona and completed my memoir, Betrayal of the Spirit about my years in ISKCON.
Daytime notations: 1,377
Dreams: 3,716
Dream sketches: 110
Transcript word count: 655,604
Notebook Set 3 My Forties
10 years - 53 notebooks covering January 1996 to February 2, 2006, my ages 40-50
Contents: I turned 40 in 1996, then moved back to Los Angeles. At age 43 I quit visiting ISKCON properties, and quit identifying with the organization. At age 44 I got involved with the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) to help others who where harmed in cults.
Daytime notations: 1,629
Dreams: 3,464
Dream sketches: 55
Transcript word count: 775,166
Notebook Set 4 My Fifties
10 years - 65 notebooks dated 2006 to 2016, my ages 50-60
Contents: During these years I lived in Arizona, got my real estate license, worked in real estate, and continued writing.
Daytime notations: 1,658
Dreams: 1,989
Dream sketches: 344
Transcript word count: 733,227
Notebook Set 5 My Sixties
40 notebooks dated 2016 to February 2020, my ages 60 to 64
Contents: During these years I continue to live and work in Arizona.
Daytime notations: 529
Dreams: 840
Dream sketches: 54
Transcript word count: 265,862
Totals
Dates: February 1979 to February 2020 (41 years)
My ages: 23 to 64
Total notebooks: 266
Total daytime notations: 7,211
Total dreams: 11,376
Total dream sketches: 570
Total transcript word count: 2,725,994
Approximate page count (250 words per page): 10,904 pp.
Dreams by Year
1979 - 6
1980 - 4
1981 - 13
1982 - 18
1983 - 118
1984 - 6
1985 - 0
(before 1985 I needed permission from the cult to record my dreams; 1986 on I gave myself permission to all my dreams)
1986 - 295
1987 - 419
1988 - 472
1989 - 557
1990 - 782
1991 - 592
1992 - 596
1993 - 577
1994 - 297
1995 - 325
1996 - 407
1997 - 340
1998 - 350
1999 - 340
(still need to count dreams from 2000 to present)
2000 - tbd
2001 - tbd
2002 - tbd
2003 - tbd
2004 - tbd
2005 - tbd
2006 - tbd
2007 - tbd
2008 - tbd
2009 - tbd
2010 - tbd
2011 - tbd
2012 - tbd
2013 - tbd
2014 - tbd
2015 - tbd
2016 - tbd
2017 - tbd
2018 - tbd
2019 - tbd
2020 - tbd
Transcription Timeline
I transcribed my twenties / ISKCON years in the UCSB Special Research Library reading room in early 2018. After that, they allowed me to take the notebooks home to transcribe.
The next decade I tackled was my forties, which I worked on at home from November 24, 2018 to June 15, 2019.
After completing the transcription of my forties, I packed up all the boxes of notebooks and drove back to UCSB. I gave them back my forties boxes and picked up my thirties and fifties. This filled up my car!
Working from home, I transcribed my thirties from July to December 2019. Then I transcribed my fifties from January to April 2020. On May 10, 2020, I started on my sixties decade, and typed up to February 2020. The rest oF the notebooks, February 2020 to present, remain partially transcribed.
Between each decade, I took time to code the main characters, which are my mother, father, husband, brother, friend Kyle, and other friends and relatives.
Also between each decade, I photographed the irregular / non-linear pages and drawings in all the notebooks. Following are examples of pages from the notebooks.
Photos from the Notebooks
These two (above) are typical non-linear, hard to transcribe pages. The rest are easy, typical pages, sketches, and dream sketches.
Dream Index
