<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Balancing the "spooky" with science
Review: I just finished re-reading this amazing and unusual book. A friend of mine who suffers from sleep paralysis (she is interested in any books about dreams!) recommended it to me.
Most books that I have read on the subject of dreams are either too "out there" or offer too little practical advice that I can incorporate into my dream life. Dr. Conessa Sevilla's book presents a well-balanced scientific, practical, "spooky" story, not only in regards to sleep paralysis, but about lucid dreaming as well.
His book also incorporates narratives of individuals who have experienced these dreams.
Some of the more psychological (bio-psychological or Freudian)explanations he offers, I must admit, were either new to me.
Finally, Dr. Conessa re-interprets the sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming experiences from the point of view of aesthetics.
Cordially,
J. Rodman
Rating:
Summary: Balancing the "spooky" with science
Review: I just finished re-reading this amazing and unusual book. A friend of mine who suffers from sleep paralysis (she is interested in any books about dreams!) recommended it to me.
Most books that I have read on the subject of dreams are either too "out there" or offer too little practical advice that I can incorporate into my dream life. Dr. Conessa Sevilla's book presents a well-balanced scientific, practical, "spooky" story, not only in regards to sleep paralysis, but about lucid dreaming as well.
His book also incorporates narratives of individuals who have experienced these dreams.
Some of the more psychological (bio-psychological or Freudian)explanations he offers, I must admit, were either new to me.
Finally, Dr. Conessa re-interprets the sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming experiences from the point of view of aesthetics.
Cordially,
J. Rodman
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was so exctied that a book about sleep paralysis finally came out, but now that I'm just about done reading it I'm disappointed. I'm glad that a lot of the book is based on science rather than superstition, but it includes a lot of jargon. The author writes about lucid dreams throughout the entire book, but doesn't even adequately define what a lucid dream is until halfway through the book. I was hoping the author would explain how a sleep paralysis sufferer can escape a bout of sleep paralysis, but instead in the entire book he writes about sleep paralysis being a good thing. I'm glad he brought me to see sleep paralysis in a more positive light, but a lot of the book bluntly promotes sleep paralysis because it supposedly helps launch lucid dreams. I felt like I was reading a book from the occult section. Maybe I expected a more exciting author (I guess I read too much Oliver Sacks), but I honestly had trouble maintaining interest in some of the boring, filler sections. When I read a book by someone with a Ph.D. I don't expect him to be refer to us sleep paralysis sufferers and lucid dreamers as shamens. I also didn't care for all of the exclamation points (!) throughout the book. Wait until you have an exciting point before you drop one of those, lol. Anyway, the book did help me to see sleep paralsis in a more positive light. To each his own.
Rating:
Summary: I now know more about sleep paralysis
Review: Years of not knowing whether I was crazy, hallucinating, or drinking too much tea all but disappeared when I finished reading Dr. Sevilla`s excellent book. Even though my knowledge of sleep paralysis has grown in the last year, I thought I was alone in my recent capacity, or ability to move from the paralysis state to more fun lucid dreaming. Dr. Sevilla explains how he and others do this making me feel less alone. His proactive management of the debilitating paralysis and turning it into a positive experience makes this a hopeful and optimistic book about the syndrome.
Dr. Sevilla also provides a wealth of information and scientific background (his and others) that makes his book an excellent reference book. There a lot of technical terms used throughout the book and he explains all of them in an accessible language. He uses the metaphor of a `dream shaman` as a literary tool to identify with the reader and to link the personal-phenomenological information with the more formidable and specialized scientific literature.
Included in the book is a dream questionnaire that I found very useful and probes deeply into the kind of experiences dreamers are likely to describe if they experience both SP and LD or any other type of dream. A keeper.
<< 1 >>
| 
