by Anna DeStefano

The emotion in our dreams is the key. Not what you see, or even what you remember when awake, but what you feel. Emotions are the common thread between the waking and the sleeping worlds. In my psychic fantasy novels, this is how scientists and psychics develop the brainwashing techniques that threaten to become global weapons. In real life, this is merely the power of our minds leading us through the work we need to do.

I’m on an emotional rant this week–most of my posts will touch on the psyche, I’ll just be coming at you from different directions. So be warned ;o)

Longing and disappointments and fear and hope and anxiety and excitement…and all of that is all of who we are, in our waking an sleeping worlds.

Think about it–what’s the one dream you can remember most? Why is that dream so easy for you to recall, when others have slipped away?  Was it frightening? Special and supremely happy? Were you seeing someone again for the first time in a long time, or traveling somewhere meaningful, or facing your sworn enemy or struggling through your worst nightmare come true, etc.?

All of that is about the emotion still lingering, and bout how it was  still scaring or thrilling you when you woke.

It’s been largely accepted by scientists that dreams are a method for us to process emotional information (among other things). Some go so far as to suggest you write a dream report immediately upon waking–and that you focus on feelings and emotions first, before getting to the lingering visible sights and symbols that remain.

The most common emotion experienced during a dream?

Fear.

Does this mean we’re being threatened by either the sleeping or the waking world. Not at all. Most likely, we’re facing something challenging that we’re not fully processing or dealing with while awake, and our dreams are taking us through that unwanted emotional territory. Naturally, there will be some resistance and anxiety.

Regardless of the symbols and threats in a scary dream, the basis for the vision is likely something quite simple and innocuous from your life. So trust what you’re seeing and feeling, instead of suppressing or trying as quickly as possible to forget what your dreams reflect back to you.

What does that picture have to do with any of this? Nothing. But it’s a cute kittie and a GREAT poster, and I thought we needed a bit of an ice breaker ;o)

Now, where were we…

Are you dreaming of falling to your death? This startling scenerio (much like one depicting a less-threatening open doorway) can represent that there’s an opportunity waiting, through which you might begin an exhilarating and new part of your life. But you need to let go of an “old” part you to get you where you need to go–and you’re resisting. You must be willing to give up (let die) what is familiar before you emerge into what’s new. And your dream knows it, so it’s replaying a symbolic representation of that journey for you while you sleep.

Another common but disturbing dream–your teeth falling out or breaking off or being broken in the midst of a seemingly normal dream sequence. The panic and fear after waking from something like this can lead you to believe something’s physically wrong with your or your  mouth or whatever. Instead, teeth in dreams tend to represent the barriers you’ve put up between what you need to say and those you need to speak with. So, when your teeth break off or are damaged in a dream, what this most typically means is that you have something important to communicate and it’s time for you to speak the truth. It’s time to share you wisdom and knowledge. Time to stop blocking yourself from sharing what needs to be said (often with whomever was depicted in that very dream, however they’re often symbolized in your sleeping world).

All of this, remember, is about drilling down to the emotions of what you’re dreaming and what they’re telling you about what you’re avoiding or fearing or feeling challenged by. THEN, I would encourage you to face that dynamic and conquer the emotion and let it drive you to move successfully forward in your waking life in whatever direction the dreams are leading you.

This is the central “decoding” method I use in Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy, by the way. This basic principle of dream science becomes a crucial method in both books for understanding the strange symbols and misfiring visions and obscure/dangerous clues my psychic twins must puzzle through in order to save their legacy, a lost little girl whose powerful mind is being manipulated far worse than theirs ever had been, and the Psychic Realm that is more at risk each day that they cannot control their gifts.

Yes, what I do is make believe. Yes, most of what you dream isn’t real, either. But there’s a key to that other place that is very personal and very true to you. Your emotions.

Dont’ be afraid of either them or what your sleeping mind does with them. Get to know yourself and the fantastical places your dreams take you to. It’s an enlightening and powerful journey, I assure you ;o)

Secret Legacy

“Help me…” cries the child from Sarah Temple’s nightmare. The voice haunts her more every day, whether Sarah’s awake or asleep.

A month before, Sarah made the same plea. She barely escaped the covert organization experimenting with her psychic ability. Now, exposing their secrets is the only way to save the lost little girl who’s become the next target–a special child who can manipulate dreams and alter people’s will.

But is Sarah’s mysterious link to the girl a clue, or a tactic of her captors to lure her back? The only way to be sure is to trust the man who broke her heart in order to save her life. A psychic warrior honor bound by a centuries-old brotherhood to protect Sarah and safeguard the…Secret Legacy.

“The Legacy books are a sexy, spine-tingling home run for me! ” –Jessica Andersen, Best-selling, Award Winning Author of the Final Prophecy novels

“Whether you prefer Thrillers, Suspense, Romance or even Fantasy this is the book for you…[it] will leave you utterly satisfied and yet demanding the next book in the series the moment you finish reading the last page.” –Rochester Writing Examiner

“A wonderful sequel to Dark Legacy. Unique worldbuilding with complex characters of psychic dreamers fighting to discover and pursue their own destinies. A powerful story of love, betrayal and redemption, beautifully rendered.” –Robin D. Owens, RITA Award Winning author of Fantasy, Futuristic Romance

About Anna

Anna DeStefano is the best selling author of classic romance for Harlequin and Silhouette and contemporary psychic fantasy for Dorchester Publishing. She’s won and finalled in numerous national contests, including twice winning the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award and finalling in the National Reader’s Choice Awards, Book Buyers Best Awards, and the Holt Medallian.

She speaks and blogs regulary about both her writing experience and the fascination with metaphysics and paraspychology that led her to create her Legacy Series’ contemporary psychic world. Join Anna at her blog each week for Dream Theory and Psychic Realm updates, as well as her running series on How We Write Wednesdays (HoWW) and the writing industry favorite Publishing Isn’t for Sissies (PIFS).

Past President Advisor of Georgia Romance Writers (GRW), a group of over 300 published authors and aspiring writers that meets monthly in Atlanta, Georgia, Anna has successfully channeled her skills as a Senior Tech Writer into the more creative field of writing contemporary fiction. A GA Tech honors graduate with 10 years of experience working in Corporate IT, Anna applies the more analytical side of her personality to studying the craft of storytelling. But her imagination rules when it’s time to let the planning go and write. The result—eleven award-winning novels published since 2004, three more scheduled for released in 2009 and 2010, and nearly half a million copies of her books in print in over 5 different languages.

Her interactive workshops on the writing process—plotting through character, improvisation (drafting), and rewriting—regularly attract standing room-only crowds wherever she speaks. Her series of communication workshops (taught independently or with her literary agent, Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Literary Agency) are the latest addition to her teaching resume, and they’re quickly becoming the most requested of her programs.

Anna has taught for years in adult education both professionally, as a technical trainer, and in the fields of grief recovery and crisis care teaching team coordinators and volunteers. She’s presented her writing workshops to over 60 groups and conferences, including the Harriette Austin Writer’s Conference at the University of Georgia, Romance Writers of America National Conferences, Romantic Times Reader Conventions, the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, the Surrey International Writers Conference and DragonCon. She also teaches half-day and one-day seminars to smaller groups interested in a more intensive, interactive experience.