This book reports on the results of various group dreaming experiments undertaken by the author throughout her long career as a dream researcher. At the same time, she reviews much of the dream research that had been going on up until the time of writing, which I found to be very valuable; many of the institutions and organizations she discussed are still alive and active today. “Group dreaming” can be loosely defined as any attempt by 2 or more people to meet or find each other in the subtle realm and report on the experience upon waking.

She opens the book by taking us through her early group dreaming experiments where she set up 2 teams of 10 people and instructed them to try to meet at specific locations at the same time. There were varying levels of success between the teams and between individuals, but it became rapidly apparent that meeting others in dreams absolutely is possible and does happen. But because of the nature of dreams, it’s not always obvious and straight forward to recognize that it did, indeed, happen. While she was piecing together the reports of the experimental subjects, it emerged that things don’t always happen in chrono-linear order. People sometimes reported things that didn’t end up happening in the physical world until a later date. In other words, not only could people from other ends of the Earth meet and be in the same place at the same time, but they could also see things that hadn’t yet happened on the physical plane. This was the biggest nugget of insight I gained from this part of the book: the subtle realm doesn’t play by the same rules of time and space that we’re used to in the physical world.

Soon enough, a very penetrating question emerged from many of the participants of the experiments: “If I am seeing real individuals in my dreams, and they look and act like every other character I’ve seen in my dreams throughout my life, then is it possible that those other people/characters from my other dreams are not merely creations of my subconscious, but true, autonomous individuals?” This question is one I still think about today. Which of the people in my dreams are real and which are my own creations?

What inspired me the most about this book is how the author crated an online platform for people across the world to connect and share their subtle realm experiences with one another. Through this platform people engaged and supported one another in dream cultivation during their waking hours. Their subtle realm experiences soon began responding with greater insights, hints, suggestions, inspirations, and even warnings for their waking life. In this way, the waking and dreaming lives of the participants began to merge into one and their lives became fuller, richer, and a more complete whole as a result. Whether they found themselves in their physical body during the day or in their subtle body during the night, they were more fully alive and present.

One critique I have of the book is that it got very anecdotal at the end with the author recounting far too many dreams from experiment participants without making her points very clear. I found it difficult to find the point she was trying to make. Yet, I understand that the very nature of dreams makes the careful, controlled experimentation required for testing scientific theories pretty much impossible. In the end, all of the stories helped to inspire me to keep dreaming big.

Group Dreaming – Dreams to the Tenth Power, by Jean Campbell, published in 2006 by Wordminder Press is an account of numerous experiments intended to evoke group dreams in which participants would meet each other and experience the same or similar circumstances, environments or events. These experiments were aimed at answering the question: is it possible for people to work together so as to purposefully meet in dreams and act together to realize some pre-determined purpose or goal?

Beginning with events and concepts leading from the original inception of the idea, to initial organization and first efforts Jean Campbell traces her involvement in organized methods for the study of shared dreaming. Though many people have anecdotally reported having the same dream as family members, spouses, friends or sometimes even total strangers this book documents how a group of people came together in an organized way and were able to create common experiences in the dream state.

Many good distinctions between types of dreams emerged in the collective work. Different types of group dreams were found to include:

• Dreams in which people had exactly the same dream from the viewpoint of an experiencer rather than as an observer; the individual dreamer was aware only of the experience and not of any other people who had had the same dream at different times even though sometimes frequently occurring over several years

• Dreams in which two or more people were aware of each other and observed the same circumstances and events, as observers only - not experiencers -- of the events

• Dreams in which two or more people were aware of each other, each experiencing the same or similar circumstances and sequences of events from his or her own viewpoint while interacting with other dreamers

• Dreams in which sometimes other dream team members who had not met each other in daily waking life met first in dreams and who when meeting afterwards recognized each other as having the same character and features as appearing in the dream state

• … and so forth

Campbell recounts how the work progressed over a number of years, occurred with more than one group assembled from different members, and how other individuals and organizations began developing similar work. She also documents the emergence of purposeful themes in which a broader social awareness and work on a larger often international scale grew to include people from very diverse backgrounds sometimes even from countries whose politics were in conflict either historically or in the present.

I found a refreshing aspect of this kind of group dream work that produces numerous reports of similar and correlated experiences. It has the ability to elevate these investigations above the purely psychological, frequently limiting interpretation of dreams as being only the unique imagery of the individual. Yes of course there were numerous individual psychological aspects group members reported. But it was still possible to correlate group events when the reported central themes and general settings experienced by two or more dreamers were essentially the same. Many examples of this are presented.

Eventually a strong focus on peace work developed -- called by Campbell "dream activism" -- in which individuals either in loose association or organized groups undertook dreaming to address conflicts throughout the world. This last aspect takes up a good last third of the book. Although the altruism behind humanitarian relief in the dreamworld is laudable I felt the book lost some of its focus when the narrative was more about connections and organizations and activism than about the original inner work that supported it. Conversely it does provide ideas for direction and purpose such that those committed to service to the greater good can extend their activities into the night hours. Although never alluded to nor mentioned specifically this is akin to the more esoteric night practices found in Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and other schools dedicated to serving humanity.

Certainly, the book contains enough examples, insights and methods to guide those wishing to organize their own groups and continue these investigations. Group dreaming has occurred throughout history, can be interpreted quite differently in different cultures and different religious and philosophical disciplines but almost always provides rich food for thought. We are able to meaningfully connect and interact in many more ways than just in the mundane world such that our waking life is deepened and enriched.

The development of this exploration of consciousness into a discipline and a broad cultural phenomenon is in its infancy and suggests there are many new things to be discovered understood and practiced.

I would recommend this book for the questions it raises and for the approach to organizing group investigations it documents. And I would recommend it for its reporting on what may historically turn out to be a major contributing influence in the maturing of our understanding of human consciousness.