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Q: What's the best guarantee in life for having a
dream come true?
A: If it's your dream, you're the guarantee, via the
classic self-fulfilling prophecy. Dreams can color your
thinking about upcoming plans and your closest friends,
especially if nighttime reveries mirror what you already
believe, says Bruce Bower in "Nighttime Thoughts See Light
of Day" in "Science News." People in cultures as diverse as
the U.S., India, South Korea generally assume that dreams
contain hidden truth, say Carey Morewedge of Carnegie-Mellon
University and Michael Norton of Harvard. In fact, many
dreamers feel that these provide more meaningful insight
than do comparable waking thoughts.
In one experiment, participants reported feeling closer
to a friend after imagining a dream in which the friend
defended them, versus betrayed them. Explains Morewedge: A
person who dreams about a loyal friend may then act in ways
that encourage the friend to behave loyally. "The dreams
most likely to affect our daily lives and relationships are
the ones that accord with our existing beliefs and desires."
Send questions to StrangeTrue@ameritech.net.
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