Nightmare Encyclopedia: Your Darkest Dreams Interpreted

by Jeff Belanger, Jeff Belanger

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, with much of the night filled with dreams. Peculiarly vivid, disturbing dreams leave behind impressions that are hard to dismiss. But what are nightmares? And what significance do they have for the dreamer? Questions like these have been asked and answered in all time periods in all of the world's cultures. The Nightmare Encyclopedia examines ideas about bad dreams found in different parts of the world, in different periods of Western history, in recent clinical research, in current theories of the occult, and in popular films. Most of the world's traditional societies are taught that our souls leave our bodies and travel to other realms when we dream, so maybe nightmares are the result of getting lost in one of dreamland's bad neighborhoods. In medieval Europe, it was thought that demons could attack and rape human beings in their sleep. In contrast, modern psychologists tend to view nightmares as repressed conflicts that return from our unconscious to haunt us in our dreams. This book also includes interpretations of dream symbols found in nightmares.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Occult

360 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2000

About the author

Jeff Belanger is one of the most visible and prolific researchers of folklore and legends today. A natural storyteller, he’s the award-winning, Emmy-nominated host, writer, and producer of the New England Legends series on PBS and Amazon Prime, and is the author of over a dozen books (published in six languages). He also hosts the New England Legends weekly podcast, which has garnered over 5 million downloads since it was launched.

Always one for chasing adventures, Jeff has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, he’s explored the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, he’s searched the catacombs of Paris, France (where he encountered his first ghost), he faced his life-long struggle with basophobia on his birthday by going skydiving, and he’s been ghost hunting all over the world from a former TB asylum in Kentucky, to medieval castles in Europe, to an abandoned prison in Australia.

Jeff got his start as a journalist in 1997, where he learned how to connect with people from all walks of life. For his work, he’s interviewed thousands of people about their encounters with the profound.

His books include the best sellers: The Call of Kilimanjaro, The World’s Most Haunted Places, Weird Massachusetts, Our Haunted Lives, and Who’s Haunting the White House?. He’s a noted speaker and media personality. He’s spoken at MENSA’s national conference, has given a prestigious TEDx talk in New York City, and provides dozens of live lectures and programs to audiences each year.

Belanger has written for newspapers like The Boston Globe and USA Today, and has served as the writer and researcher on numerous television series including every single episode of Ghost Adventures (25 seasons and counting), Paranormal Challenge, and Aftershocks on the Travel Channel, and Amish Haunting on Destination America. He’s been a guest on hundreds of radio and television networks and programs including: The History Channel, The Travel Channel, Biography Channel, Reelz, PBS, NECN, Living TV (UK), Sunrise 7 (Australia), Bell (Canada), The Maury Show, The CBS News Early Show, CBS Sunday Morning, FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, National Public Radio, The BBC, Darkness Radio, Australian Radio Network, and Coast to Coast AM.

Reviews

[Jeannine Morin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited to purchase this book and found the deciphering the nightmare questionnaire to be interesting, but there was no results section for the type of answers you give, and I understand it wasn't a simple yes or no quiz, or multiple choice, but there should have been some kind of clarification based on how the answer was provided, in either a positive or negative manner. It's implied that if the answer is negative, you could be experiencing nightmares but "Why" it is happening, is not clarified, and I don't believe in an answer without an explanation. There were many different types of nightmares but the explanations didn't feel very defined or they came off obvious or generic. For example, the section on spiders talks about arachnophobia, which is obvious, but being occult I have found information like that spiders represent someone trying to possess you, or possession already being in place over you. I just feel like there is things that are not discussed because they are considered true knowledge and knocks off the stupid things that people come up with.
There were some cool things about this book and I had fun reading it, however, not intelligent enough for me to feed off.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing adventure into the subconscious.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good source of interpretations for dream analysis.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to dip in and out of, rather than read from cover to cover.

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice alternative read to balance out dream interpretation research