BERKELEY, Apr. 23, 2003. There's a battle raging inside
children's bedrooms around the world. Research shows that while nightmares
have not become more common, they are now more often about scary news
stories than scary monsters. As parents encourage their children to watch
the news more and more openly discuss each day's bad news, children are
bringing the terrible events of the day into their dreams at night.
Fortunately, it is possible to know that one is dreaming, and to
effectively change one's dream. This ability is known as "lucid dreaming,"
and children as young as five years old have been able to utilize it to
help combat nightmares once they understand how it works.
Cynthia Sue Larson's new young adult novel, Karen Kimball & the Dream
Weaver's Web, describes what it feels like to dream lucidly and change
nightmares into good dreams. Karen Kimball & the Dream Weaver's Web
describes the world from the point of view of a young girl who learns the
art of living a waking dream, lucid dreaming, and astral travel.
Ten-year-old Karen Kimball discovers she's no ordinary girl when she
notices she can sense and hear things others can't. She talks with animals
and spirits, affects other peoples' thoughts, and flies to real places in
her dreams. When Karen's mother signs her up for summer swim camp at Lake
Lovell, Karen finds herself in the middle of a dangerous mystery that
demands she quickly come to terms with and master her newfound
abilities.
Cynthia Sue Larson is a bioenergetic field researcher who lives in
Berkeley, California, with her two young daughters. Cynthia says Karen
Kimball is "the book I always wished for", and hopes that children
everywhere can learn the art of lucid dreaming, so their nightmares will be
replaced with more pleasant and enjoyable dreams.
