ABSTRACT
Again, consistent with his efforts to position the understanding of dreams within the grasp of the average listener or reader, Silberer discusses a number of popular beliefs of his day regarding dreams: critiquing many, and moderately endorsing others. In the former, he includes notions that performance is enhanced in dreams, jokes funnier, solutions more creative, specific prophesies profound, etc. — although he begrudgingly allows for the rare musical composer, or the singular mathematician who credits his/her dream with unparalleled inspiration. As to the latter category of beleifs, he reservedly acknowledges anecdotal support for notions that dreams sometimes reveal to us interpersonal cues we missed in our conscious day (e.g. the “body language” of others); or of our own impending physical ailments; or extraordinarily, of the ailments of loved ones not in our midst, or even in rare instances, of the impending demise of such individuals. Silberer also addresses somnambulism and likewise offers a commonsense appraisal of it.
