Sidarta Ribeiro's The Oracle of Night: the History and Science of Dreams is as mixed as its subtitle.

• The "history" is scattered, not coherent or consecutive, but with many dreams of interest, some of them new to me (and I've read a LOT of dream-compendia).
• The "science" chapters are mostly electrodes and mice, useful only to doctors with brain-damaged patients. Picture a travelguide half of which explains how planes and knee joints work! Dreamworkers need a guide to the full territory of dreams. He just says "get a notebook and write." Ohhhhkaaaay...

Many dreams do fit his model--just not all. Ribeiro is sure predictive dreams just guess, extrapolating from present data; there is no sixth sense steering us through a timescape seen ahead. But both types are real; and the latter implies the Western view of time is just wrong. He omits other ESP types entirely--telepathic, clairvoyant, or cledonic dreams; and omits the long history of research on these, from Jung and JW Dunne through Louisa Rhine and Montague Ullman as well as clinicians like Ann Faraday & Patricia Garfield, who weren't mere popularizers. Ribeiro's labcoat colleagues Zadra and Stickgold have a model unhelpful for dreamworkers, but at least they do admit the ESP camp has data requiring explanation. Oracle of Night is like a world atlas omitting certain inconvenient continents.

One dream below isn't in his book; it's my dreams' reaction to its omissions: Ribeiro's Wrong, ESP's Not Extrapolation.

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	BIRDS AT WAR: by Martín Painemal Huenchual, 1973/12/11, a warning dream DREAM: Millions of birds were at war, tearing one another apart. It was out of control, thousands and thousands... DAY: Pinochet's coup took Chile. Alerted by the dream, Painemal went into hiding and lived--unlike thousands... CAUTION: EXTRAPOLATIVE OR PSYCHIC?
	BRUNO'S DREAM: by Giordano Bruno, 1578, a cosmological dream Bruno flew through space--not crystal spheres, not Heaven, not even the Copernican solar system, but interstellar space. He saw the stars were suns, those suns had planets, and those planets bore life... CAUTION: BURNED ALIVE BY THE INQUISITION
	CAESAR'S INCEST DREAM: by Julius Caesar, c.69 BCE, an embarrassing oracular dream Plutarch says Caesar dreamt of sex with his mother; it was interpreted as "you'll take the motherland". So he crossed the Rubicon... But Suetonius says he dreamed it way earlier, at age 33, after seeing a shrine to Alexander (who died at 33); Julius felt inferior... CAUTION: INCEST; DREAM USED FOR PROPAGANDA
	DUMUZID'S DESPAIR: by Dumuzid, c.3200 BCE; the first nightmare, predictive dream & false waking Dumuzid dreams raptors prey on his flock, his hearth fire's doused, his churns knocked over; he lies dead. His sister Jestinana interprets it: "Manhunters will kill you; you must flee." He does, across the known world...
	FLIGHT FROM A JAGUAR: by Davi Kopenawa, 1959-62, a child's recurring nightmare turns to flight A jaguar tracked me. I ran, but never escaped; it pounced on me and I woke crying. I tried climbing trees, but it climbed after me. The only escape was to jump from the highest branch, flapping desperately. And I flew...
	GUDEA'S TEMPLE: by Gudea of Lagash; c.2125 BCE: one of the first false-waking or nested dreams A winged god whose body's a wave urged me to do... what? I couldn't understand him! I woke... A scribe with a shining stylus listed stars; an architect gave me plans and a brick-mold. And woke again! My dream clarified itself. So I built the temple shown me, aligned with those stars...
	LIU AND YI (not to mention Kong!): by Liu Bang's mom, 257 BCE, and Yi Yin's mom, c.1600 BCE; birth-related dreams Liu Bang's mom dreams a spirit is making love to her. Her husband sees the spirit is a dragon! Her baby grows up to found the Han... Yi Yin's mom dreams a spirit warns "if water pours from your mortar, run!" She does, and survives a flood, to help found the Shang... CAUTION: LIKELY JUST FOLKLORE
	MY COUNTRY RIGHT OR LEFT: by George Orwell, 1939/8/22, a predictive dream I dream World War Two's begun. I always felt war was just rivalry between ruling elites, but now I find I'll even back Imperial Britain against the Nazis. The next day, Hitler and Stalin announce a pact... CAUTION: GRIM TIME FOR IDEALISTS
	GOPA'S NIGHTMARE: by Gopa Gautama, c.534 BCE, a breakup-warning dream Gopa dreams the earth shakes, stars and meteors fall. She's naked, her marriage bed is broken, her husband Siddhartha's treasures lie scattered. He says "How auspicious!"--and prepares to abandon her and their son... CAUTION: SEXISM
	RAMANUJAN: by Srinavasa Ramanujan, 1905-09, dreams of math insights from a goddess I saw a red screen, as if formed by flowing blood. On it, a hand wrote elliptical integrals. I knew they were from Lakshmi. As soon as I woke, I committed them to writing...
	RIBEIRO'S WRONG, E.S.P.'S NOT EXTRAPOLATION: by Wayan, 2024/5/19, a dream on dream theory! DAY: Sidarta Ribeiro theorizes dreams are brilliant at extrapolation, which we mistake for a sixth sense. DREAM: I tell Ribeiro "Your theory explains the occasional prediction. But after your first thousand..."
	WALLACE'S FEVERDREAM: by Alfred Russel Wallace, Feb. 1858, an insight-dream Exploring Indonesia's lesser isles, Wallace fell sick with fever. He dreamed that Malthusian hunger and population pressure might explain the evolution of the species he found. He wrote to Darwin, and...
	WITCHES, MANHUNT, TIGER AND SHARK: by Sidarta Ribeira, 1976, child's nightmares facing loss After his dad's death, a boy dreams he's an orphan facing cannibal witches--every night! Therapy helps; his recurring dreams shift to a manhunt for a criminal who hides on the ceiling. The dreams shift again, to a tiger hunt. That is, the tiger hunts you. The boy jumps in the sea. Swimming with sharks... CAUTION: INTENSE NIGHTMARES, PARENTAL LOSS