Dream Catchers: Helpful?

As I was growing up, my Aunt Eileen was obsessed with the Native American culture. She would wear rings with wolves or feathers engraved in them, wear shirts with Native Americans on them, possess talismans of the Native Americans, etc. This culture fascinated her and her obsession entered my life in the form of a Dream Catcher. For one of my birthdays, she gave me a huge Native American hand made Dream Catcher (the picture posted with this blog post is most similar to the one my Aunt gave me). I was impressed by its beauty, but didn't quite understand why this object was so significant. I was told by my Aunt that it will keep the good dreams flowing at night and the bad dreams away. So, I hung it up on my bedroom wall, hoping it would do as my Aunt promised.

The history of the Dream Catchers has been passed on through many generations. The Native American people believed that the night air was filled with both good and bad dreams. They wanted to find a way to keep the good dreams coming and flowing through the sleeping person, but also filter out the negative dreams at the same time. The Dream Catcher's operation works like this: "The positive dreams would slip through the hole in the center of the dream catcher, and glide down the feathers to the sleeping person below. The negative dreams would get caught up in the web, and expire when the first rays of the sun struck them." ( Dream Catchers: History and Legend). The full legend of the Dream Catcher can be found here- The Legend Of The Dream Catcher, and is quite interesting! The legend started off as a meeting of an old Lakota spiritual leader and Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom.

Now skeptics probably are wondering- Does the Dream Catchers work? There is not an actually study on where they truly work or not, but people like to share their experiences or thoughts on the Dream Catchers. Here are some interesting stores/shared thoughts that people have posted on the topic- Do You Believe Dream Catchers Work?

I still have the Dream Catcher my Aunt gave me at home and it is a fond memory for me (I do not remember if it helped with my dream when I was little though). Interestingly enough, right before I showed up to college, I bought a little dream catcher in Atlantic city in a Native American shop. I have had it hanging over my dorm room bed ever since the beginning of September '10 and I have not had any bad dreams. I've had interesting, weird, silly, happy, etc, but no bad ones. So as far as my experience goes- it has helped me. But..is it my mind? Who knows! Guess you'll have to test it out for yourself!