Posted on 09/27/2006 8:17:11 AM PDT by NorthernRight
CanWest News Services [Transcribed from print version]
National Post, page A11
Steamy sex? Dream on, liberals
By Chris Lackner
OTTAWA * If you’ve recently dreamed about sex with a stranger, flying or the dead coming back to life, chances are you’re probably a liberal rather than a conservative.
A dream researcher from John F. Kennedy University near San Francisco has discovered fundamental differences between the dream worlds of people who identify themselves as ideologically left- or right-wing.
Among his findings, Kelly Bulkeley discovered liberals are more restless sleepers and have a higher number of bizarre, surreal dreams, including fantasy settings and a wide variety of sexual encounters.
Conservatives’ dreams were, on average, far more mundane and focused on realistic people, situations and settings: “Conservatives seem to have more of a focus on the here and now and the material world, whereas liberals, in contrast, seem to have a wider sphere of imaginative activity. They don’t just dream about what is, but about they wish could be”.
Mr. Bulkeley’s research will appear in an upcoming issue of Dreams, a journal published by he American Psychological Association.
Of the 134 liberals who took part in the study, 91% said they recently dreamed about sex; only 76% of 100 conservative subjects admitted the same.
But Mr. Bulkeley said the two political stripes showed very different tastes I dream partners.
Liberals were far more likely to have sexual dreams about strangers and a variety of partners and liberal women showed a greater tendency toward same-sex fantasies than their conservative counterparts (24% versus. 4%).
“Especially for liberal women, there was a far greater variety in sexual partners and incidents of homosexuality,” Mr. Bulkeley said. “Liberals tended to show a greater willingness tp experiment with different things.”
Conservatives were far more likely to report having sexual dreams about their spouse or current partner.
While left-wingers might be more adventurous in the subconscious bedroom, they’re also more likely to wake up in a cold sweat.
Liberals showed slightly higher levels of nightmares than conservatives.
The study includes some dreams recounted by liberals.
Among them was a nightmare: “I was at a presidential rally where George W. Bush was speaking. There was so much red, white and blue.
“Bush speaks: “There are those who say that we are giving up our civil liberties. But I say, we should be proud to sacrifice our freedoms for America!” The crowd went wild, cheering and waving flags. I woke up in a cold sweat.”
Not surprisingly, conservatives had much more benign dreams about the U.S. leader: “I was friends with George W. Bush, and we were working together on his ranch. I was happy to be there” is typical.
“While some of my colleagues think my research reinforces the stereotype of repressed uptight conservatives, it also shows that many liberals may be hanging on the edge of mental well-being,” Mr. Bulkeley said, “There may be a lot of hidden distress and unpleasantness in the liberal mind.”
CanWest News Service
Oddly enough, I have a tab open for FD right now ( just keeping an eye on things- don't want it to vanish again! ) so I'll go have a look...
Regards, Ivan
I'm sorry, but regardless of political affiliation, if you're having dreams about President Bush (or any other recent President) then chances are you need to relax a bit about politics (unless you *work* in politics, and then maybe doubly so).
IMO this 'study' suggests to me that respondents tell the researcher what they think he wants to hear. Liberals get more wacky with their reports because they want to be thought of as cool.
Lends some credence to the theory that dreams reflect emotions suppressed in the waking life. Other studies show conservatives get more, so...
Of course, there's a counterfact: When I worked at a company that processed mortgage applications, I used to dream about numbers 3 or 4 nights a week.
The part about conservatives having realistic dreams is dead on in my own experience. When I dream it's a bunch of confused and senseless stuff, but it's all stuff from real life.
Dead on. And a related note: When people accept as a truth that sex gets stale when you're married, I just think to myself, "They must all be doing it wrong."
How many questions did he ask you?
One of my most memoriable flying dreams was not only incredibly visual -- flying over a CG alien cityscape -- it was frustrating. I actually dreamed my memory ran out of RAM, my flight slowed down and the scenery disappeared.
I don't want to know what that says about me.
I've been shot point blank by a shotgun, blown up in a nuclear blast, fallen from a skyscraper to hard asphalt and driven my car into a perpendicular concrete wall at over 100 mph. And that is just in the last couple of years.
Over my lifetime I have wrecked my cars a LOT in dreams.
The concrete wall was the coolest. I always survive the catastrophies but this one was interesting. When I hit the concrete it was like breaking through a thin glass wall into a world of pure light.
I love going to bed at night. I always wonder what movie I'm going to see that night.
>>Libs dream about steamy sex. Conservatives have it.<<
That is exactly what I was thinking!
Sounds like a good fanfiction plot. Just make sure you post it if you write it up!
Oh, watch out. If you're like me, those twisty-plot dreams end up sticking with you SO long you HAVE to write them up or they won't leave you alone!
>>I dreamt about zombies just a few days ago.... :( But I was blasting them away with a shotgun, at least!<<
HA! I had that dream when I was seven. I saved the whole family. It was actually pretty similar to the dream sequence in Christmas Story except I didn't use a BB gun and there was only one bad "creature". I strangled it and it was not fun!
“There may be a lot of hidden distress and unpleasantness in the liberal mind.”
YA THINK?
What happens if I have a steamy sex dream about a threesome with Stretch Pelosi and Her Thighness Hillary Rotten?
It means you're an uber-nerd. (;->)
I like the dreams where YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN THE DREAM and you can do whatever you want to, like kick the @ss of the guy that has the gun on you or do some series bitch slapping.
Funny how I never get killed in those dreams, but I get some pretty mean flesh wounds.
Way, way too much information. Now I need to wash out my mind's eye.
A Freudian would probably say that you see sex as an act of domination and you are dreaming about these particular women as a way to mentally fight the evil you see in their ideology.
I say get a CAT scan, because that game would probably damage your brain.
Oh, I just made that up.
If this study were true, and the wildness or mildness of your dreams reflected your social and political philosophy, I would be a bomb-throwing Luddite anarchist-communist.
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