You own your dream. And only you can determine its meaning and importance.

These views, which have been incorporated into an ethics statement by the international Association for the Study of Dreams, are a tremendous departure from the thinking of Sigmund Freud, who believed that dreams were the "guardians of sleep," disguising content that was so disturbing that only specially trained analysts could figure them out.

Freud's views have largely been abandoned today, but his legacy has left many dreamers with fears and suspicion about what their dreams might reveal.

A handful of dream workers, mostly based in California, founded the international association 20 years ago to try to change that perception.

At the time, there was little dream work being promoted between two extremes -- what was occurring on the psychiatrist's couch on the one hand, and by those wacky folks "way out there" on the other.

"There was nothing in between that said, 'Hey, we're all dreaming every night 20 percent of the time that we're asleep,'" said Patricia Garfield, a San Francisco dream worker, author and co-founder of the organization. "Dreams are something important to our waking lives and well-being."

The group brought together anthropologists, psychologists, medical doctors and lay people to promote the use of dreams as a source of inspiration, guidance, creativity and healing. It has 600 members internationally.

With a newsletter and peer-reviewed quarterly journal called "Dreaming," the association has provided a platform for research, exploring such issues as how dreams relate to stressful events; the dreams of patients who have asthma, sleep apnea or narcolepsy; the dreams of blind people or Holocaust survivors; and how dreams in pregnancy can predict postpartum depression.

In January, the American Psychological Association will begin publishing the "Dreaming" journal, representing a significant advance in the recognition of oneirology -- the exploration of the dream world.

Deirdre Barrett, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School who has been editor of the journal for five years, said beyond increased academic prestige, it will expand circulation of the journal to more libraries.

Whether it opens up more avenues for research funding is another question, she says, noting that psychology is losing funding in general.

"There's not funding in the study of dreams and that's a sad, sad thing," says Gayle Delaney, the founding president of the association, who operates a dream center in San Francisco.

Only a handful of U.S. sleep scientists who look at dreams -- Barry Krakow (nightmares) and Rosalind Cartwright (depression and sleep) are two -- have succeeded in getting government funding, with others relying on using college students or volunteers to explore the more naturalistic collection of dreams, Barrett says.

Governments in Canada and Europe have been more willing to fund studies on dream content.

To gain attention here, many of the leading dream workers are heavy self-promoters, plying their trade on "Oprah", "Good Morning America" and in other mass media, establishing their own Web sites and writing books.

		For more information The Association for the Study of Dreams is open to professionals and the general public. The Web site at www.asdreams.org includes discussion of dreams, abstracts of journal articles, educational efforts, links and contacts. You can also write to the organization at P.O. Box 1166, Orinda, Calif., 94563. Phone is 1-925-258-1822, or e-mail: asdreams@aol.com

Despite the relative lack of research funding, awareness has come a long way. For example, there are hundreds of titles on Amazon.com involving dreams. Bookstores sell beautifully bound dream journals. Dream study groups are popping up in community halls, libraries and churches across the country.

The association is working hard to promote the use of practical dream work.

Alan Siegel, assistant clinical professor at the University of California at Berkeley, heads the association's education committee, which is training more psychologists on the clinical use of dreams.

Computer programs are being developed to objectively study dream content.

Delaney's ultimate goal is to encourage more use of dreams in the schools -- from kindergarten pupils discussing and writing about their dreams, to teachers, who would be trained to recognize warning signs in children's dreams so help can be obtained when needed.

Still, she believes, many of her goals have been accomplished with the association: "My intention was to have a middle ground for professionals and for the public to come in to study dreams."