This report from Space Daily describes how a very valuable communication tool is about to be lost because a rival company owns the patent on performing a lunar fly by.  The satellite and the tens of millions of dollars of value it represents could be saved, but now it will fall out of Earth orbit and burn up because Boeing owns the orbital space around the Moon.

Although the idea that a corporation can own space, even the rarefied atmosphere of the the lunar orbit, may seem strange, a similar process is now happening the musical showspace of  MySpace and in the ambiently pervasive space of Twitter.

Accounts from both these spaces have recently been put up for auction as the owners attempt to realise the value of the users that have gravitated towards their orbits.  They are not selling a tangible product or a service, but just the trajectories of their followers.

It will be interesting to see how strong the attraction remains when the original attractor no longer exists.

Recently I have been exploring many dreams about the Olympic Torch.  Although the Torch has featured in a number of contexts, the most familiar narrative is that the dreamer is running with the torch, and is being attacked by what seems to be an organised and aggressive group.  The attackers often seem to be dressed in military uniforms and shouting orders at the dreamer as they try to grab hold of the Torch.

When we dream of a flame, particularly a flaming torch, often represents our individual creativity and what fires us with excitiement.  It can also be a metaphor for what inflames our passions, as in the classic Torch Song where carrying a torch for someone is how we keep the light of an unrequited love aflame.

Ultimately the person we are carrying the torch for is often our own creative self and the unrequited love we experience is a perhaps a projection of our own unrequited creative talents.  The torch of our own creativity illuminates our path into the unknown and helps to enlighten us as we move forward on our journeys.

The creativity that ignites our passion and fires our imagination is usually sparked by boundless love, rather than ruthless control.  Creativity is an energy that cannot be enforced; it can only be encouraged.  Otherwise it becomes an abstracted and remote ideal that seems to become more distant the more we run towards it.

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A fundamental part of the Dreamwork process is using the Dreamwork Space to identify and ask specific questions.  Asking the right questions can guide us into the unknown and help us to find what we are seeking.

In this performance, John Otway shows that it is all about the questions.  Hopefully his father didn’t gamble on sending his suitcase and trunk on a British Airways flight through Heathrow Terminal 5.

The emotional chaos in the latest incarnation of the Aird of Sleat* has been reflected in many dreams recently.  In waking life, the much heralded automatic baggage handling system  has resulted in the temporary disappearance of 19,000 items of luggage.  In dreaming life, dreamers have been reporting that they arrive in the baggage hall to collect their belongings, only to be embroiled in chaotic confusion.

When we dream of bags and baggage we are usually reflecting the experiences and habits that we carry around with us in our waking lives.  This emotional baggage is often no longer required and we are usually holding on to beliefs and feelings that no longer have any real value for us.  Rather than burden ourselves with the trauma of the past we can perhaps look at ways of lightening our emotional load,  so we can move forward on to the next part of our journeys.

It would seem from the experiences of passengers in Terminal 5 that British Airways perhaps need to unburden themselves of habitual working practices and chronic staff relations.  By lightening their own emotional baggage and habitual responses, they can perhaps ensure that their self-loading freight is always reconnected with the baggage that they consciously choose to carry.

*(AIRD OF SLEAT (n. archaic) Ancient Scottish curse placed from afar on the stretch of land now occupied by Heathrow Airport. - Douglas Adams, The Meaning of Liff)