Since beginning of time mankind has been mystified by dreams. Kings, poets, philosophers, statesmen, peasants: They have ALL dreamed, have all wondered about their dreams, and have all been made happy or miserable by them. They have treated them, alternately, with utmost seriousness and respect or with scorn and skepticism. They have, at times, held them in awe and wonder and at other times, laughed them off.

But they've never - and we'd never - ignore them.

Dreams are lived and relived...told and re-told...remembered and forgotten...laughed over and cried over....accepted as gospel truth and rejected as utter nonsense. They are credited with influencing future and praised as shedding light on present. They have been inspiration for literally countless books, paintings and other works of art. They are said to drive men and women to take action when nothing else will move them.

But they've never been - nor will they ever be - ignored.

"In 1960 a scientific paper by Wallace S. Broecker and his colleagues Maurice Ewing and Bruce C. Heezen, of Lamont Geological Observatory at Columbia University, Palisades, New York, appeared in 'American Journal of Science'. Entitled 'Evidence for an Abrupt Change in Climate close to 11,000 years ago', it advanced theory that a 'number of geographically isolated systems suggested that warming of world-wide climate which occurred at close of Wisconsin glacial times was extremely abrupt. (3)

By examining sediment cores taken from various deep-sea locations, Broecker and his team were able to demonstrate that around c. 9000 BC. surface water temperature of Atlantic Ocean increased by between six and ten degrees centigrade, (4) enough to alter its entire ecosystem. More significantly, it was found that bottom waters of Cariaco Trench in Caribbean Sea, off Venezuela, suddenly stagnated, {The Gulf Stream being sent back south from hitting land around Azores when water level was lower suddenly started warming Iceland and British Isles regions, again.} showing that an abrupt change in water circulation had taken place coincident to warming of oceans. (5) Additionally, silt deposits washing into Gulf of Mexico from Mississippi Valley abruptly halted and were retained in delta and valleys, as waters from glacier-bound Great Lakes switched direction and began draining through previously frozen northern outlets. (6) With extreme rapidity, water levels of these lakes shrank from maximum volume, down to much lower level they occupy today. (7)

Among data drawn on by Broecker and his team to make their findings was work conducted in 1957 by Cesare Emiliani of Department of Geology at University of Miami. He found that deep-sea cores displayed clear evidence of an abrupt temperature turn around in 9000 BC. was responsible for other changes set out by Broecker et al. (8) However, since other cores examined by Emiliani had not shown same rapid transition, he decided that anomalous cores lacked vital sediment layers covering a period of several thousand years of ecological history, and so dismissed them as unreliable. (9) Yet Broecker and his colleagues disputed Emiliani's interpretation of results. They could find no reason to suppose that key sediment layers could have been lost in manner suggested. As a consequence, they reinstated Emiliani's controversial findings as crucial evidence of a major shift in oceanic temperatures around 11,000 years ago. (10)