In a dark, damp coal mine, far below the ground, I found myself standing between narrow gauge railway lines. Fairly cramped and unable to stand up straight, I became aware of a distant rumbling noise. As it grew closer, the thunderous boom became so loud that I could barely think.

When I saw a huge granite ball rolling towards me, my spine prickled and I broke into a sweat. It filled the tunnel, and I knew that if I couldn't locate a spur in the line, I was bound to be crushed. Barely able to see more than a few yards, I began to run - the enormous ball closing the gap.

Suddenly, I was confronted with a dead-end. Terrified, I turned to face my fate. As the huge stone monolith crushed me, I woke up, heart pounding in my chest and my pillow wet with perspiration.

The above account represents an accurate description of a recurring nightmare I used to experience as a child - recurring nightmares are common among the young. But it isn't just children who regularly face the torment of bad dreams. In Britain over one million people suffer from nightmares at a frequency of two or more a week - the US will be proportunately more, so it is a massive problem. Some poor souls endure them on a nightly basis - in a minority of cases they can be experienced several times a night. So are there ways in which to banish them?

Returning to my own nightmare, it occurs to me now that, during my childhood, unwittingly, I employed a classic method to rid myself of this awful terror. I recall thinking that deep in the mine, I was trapped within the confines of a square tunnel. It dawned on me that because the huge stone ball was round, it couldn't possibly fill the corners of the structure.

I decided the next time I had the dream, when I became trapped, if I crouched down in a corner, the ball would miss me and come to rest harmlessly against the wall, allowing me to crawl out. Sure enough, everything went according to plan, and I was never troubled by the nightmare again.

For a long time now - employing my own methods of analytical interpretative therapy - I have had a great deal of success curing client's of nightmares. However, working closely with Dr Keith Hearne - a leading psychologist who has developed his own effective procedures of banishing terrifying dreams - I have come to realise that, when both techniques are combined, a much higher success rate results.

First, let us take a look at Dr Hearne's teachings. He has discovered that nightmares can often be banished by using a two pronged attack: the power of suggestion, and initiating and utilising a lucid dream.

To begin with, when subjects report having nightmares, usually there is a moment in time - at the onset of the dream - when, full of dread, one thinks, 'Oh my God, here comes the nightmare!' In other words, for an instant, conscious thought is employed. However, most individuals will then laps into the full dream state and suffer the consequences of the experience.

Dr Hearne's methods rely on the subject recognising and controlling that fragment of conscious thought. He asserts - through the power of suggestion - that at the moment of conscious recognition of dream onset, instead of thinking, 'Oh my God, here comes the nightmare!' the client is encouraged to feel an eager anticipation and think, 'Great, here comes the nightmare!' It is at the point of conscious recognition that lucidity can be achieved.

Once the individual established control of the dream, the events and outcome can also be controlled - similar to my own experience deep within the mine. Not everybody has access to, or is able to afford the services of a hypnotherapist, though. However, during consciousness, many people should be able to programme the mind to identify and recognise the onset of a nightmare, so that control can be achieved.

During waking hours, the individual should continually impress upon his or her mind that the next time a nightmare begins, it will be recognised, thus affording the opportunity to initiate lucidity and with it absolute control of the dream.

For example, let us imagine that a particular recurring nightmare always begins with a feeling of uneasiness, followed by a sense of being followed by something sinister. If the subject has impressed upon the conscious mind that this sequence will be recognised, then it should indeed ring a bell in the mind of the dreaming individual.

It is at the point when the dreamer, knowing that full control of the dream has been achieved, will be enabled to turn and face the threat with confidence. Indeed, it is likely that the object of fear will manifest itself as nothing more than a comic or laughable object, (if the dreamer wishes).

However, let us imagine that it manifests itself as a grotesque monster. Providing the dreamer has recognised that the image is being manufactured by the mind, (that it is the result of a dream), then, at the wave of a hand or even a wish, the monster could be shrunk to the size of a doll and dressed in ridiculous clothing. Once the fun has been had, with nothing more than a casual sigh, the dreamer might then blow it away, never to return.

Children who suffer from recurring nightmares are often susceptible to the power of suggestion and can therefore usually be helped. It is important that the child - even unwittingly - gains a certain degree of control over the dream, and this is fairly simple to achieve.

Instead of adding confusion with long explanations about lucid dreams, it is far more expedient to keep things simple. A child is at his or her most receptive to the power of suggestion soon after retiring - during stage one sleep, (sleep onset), or the hypnagogic state. In other words, talk to the child from the moment he or she retires until sleep takes over.

Make it clear that the next time the beginning of a bad dream is recognised, the child will be able to conjure up, (or magic), Mummy and /or Daddy into the dream. Once manifested in the dream with the child, the parents will be able to make the cause of the fear go away - never to return in dreams again! It is important, though, that the child understands that is his or her responsibility for conjuring the parents into the dream.

This method works through the power of expectancy. If the infant expects the parent to appear, one or both are likely to appear. And if the child expects the parent to banish the monster etc., then that also is likely to happen. In other words, unwittingly, the little boy or girl will cause the outcome. This is a quick and effective method of banishing a recurring nightmare from a child's slumber - give it a try, and please let me know how you get on.

For various reasons, however, some adults can be more resistant to the power of suggestion, and may still find themselves plagued by bad dreams. If the technique given above fails to make an impression, there remains other ways to deal with the problem - namely by the use of analytical interpretative therapy. In this sense, the correct analysis of a nightmare will reveal the root cause. Once the cause of a bad dream is identified, the circumstances surrounding it can be dealt with, resulting in a cure.

Let us take a look at a case from my files in which I managed to effect a cure through interpretative therapy - upon receiving the interpretation, the client recognised the problem and was never bothered by the dream again.

The subject was male, aged 32, and could neither be classed as extrovert nor introvert. The nightmare had occurred approximately three times a week for six months.

The dream was fairly simple and involved him riding a horse at speed - in the Grand National. As he approached a fence, he realised that he was going too fast to take the jump and came to grief when the horse stumbled. He then managed to pick himself up and get into a car which suddenly appeared. Injured from the fall, he raced off in the direction of a hospital - in a race with other motorists - but again went too fast. He always woke up at the moment he crashed headlong into a brick wall.

When I analysed the dream, it was apparent that there was a situation in his life in which he was placing himself under a lot of pressure. It was made clear that this situation was causing him to drive himself too hard, (the horse and the car). Indeed, it transpired that this up and coming young executive was in hot competition for promotion, (he was going too fast and trying too hard).

The moment he connected the dream to his life situation, the nightmare stopped troubling him, and he decided to relax more at work. I am unaware of weather he won the promotion or not. However, it is evident that his subconscious had alerted him, (via the dream), to the fact that he was pushing himself beyond his capabilities. Thus, it served to warn him of the possibility that he might have been heading for some sort of stress related mental or physical ailment. In other words, this particular recurring nightmare demonstrated the ability of the subconscious to serve as an early warning device.

To this end, I have discovered that, once analysed, nightmares usually translate into important messages, and seldom signify that something awful or sinister is going on in the recipient's mind. In adults, nightmares usually serve a valuable purpose, by forcing the dreamer to think about and even relive the experience during waking hours, thus, the subject will either understand the message, or the emotion of the dream will be spent. For a nightmare to recur, signifies that the individual is ignoring an important message or a possible warning from the subconscious.

If, then, one is troubled by a persisting nightmare - over a prolonged period of time - it is not likely that the lucid dream method of control will get to the root cause. Rather it may serve to encourage the subconscious to find other ways of alerting the dreamer to a problem or life situation - perhaps by creating a new, different dream. Therefore, the person who suffers the occasional recurring nightmare, might discover that utilising a lucid dream to control the experience, will prove beneficial. However. the subject who suffers the same dream persistently, should try to analyse and discover the cause.

Unfortunately, there are those who cannot be helped. People who, over the years, have become addicted to certain types of drug, among which are sleeping pills and certain anti depressants, may suffer from drug stimulated nightmares. Under these circumstances, experience has taught me that, unless the client starts an assisted programme - supported by a medical doctor - in an effort to come off drugs, very little can be done to help.

Finally, anxiety can play a big part in the cause of recurring nightmares. The more anxious an individual becomes about suffering for nightmares, the more likely they are to increase in frequency - a self perpetuating circle. Sometimes, once this fact is made known to a client, the frequency of nightmare decreases - occasionally cease completely, which demonstrates the role anxiety can play in these circumstances. So try to relax more and look on the bright side.

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