Although daydreams are generally regarded by psychologists as
being healthy and natural, this was not always the case. In the
1960's, textbooks used for training teachers contained methods
for combating daydreaming that were similar to treating drug
abuse! Freud believed that daydreaming and fantasizing were
early signs of mental illness and were practiced by unfulfilled
individuals. By the late 1980's, most psychologists agreed that
daydreams were a natural part of the mental process and did not
consider them to be unhealthy. When a person confuses the mental
images in daydreams with reality, hallucinations occur.(Gale
Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 2001) When we
daydream, we drift off into our imaginations. We form mental
pictures of things that we may or may not have experienced. We
use daydreams to temporarily escape from reality, re-create
pleasant experiences, rehearse a future situation or to imagine
things as we wish they were. Daydreams occur in the relaxed
alpha state of brainwave f