Dreams have also featured in fantasy and speculative fiction since the 19th century. One of the best-known dream worlds is Wonderland from Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland, as well as Looking-Glass Land from its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Unlike many dream worlds, Carrolls logic is like that of actual dreams, with transitions and flexible causality. Other fictional dream worlds include the Dreamlands of H. P. Lovecrafts Dream Cycle and The Neverending Storys world of Fantastica, which includes places like the Desert of Lost Dreams, the Sea of Possibilities and the Swamps of Sadness. Dreamworlds, shared hallucinations and other alternate realities feature in a number of works by Philip K. Dick, such as The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Ubik. Similar themes were explored by Jorge Luis Borges, for instance in The Circular Ruins. Modern popular culture often conceives of dreams, as did Freud, as expressions of the dreamers deepest fears and desires. In speculative fiction, the line between dreams and reality may be blurred even more in service to the story. Dreams may be psychically invaded or manipulated (Dreamscape, 1984; the Nightmare on Elm Street films, 1984–2010; Inception, 2010) or even come literally true (as in The Lathe of Heaven, 1971). Lucidity
Lucid dreaming is the conscious perception of ones state while dreaming. In this state the dreamer may often have some degree of control over their own actions within the dream or even the characters and the environment of the dream.
Esthiomene is a medical term referring to elephantiasis of the female genitals. In the past the term has also referred to elephantiasis of the male genitalia.Esthiomene is generally the visible result of lymphogranuloma venereum, lymphatic infection by Chlamydia trachomatis. This sexually transmitted infection produces inflammation of the lymphatic channels in the female genitalia, followed by abscesses, fistulae, ulcerations, and fibrosis of the tissues. The tissues swell, sometimes severely, and the genitalia may grow to a massive size. Esthiomene can also be the result of tuberculosis when the infection takes hold in the genitalia, or of cancer or filariasis, infection with parasitic roundworms.The condition is painful and sometimes disabling. People with the condition can experience mental distress from the pain and physical deformation of their genitalia. Masses can become so large they make walking difficult.Treatment of the condition includes treatment of bacterial chlamydial infections with antibiotics such as doxycycline, or treatment of other infections present. Remaining tissue deformity can be treated with surgery such as labiaplasty to reduce the size of hypertrophied labia minora. Goals of surgery include pain relief, restoration of sexual function, and cosmetic improvement. == References ==