Charles McPhee, Host of Nationally Syndicated Radio Program 'The Dream Doctor,' Shares with Audience the News of His ALS Diagnosis.

ENCINO, Calif. -- Charles McPhee, the nationally syndicated radio host and pioneering social scientist, whose research has brought credibility to the fields of sleep disorders and dream interpretation, revealed to his radio audience he has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, for which currently there is no cure. McPhee, known as "The Dream Doctor," said to his audience, "I feel okay right now, but let's be real... it's a very serious diagnosis. Fifty percent of those diagnosed live three years; 20% live 5 years and 10% live ten years, while others survive 30 years. It's impossible to predict."

ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive, neurodegenerative disease. People with ALS become paralyzed when the motor neuron cells in their brain and spinal cord die and the muscles deteriorate.

"Our dreams give us insights that make our biggest challenges easier," says McPhee. "They poetically reflect our personal truths. Just as my listeners share theirs with me, I share mine with them. The fact that I have ALS will not change that. Dreams illuminate our experience and the road ahead. If I can help people understand that through dreams, I have done my job."

On the day McPhee's diagnosis was confirmed, he told his audience that he is committed to doing the radio show for as long as he is able and will oversee the transition to his handpicked successor, Frank Runyeon. "Frank and I work very well together. He's a fellow Princeton graduate with a Master's degree in Divinity from Yale and General Theological Seminaries. Frank is insightful, understands dreams, and cares deeply about our listeners," McPhee said.

"The Dream Doctor Show" is a three-hour weeknight, call-in talk program where listeners share their dreams and McPhee interprets them. "People have been mystified by dreams forever. They speak to us in a different language, not of words but symbols. They are common sense communications about what's most important in our daily lives... kids, marriage, family, relationships, and career," McPhee said. "Dreams highlight issues that need attention and focus in our waking life."

McPhee's approach to dream analysis and interpretation is not based on intuition, psychic ability or messages from an astral plane. He is a board registered polysomnographer with over 20 years experience treating sleep disorders in hospitals including NIH in Washington and Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. His database of dreams is by far the largest in history, with over 500,000 dreams gathered from more than 90 countries around the world.

According to McPhee, there is no mystery in the language dreams speak. "People all around the world have the same dreams at night about falling, flying, faceless lovers, being back in school, snakes, spiders, and being chased. The data I've collected reveals that we're much more similar to each other than we are different, regardless of age, gender, nationality, language or culture. We all worry about the same stuff -- love, status, our careers, our children. Our hopes and fears, our immediate and long-term goals, old wounds and fresh ones -- they're all there in our dreams every night."

In addition to his national radio show, McPhee has authored three books about dreams and their interpretation, created the most popular website on the Internet devoted to dreams and sleep disorders (www.dreamdoctor.com), and is launching two groundbreaking research studies. One, conducted in collaboration with Princeton University, will demonstrate the sociology of dreams -- how people of various social groups dream differently from each other. The second study, in the field of sleep disorders, will determine whether there is a causal relationship between sleep apnea (difficulty breathing during sleep, usually characterized by loud snoring) in pregnant women and complications in pregnancy and birth defects. Currently, OBGYNs do not routinely screen their patients for sleep disorders. This study will be conducted by top research doctors at the Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Dream Doctor Show is produced and distributed to radio stations by Springhill Syndication, George Oliva III, president. Prior to working with McPhee, Oliva played a significant role in launching such love-em-or-hate-em radio personalities as, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Tom Leykis, Bill Handel, Hugh Hewitt, Phil Hendrie and others on the air.

In addition to his many projects, McPhee will work closely with the ALS Association to raise public awareness about this terminal "orphan" disease. The ALSA is the only national not-for-profit health organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS through research, patient and community services, public education, and advocacy. For more information about ALSA, call 800-782-4747 or go to www.alsa.org.