Dreams and Dreaming: a select bibliography

2013

These are presentation slides of a Fall 2013 lecture course. They are freely available in Zenodo under CC BY-license: https://zenodo.org/record/1407046#.W4kuOqKY8Vs

Anthropology of Consciousness, 2012

Dreaming in the World's Religions is a well-written comparative history of the mythopoeic dream ontologies that practitioners from religious traditions throughout the world and human history have so far imagined. Although it may not be the first scholarly effort to draw attention to the religious affiliations of dreaming in human societies (e.g., Roheim 1952; von Grunebaum and Caillois 1966; Shulman and Stroumsa 1999; Lohmann 2007; Tedlock 2008 [1992]), it is the most contextually well-balanced in scope as it explores dreaming in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as in China, Oceania, the Americas, Africa, Greece, and Rome. The most remarkable quality of this work is its expansive interdisciplinary approach. A religious studies scholar, Bulkeley (19) demonstrates keen aptitude in his application of history, philosophy, psychology, and anthropology to cross-cultural forms of "prototypical dreams"-i.e., unusually vivid and emotionally charged dreams about dream figures, symbols, and events that are endowed with religious significance. Prototypical dreams, he argues, have contributed in shaping the religious histories of human societies in all times and places. Bulkeley's primary thesis, that "dreaming is the primal wellspring of religious experience," (6) echoes the insights of anthropology's founding thinker, E. B. Tylor (1913 [1871] (1):450), who theorized that that the panhuman doctrine of the soul originated from reflections early humans made about their dream experiences upon awakening. With their dream ego being engaged in activities in a different time and place throughout the night, speculated Tylor, early humans likely concluded that the dream ego is an alternative self that, though bound to the physical body upon awakening, is capable of departing the body during sleep in order to engage with

Dreaming has been a subject for debate for thousands of years as to what it entails and how it affects daily living. This paper goes into depth about if dreaming holds reality within, and if morality should be taken into consideration

2016

Everyone sleeps; and during sleep, everyone dreams, although not constantly; but in any case, we often fail to remember the contents of our dreams upon waking. And even when one does remember the contents of one’s dreams, unless one immediately records them upon waking, they typically fade and are forgotten very quickly, like words written on sand erased by incoming waves. In view of the universality of the human experience of dreaming, in this essay I want to raise and answer three questions about dreaming: (i) what is dreaming?, (ii) is dreaming a disembodied experience?, and (iii) is it possible to dream that you’re dreaming?

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2017

Where do our dreams originate from, and what do they tell us? Is there a universal set of symbols that are common to all dreams, regardless of a person's ethnicity or culture? What does dreaming reveal about the unconscious? Why do some dreams remain etched in our memories, whereas others are almost instantly forgotten? Some scientists have adopted the position that dreams are little more than noise in the brain, without any substantive purpose or function. Yet, such a stance seemingly runs counter to the experience of many people who reflect upon and even analyze their dreams, often in search of clues to their daily lives or insights into their deeper selves. Similarly, in virtually all wisdom traditions, dreams are invoked as an important source of revelation or prophecy. Steve Paulson, executive producer and host of To the Best of Our Knowledge, moderated a discussion that included psychologist Deirdre Barrett, dream researcher Kelly Bulkeley, and psychologist and sleep/dream...

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2013

In what sense is dreaming real to people of different cultures? How do they come to conclude that dreaming is real, and how do they use dreams to expand their knowledge and control of real events? The reader is introduced to dream anthropology and shown that there are universal patterns to how dreams are experienced, expressed, and used by societies. The distinction between monophasic and polyphasic cultures is described, the latter being the majority of societies that consider dreaming as being in some sense real. Neuroscience supports the notion that there is a natural realism behind the experience of reality in any and all alternative states of consciousness (ASC), and that whatever the ASC, there is a transcendental set of obduracies and affordances that condition the modeling, expression, and social interpretation of experiences, most especially those encountered in archetypal (or special) dreams.

Studies in Spiritualism and Dream, 1980

Excerpt: The state and reality of dreams is such that the external senses do not work in dreams. Because of this the connection of the soul to the external world is severed temporarily and the soul tends to its inner world automatically. Since the soul is in itself a complete world, during the dream-state, it sees everything in itself. That is, wakefulness is the name of the state in which the soul is occupied with the external world through the (physical) eyes, ears, tongue, feet, hands, etc. and the dream is the name of the state in which the physical organs become temporarily suspended and are silent [with respect to being conscious of their workings], and the soul freely examines its deeds and conditions, and at this time it uses the inner senses. That is, in dreams, man sees with the spiritual eye, hears with the spiritual ear, and whatever he does, he does only with the hidden faculties of the soul. This excerpt has been taken from page 36.

Dreaming, 2025

Contemplatives in Tibet understood dreaming to be a powerful expressive domain in which novel and disparate worlds can be experienced, from which new knowledge can emerge and new skills be cultivated. Buddhist practices of dream yoga (rmi lam rnal ‘byor) consist of practical methods to learn how to lucidly perform specific contemplative techniques while asleep. Such contemplative sleeping practices are designed to extend insights achieved during dreaming into perceptual shifts during waking life. To better understand the underlying mechanisms operative in Tibetan Buddhist dreaming practices, this article translates and interprets excerpts from historical Tibetan dream yoga manuals from the 14th through 17th centuries in the Nyingma Seminal Heart tradition of Dzogchen and the Shangpa Kagyü tradition of the Six Teachings of Niguma. Specifically, we are concerned with discerning three discrete experiential dimensions prescribed in dream yoga manuals: operations of (a) perceptual plasticity; (b) imaginal simulation and use of mental imagery; and (c) somatic awareness of what Tibetans call the “mental body of dream” (rmi lam gyi yid lus). Each dimension references discourses and analogs in contemporary philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and cultural psychology about meta-awareness, imagination, reflexive awareness, and enhanced cognition and embodiment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)