The turning point

Darkness is now turning towards the light. I”m spending the weekend in seclusion, with high hopes to get out the first draft of my thesis on lucid dreaming before the new year.

Feral Kevin wrote a great post about what the solstice means for him. This really resonates with me:

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Solstice dreams

With the approaching solstice, the dreaming is stronger, if for no other reason than the nights are long. In pre-electric times, and traditional societies today, this is nature’s ways of saying go ahead and sleep in.

Meanwhile, hundreds of folks in Brittany will converge on the major megalithic sites for a time-honored solstice celebration. Stonehenge is open to the public. And, in Ireland, a lucky few will no doubt witness the shaft of light that makes it inside the Newgrange tomb, as it does every winter solstice without fail.

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IONS opens its doors

I just learned that the Institute of Noetic Sciences has opened its virtual library of consciousness studies to the public until December 24th.

Included in this promotion are video interviews from Deepak Chopra and other luminaries, as well as access to dozens of articles and audio broadcasts on subjects ranging from spirituality, the paranormal, the power of intention, meditation, sacred geometry, lucid dreaming, holistic education, bioenergetics…. and on and on.

Here’s the link for free access to IONS for the next two weeks.

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Science says sleep good

Check out the English translation of this mainstream piece on sleep and dream research just out of Korea. This article about the benefits of sleep is more holistic than the usual reductionist perspective that comes out of New York. Which is to say, the Korean piece succeeded in mentioning dreaming at all. I bring this up to highlight the gulf between dream studies and sleep research. Due to the fracturing of our Western knowledge bases, dreams and sleep scientists never meet in the night.

I always enjoy reading science journalism because it can be so revealing about cultural assumptions and biases. After discussing how tortured mice make a good case for a good night’s rest (Allan Rechtschaffen’s sleep deprivation study), the Korean writer naturally began reviewing the history of dream interpretation in the Western scientific sphere. The discussion slipped from sleep to dream seamlessly and I temporarily forgot my cultural zietgiest that dreams would, of course, be of no importance to a discussion on the benefits of sleep.

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Dream Interpretation and its Discontents

I just uploaded a new essay titled the Trouble with Dream Studies, which is meant to contextualize my perspective about dream research and its place – or misplace – within Western science. The essay also introduces a series of further thoughts about the mysteries of dreaming which explore how our beliefs can construct – and sometimes constrict – what we believe is possible in dreams and waking life.

As always, discussion is welcome.

Dreams, art and spirituality: a blog shout-out

I just discovered Tristy Taylor’s blog about dreams, art and spirituality. Taylor is an Interfaith minister who writes eloquently about dreamwork as a soulful path.

I especially like her discussion about the role of psychological projection in everyday life as well as dreams:

When I dream about a powerful spiritual being that infuses me with love, I am that Bright Shadow as well. When someone praises me for something I have said or done, I try to receive it, but then let it go – because it is not really about me, it is about that person recognized a part of themselves and celebrating it. The same is also true when someone gets incredibly angry at me for something I”ve done – I listen and integrate the criticism in a way that is helpful to me, and then I let it go, because again, it is not just about me. My father often says, “projection doesn’t work unless there is a hook to hang it on.” It is a shared experience.

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Anthropology of Conscience

The American Anthropological Association just drafted a statement against the US military’s Human Terrain System project. The HTS hires anthropologists to consult with military ground units to better understand the foreign cultures where they are stationed. So they can dispose of them more efficiently.

While I am being slightly tongue-in-cheek, I agree with the AAA’s position that mixing professional anthropologists into combat operations is not congruent with the profession’s core values. It also endangers field anthropologists who, you know, happen to not be spies. People like me.

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Media Watch: Dreams article in Parade Magazine

I was pleasantly surprised to see a new article about the value of dreaming in the Oct 28, 2007 edition of Parade Magazine. In this piece, author Robert Moss discusses the role of dreams in creativity, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and possibly human evolution.

Moss writes:

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Free nightmare hotline still active

Halloween in the USA: basically it’s a nationwide sugar rush and an good excuse to dress up in a sexy costume. But don’t forget the origins of the holiday – that’s some scary stuff. Turn on the tube tonight and you”re likely to see more than your fair share of slasher flicks too. So whether or not you consciously subscribe to the idea that the boundary between the living and the dead is flimsier than usual tonight, horror is “in the air.”

Times like this, it’s good to remember that the Int”l Association for the Study of Dreams still offers its free nightmare hotline. This service is staffed by professionals with decades of experience with frightening dreams and nightmares.

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Laying the groundwork for conversation

My comrade-in-consciousness Kevin Kovelant wrote a post recently about how easily discussions about said consciousness can suffer from miscommunication. This is relevant here as we argue about the terms “lucidity” and “consciousness” in regards to dreams, but are often talking about different things altogether, such as awareness of one’s external environment, awareness that one is aware (meta-awareness), awareness that one is dreaming (meta awareness corner pocket) as well as the simple fact of being a sentient creature and being able to talk about it with other sentient creatures.

Check out Kevin’s post on the distinction between philosophical consciousness and psychological consciousness. This is drawn primarily from the work of philosopher Christian de Quincey, who BTW recently started his own panpsychist blog.

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