Meditating Slows Down HIV Virus

In case you missed it, Science Daily reports that mindfulness meditation slows immune degradation in AIDS patients by lowering stress.

“Mindfulness meditation is the practice of bringing an open and receptive awareness of the present moment to experiences, avoiding thinking of the past or worrying about the future. It is thought to reduce stress and improve health outcomes in a variety of patient populations.”

This finding is hopefully going to give meditation research another rush of neuro-psychology funding. Finding, funding, good!

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Techno-Intermission

Wow, I just upgraded my blog and it was completely painless thanks to Keith Dsouza’s plug-in that automotically does all the techno-gobbly-goop that makes me want to give up and take a nap. Highly recommended if you use the wordpress platform for blogging.

The Logos of Dreaming

What is the logic behind dreams? Is dreaming only a pale imitation of our waking abilities, as some say, or does it represent an entirely different ability? This question has forever shadowed the scientific exploration of dreams.

The question can be summed up as: is dreaming a failure of cognition, a breakdown of logic, and otherwise deficient OR is dreaming an accomplishment of cognition, a creative fire that burns bright inside us, the original inspiration behind art, genius, and even religion?

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Head Shrinking and the Power of Dreaming

To start off my review of this year’s International Dreams conference in Montreal, here’s a fun factoid: head shrinking in the Amazon is alive and well.

Know to the West since the 1940s, head shrinking is an important ritual for the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin (the Jivaro clans, especially the Shuar). The vengeful spirit of the dead warrior, known as the Muisak, is disempowered through this ritual. But according to dream researcher Rosa Anwandter, herself a Mapuche healer from Chile, the practical application of this process is the stifling of the dead’s dreams.

Anwandter gave a fascinating review of the dream societies of the Amazon, pointing out at least 20 relatively intact communities throughout the Amazon basin, and another half dozen or so in southern Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay. In most of these societies, dreaming is key to living in completeness. Those who are unlucky and can’t recall their dreams are called “miserable.”

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Does the Full Moon Effect your Dreams?

Tomorrow is the full moon, depending on your ancestral tradition it is known as the Buck Moon, Thunder Moon or the Hay Moon. In all traditions, it’s gonna be big and round. But more pertinently, will this rising stone of Artemis effect your dreams?

Studies on this subject are hard to find, but almost everyone has an opinion. So I am asking my readers to chime in with their opinions, perspective and stories on this ancient question.

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Dreaming but Not Sleeping

The International dreams conference is now half over. I”m sitting in the lobby of the hotel tapping this out before I collapse on my bed. Yes it’s true, you get no sleep at academic conferences, even ones about dreaming. It’s the best kind of exhaustion, though: I can really feel my mind being stretched wide open. Very friendly bunch, these dreamers, many of whom are not academics at all but dream enthusiasts from all walks of life. This is a truly interdisciplinary conference, welcoming psychologists, artists, scientists, and ministers with open arms. Just for a taste of what I”ve heard about in the last couple days: the new neurophilosophy of dreams, the effects of ketamine on nightmares, threat stimulation theory, healing traumatic memories with dreamwork, the latest research on day residue (yes, Freud was at least right about this one!), the dreamways of Inuit hunters, Gilgamesh’s nightmares, metacognition in dreams, the history of dreams in Christianity, and galantamine’s effect on lucid dreaming success. Later, I’ll go into some of these topics with more depth. I”ve also seen some amazing dream-inspired art, including artists who paint what they see in their own lucid dreams. This is fascinating to me, and when I get the permissions worked out I’ll be sure to display some of this unique work. Au revoir from Montreal!

House Cleaning

I”m prepping for the trip to Montreal tomorrow, and thought this is the perfect time for a little dream studies house cleaning.

First, I neglected to mention that the Dream Studies Portal is now a year old! Check out the very first post that describes my dream research perspective. This is just the beginning of Dream Studies 2.0.

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The Path is Clear

I”ve finally resettled. It’s been difficult to think about dreams and consciousness as my attention has been on the material needs. You know, Maslow’s sweet hierarchy dictates shelter and food first, dreamy blog updates second.

But there’s a lot going on in the consciousness studies community, and I am well poised now to share the latest news, trends, and happenings from my home beneath the redwood trees in Northern California.

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