Pars

Capitulum

Titulus

Paginae

0

1

Introduction

13-30

I

2

Anthropology of Dreaming

35-66

I

3

Anthropological Theories of Dreaming

69-93

I

4

Experience and the Dreaming

95-131

I

5

Lucid Dreaming

133-161

"Our religion is ... the dreams of our old men, given them in the solemn hours of the night".

"your old men shall dream dreams" (Yow>el : 2:28)

0

1

Introduction

13-30

"We all dream; we do not understand our dreams, yet we act as if nothing strange goes on in our sleep minds ... ."

"The most common alternative state of consciousness among human beings is dreaming. All normal humans ... during sleep ... dream, whether or not they remember their dreams when they awaken. ... Yet as common as dreaming is ..., it is still a phenomenon of mystery ... and of fascination to scientists wishing to understand how ... the mind and consciousness work."

"And why do people dream about such strange, even bizarre events while asleep? Do all people on the planet share this kind of experience? If so, why? What significance do various peoples attribute to such experiences? Of what use are they?

These and numerous other questions about our dreaming arise quite naturally in anyone ... . Small wonder that many scientific disciplines have a keen interest in dreaming."

"Carl G. Jung, Alfred Adler and others ... have led to a number of different approaches to the use of dreaming in therapy and self-discovery (Green, Ullman and Tauber 1995)."

"From 1978-1985, the author studied Tibetan Tantric Buddhism as a monk, making numerous trips to the monasteries of his preceptor, Chogye Trichen Rinpoche (1920-2006), in Nepal to study."

"at a conference entitled Theory on the Fringe : New Directions in Anthropological Theory held at the State University of New York in Oswego in 1972, we planned and wrote a number of works designed to show the importance of ... a synthesis we called biogenetic structuralism (see Laughlin and d'Aquili 1974; see also Haule 2010:187-195)."

"a tradition in anthropology that had its recent origins in the works of Eliot D. Chapple (1909-2000; see Chapple 1970; Chapple and Coon 1942) and of Earl W. Count (1899-1996). Count, in his magnum opus, Being and Becoming Human (1973), argued that each and every species inherits the generalized pattern ... of its "anlage;" that is, its precursor species. The total package of species-typical ... patterns Count termed that species' "biogram." The heritable architectonics (structures) ... provide the structure of every species' biogram. Found within each species['] biogram are the limits of possible organizations of consciousness and action ... ."

"I have learned that ... many anthropologists are unable to see beyond the bounds of their

{What if they are able to do so, but are aware that they would lose their jobs (professorships) if they were to do so overtly?}

Western cultural ... conditioning.

{viz., materialist delusion, brought into orthodoxy by the capitalist system of exploitation and of oppression}

Western {read : "capitalism-derived materialistic-trending"} conditioning with respect to dreaming is ... aberrant when compared with dreaming among

non-Western traditional peoples.

{read : "non-capitalism-oriented, and therefore anti-materialist-oriented, folk"}

""... any explanation of behavior must take into account any and all levels of systemic organization efficiently present in the interaction between the system operating and the environment of that system" Rubinstein and Laughlin 1977:462). With respect to explaining dreaming, this rule requires that any account of dreaming include within its purview each and every level of causation ... influencing the scope of inquiry."

"There is no such thing as a state of consciousness that is not produced by a discrete neural system".

{This is (if intended in materialist terms) a gross fallacy. In actuality, no material brain, and no neural material, is necessary to any consciousness. During nigh-death experience, when one is projected out of the material body, the material brain may register no (nill) electrical waves, during the while that full consciousness (in the astral body) is being maintained.}

"I am not merely conscious, I am a physical body that is conscious." {N.B. This outrageous allegation is in flagrant contradiction to most of the evidence, and contents, even of this book itself.}

{A material object (such as a body) cannot itself be conscious; nor can a material body be correlated any consciousness. Consciousness is instead a quality sustained by the immaterial subtle bodies, and is independent of any material substance.}

p. 20

"distinction between consciousness and the contents of consciousness ... problem is solved ...

p. 21

in making it clear that traditional peoples ... usually categorized dreams by ...

the metaprocesses

{\Metaprocesses\ in the sense of mere 'processes of metalanguage' if described after-the-fact (when awake); but in the sense of 'processes of metaphysics' if recognized while one be as yet in the relevant dream or in the relevant trance.}

that distinguish states [of consciousness while immersed in those states]; e.g., they know when they are dreaming, in trance ..., etc."

A "compendium of all the weird and wonderful ways that humans differ in their dreaming" : "One of the great anthropologists of dreaming, Jackson Steward Lincoln, wrote such a work three quarters of a century ago (1935) and it is still in print and well worth the read."

"my intent in writing this book is to present the reader with a full account of dreaming, grounded ... in the range of dreaming experiences and dream cultures around the planet , and ... explain this range.

... I have to first introduce ... the history of anthropological interest in dreaming".

"The concept of "dream cultures" -- meaning societies in which people consider dreams to be very important in their lives -- is attributed to ethnologist Alfred Kroeber by Devereux (1937:417n)."

{""dream cultures" ... were so designated by Kroeber (1922: 754-785, 782-3, 600)." ("BMShD", p. 221)}

"Religion is defined as ... responses to "matters of ultimate concern" which may be revealed and ... even solved in dreams. We ... show how shamans and other healers become recruited through dreaming. ... We take on the issue of magical causation and how this is evidenced in dream relations ... . The role of dreaming in the ... cure of disease is commonplace ... to diagnose and heal."

"archetypes are biologically inherited ..., and ... how they develop and express themselves very much depends on cultural conditioning -- especially conditioning of the dream life. Archetypes are encountered during dreaming and are associated with great meaning and numinosity."

"Some transpersonal dreams may also be paranormal in that they involve "spooky" magical causation, as in precognitive dreams, telepathic dreams, co-dreams, remote viewing dreams, etc. Transpersonal dreaming may introduce us ... to

spiritual entities (like witches {d.akini-s}, angels, demons ..., etc.) that play a part in our understanding ... our reality."

{These "spiritual entities" are they who enable the "precognitive dreams, telepathic dreams, co-dreams, remote viewing dreams, etc."}

p. 25

"Chapter 14 presents ... the functions of dreaming in non-human animals and other primates. We show that ... a complex prefrontal cortex ...

led to the evolution of true language. This combination allowered for ... the social sharing of subjective experience, and particularly dreams."

p. 26

"Chapter 15 applies this theory of dreaming ... to ... be crucial in ameliorating the pernicious effects of materialism upon

what is arguably an un-sane ... society."

{namely, greed-maddened capitalism}

p. 26

"The book can ... broaden the reader's perspective on ... experiences ... of peoples around the world ... that we may understand and use our dreaming in new ways. Perhaps for instance one did not realize the potential for direct involvement in one's spiritual nature through awareness and incubtion of dreams."

p. 27

"As the reader will discover quickly in these pages, ... One is left with the impression that dreaming in any societies is far more lucid on the average than among Western dreamers."

p. 26

"The book can ... broaden the reader's perspective on ... experiences ... of peoples around the world ... that we may understand and use our dreaming in new ways. Perhaps for instance one did not realize the potential for direct involvement in one's spiritual nature through awareness and incubtion of dreams."

p. 27

"As the reader will discover quickly in these pages, ... One is left with the impression that dreaming in many societies is far more lucid on the average than among Western dreamers."

"The bibliography for this book is comprehensive and up-to-date as of this writing."

p. 27

"Many readers drawn to this book will be professional anthropologists ... that may be interested in dreaming ... . These readers will be familiar to some extent with ... the history of, and the debates about{,} theoretical explanations of dreaming ... ."

p. 28

"One thing for a more eclectic anthropologist might want to do is pick up a copy of Joseph LeDoux's wonderful book, Synaptic Self ... (2003) and read it in tandem with the present work."

"interpreting and explaining abstract symbolism in Paleolithic rock art. ... . ... J. D. Lewis-Williams and T. A. Dowson (1988) ... developed a theory based ... upon ...

"Entoptic" images ... (lines, dots, squiggly lines, lacey fields of intersecting lines, etc.) discerned by consciousness ... ."

{["EI&ASC"] "mescaline ... visions as follows; ... “filigree, cobwebs, cogwheels, flowers, snowflakes ...” (Melechi 2008). ... “If the mescaline taker keeps his eyes closed, he sees riotously colorful ‘mosaics, networks, flowing arabesques, interlaced spirals ..." (Smythies 1953)."}

"robust theories ... can in the same stroke account for the universal properties of human language, social relations and culture in its myriad variations (see e.g., Edelman and Tononi 2000; Cummins and Allen 1998; Koch 2004; Dietrich 2007; Donald 2003).

My concern here is to continue to foster a scientific anthropology (see also Kuznar 2008 on this issue)."

"It is my hope that, as our group did with our approach to ... functions of ritual in The Spectrum of Ritual (d'Aquili, Laughlin and McManus 1979), I will again be able to show how the incorporation of biology ... into an anthropological analysis of dreaming can produce a more robust perspective ... ."

"Much of the book will be taken up with ... dreaming among non-Western societies that pay attention to their dreams.

... there is a qualitative difference between the majority of societies that do value their dreaming and the minority that do not. This distinction will be crucial in putting together a comprehensive account of dreaming."