Dreams: the Phenomenon Explored Through Scientific, Spiritual, and Subjective Perspectives
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The Meaning of Dreams Dreams May Reflect a Fundamental Aspect of Mammalian Memory Processing
The Meaning of Dreams Dreams may reflect a fundamental aspect of mammalian memory processing. Crucial information acquired during the waking state may be reprocessed during sleep by Jonathan Winson The Author hroughout history human beings have sought to understand the meaning of dreams. The ancient Egyptians believed dreams JONATHAN WINSON possessed oracular power—in the Bible, for example, Joseph’s started his career as an elucidation of Pharaoh’s dream averted seven years of famine. SCALA/ART RESOURCE aeronautical engineer, grad- TOther cultures have interpreted dreams as inspirational, curative or alterna- uating with an engineering degree from the California tive reality. During the past century, scientists have offered conflicting psy- Institute of Technology in chological and neuroscientific explanations for dreams. In 1900, with the 1946. He completed his publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud proposed that Ph.D. in mathematics at dreams were the “royal road” to the unconscious; that they revealed in dis- Columbia University and guised form the deepest elements of an individual’s inner life. then turned to business for More recently, in contrast, dreams have been characterized as meaningless, 15 years. Because of his keen interest in neurosci- the result of random nerve cell activity. Dreaming has also been viewed as the ence, however, Winson means by which the brain rids itself of unnecessary information—a process started to do research at the of “reverse learning,” or unlearning. Rockefeller University on Based on recent findings in my own and other neuroscientific laboratories, memory processing during I propose that dreams are indeed meaningful. Studies of the hippocampus (a waking and sleeping states. -
Oneiromancy in the Bible
Oneiromancy 1 Oneiromancy in the Bible So what did the medieval or early Renaissance reader make of oneiromancy--the process of divination through dreams? Even through the King James Bible would not appear in English until the 1600s, most educated readers would be familiar with various biblical accounts of divinely inspired dreams. These pages list biblical passages that Christians in the medieval period considered important. In some cases, there is some confusion in the Latin text as to whether or not the events described took place as a dream (somnium) during sleep (somnus), or as a waking vision (visio). To differentiate, I include the Latin below. Note that the phrases "in somno" and in somnis" can mean "in dreams" or "while asleep." Genesis 20:3-7 (somnium): In the story of Abraham and Sarah, a male dreamer (Abimelech) is warned against taking Sarah from Abraham. 28:12-15 (in somnis) Jacob's dream of a ladder, with angels moving up and down it. 31:10-13 (in somnis) Angel appears to Jacob in a dream, shows him Laban's sheep producing speckled and striped ewes, which will be his according to agreement. 31:24 (in somnis) Laban warned by God in dream not to speak harshly to Jacob. 37:5-9 (ut visum somnium) Joseph hated by his brothers, he tells them a dream he already dreamed; the frame is a narrator telling a past dream in which Jacob's brothers' sheaves stand in a field with sheaves bowing down to his. Then the sun and moon and stars worship it as well. -
Divination in the Ancient Near East Humans Are Creatures That Thrive on Information
1 Divination in the Ancient Near East Humans are creatures that thrive on information. We have always tried to learn what was going on around us, particularly in times of danger or crisis. If we cannot find hard facts, we will make something up. Divination in the ancient world helped to soothe this need, but it served other functions as well. The ultimate basis of divination was a sense that divine action and intent has a ripple effect across the rest of the physical world. These manifest themselves in subtle changes and events both large and small that the wise could identify and interpret. Usually when we talk of divination we focus on the mechanics, and we will do that here to some extent. Perhaps the most famous form of divination among Israel’s neighbors and especially the civilizations of Mesopotamia was hepatoscopy or divining based on marks or deformations of the liver of a sacrificial animal. This was part of a larger form of divination called extispicy, which tried to discern divine intent by examining an animal’s internal organs. The Figure 1: Etruscan Bronze Mirror of Chalchas the Seer Babylonian and Assyrians were Reading a Liver (Vatican: Gregorian Museum, Rome, not the only ones to practice cat # 12240). this; one finds it throughout the Mediterranean basin, but they brought it to unparalleled levels of sophistication. One obvious question is, “why a liver?” The most likely reason is that it was something beyond reach until it was extracted by the diviner. Until then, no one could touch it or manipulate it, and so it constituted something on which the action and intent of the gods could write itself without human interference or manipulation. -
DIVINATION SYSTEMS Written by Nicole Yalsovac Additional Sections Contributed by Sean Michael Smith and Christine Breese, D.D
DIVINATION SYSTEMS Written by Nicole Yalsovac Additional sections contributed by Sean Michael Smith and Christine Breese, D.D. Ph.D. Introduction Nichole Yalsovac Prophetic revelation, or Divination, dates back to the earliest known times of human existence. The oldest of all Chinese texts, the I Ching, is a divination system older than recorded history. James Legge says in his translation of I Ching: Book Of Changes (1996), “The desire to seek answers and to predict the future is as old as civilization itself.” Mankind has always had a desire to know what the future holds. Evidence shows that methods of divination, also known as fortune telling, were used by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Babylonians and the Sumerians (who resided in what is now Iraq) as early as six‐thousand years ago. Divination was originally a device of royalty and has often been an essential part of religion and medicine. Significant leaders and royalty often employed priests, doctors, soothsayers and astrologers as advisers and consultants on what the future held. Every civilization has held a belief in at least some type of divination. The point of divination in the ancient world was to ascertain the will of the gods. In fact, divination is so called because it is assumed to be a gift of the divine, a gift from the gods. This gift of obtaining knowledge of the unknown uses a wide range of tools and an enormous variety of techniques, as we will see in this course. No matter which method is used, the most imperative aspect is the interpretation and presentation of what is seen. -
A List of Other Psychic Arts
List of Psychic Arts - Compiled by Gary L. Wimmer - www.garywimmer.com/psychic PSYCHIC ART DEFINITION 1 Abacomancy The art of foretelling future events by the observation of patterns of dust 2 Aeromancy Divination from the air and sky, cloud patterns, comets and other phenomena not normally visible in the sky 3 Alchemy Transmutation, dissolving or combining of base metals to form gold though chemical or supernatural processes 4 Alectryomancy Divination by means of a bird picking grains of corn from a circle of letters 5 Aleuromancy Divination with flour and baked goods such as fortune cookies 6 Alomancy A form of divination by using salt 7 Alphitomancy Divination using barley or cakes digestible by persons with a clear conscience but are unpleasant to others 8 Amniomancy Divination by using a caul or membrane which sometimes envelopes a child's head at birth 9 Anthropomancy Divination using human entrails, often from human sacrifices 10 Anththroposcopy Divination by observing facial features 11 Apantomancy Divination of an object, but usually an animal, which presents itself by chance 12 Arithmancy Divination by numbers 13 Aromatherapy Holistic health practice of seeking to heal certain diseases or illnesses by inhaling scented steam or fragrances 14 Ashagalomancy A system of divination of casting small bones or dice, also known as Astraglomancy or Astragyromancy 15 Astrology Ancient system of divination based on the position of the planets and the Zodiac 16 Augury Divination by studying the behaviour and flights of birds 17 Aura reading -
The Functions of Sleep
Vo l u me 2, Issue 3, 155–171. DOI:10.3934/Neuroscience.2015.3.155 Received date 3 May 2015, Accepted date 12 August 2015, Published date 24 August 2015 http://www.aimspress.com/ Review The Functions of Sleep Samson Z Assefa 1, *, Montserrat Diaz-Abad 1, Emerson M Wickwire 1, and Steven M Scharf 1 1 Sleep Disorders Center, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201 * Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected]; Tel: 410-706-4771; Fax: 410-706-0345 Abstract: Sleep is a ubiquitous component of animal life including birds and mammals. The exact function of sleep has been one of the mysteries of biology. A considerable number of theories have been put forward to explain the reason(s) for the necessity of sleep. To date, while a great deal is known about what happens when animals sleep, there is no definitive comprehensive explanation as to the reason that sleep is an inevitable part of animal functioning. It is well known that sleep is a homeostatically regulated body process, and that prolonged sleep deprivation is fatal in animals. In this paper, we present some of the theories as to the functions of sleep and provide a review of some hypotheses as to the overall physiologic function of sleep. To better understand the purpose for sleeping, we review the effects of sleep deprivation on physical, neurocognitive and psychic function. A better understanding of the purpose for sleeping will be a great advance in our understanding of the nature of the animal kingdom, including our own. -
When the Gods Speak: Oracular Communication and Concepts of Language in Sophocles by Amy Nicole Pistone a Dissertation Submitted
When the Gods Speak: Oracular Communication and Concepts of Language in Sophocles by Amy Nicole Pistone A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Classical Studies) in the University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Professor Ruth Scodel, Chair Professor Sara Ahbel-Rappe Professor Richard Janko Associate Professor Ezra Keshet Amy Nicole Pistone [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2822-7154 © Amy Nicole Pistone 2017 For my mom, who taught me to love literature before I could read it on my own, and my dad, who taught me that a challenge builds character. ii Acknowledgments I am sure that I will not adequately thank everyone who contributed to my completing this project, and I apologize in advance for that. The list is long indeed. First, I owe my committee a great deal, and my chair above all. Ruth Scodel gave me the room to explore my own ideas and the support to help make something of them. I needed to spin my wheels a bit before I started making any progress on my dissertation, and she allowed me space to spin and then also helped set me on a productive path. For that I am deeply grateful, and for the wealth of knowledge she has shared with me while still allowing my research to be my own. She has taught me a great deal about how to be a scholar and an instructor, as well as a colleague, and I will take those lessons with me. I also owe a great debt to my committee members—Richard Janko, Sara Ahbel-Rappe, and Ezra Keshet—all of whom have helped refine my ideas and pointed me toward useful scholarship to develop my research. -
Homeostatic Plasticity in the Nervous System
Neural Plasticity Homeostatic Plasticity in the Nervous System Guest Editors: Arianna Maffei, Dirk Bucher, and Alfredo Fontanini Homeostatic Plasticity in the Nervous System Neural Plasticity Homeostatic Plasticity in the Nervous System Guest Editors: Arianna Maffei, Dirk Bucher, and Alfredo Fontanini Copyright © 2012 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. This is a special issue published in “Neural Plasticity.” All articles are open access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Attri- bution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Editorial Board Robert Adamec, Canada George W. Huntley, USA Kerry J. Ressler, USA Shimon Amir, Canada Yuji Ikegaya, Japan Susan J. Sara, France Michel Baudry, USA Leszek Kaczmarek, Poland Timothy Schallert, USA Michael S. Beattie, USA Jeansok J. Kim, USA Menahem Segal, Israel Clive Raymond Bramham, Norway Eric Klann, USA Panagiotis Smirniotis, USA Anna Katharina Braun, Germany Małgorzata Kossut, Poland Ivan Soltesz, USA Sumantra Chattarji, India Frederic Libersat, Israel Michael G. Stewart, UK Robert Chen, Canada Stuart C. Mangel, UK Naweed I. Syed, Canada David Diamond, USA Aage R. Møller, USA Donald A. Wilson, USA M. B. Dutia, UK Diane K. O’Dowd, USA J. R. Wolpaw, USA Richard Dyck, Canada Sarah L. Pallas, USA Chun-Fang Wu, USA Zygmunt Galdzicki, USA A. Pascual-Leone, USA J. M. Wyss, USA PrestonE.Garraghty,USA Maurizio Popoli, Italy Lin Xu, China Paul E. Gold, USA Bruno Poucet, France Min Zhuo, Canada Manuel B. Graeber, Australia Lucas Pozzo-Miller, USA Anthony Hannan, Australia Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, USA Contents Homeostatic Plasticity in the Nervous System, Arianna Maffei, Dirk Bucher, and Alfredo Fontanini Volume 2012, Article ID 913472, 2 pages Wherefore Art Thou, Homeo(stasis)? Functional Diversity in Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity, Bridget N. -
Dreamingand the Ideology of Mantics: Homer and Ancient Near Eastern Oneiromancy."
Prof. Scott B. Noegel Chair, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization University of Washington "Dreamingand the Ideology of Mantics: Homer and Ancient Near Eastern Oneiromancy." First Published in: Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena: Proceedings of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Chicago, October 27-31, 2000 (MELAMMU, 3; Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian text Corpus Project), 143-157. ~",." ~ MELAMMU SYMPOSIA III IDEOLOGIES AS INTERCULTURAL PHENOMENA "---" Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Chicago, USA, October 27-31, 2000 Edited by , A. PANAINO 'G. PETTINATO With the collaboration of G. P. BASELLO A. PIRAS UNIVERSIT A DI BOLOGNA & IsIAO ~ MILANO 2002 " ~ . r;JO \ NOEGEL HOMER AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN ON~CY SCOTT B. NOEGEL Washington '---' Dreaming and the Ideology of Mantics: Homer and Ancient Near Eastern Oneiromancy* ear Eastern influence on Greek Raaflaub refers to as "...the precondi- literature has been the subject of tions that made them possible and the N increasing scholarly interest in limits and exact modalities of transmis- the last few decades. The works of W. sion and effect."4 Burkert! and of others2 have done a great In this essay, I shall adopt Raaflaub's deal to "re-orient" our understanding of direction, at least in part, by examining Greek literature by considering it in the the use of divinatory wordplay in the larger context of the ancient Mediterra- exegesis of dreams in Mesopotamian and nean world. Martin West's famous re- early Greek literature. I shall restrict my- mark that "Greece is part of Asia; Greek self to discussing the interpretation of v Literature is Near Eastern literature,"3 only those dreams which we could call encapsulates this approach. -
Theories of Dreaming and Lucid Dreaming: an Integrative Review
Theories of dreaming and lucid dreaming I J o D R Theories of dreaming and lucid dreaming: An integrative review towards sleep, dreaming and consciousness Nicolas Zink & Reinhard Pietrowsky Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Department of Clinical Psychology, Düsseldorf, Germany Summary. The present review gives an overview on common theories of dreaming with a specific emphasis on how they are able to explain lucid dreaming. The theories are grouped either to such that describe structural or biological processes of dreams or to such that describe evolutionary and adaptive functions of dreams. This overview shows that none of the theories outlined is fully capable of explaining neither non-lucid dreaming nor lucid dreaming. With respect to the first group, the concept of “protoconsciousness” is the theory that at best explains lucid dreaming. With respect to theories with an evolutionary and adaptive function of dreams, those theories, that stress the problem solving or simula- tion functions of dreams are more suited to explain lucid dreaming. Further, aspects that induce or amplify lucidity and the neural mechanisms that may be involved in lucid dreaming are described. Keywords: Lucid dreaming, lucidity, evolutionary functions, dreaming, consciousness, dream theories, protoconsciousness 1. Introduction and theories proposing evolutionary and adaptive functions for dreaming. In other words: theories that explain how Over the last several decades an effort has been made to dreaming works and theories that explain why the dreaming shed light on the phenomenon of lucid dreaming and the process evolved in our ancestors. We thus put an emphasis factors associated with this ability. The phenomenon of on lucid dream research and its compatibility with current lucid dreams in REM sleep was verified in the late 1970s dream theories. -
Necromancy Or How We Learned to Speak to the Dead
30 Kapcár, A. (2015). The Origins of Necromancy or How We Learned to Speak to the Dead. Sacra, 13(2), 30–58. The Origins of Necromancy or How We Learned to Speak to the Dead Andrej Kapcár, FA MU, Department of Archaeology and Museology e-mail: [email protected] Abstract As far as human history goes, death and dying has always been an important, though in many occasions tragic, event that influences the everyday life of the community. With the development of more complex and elaborate ideas about the afterlife and the underworld, humans have started to think through methods for contacting the dead. The reasons may vary, ranging from the emotional to the purely pragmatic, but the effort remains the same. A multitude of rituals have been developed over time aimed at reaching the deceased and summoning them to the land of the living. And thus the function of the necromancer was born – and the person who is able, or knows of ways, to speak to the lifeless. But are we able to determine where this practice originated? When the moment that man was thought to himself that he might be able to overstep the thin line between life and death? Keywords necromancy, death, funeral magic, psychology of death, sociological behavior, occultism, magic, divination Introduction Throughout time, people have always been fascinated by death, dying and the afterlife. Funerary practices, grave decoration, post-mortem rites and rituals have accompanied humankind from the brink of civilization and have not left us even up to modern times. The final departure of an individual had always had a crushing effect on the socio-economic structure of a society, going even further if the society consisted of only a scarce number of members. -
The Function of Dream Sleep Francis Crick* & Graeme Mitchison*
_NA_ru_~__ vo_L_.~ __ I4_ru_Lv __ I~_J _________________ ~()~~E~TJ\Frf----------------------------~~~~ The function of dream sleep Francis Crick* & Graeme Mitchison* We propose that the function of dream sleep (more properly rapid-eye movement or REM sleep) is to remove certain undesirable modes of interaction in networks of cells in the cerebral cortex. We postulate that this is done in REM sleep by a reverse learning mechanism (see also p.l58), so that the trace in the brain of the unconscious dream is weakened, rather than strengthened, by the dream. MANKIND has always been fascinated by is explained in more detail below. Without to go into large-amplitude instabilities5 • dreams. As might be expected, there have it we believe that the mammalian cortex been many attempts to assign a purpose or could not perform so well. Neuronal networks significance to them. Although we dream We first describe our ideas about the cor Now, if one asks what functions such richly for one or two hours every night, we do not tex followed by a brief account of neural interconnected assemblies of cells could remember most of our dreams. Earlier networks. Next we outline what is known serve, one attractive possibility is that they thinkers, such as Freud, did not know this. about REM sleep. (For general accounts, could store associations6- 8 • To see this, Modern theories (not reviewed here in see refs 1,2.) We then describe our suppose an 'event' is represented by the ac detail) have usually proposed that sleep postulated mechanism and how it might be tivity of a subset of cells in a cell assembly.