{"id":4770,"date":"2012-05-16T23:15:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T03:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=4770"},"modified":"2012-05-16T23:18:29","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T03:18:29","slug":"wanted-for-a-real-science-of-dreaming-research-inside-the-dream-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/05\/wanted-for-a-real-science-of-dreaming-research-inside-the-dream-state.html","title":{"rendered":"Wanted for a real science of dreaming: research INSIDE the dream state"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A true dream scientist, in Marc Chagall's "The Poet Reclining"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most original and revealing scientific study of dreams \u2013 the only kind that is likely to bring us the big stuff \u2013 is research inside<\/em> dreams, rather than research about<\/em> dreams.<\/p>\n

Charting a path for future research, William C. Dement, a pioneer of scienific investigation of \u00a0sleep and dreams, appealed back in the 1970s for \u201ctrained introspectionists to give us somewhat more confident information about what goes on in the mind during sleep.\u201d Dement suggested that the most important research would require science to recognize that there are some individuals who seem to be \u201csupremely good at recalling their dreams.\u201d Perhaps they could be encouraged not only to increase their recall even further but to attain some degree of mental control inside the dreamstate \u201cwhich would allow them to attend to the dream more closely with the idea of remembering it and reporting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dement concluded: \u201cOur major data about the dream world should come from those best able to describe it\u201d \u2013 dream experiencers. [1]<\/p>\n

A century before Dement made his remarks, the Marquis Hervey de Saint-Denys (1822-1892), a French aristocrat and oriental scholar, made this type of research his ruling passion. He started observing his dreams closely at the age of thirteen, as a way of whiling away his time after completing lessons with his private tutors. Within a year, he noticed he was often aware while dreaming of his \u201ctrue situation\u201d – that he was dreaming \u2013 and was able to \u201cguide their development\u201d consciously. He dreamed, for example, that he was among flowering lilac trees. Aware that he was dreaming, he remembered reading that our memories of smell are \u201cseldom correct\u201d when we wake from dreams. \u201cI caught hold of the branch, and first assured myself that the smell of lilac was recalled in my memory by this imaginary but voluntary <\/em>act.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n

Over decades, Saint-Denys became an intrepid investigator inside his dreams, producing and exploring dream images that revolved<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Marquis de Saint-Denys, 19th century dream scientist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

around his research interests. \u201cDuring the day I reflected on the subjects most worthy of examination; at night, during the dreams in which I was aware of my situation, I sought every possible opportunity to discover and analyze.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n

There was a curious blind spot in his dream exploration. He believed that dream images all derive from our waking experiences: that whatever we see in dreams is constructed from life memories. Scientist that he was, he tested this by his experiential method. Perhaps the fact that he was not able \u2013 by his own account \u2013 to identify dreamscapes that were unrelated to waking life memories was a function of his own belief system. That would fit his own observation that whenever he thought about something in a conscious dream, a corresponding scene or image appeared. Dream images, he concluded, are \u201cthe representation in our mind\u2019s eye of the objects that occupy our thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us add that our best dream scientists are likely to be assiduous dream journalists<\/em>, keeping detailed logs of their own experiences in the dream worlds, and those shared with them. By collecting and pooling data of this kind, we can overwhelm the silly reductionism that dismisses one-off dream reports as “anecdotal.” If we can point to 1,000 or even 100 dated and authentic dream reports suggestive of precognition, or dream diagnosis, or interactive or social dreaming, we have evidence for these phenomena that cannot be shrugged off because it failed to meet laboratory standards. In these areas, the big game will always elude those who try to pen it in cages. The real dream scientist will seek it where it is to be found, deep in the forests of the night.<\/p>\n

References<\/em><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0William C. Dement, \u201cProposals for future research\u201d in Gabrielle C. Lairy and Pero Salzarulo (eds)\u00a0The Experimental Study of Human Sleep: Methodological Problems.<\/em>\u00a0Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1975, 442.<\/p>\n

2. Hervey de\u00a0Saint-Denys,\u00a0Dreams and How to Guide Them<\/em>\u00a0trans. Nicholas Fry, ed. Morton Schatzman M.D., London: Duckworth, 1982, 56.<\/p>\n

3. ibid, 20.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most original and revealing scientific study of dreams \u2013 the only kind that is likely to bring us the big stuff \u2013 is research inside dreams, rather than research about dreams. Charting a path for future research, William C. Dement, a pioneer of scienific investigation of \u00a0sleep and dreams, appealed back in the 1970s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,10,7,22],"tags":[1331,1328,1330],"class_list":["post-4770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-conscious-dreaming","category-lucid-dreaming","category-shamanic-dreaming","tag-hervey-de-saint-denys","tag-science-of-dreaming-dream-research","tag-william-c-dement"],"yoast_head":"\nWanted for a real science of dreaming: research INSIDE the dream state - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/05\/wanted-for-a-real-science-of-dreaming-research-inside-the-dream-state.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wanted for a real science of dreaming: research INSIDE the dream state - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most original and revealing scientific study of dreams \u2013 the only kind that is likely to bring us the big stuff \u2013 is research inside dreams, rather than research about dreams. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4770"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4773,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions\/4773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}