Thursday, July 14, 2011

Dream-sharing, the new American dream?


I came across an interesting dream researcher in Psychology Today.  Ryan Hurd, has a certificate in Dream Studies from John F. Kennedy University's Consciousness and Transformation Studies Program. Hurd has similar ideas to Carl Jung’s Theory on dreams and dreaming. Hurd, like Jung, believes that slumber’s narratives can unlock important elements for our waking lives.  Below Hurd cites his wish to make dreaming and dreams part of the American discourse.  Maybe all we need is a new reality show devoted to lucid dreamers. 

"My big goal is to make Western culture into a dreaming culture. The United States is anti-dreaming, because dreaming is irrational. We're fighting the Enlightenment on this issue, but dreams bring out all these ways of knowing that are just as valid" as those of which society approves. He cites a centuries-old Iroquois ritual during which tribes people acted out their unnerving dreams - even if those performances entailed breaking tribal taboos, expressing violent urges, or revealing untoward lusts. Such rites served to "air the dirty laundry in order to reduce its charge and prevent unconscious acting-out that could escalate if left unchecked," Hurd writes. "I wish dream-sharing was a mandatory start before every meeting of the United Nations, by the way. Hey, I'm a dreamer." (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stuck/200909/field-dreams)

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