Merriam-Webster dictionary
defines a dream as "a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring
during sleep." Everyone dreams. Some dreams we remember, but most are lost
to us once we wake up, or perhaps remain dormant within us, awaiting future
recollection.
Fleeting and unconscious though dreams may be, they possess immense importance in cultures around the world. Prophetic or revelatory dreams play pivotal roles in ancient literary and religious texts, from Mesopotamia's Epic of Gilgamesh; to the Old Norse Poetic Edda; to Homer's ancient Greek Odyssey; to Imperial China's Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber; to the Middle High German Nibelungenlied; to the holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And yet, when seeking to understand that which surpasses everyday experience – whether in ancient manuscripts, shamanic rituals, or purported dream telepathy – it can prove difficult to distinguish between dreams and visions, between sensations originating in the mind's eye and those revealed to the beholder by an outside force. A vast range of psychological research has sought to understand the meanings, origins, and effects of dreams, while work in the medical sciences has shed light on the physical processes underlying dreams.
Such is the mythic power of the dream that it has become a key symbol in today's world. Dreams have long been part of political discourse. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously had 'a dream', while Barack Obama's message of hope inspired many Americans to metaphorically dream of a better future. By the same token, it is often said that ISIS/Islamic State dreamed of a caliphate, while Hitler dreamed of a Third Reich. One person's dream can be another's nightmare.
Indulging in contrasting visions of England, William Blake's dream of Jerusalem is set in relief by "dark Satanic Mills," and Winston Churchill's "broad and sunlit uplands" are in such peril that they may yet "sink into the abyss." Art genres in general – and perhaps science fiction and fantasy in literature and film in particular – represent methods of dreaming alternative futures, pasts, and presents – utopian, dystopian, or somewhere in between. From this perspective, the 'dream sequence', a popular storytelling technique, takes the form of a dream within a dream.
As 'the American Dream' increasingly clashes with 'the Chinese Dream', as the dream of the paradise island is confronted by the nightmare of island nations disappearing beneath rising seas, we must recognise how the dream discourse empowers some peoples and places while disempowering others, encourages some people to 'dream big' while urging others to live in the 'real world'. The social acceptability of dreaming is subtly gendered, racialised, and class dependent.
In art, in politics, in religion, in the economy, and – most of all – in sleep, dreams are our constant companions.
Fleeting and unconscious though dreams may be, they possess immense importance in cultures around the world. Prophetic or revelatory dreams play pivotal roles in ancient literary and religious texts, from Mesopotamia's Epic of Gilgamesh; to the Old Norse Poetic Edda; to Homer's ancient Greek Odyssey; to Imperial China's Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber; to the Middle High German Nibelungenlied; to the holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And yet, when seeking to understand that which surpasses everyday experience – whether in ancient manuscripts, shamanic rituals, or purported dream telepathy – it can prove difficult to distinguish between dreams and visions, between sensations originating in the mind's eye and those revealed to the beholder by an outside force. A vast range of psychological research has sought to understand the meanings, origins, and effects of dreams, while work in the medical sciences has shed light on the physical processes underlying dreams.
Such is the mythic power of the dream that it has become a key symbol in today's world. Dreams have long been part of political discourse. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously had 'a dream', while Barack Obama's message of hope inspired many Americans to metaphorically dream of a better future. By the same token, it is often said that ISIS/Islamic State dreamed of a caliphate, while Hitler dreamed of a Third Reich. One person's dream can be another's nightmare.
Indulging in contrasting visions of England, William Blake's dream of Jerusalem is set in relief by "dark Satanic Mills," and Winston Churchill's "broad and sunlit uplands" are in such peril that they may yet "sink into the abyss." Art genres in general – and perhaps science fiction and fantasy in literature and film in particular – represent methods of dreaming alternative futures, pasts, and presents – utopian, dystopian, or somewhere in between. From this perspective, the 'dream sequence', a popular storytelling technique, takes the form of a dream within a dream.
As 'the American Dream' increasingly clashes with 'the Chinese Dream', as the dream of the paradise island is confronted by the nightmare of island nations disappearing beneath rising seas, we must recognise how the dream discourse empowers some peoples and places while disempowering others, encourages some people to 'dream big' while urging others to live in the 'real world'. The social acceptability of dreaming is subtly gendered, racialised, and class dependent.
In art, in politics, in religion, in the economy, and – most of all – in sleep, dreams are our constant companions.
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