Dreaming in Christianity and Islam

Dreaming is an exciting and still inexplicable human experience that occurs entirely in ones brain during sleeping. Before taking this course, I was skeptical about the value of dreams. Indeed, I was influenced mainly by the studies that explained this phenomenon from the point of continuous activity of peoples minds that processes daily routine during the night. However, after studying various sources about our visions during sleep, I understood the reasoning behind less scientific explanations. This class allowed me to be more attentive to dreams to understand my emotional problems and helped me learn about the causes of students nightmares.

The new information that interested me was the dreaming experiences of Jordanian students that were similar to their counterparts from Western countries. It was unusual to learn from this chapter by Nasser & Bulkeley (2009) that negative dreams were recalled and reported more frequently. Most of the participants nightmares had some association with their daily concerns. Dreaming about elements of the supernatural world, like jinn, was the reflection of these individuals cultural and religious beliefs (Nasser & Bulkeley, 2009). Even though it is logical to think that peoples habits and thoughts would appear in their dreams, it was still fascinating to read how their brains were able to reconstruct these ideas into realistic images. I used to dream about book and movie characters, but I only recently admitted that my mind could create imaginary scenarios involving me in these fictional stories. Analyzing my behavior in these nightmares revealed that I isolated myself from my friends and became lonely in dreams. Indeed, I realized that our brains might generate visions to prepare us for similar challenges in the future.

The prophetic dreams of some people remain a mystery, and I am less skeptical about these cases after reading Icelandic stories. Specifically, the article by Heijnen (2005) made me alter my viewpoint about dreaming. Before enrolling in this course, I could relate to those Icelanders, mentioned in the paper by Heijnen (2005), who qualify dreams as personal fantasies not worth much pondering upon (p. 194). Although I did not become superstitious about nightmares after reading this manuscript, I started to be more careful about the psychology behind episodes that my friends or I may see while asleep.

There is no certainty in the authenticity of the stories presented in the article, but many real-world examples of similar dreaming experiences exist today. Indeed, as I discovered later, the stories of people talking to the dead or preventing some catastrophic events are not unique to Icelands ancient culture. Many of my relatives told me about their conversations with their deceased partners or parents. However, I cannot accept the idea of Icelanders that dreams are given from the external world rather than generated in our brains (Heijnen, 2005). Nevertheless, this manuscript helped me realize that science still cannot explain many events and behaviors; thus, I should remain open to various theories about human mental potential.

In summary, this course about dreaming helped me learn various opinions about this brain activity. I used to view dreams as processing information and experiences of our daily lives. In fact, it is partly true because studies demonstrated that people dreamed about the same concerns but mainly in a negative sense, which might be explained by cultural constraints and anticipation of a bad outcome. The most puzzling components of this phenomenon are peoples nightmares about the supernatural world that are probably caused by individuals beliefs, accentuated by their imagination. These elements are not universal across the globe, and thus it is hard to apply psychoanalytic principles to explain such visions. Overall, I think that this part of human life requires more research that should involve professionals in both scientific and non-scientific fields.

References

Heijnen, A. (2005). Dreams, darkness and hidden spheres: Exploring the anthropology of the night in Icelandic society. Paideuma, 51, 193-207.

Nasser, L., & Bulkeley, K. (2009). The typical dreams of Jordanian college students. In K. Bulkeley, K. Adams, & P.M. Davis (Eds.), Dreaming in Christianity and Islam. Culture, conflict, and creativity (pp. 200-216). Rutgers University Press.

Kertha Gosa Ceiling vs. Dreaming paintings by Aborigines of Australia

Introduction

Kertha Gosa Ceiling and Dreaming paintings by Aborigines of Australia are both spiritual world artworks. Both have come a long way and have advanced with the advancing technology. Many countries of world have embraced such artworks with some neglecting the importance of such artworks.

Even though many see art as an economic activity to make money, both artworks tend to focus much on passing important information to a target group. Many religious artworks have taken the form of sculpture and not paintings. Many may ask why the dreaming and the Kertha ceiling have used painting and not sculpturing. This paper will discuss the artworks, their contexts and their similarities giving insight also to their differences, as well as their significance.

Dreaming paintings by Aborigines of Australia

Over a long period, Aborigines paintings have advanced to the point of intertwining with the public dissertation, with a great recognition in Australia and the rest of the world. The Aboriginal people use this art represent them and their culture. The aspect and the concept of dreaming come from the aborigines ancestors and the rainbow serpent that went through the land leaving marks and topographical features (Mayer 145).

They set the moral and social laws to guide the people into a significant order of being. To the aborigines dreaming goes beyond the literal meaning and describes a balance between the elements of nature, spirit and morals. They believe that a persons dreaming depends on the point of his/her birth labor pains reception, for that is the place where one receives the ancestral spirits.

Stylistic characteristics of the Dreaming paintings

The aborigines paintings have evolved greatly with its history changing from time to time. All over visual and oral expressions have always advanced among the aboriginal societies.

Before invasion, the people possessed over two hundred divergent languages. Today an approximate of fifty languages exists with each possessing a range of 1-2000 speakers. This is because of the great emphasis on multilingualism and use of visual and oral values.

The paintings are traditionally symbolic. They include conventional designs as well as symbols which when painted on a person or an object brings a religious importance to them.

Some symbols combine to give a more complex story. Other painting put emphasis to the connection of the aboriginal people to their land to demonstrate their obligation to the land (Mayer 165). They used stone to paint on their artworks, which show durability, and a long living artwork.

The methods of painting range from etching, screen-printing, relief printing, calligraphy, to lithography. The artwork utilizes other different materials and techniques of painting such as ochre with a compacted end of a stick to produce high quality dots. Ochres produce a thick and a warm color for use in modern artwork. Most of the paints used are result from pounding the ochres and mixing with a fluid, which can be blood, to make it thick.

Kertha Gosa Ceiling

Kertha Gosa pavilion, a place of justice discussions with the king, existed from the 18th century. The pavilion is a Balinese work located within the Klungkung Palace. The pavilion utilized a special architecture with several divisions. Specifically, the pavilion possessed both ritual and functional purpose.

Dewa Agung, depicting the story of Bhima Swarga, later repainted the pavilion, to show how Bhima went to hell, seeing how people suffered their inequities, to rescue his fathers soul for heavens. In his mission, Bhima was in the company of two of his reliable servants. This represents the theme of justice in the pavilion.

Stylistic characteristics of Kertha Gosa Ceiling

The technique used to smear the pavilions ceiling portrays iconography. Many artists in their works have adopted this style today. The characters used in the Bhima Swarga painting are majorly symbolic, and each carries a different message. These characters are either Kasar or Halus (Pucci 212).

Both are different. Halus characters on one-side posses the aspects of softness and fine quality. On the other hand, Kasar involves those that are makeshift and bumpy. The artwork contains demons and devils, which are rough and coarse textured. This then portrays the kasar characteristic of the artwork.

Bhima and his brother paintings bring out the Halus characteristics since their hand are smooth and refined as well as their fragile fingers. It is also important to note that their eyes and the heads have a Kasar effect since they are at an angle. The thumb of Bhima Swarga has a long nail representing his armaments.

Social hierarchy is another aspect that the painting artwork portrays. The ways Bhima and his bother stand, their position, as well as their body sizes are very symbolic. In his story, Bhima Swarga is the god or the top one. In the painting, Bhima placed above his brothers showing his supremacy (Pucci 205).

His servants stand next to him and the sons slightly below their father. It painted in way that depicts the separation of hell and the heavens. This is by use of rows separating each other. At central position of the artwork there is a lotus bordered by doves, which in turn represent a future fate.

Similarities of the two Artworks

Both artworks utilize the painting style, which is a creative way to express an idea or feeling. It represents the aesthetic effect, which make the artwork more influential.

Over many years, painted artworks have received great recognition and thus have grown greatly over the world. Both artworks portray a complex message by combining ideas. They both have an outside and an inward meaning, which are outright and hidden respectively.

Difference between the two Artworks

The Dreaming paintings by Aborigines artwork has advanced to include plays and movies, which the Kertha Gosa Ceiling remains as a painted artwork. Dreaming has advanced greatly since it provides for innovations and due to the advance in technology. The dreaming painting does not contain the society hierarchy aspect unlike the Kertha Gosa ceiling.

Conclusion

Artwork has gained recognition over the whole in the past three centuries. Painting has gained a major recognition as method of coming up with a piece of artwork. Religious settings have also advanced with the increase in use of painted works to pass or portray a religious message.

However, some people over the world have not yet embraced such artworks. Kertha Gosa Ceiling and. Dreaming paintings by Aborigines artwork are part of these religious artworks, which have challenged the art sector greatly. Both artworks are religious and focus a particular people. The use of painting allows use of aesthetic aspects, which tends to communicate on its own. All the nations should embrace to use such artwork in order to promote various religions more importantly than to earn money.

Works Cited

Mayer, Ralph. The Artists Handbook of Materials and Techniques. New York: Viking, 1970. Print.

Pucci, Idanna. Bhima Swarga: The Balinese Journey of the Soul. Boston: Little Brown, 1992. Print.

The Importance of Sleeping and Dreaming

Many people see no benefits of dreaming, so they would probably take the new “miracle pill.” However, considering the essential functions of sleep and dreams, this decision would have both advantages and disadvantages. The positive factor is that people will have more time for their daily activities. As for the disadvantages, since biological rhythms and sleep stages are important, people’s organisms will not function properly (Myers & DeWall, 2021). Sleeping allows the body and brain to reorganize, repair, and rewire. Meanwhile, dreaming helps filing away memories and developing and preserving neural pathways (Myers & DeWall, 2021). As for the drawbacks from a societal standpoint, if too many people take this pill, after several years or decades, there will be too many humans with mental and physical illnesses and too much pressure on the infrastructure. Finally, I would not take this pill since I love seeing dreams and realize that this “miracle medicine” will cause too many negative consequences.

References

Myers, D. G., & DeWall, N. C. (2021). Psychology in modules (13th ed.). McMillan.

Dreaming in Christianity and Islam

Dreaming is an exciting and still inexplicable human experience that occurs entirely in one’s brain during sleeping. Before taking this course, I was skeptical about the value of dreams. Indeed, I was influenced mainly by the studies that explained this phenomenon from the point of continuous activity of people’s minds that processes daily routine during the night. However, after studying various sources about our visions during sleep, I understood the reasoning behind less scientific explanations. This class allowed me to be more attentive to dreams to understand my emotional problems and helped me learn about the causes of students’ nightmares.

The new information that interested me was the dreaming experiences of Jordanian students that were similar to their counterparts from Western countries. It was unusual to learn from this chapter by Nasser & Bulkeley (2009) that negative dreams were recalled and reported more frequently. Most of the participants’ nightmares had some association with their daily concerns. Dreaming about elements of the supernatural world, like jinn, was the reflection of these individuals’ cultural and religious beliefs (Nasser & Bulkeley, 2009). Even though it is logical to think that people’s habits and thoughts would appear in their dreams, it was still fascinating to read how their brains were able to reconstruct these ideas into realistic images. I used to dream about book and movie characters, but I only recently admitted that my mind could create imaginary scenarios involving me in these fictional stories. Analyzing my behavior in these nightmares revealed that I isolated myself from my friends and became lonely in dreams. Indeed, I realized that our brains might generate visions to prepare us for similar challenges in the future.

The prophetic dreams of some people remain a mystery, and I am less skeptical about these cases after reading Icelandic stories. Specifically, the article by Heijnen (2005) made me alter my viewpoint about dreaming. Before enrolling in this course, I could relate to those Icelanders, mentioned in the paper by Heijnen (2005), who “qualify dreams as personal fantasies not worth much pondering upon” (p. 194). Although I did not become superstitious about nightmares after reading this manuscript, I started to be more careful about the psychology behind episodes that my friends or I may see while asleep.

There is no certainty in the authenticity of the stories presented in the article, but many real-world examples of similar dreaming experiences exist today. Indeed, as I discovered later, the stories of people talking to the dead or preventing some catastrophic events are not unique to Iceland’s ancient culture. Many of my relatives told me about their conversations with their deceased partners or parents. However, I cannot accept the idea of Icelanders that dreams are given from the external world rather than generated in our brains (Heijnen, 2005). Nevertheless, this manuscript helped me realize that science still cannot explain many events and behaviors; thus, I should remain open to various theories about human mental potential.

In summary, this course about dreaming helped me learn various opinions about this brain activity. I used to view dreams as processing information and experiences of our daily lives. In fact, it is partly true because studies demonstrated that people dreamed about the same concerns but mainly in a negative sense, which might be explained by cultural constraints and anticipation of a bad outcome. The most puzzling components of this phenomenon are people’s nightmares about the supernatural world that are probably caused by individuals’ beliefs, accentuated by their imagination. These elements are not universal across the globe, and thus it is hard to apply psychoanalytic principles to explain such visions. Overall, I think that this part of human life requires more research that should involve professionals in both scientific and non-scientific fields.

References

Heijnen, A. (2005). Dreams, darkness and hidden spheres: Exploring the anthropology of the night in Icelandic society. Paideuma, 51, 193-207.

Nasser, L., & Bulkeley, K. (2009). The typical dreams of Jordanian college students. In K. Bulkeley, K. Adams, & P.M. Davis (Eds.), Dreaming in Christianity and Islam. Culture, conflict, and creativity (pp. 200-216). Rutgers University Press.

Nature and Functions of Dreaming

From prehistoric times to the present day, dreams have intrigued mankind across all civilizations. Dream researchers have over the years attempted to front various propositions about why humans engage in these ‘mystic’ processes and their real or perceived functions in life, but consensus on the outcomes of their studies has so far remained as elusive as ever.

However, there has been a broad concurrence among the researchers that emotional memories are triggered during the process of dreaming and that emotions play a domineering part in the thematic development of the dream (Valli et al., 2008; Myers, 2009). This paper purposes of evaluating some of the functions researchers think dreams serve today.

Researchers concur that 80 percent of dreams occur during the sleep phase known as ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ or simply REM as this is the phase when consolidation of emotional memories becomes more enhanced (Valli et al., 2008; Myers, 2009).

Although Sigmund Freud didn’t have this knowledge beforehand when he constructed his notions about dreams, the Austrian neurologist projected a psychoanalytic disposition to argue that the main “…function of dreams was to allow the release of repressed thoughts and impulses which cause excitation and neural activity” (Berman, 1999, para. 8).

Freud argued that every dream has an explicit significance which is carried in the form of a message manifested by unconscious processes. The content of the dream, according to Freud, is a symbol for some camouflaged, or rather suppressed wish of the consciousness and therefore individuals must reason backward in a process known as ‘free association’ for them to interpret the real meaning of their dreams (Berman, 1999).

Freud was also of the opinion that dreams functioned to preserve sleep. Another view projected by researchers such as Vygotsky and Lacan suggests that the main function of dreams is to fulfill a specific human need that attributes a cause to the things that we experience within the environment daily (Valli et al., 2008).

When this function of dreams is put into perspective, it would, therefore, be true to argue that dreams very often have a deep-seated effect on how individuals relate to the outside world. In line with this perspective, other dream researchers argue that dreams possess a problem-solving function in that they assist individuals in solving challenges that they are incapable of solving in waking life.

Still, other researchers argue that one of the key functions of dreams is to maintain our bodily and psychological health (Domhoff, n.d.). However, information about how dreams sustain our health is still lacking. Moving on, some researchers have come up with yet another theoretical perspective – the threat simulation theory (TST) – in an attempt to explain one of the core functions of dreams.

According to these researchers, “…the function of dreaming is to mentally rehearse threat perception, and avoidance in a safe, simulated environment, based on the emotionally charged memory traces about real threats in the environment” (Valli et al., 2008, p. 835). This, therefore, means that many dreams have a negative predisposition or bias, and functions to demonstrate not only the insecure nature of mankind in real-life situations but also to show how best we can avoid the threats to our existence.

Carl Jung, a famous dream researcher, espoused the view that the major “…function of dreams is to compensate for those parts of the psyche (total personality) that are underdeveloped in waking life” (Domhoff, n.d., para. 4). Lastly, there is a school of dream researchers who dreams can only be perceived as simply senseless, the unsystematic complement of the independent electrical activity of the sleeping brain (Berman, 1999; Myers, 2009).

To conclude, it is obvious that many suggestions have been put forward by researchers about the functions of dreams. Some of these arguments are supported by scientific rigor while others cannot be validated (Valli et al., 2008). It is, therefore, the function of sleep researchers to sharpen their tools in an attempt to unearth the myths that surround dreaming.

Reference List

Berman, R. (1999). The nature and function of dreams. Web.

Domhoff, G.W. (n.d.). .

Myers, D.G. (2009). Psychology, 9th Ed. New York, NY: Worth Publishers

Valli, K., Strandholm, T., Sillanmaki, L., & Revonso, A. (2008). Dreams are more negative than real life: Implications for the function of dreaming. Cognitive & Emotion, 22(5), 833-861.

Dreams and the Process of Dreaming Analysis

Introduction

Dreams are a communication of body mind and spirit in a symbolic communicative environmental state of being (Spence, C., Pavani, F., Maravita, A., & Holmes, N. Journal of Physiology (Paris).

Your brain, mind, and spirit while at rest “review” analyses in its own way a long-term short-term, and spirit memory. It has its background the trend of your life and the philosophy to influence it.

Since the beginning of mankind, dreams have become objects of boundless fascination and mysteries to all. These nocturnal images that we see while sleeping may arise from some source other than our ordinary mind. They contain a mixture of elements from our personal identity which we recognize as familiar along with a quality of otherness in the dream image that carries a sense of the strange and eerie. Dreams point to deeper meaning and certain rational and insightful comments on our walking situation and emotional experience. History and traditional beliefs have made us believe that dreams are messages from the spiritual realms but today we have come to believe that they are messages from a deeper source of wisdom and understanding within ourselves. Every dream is said to be a message from some deeper unconscious self to the more conscious everyday part of oneself expressed in a language that needs to e learned and understood.

Dreams have been called the royal roads to conscious meaning that they would be a window to the soul.

The dreams you can’t forget

Dreams that one cannot forget are known as lucid dreams, in the sense of mental clarity (Driver, J., & Spence, C. (2000). Multisensory perception: Beyond modularity and convergence). Lucidity usually begins in the middle of a dream when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality but it is a dream.

Such dreams would include flying or meeting with deceased persons. Some people attain this lucidity without notifying any particular clue in the dream, they just suddenly realize that they are dreaming.

A minority of lucid dreams are a result of a returning to sleep directly from awakening reflective consciousness.

The basic definition of a lucid dream is nothing other than becoming aware that you are dreaming but the quality of lucidity can vary greatly when lucidity is at s high level, you are aware that everything experienced in the dream is occurring in the mind, and that it is not a real danger and that you are sleeping in bed and you will awaken shortly. In low-level lucidity, you are aware to a certain extent that you are dreaming perhaps to fly or alter what you are doing but not enough to realize that the people are representations, or that you can suffer no physical damage, or that you are actually in bed.

Dreams are said to be like opening a door to the rest of the mind, all of one’s friends, fears, phobias, hopes, wishes, good times, and bad times are there. All accumulated wisdom and insight of the species and culture is stored there for your explanations and this is done in the ancient mind than in the logical mind.

Everyone dreams but not all can remember what they dreamt about thus if one desires to remember his dream, he should among other things;

Pay attention

The core idea to remember your dream is to pay attention to your dream and nurture it. While awake try to think about your dream while going to sleep focus on dreaming and most important pay attention.

Try to develop a set of activities that you shall do every morning to help you remember your dream an example would be keeping a notebook beside the bed, others decide that when they get up they focus on a symbol on the wall others stare upon the sealing board while others prefer to talk it out with e regular morning companion.

Give your dream a home

Get a tool like a notebook or a journal by giving your dream home. Ritualise writing your dreams, every morning write them down before you step out of bed.

Wake up as gently as possible

The idea is to wake up from the dream when the dream is over and not when an outside alarm awakes you, hold still for a few minutes and focus attention on what your mind has seen or during the preceding time in the dream. Keep your eyes closed as long as you can still do so.

Dream memories are fragile and seem stored in your body position thus ant slight movement can disrupt your memory.

Sex, romance, and relationships

Sex has always been a big part of dreams for both men and women. There are times sex was repressed culturally and as a result individuals in their dreams might have expressed it more frequently.

Some symbols representing the virgin in dreams were things like containers, boxes, bowls, a room, or a tunnel similarly anything along or suggesting penetration would represent the penis example include knives, sticks, pencils, and nail files.

The Senio people of Malaysia had a strange interpretation of dreams when they dream of romance and sex where they believed that this was a sign of a good relationship to come or a good sexual encounter that were to be experienced (Guest. S., & Spence, C. (2003). What role does multisensory integration play in the visuotactile perception of texture? International Journal of Psychophysiology.)

They believed that a dream of romance and sex was not to be interpreted as a sign of promiscuity since it was all part of the individual.

Symbols and dreams

There are many different ways of approaching dreams as their meaning is often on many different simultaneous levels. Dreams can be viewed as a commentary of some everyday experience in situations that the dreamer is dealing with. But on a deeper level, we can explore the dream-taking place on deeper level with each image in the dream representing some psychological aspect of the dream.

Dreams can be extraordinary like trying to catch a butterfly way out of reach this would meaning you are tempting to do something way out of your reach.

When attempting to interpret an image of a dream it is always good to that each dream is the unique personal experience of the individual and that the same image may have a different meaning for different people based on their own individual experience and the context of their lives and context in which the dream occurs. It is possible to believe that only the dreamer may know the correctness of the interpretation of the dream.

There is however certain symbol in dreams that may have a universal explanation thou not certain again.

For example, a dream of a house is a common kind of dream and as usual, the dream will take place in a particular setting. This house may be a house familiar to you or a house you have never seen or even imagined going in.

Houses have been interpreted to mean what is going on in our body and mind during working life. The house may remind us of our childhood and its with its attendant feeling of belonging and alienation, security and insecurity, conflicts, and harmony. The house could be a psychological extension of our identity and physical identity in the world.

The different areas in the house may represent the different areas in our psyche. In the house, you may dream that some of the rooms are unfamiliar representing areas there are unexplored areas of potential within the personality. It may also represent exploring a new journey in our lives that we have not encountered before.

The feeling and reaction in the house and its inhabitants or contents are crucial to understanding the significance of the house in the dream, it may represent a wish to return to a time of childhood innocence or a need to move on and leave home by getting on some unfinished part of one’s life.

Conclusion

As much as it has been the belief of many that dreams come as a form of a message from the spiritual world, one should also understand that dreams could be an extension of our daily events.

On the other hand, there are some dreams that have much deeper meaning and when it comes to such it is important to try and search for an inner meaning of them.

All in all, again dreams have different meanings to different people and should never be interpreted uniformly.

Bibliography

Driver, J., & Spence, C. (2000). Multisensory perception: Beyond modularity and convergence.

Guest. S., & Spence, C. (2003). What role does multisensory integration play in the visuotactile perception of texture? International Journal of Psychophysiology.

Lloyd, D. M., Shore, D. I., Spence, C., & Calvert, G. A. (2003). Multisensory representation of limb position in human premotor cortex. Nature Neuroscience

Maravita, A., Spence, C., Sergent, C., & Driver, J. (2002). Seeing your own touched hands in a mirror modulates cross-modal interactions. Psychological Science

Soto-Faraco, S., Spence, C., Lloyd, D., & Kingstone, A. (in press). Moving multisensory research along: Motion perception across sensory modalities. Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Spence, C., Pavani, F., Maravita, A., & Holmes, N. (in press). Multisensory contributions to the 3-D representation of visuotactile per personal space in humans: Evidence from the cross modal congruency task. Journal of Physiology (Paris).

Dreaming, Consciousness and Cognition

Introduction

Whether staying awake or asleep, our consciousness acts as a model of the world created by the brain from the best obtainable resources of data. During waking conditions, this model is gained primarily from sensory contribution, which offers the most current data about present situations, and secondarily from the background and motivational data. While people are sleeping, very little sensory effort as attainable, so the world model we experience is constructed from the associated data from the lives, that is, anticipations obtained from past experience, and incentives. Consequently, the content of our visions is mainly defined by what we fear, hope for, and anticipate. (Dennett, 1979)

From this standpoint, dreaming can be regarded as the individual case of awareness without the restrictions of external sensory input. Equally, awareness can be regarded as the special case of dreaming restrained by sensory input. Whichever way it is regarded, understanding dreaming is key to realizing consciousness.

Hypotheses of awareness that do not explain dreaming must be considered incomplete, and notions that are opposed by the findings of phenomenological and psychophysiological researches on dreaming must be incorrect. For instance, the behaviorist supposition that the brain is always awakened and only from the external by sense organ procedures cannot define daydreams; likewise, for the statement that consciousness is the straight or restricted product of sensory contribution.

Dreaming as a Part of Consciousness

Dreaming capability is generally regarded as qualitatively separate from waking experience. Dreams are often suggested to be featured by lack of indication and incapability to act intentionally. Nevertheless, this regard has not been grounded on equivalent dimensions of waking and dreaming state experiences. To attain correspondence, it is significant to evaluate waking knowledge with hindsight, in the same way as dreams are appraised.

In one of the recent researches of this type, it was stated that contrasted to waking experiences, dreaming was more likely to enclose public self-realization and emotion, and less likely to entail deliberate selection. But it is distinguished that essential dissimilarities between dreaming and staying awake were not obvious for other cognitive activities, and none of the gauged cognitive actions were characteristically absent or rare in dreams. Especially, nearly equal levels of likeness were accounted for in both states. (Dennett, 1992)

Although people are not explicitly aware of the fact to be dreaming while dreaming, sometimes extraordinary exception happens, and people become thoughtful enough to become mindful that people are dreaming. Throughout such “lucid” dreams it is possible to keep in mind the conditions of waking life, to think obviously, and to act intentionally upon indication or according to plans selected upon before sleep, all while practicing a dream world that seems brightly real.

A sequence of researches to be abridged demonstrates that lucid visionaries are capable to remember the performance of predetermined acts and signals to the laboratory, permitting the derivation of accurate psycho-physiological associations and the methodical testing of hypotheses concerning consciousness asleep.

In the area of spirituality, the matter of whether God survives or not is of little result. Spirituality concentrates on understanding the real nature of the innermost Self or Pure Consciousness and is concerned with delving into the resource from which the I-thought or ego originates. From the religious viewpoint what is more significant from the religious viewpoint is that is talked about by both the one who trusts in His existence and the one who does not. Spiritual inquiry, therefore, rotates around the matter: ‘Who am I’? (Sperry, 1984)

The matter of awareness is probably the biggest outstanding impediment in the quest to methodically understand reality. The science of physics is not yet entire, but it is well-realized. The science of biology has clarified away most of the mysteries surrounding the origin of life. Where there are gaps in the understanding of these spheres, these gaps do not seem obstinate; people have at least some notion of the direction in which explanations might lie. In the study of mind, things are not quite so pinkish. Much development is being made in the research of cognition, but consciousness itself is as a matter as it ever existed.

The type of mental procedures explained as cognitive is largely impacted by research that has productively used this example in the past. Accordingly, this explanation tends to apply to procedures such as memory, concentration, perception, deed, problem resolving, and mental descriptions. Conventionally, emotion was not thought of as a cognitive procedure. This separation is now observed as largely synthetic, and much research is presently being undertaken to study the cognitive psychology of sentiment; research also entails one’s awareness of tactics and methods of cognition, regarded as meta-cognition.

While some people refute that cognitive processes are a purpose of intelligence, a cognitive hypothesis will necessarily make any situation to the brain or any other organic process (comparing neuro-cognitive procedures). It may merely describe behavior in terms of data flow or purpose. Relatively current spheres of study such as cognitive science and neuro-psychology tend to bridge this gap, retorting to cognitive paradigms of realizing how the brain executes these information-processing purposes (see also cognitive neuroscience), or how pure data-processing structures can replicate cognition.

The connections of cognition to evolutionary commands are studied through the examination of animal cognition. And equally, evolutionary-based viewpoints can inform notions about cognitive functional structures of evolutionary psychology. (Revonsuo, 1995)

Dreaming in connection with cognition and consciousness

Dreaming is a state of consciousness entailing complex successions of subjective practice while sleeping. It requires a significant resource of data for the effort to expand a scientific clarification and understanding of awareness. Originally, the mere subsistence of a full-scale hallucinatory world of subjective practice during sleep has allegations as to which physical and physiological phenomena are adequate for conscious knowledge to be brought about and which are not significant at all.

Dreaming successfully restricts conscious practice from the exterior physical world, sensory dispensation, and motor behavior; consequently, the dreaming brain could be regarded as a useful “model system” in realization research. Secondly, the system and structure of phenomenal dreams reveal their interconnections within the dream world can be methodically content analyzed and quantified. The notion of “bizarreness” as it emerges in dream content analysis exploration can be fruitfully joined to the concept of “binding” in consciousness study.

Archetypal “bizarre” dream representations manifest uncharacteristic or confused combinations of perceptual attributes, or appear in unsuitable circumstances, or are temporarily alternating. Such dream representations can be supposedly interpreted as phenomenal illustrations that show various types of stoppages or errors in binding the figurative elements mutually. Therefore, dream bizarreness may compose a significant database for theories of perceptual binding and the harmony of mindful knowledge. (van Gelder, 1999)

Another link between consciousness research and dream investigation is the matter of the function and the fruition of dreaming and consciousness. When it comes to clarifying the function of realization, theories often run the risk of turning into some form of epiphenomenalism: either the strong, thoughtful diversity of epiphenomenalism – in accordance to which phenomenal properties have no underlying powers whatever in the corporeal realm – or the weaker, biological diversity – according to which phenomenal realization does not have any underlying consequences that would be biologically practical, i.e. that would in any way supply to the organism’s reproductive achievement.

If a notion states that phenomenal realization is epiphenomenal in one or both of these meanings, then it follows from the hypothesis that also dreaming – which fundamentally consists of exceptional knowledge – also must be epiphenomenal. Equally, if it could be revealed that dreaming is geographically practical (i.e. that it causally donated to the reproductive achievement of our ancestors) then it would chase that at least some shapes of phenomenal awareness do have causal efforts and functional essentiality in the natural world. Thus, theories of the meaning of dreaming might have significant inferences from the more common theories of the probable functions of consciousness. (Sperry, 1984)

Mystery of dreaming

The function of dreaming has always been obscurity for a very long time, and by now cognitive neuroscientists appear to have offered up the query for the biological purposes of dreaming. Basically, all hypotheses put forward in cognitive neuroscience involve that dreaming is physically epiphenomenal. Dreaming is seen by these philosophers as a mere indication of low-level neurobiological or neuro-cognitive processes going on in the brain during sleeping.

Thus, the offered regard in cognitive neuroscience is grounded on the idea dreaming as a mindful experience has no normal functions and has not been chosen for during evolution. It is simply an accidental and useless (but undamaging) by-product of the neuro-physiological processes associated with sleeping. (Dawson, 1989)

In resistance to these theories, psychologists have put forward an innovative evolutionary hypothesis in accordance with which the biological meaning of dreaming is the reproduction of threatening happenings and the repeated preparation of threat perception and threat escaping answers. A dream construction mechanism that tends to choose threatening waking events and reproduce them over and over again in different amalgamations would have been costly for the expansion and continuation of threat escaping skills during human evolutionary history. This threat simulation notion is maintained by some lines of experimental evidence of dreaming, entailing normative dream content, recurring dreams, nightmarish, post-traumatic dreams, and children’s dreams.

The substantiation shows that nightmares are too well arranged to be mere random by-products of physiological procedures; dreams are steadily grounded towards representing unenthusiastic and threatening components; that most repeated dreams and nightmares are imitations of prehistoric dangers (pursuits, fights, attacks); that actual threatening occurrence encountered during waking perpetually modulate succeeding dream content; post-traumatic nightmares imitate past threats over and over again, even for years after the actual trauma was attained. (Dennett, 1979)

Researchers interpret this confirmation as revealing the matter that the original adaptive purpose of dreaming is to practice such threat insight and threat escaping skills that were fatefully important for the reproductive achievement of family humans. In the inherited situation the constant night-time rehearsing of threat awareness and threat dodging skills increased the possibility of successful threat dodging in real situations and thus led to improved reproductive achievement. Therefore, threat simulation is the biologically adaptive function of dreaming. (Flanagan, 1995)

Conclusion

The human mind seems to come in myriad shapes: senses, cognition, dreaming, thinking, etc. Actually, these terms are used variously in diverse research methods. Psychologists tend to use these phrases to refer inferentially to structures that appear to hold memory outlines and to the underlying skills that compose their meaning. To neuro-scientists, memory refers only to the physical decision-taking tool.

Further, in many cognitive studies, consciousness is either applied for granted or labeled with its own set of synonyms such as plain cognition, focal concentration, and wakefulness. The role of consciousness has concerned memory researchers since Ebbinghaus. And the tie of consciousness with cognition and dreaming seems to be the straightest in the whole myriad of neuro-psychological processes.

References

Flanagan, Owen (1995):.”Deconstructing dreams: the spandrels of sleep” journal of philosophy,92:, 5-27.

Foulkes, David. (1999) “Challnging the assumptions”,6-17 and “introduction” 1-5 in Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness, Foulkes, David.

Dawson, Michael R.W. (1998) “The classical view of information processing” in understanding cognitive science, Dawson, Michael R.W. 13-35.

Dennett, Daniel C (1979) “Are dreams experiences?” in Brainstorms:Philosophical Essays on Mind and psychology, 129-148.

Dennett, Daniel C., Kinsbourne, Marcl. (1992) “Time and the observer:the where and when of consciousness in the brain” Behavoral and Brain sciences,15:, 183-201.

Revonsuo, Annti. (1995)”Consciousness, dreams and virtual realities” Philosophical psychology,8:1, 35-58.

Sperry,Roger. (1984) “Consciousness,personal identity, and the divided brain” Neuropsychologia,22:6, 661-673.

van Gelder,Tim. (1995) “What might cognition be, if not computation?” Journal of philosophy,92:7, 345-381.

van Gelder, Tim. (1999) “Dynamic approaches to cognition” in the MIT Encyclopedia of cognitive sciences, Wilson, Robert A.;Keil, Frank C., 244-246.

Impoverished and Excessive Dreaming

Although some patients believe that their dreaming process has ceased, they might experience impoverished dreaming. This condition is characterized by an attenuation of the dreams, but they do not cease completely. Different conditions, such as alexithymia or PTSD can cause it; patients who have alexithymia (not able to express their emotions verbally) reported that they had had colorless dreams. Dream impoverishment in patients with PTSD might be linked to the adaptive strategy of the organism that allows avoiding nightmares connected to trauma. Thus, dreams of patients are related to their real medical conditions or experiences that they find traumatic.

Excessive dreaming can produce various dreams which content includes fantastic settings or routine daily activities. Patients who had experienced this complained that they felt exhausted or dizzy. Although it is still not clear why excessive dreaming occurs, it makes patients feel as if they have experienced that what they saw in dreams.

Repetitive Dream Content

Repetitive dream content, as the author points out, can be triggered by REM sleep behavior disorder and Parkinsonism. Patients see vivid dreams that are filled with action, violence, and stressful scenes. Many patients saw a dog in their dreams that tried to bite them; they began to defend themselves or hit the dog, and, in reality, they hit their spouses or walls/beds. Some of them jumped out of bed, or ran, and also hurt themselves.

One of the patients with PTSD charged his weapon (while dreaming) and injured himself. Such dreams trigger reactions that do not stay in the dream; they affect individuals or objects around the patient. Patients with epilepsy saw short episodes of the seizures in their dreams that could be reflections of their previous seizures that they did not remember. Repetitive dreams are common for patients with epilepsy too, but the patients’ ability to recall those dreams depends on the type of a seizure.

Dreams of PTSD patients are often connected to reality because patients experience traumatic experiences repeatedly in these types of dreams. Especially exact are the dreams about combat or war traumas. Thus, episodic memories in these dreams become extensive and remind the patient about the trauma.

Prodromal cardiac dreams are often related to the cardiac issues patients have, but the dream content can indicate possible problems in direct and indirect ways. While some patients saw blood and death related scenes and then experienced cardiac arrest or similar cardiac events, others felt chest and heart pain in the dream because they were fighting or attacked.

Dream-Reality Confusions

Reality can be confused with dreams if the latter become too vivid or is connected to a recent highly emotional or stressful event (loss, labor, illness, etc.). Patients who had lost someone close saw dreams with these individuals, experienced sadness or guilt in both dreams and reality. Mothers who recently had a baby often dreamed about settings where they tried to find the infant, felt that they had lost the child, and cried. In reality, mothers also showed anxious behavior while they were asleep.

Patients in intensive care also saw nightmares connected to operations and treatment, or their content simply was horrifying and dreadful, as patients stated. Some patients remembered and suffered from nightmares five or six months after they had left IC.

At last, dream-reality confusion is common in psychotic patients who might perform violent acts towards nurses or relatives because of the content of their dreams. Some patients dream about voices that command them to act aggressively. Thus, such dreams can often cause dangerous behavior in reality.

Kertha Gosa Ceiling vs. “Dreaming” paintings by Aborigines of Australia

Introduction

Kertha Gosa Ceiling and “Dreaming” paintings by Aborigines of Australia are both spiritual world artworks. Both have come a long way and have advanced with the advancing technology. Many countries of world have embraced such artworks with some neglecting the importance of such artworks.

Even though many see art as an economic activity to make money, both artworks tend to focus much on passing important information to a target group. Many religious artworks have taken the form of sculpture and not paintings. Many may ask why the dreaming and the Kertha ceiling have used painting and not sculpturing. This paper will discuss the artworks, their contexts and their similarities giving insight also to their differences, as well as their significance.

“Dreaming” paintings by Aborigines of Australia

Over a long period, Aborigine’s paintings have advanced to the point of intertwining with the public dissertation, with a great recognition in Australia and the rest of the world. The Aboriginal people use this art represent them and their culture. The aspect and the concept of dreaming come from the aborigine’s ancestors and the rainbow serpent that went through the land leaving marks and topographical features (Mayer 145).

They set the moral and social laws to guide the people into a significant order of being. To the aborigines dreaming goes beyond the literal meaning and describes a balance between the elements of nature, spirit and morals. They believe that a person’s dreaming depends on the point of his/her birth labor pains reception, for that is the place where one receives the ancestral spirits.

Stylistic characteristics of the “Dreaming” paintings

The aborigine’s paintings have evolved greatly with its history changing from time to time. All over visual and oral expressions have always advanced among the aboriginal societies.

Before invasion, the people possessed over two hundred divergent languages. Today an approximate of fifty languages exists with each possessing a range of 1-2000 speakers. This is because of the great emphasis on multilingualism and use of visual and oral values.

The paintings are traditionally symbolic. They include conventional designs as well as symbols which when painted on a person or an object brings a religious importance to them.

Some symbols combine to give a more complex story. Other painting put emphasis to the connection of the aboriginal people to their land to demonstrate their obligation to the land (Mayer 165). They used stone to paint on their artworks, which show durability, and a long living artwork.

The methods of painting range from etching, screen-printing, relief printing, calligraphy, to lithography. The artwork utilizes other different materials and techniques of painting such as ochre with a compacted end of a stick to produce high quality dots. Ochres produce a thick and a warm color for use in modern artwork. Most of the paints used are result from pounding the ochres and mixing with a fluid, which can be blood, to make it thick.

Kertha Gosa Ceiling

Kertha Gosa pavilion, a place of justice discussions with the king, existed from the 18th century. The pavilion is a Balinese work located within the Klungkung Palace. The pavilion utilized a special architecture with several divisions. Specifically, the pavilion possessed both ritual and functional purpose.

Dewa Agung, depicting the story of Bhima Swarga, later repainted the pavilion, to show how Bhima went to hell, seeing how people suffered their inequities, to rescue his father’s soul for heavens. In his mission, Bhima was in the company of two of his reliable servants. This represents the theme of justice in the pavilion.

Stylistic characteristics of Kertha Gosa Ceiling

The technique used to smear the pavilion’s ceiling portrays iconography. Many artists in their works have adopted this style today. The characters used in the Bhima Swarga painting are majorly symbolic, and each carries a different message. These characters are either Kasar or Halus (Pucci 212).

Both are different. Halus characters on one-side posses the aspects of softness and fine quality. On the other hand, Kasar involves those that are makeshift and bumpy. The artwork contains demons and devils, which are rough and coarse textured. This then portrays the kasar characteristic of the artwork.

Bhima and his brother paintings bring out the Halus characteristics since their hand are smooth and refined as well as their fragile fingers. It is also important to note that their eyes and the heads have a Kasar effect since they are at an angle. The thumb of Bhima Swarga has a long nail representing his armaments.

Social hierarchy is another aspect that the painting artwork portrays. The ways Bhima and his bother stand, their position, as well as their body sizes are very symbolic. In his story, Bhima Swarga is the “god” or the top one. In the painting, Bhima placed above his brothers showing his supremacy (Pucci 205).

His servants stand next to him and the sons slightly below their father. It painted in way that depicts the separation of hell and the heavens. This is by use of rows separating each other. At central position of the artwork there is a lotus bordered by doves, which in turn represent a future fate.

Similarities of the two Artworks

Both artworks utilize the painting style, which is a creative way to express an idea or feeling. It represents the aesthetic effect, which make the artwork more influential.

Over many years, painted artworks have received great recognition and thus have grown greatly over the world. Both artworks portray a complex message by combining ideas. They both have an outside and an inward meaning, which are outright and hidden respectively.

Difference between the two Artworks

The “Dreaming” paintings by Aborigines artwork has advanced to include plays and movies, which the Kertha Gosa Ceiling remains as a painted artwork. Dreaming has advanced greatly since it provides for innovations and due to the advance in technology. The dreaming painting does not contain the society hierarchy aspect unlike the Kertha Gosa ceiling.

Conclusion

Artwork has gained recognition over the whole in the past three centuries. Painting has gained a major recognition as method of coming up with a piece of artwork. Religious settings have also advanced with the increase in use of painted works to pass or portray a religious message.

However, some people over the world have not yet embraced such artworks. Kertha Gosa Ceiling and. “Dreaming” paintings by Aborigines artwork are part of these religious artworks, which have challenged the art sector greatly. Both artworks are religious and focus a particular people. The use of painting allows use of aesthetic aspects, which tends to communicate on its own. All the nations should embrace to use such artwork in order to promote various religions more importantly than to earn money.

Works Cited

Mayer, Ralph. The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques. New York: Viking, 1970. Print.

Pucci, Idanna. Bhima Swarga: The Balinese Journey of the Soul. Boston: Little Brown, 1992. Print.