A Corollary to Revonsuo's "The Reinterpretation of Dreams"

Abstract

Revonsuo's (2000) reinterpretation of dreams within an evolutionary framework is reiterated and a corollary is presented that complements and expands his original contribution. Revonsuo argues that dreams present an evolutionary adaptation that allows the sleeper's nervous system to generate simulations of threatening situations and to rehearse various tactics or strategies for dealing with the (simulated) threat. Revonsuo emphasizes physical threats, for example, dealing with predators (both two- and four-footed) and physical dangers such as storms. This article will expand the simulations to include more of Homo sapiens' ecological niche wherein successive generations, for success, would have had to negotiate within the very competitive world of their respective communities. Our ancestors had to negotiate male/male competition and female/female competition, achieve successful courting, achieve successful parenting, optimize winning the co-operation of neighbors and minimize being exploited by those neighbors. Empirical data from surveys on dreams' manifest content support this expansion of Revonsuo's theory. Key Words: Dreams; Manifest content; Social chess; Human bio-cultural evolution; Evolutionary adaptation. By all accounts, dreaming is a universal human trait, found in all cultures. A great deal of literature has been published on the meaning, symbols, and ritualization of dreams. The works of Jung (1963, 1974) and Freud (1900) are classic examples. Using a different paradigm, A. Revonsuo (2000) analyzed from an evolutionary perspective how dreams and dreaming would have emerged and stabilized. There is an intuitive appeal to this perspective. Dreaming is a cognitive event that is dependent upon the central nervous system (CNS). Given that dreams and dreaming occur during sleep, they are not under conscious control. The CNS is constructed by genetic information. In turn, the genes that code for the CNS are continuously filtered or selected across generations. Genetic blueprints that do not generate successive generations are deleted. Genetic blueprints that have continuously created descendants are represented by the current representatives of Homo sapiens - us. And virtually all of us dream. This paper attempts to build upon the paradigm that Revonsuo has constructed. First, Revonsuo's paradigm will be briefly presented. The paradigm can be encapsulated in his six premises. second, an expansion of the second premise will be offered, and, by extension, this expansion affects the next four. Revonsuo's Paradigm Revensuo's six premises are that: 1. Dream consciousness is an organized and selective simulation of the perceptual world. 2. Dream consciousness is specialized in the simulation of threatening events. 3. Nothing but exposure to real threatening events fully activates the threat simulation system. 4. The threat simulations produced by the fully activated system are perceptually and behaviorally realistic rehearsals of threatening events. 5. The realistic rehearsal of these skills can lead to enhanced performance regardless of whether the training episodes are explicitly remembered. 6. The ancestral environment in which the human brain evolved included frequent dangerous events that constituted extreme threats to human reproductive success. They thus presented serious selection pressures to ancestral human populations and fully activated the threat simulation mechanisms. An Expansion We suggest that, in addition to threat to life and limb, dreams create simulations of other behaviors that are necessary for ancestors to have descendants. For humans, the transfer of their genetic blueprints across generations involves: (i) surviving gestation, (ii) birth, (iii) staying alive at least through puberty, (iv) achieving fertility, (v) maneuvering among the community's children, adolescents and adults; i.e., mastering social chess, (vi) successfully learning the community's traditions and folkways/mores and expectations; i. …