Abstract
The following article is an exploration of supernal dreaming, a type of dream that engages the dreamer as a profound, participatory, and often revelatory event. Dream types are not well developed in dream research; this article contributes to the development of a more typological approach to dream analysis. Four dream types are presented and contextualized with reference to their metaphysical and ontological significance. The types discussed are normative-rational dreams, mythic-imaginal dreams, psychic-intuitive dreams, and supernal-transpersonal dreams. The various types are illustrated with examples from the author’s extensive dream journal in order to highlight the subtle distinctions between the dream types, and how they might intersect or overlap. The dream morphology is placed within a larger context of metatheory based on the ontological significance of agency and its relationship, through dreaming, to a sentient cosmology. This cosmology is based on a creative, process-based metaphysics, in which dreams function to sustain and promote human development. Dreaming is presented as a visionary capacity leading to new enactive and embodied ways of life. The article shows how dreams can act as a stimulus for ontological insights and become a basis for paranormal perceptions and an inspirational approach to dream actualization.
Highlights
My approach to dreaming and dream analysis is to contextualize the dream experience as being intrinsic to a larger metaphysical perspective
These encounters form the context for my reflections on dreams, which motivated me to attain my PhD (Indiana University) in the religion and anthropology of dreaming among Native Americans (Irwin 1992, 1994a, 1994b, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2012a, 2017), and later to publish various papers related to dreaming and mysticism (Irwin 2011, 2015), as well as dreaming and paranormal phenomena (Irwin 2012b, 2014, 2016)
What I am illustrating with this typology is three primary concerns: first, that dreams and dreaming need more nuanced categorizations that map to the rich complexity of actual dreaming experiences
Summary
My approach to dreaming and dream analysis is to contextualize the dream experience as being intrinsic to a larger metaphysical perspective. The basis for my recording of a dream is its transformative or transpersonal contents; in this sense, it is a dream journal of significant ontological encounters ranging from collective mythic types, through many diverse psi-active dreams, and replete with numerous mystical encounters manifested while sleeping (though some while awake) These encounters form the context for my reflections on dreams, which motivated me to attain my PhD (Indiana University) in the religion and anthropology of dreaming among Native Americans (Irwin 1992, 1994a, 1994b, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2012a, 2017), and later to publish various papers related to dreaming and mysticism (Irwin 2011, 2015), as well as dreaming and paranormal phenomena (Irwin 2012b, 2014, 2016). The following analysis is my current synthesis of these interests in relation to a general theory of dreaming types, wedded to an emergent ontological perspective and positively aligned with enactive transpersonal theory
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