Abstract
Abstract One challenge for cognitive, evolutionary and anthropological studies of religion is to offer descriptions and explanatory models of the morphology and functions of supernatural dreaming, and of the religiosity, use of experience, and cultural transmission that are associated with these representations. The anthropological and religious studies literature demonstrates that dreaming, dream experience and narrative are connected with religious ideas and practices in traditional societies. Scholars have even proposed that dreaming is a primary source of religious beliefs and practice (here labelled DPSR theory). Using Barrett’s coding system, we measured a high frequency of minimally counterintuitive dream content among Hindu Nepalese, and we aim to quantify (1) the relation between counterintuitive imagery and reported likelihood to communicate dreams in general and to religious experts, (2) the relation between counterintuitive imagery and reported religiosity, and (3) the proclivity to communicate SA dreams among those who are more or less religious. These aims will then be related to the broader topic of (4) possible explanatory value of DPSR theory, or versions thereof, by framing the issue at the level of cultural transmission, religiosity and credibility of religious dream representations in relation to MCI theory. The article mainly draws upon data from ethnographic research among Hindu Nepalese.
Highlights
The research literature from anthropology and religious studies demonstrates how dreaming and dreams have served a range of significant functions in traditional societies and in practically every religious tradition throughout history
About whether the informant has communicated a dream to a dream expert, we found no significant correlation between reporting an Minimal Counterintuitiveness (MCI) dream and the likelihood of saying that you had communicated a dream to an expert, rs = .4, p = n.s
Because MCI items occur in almost all dreams reported in the interviews, that would mean that MCI items occur in almost all dreams
Summary
The research literature from anthropology and religious studies demonstrates how dreaming and dreams have served a range of significant functions in traditional societies and in practically every religious tradition throughout history. Dreams seem to provide anchors for belief by presenting direct perceptual and experiential evidence of various religious entities and spirit realms (Bulkeley, 2008a) Such convictions relate to intensely emotional dream experiences, a sense of “realness” about dream imagery, and often involuntary and ambiguous encounter with supernatural entities, as evidenced by nightmares, apparitions and “big dreams” (encounters with SAs of significance in the culture) and “visitation dreams” (encounters with the dead, relatives, loved ones and ancestors) that combine an intense sense of reality with a strongly frightening or non-frightening experience. The assumption that dreaming has causal “primacy” for religion is Journal of Cognition and CuDlowtnuloradeed2fr1om(2B0ril2l.c1o)m3101/098–/230321012:13:49PM
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