The Role of Charismatic Dreams in the Creation of Sacred Sites in Present-Day Israel

Abstract

Following the “disenchantment of the world,” dreams in modern thought have been relegated to the confines of the individual dreamer’s mind.1 In many traditional contexts, however, the epistemological ground in which the dream is located is not psychological but cosmological: dream contents may be perceived as external messages from divine or other supernatural entities.2 As such, they are fraught with special significance which spills over to waking reality. Given this traditional conception of the dream as a possible vehicle or medium for communicating with other-worldly beings, it is not surprising that dream experiences in diverse cultural settings inspired the creation and dissemination of new religious ideas, as well as the endorsement, refutation, alteration and restoration of older ones.3KeywordsBlack WaterSacred SiteDream ContentUncritical AcceptanceDream ReportThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.