Waking Life Research Articles

Dreams, Visions, and Worldmaking: Envisioning Anthropology Through Dreamscapes

What does it mean to envision or dream a world into existence? Dreams and visions are often deeply personal and private experiences, but they also open up social spaces for worldmaking. From Australian Aboriginal “Dreamtime” to the ethnographic dreams of anthropologists and their research partners, many dreams and visions are entangled with the historical and analytical trajectories of anthropology. I set out in this article to stretch further the anthropological imagination about the kinds of dreams and visions that may emerge from any dreamscape. To this end, I show that the anthropology of dreams and visions is built on more than the interpenetration of dreaming and waking life, metaphysical questions, problems of communication and interpretation, active or passive dreaming, the powerful idioms that dreams afford for collective visions, or nightmares and metaphorical dreaming. Myriad dreams and visions also unfold as what I call cosmological visions that shape anthropology and vice versa.

Dreams, Trauma, and Prediction Errors

It is widely known that dreams can be strongly affected by traumatic events, but there may be other ways in which dreams relate to trauma. In this paper, we argue that different types of dreams could both contribute to trauma and alleviate it according to the prediction errors that occur either in dreams or in response to them after waking. A prediction error occurs when an experience contradicts one’s expectation and it is often accompanied by surprise. Prediction errors are involved in memory updating processes that can be long-lasting. Not only nightmares but also unpleasant, and surprisingly, even neutral and pleasant dreams have the potential to contribute to trauma, affecting our waking lives in a similar way to waking traumatic experiences. We postulate that certain dreams can also be beneficial for trauma alleviation. Further, clinical evidence suggests that working with prediction errors that occurred in dreams and during our response to dreams after waking can assist in alleviating the negative effects of trauma.

Local wakefulness-like activity of layer 5 cortex under general anaesthesia.

Consciousness, defined as being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings, is characteristic of normal waking life and typically is lost during sleep and general anaesthesia. The traditional view of consciousness as a global brain state has evolved toward a more sophisticated interplay between global and local states, with the presence of local sleep in the awake brain and local wakefulness in the sleeping brain. However, this interplay is not clear for general anaesthesia, where loss of consciousness was recently suggested to be associated with a global state of brain-widesynchrony that selectively involves layer 5 cortical pyramidal neurons across sensory, motor and associative areas. According to this global view, local wakefulness of layer 5 cortex should be incompatible with deep anaesthesia, a hypothesis that deserves to be scrutinised with causal manipulations. Here, we show that unilateral chemogenetic activation of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the sensorimotor cortex of isoflurane-anaesthetised mice induces a local state transition from slow-wave activity to tonic firing in the transfected hemisphere. This wakefulness-like activity dramatically disrupts layer 5 interhemispheric synchrony with mirror-image locations in the contralateral hemisphere, but does not reduce the level of unconsciousness under deep anaesthesia, nor in the transitions to/from anaesthesia. Global layer 5synchrony may thus be a sufficient condition for anaesthesia-induced unconsciousness, but is not a necessary one, at least under isoflurane anaesthesia. Local wakefulness-like activity of layer 5 cortex can be induced and maintained under deep anaesthesia, encouraging further investigation into the local vs. global aspects of anaesthesia-induced unconsciousness. KEY POINTS: The neural correlates of consciousness have evolved from global brain states to a nuanced interplay between global and local states, evident in terms of local sleep in awake brains and local wakefulness in sleeping brains. The concept of local wakefulness remains unclear for general anaesthesia, where the loss of consciousness has been recently suggested to involve brain-wide synchrony of layer 5 cortical neurons. We found that local wakefulness-like activity of layer 5 cortical can be chemogenetically induced in anaesthetised mice without affecting the depth of anaesthesia or the transitions to and from unconsciousness. Global layer 5synchrony may thus be a sufficient but not necessary feature for the unconsciousness induced by general anaesthesia. Local wakefulness-like activity of layer 5 neurons is compatible with general anaesthesia, thus promoting further investigation into the local vs. global aspects of anaesthesia-induced unconsciousness.

Global alpha power fluctuations in a self-caught mind-wandering paradigm are independent of arousal

Mind-wandering is characterised as the emergence of thought and emotions which shift attention away from a primary task. It is thought to consume up to 50 % of our waking lives and has several negative implications. Breath-counting is one task that has been utilised in conjunction with electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the brain states associated with mind-wandering. Research has consistently found reductions in alpha oscillations during periods of mind-wandering relative to breath-focus. It is possible that such fluctuations reflect an arousal mechanism warranting further investigation. Thirty-seven participants completed a 15 min breath-counting task, with simultaneous recording of EEG and skin conductance level (SCL). During this task participants were required to self-identify periods of mind-wandering via button-press. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) analysis was used to quantify changes in global alpha power (8–13 Hz) relative to the button press. The −8 to −4 s period prior to button-press was assessed as mind-wandering, and the 4 to 8 s period following the button-press as breath-focus. Relative to breath-focus, mind-wandering was associated with a significant decrease in global alpha power and significant increase in SCL, consistent with perceptual decoupling theory. However, changes in global alpha power and SCL did not correlate. These results suggest arousal is not the primary mechanism underlying alpha changes observed during breath-counting, thus additional processes should be considered.

Kei te moe te tinana, kei te oho te wairua – As the body sleeps, the spirit awakens: exploring the spiritual experiences of contemporary Māori associated with sleep

ABSTRACT For Aotearoa New Zealand Māori, sleep and wairua (spirit) are closely intertwined. During sleep the wairua awakens and journeys across multiple dimensions of time and space to attain the tools and knowledge the individual needs to navigate waking life. While this function of sleep is understood within Mātauranga Māori (bodies of knowledge regarding everything within the universe) (Hikuroa 2017), it has yet to be explored within psychological sleep research. This qualitative study contributes to addressing this gap by exploring nine Māori participants’ personal experiences of wairua during sleep. A whakapapa thematic analysis identified two interconnected layers. The first layer contributed to a spiritual explanatory framework for sleep, developed to encompass participants’ beliefs regarding wairua, which were utilised to interpret their sleep experiences. The second layer describes these interpretations, comprised of three central themes: (1) Tohu/Guidance; (2) Ako/Space and time for learning; and (3) Tau/Attaining a state of stability, peace, and purpose. These findings suggest that the spiritual experience of sleep supported participants in navigating their waking lives safely, purposefully, and meaningfully, contributing to Indigenous and Māori scholarship regarding the spiritual and cultural purpose of sleep, and with important implications for clinical, social, and academic approaches to understanding and supporting sleep.

A New Way of Analysing Dreams on Its Profoundest Level: The Development of Motif Analysis and Phase Model (MAP) as an Extension of Structural Dream Analysis (SDA).

Dream research today assumes that there is a connection between dreams and waking life. However, the structural alteration of dream motifs in connection with the psychotherapeutic process and waking life has not yet been researched extensively. This study depicts the development of the new Motif Analysis and Phase Model (MAP), a dynamic method which allows research on the previous aspects. The following question was investigated as an accompanying key issue: can a connection be established between the course of the dream patterns and the agency of the dream ego as well as the dream contents and the course of the psychotherapies of the dreaming person as a whole? Four hypotheses were formulated and tested. The data material consists of 217 dreams of a male test subject. The motifs were analysed using Structural Dream Analysis (SDA) at first. Thereafter, the content was linked to the test subject's waking life in a guided interview. The findings show a strong connection between the dream content and the psychotherapies as well as the test subject's waking life. Five motifs with structural changes were found, through which the Phase Model with four phases was developed. At turning points, the transformative child motif also appears in the dreams. The course of the dream patterns and agency of the dream ego, however, has not changed. The results, the method and the generalisability were critically discussed and recommendations for future research were formulated.

Remembering my friend and rehearing two films

This article revolves around two soundtracks Walker has admired along with the person to whom this issue of Alphaville is dedicated: Danijela Kulezic-Wilson. The soundtracks come from Soul by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers and Nomadland by Chloé Zhao, both released in 2020. The films are sonically worlds apart: Soul is dominated by jazz music by Jon Batiste and contemporary electronic music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, while Nomadland features modern classical music by Ludovico Einaudi and Ólafur Arnalds. Ironically, despite sounding profoundly different, both films draw from true stories in order to teach audioviewers about living well, even in the midst of death. Or, to reapply Danijela’s words about Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001), these films emphasise “the dualistic nature of human experience, the pleasure of being alive and the implicit proximity of death.” Walker combines cinematherapy with sound studies to make a case for the wisdom of both films that have helped her cope with the grief of Danijela’s death, in the hope that this might resonate for those readers who find similar comfort in their own film-to-person relationships.

The environmental sustainability of digital content consumption

Internet access has reached 60% of the global population, with the average user spending over 40% of their waking life on the Internet, yet the environmental implications remain poorly understood. Here, we assess the environmental impacts of digital content consumption in relation to the Earth’s carrying capacity, finding that currently the global average consumption of web surfing, social media, video and music streaming, and video conferencing could account for approximately 40% of the per capita carbon budget consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, as well as around 55% of the per capita carrying capacity for mineral and metal resources use and over 10% for five other impact categories. Decarbonising electricity would substantially mitigate the climate impacts linked to Internet consumption, while the use of mineral and metal resources would remain of concern. A synergistic combination of rapid decarbonisation and additional measures aimed at reducing the use of fresh raw materials in electronic devices (e.g., lifetime extension) is paramount to prevent the growing Internet demand from exacerbating the pressure on the finite Earth’s carrying capacity.

Deep Aphantasia: a visual brain with minimal influence from priors or inhibitory feedback?

The authors are both self-described congenital aphantasics, who feel they have never been able to have volitional imagined visual experiences during their waking lives. In addition, Loren has atypical experiences of a number of visual phenomena that involve an extrapolation or integration of visual information across space. In this perspective, we describe Loren's atypical experiences of a number of visual phenomena, and we suggest these ensue because her visual experiences are not strongly shaped by inhibitory feedback or by prior expectations. We describe Loren as having Deep Aphantasia, and Derek as shallow, as for both a paucity of feedback might prevent the generation of imagined visual experiences, but for Loren this additionally seems to disrupt activity at a sufficiently early locus to cause atypical experiences of actual visual inputs. Our purpose in describing these subjective experiences is to alert others to the possibility of there being sub-classes of congenital aphantasia, one of which-Deep Aphantasia, would be characterized by atypical experiences of actual visual inputs.

A Surreal Relation with Otherness in Shirin Neshat’s Land of Dreams

Since her early photographic series Women of Allah (1993−1997), the Iranian-American artist Shirin Neshat has been either praised for her alternative representations of veiled Muslim women or criticised for practising self-Orientalisation. This article reflects on Neshat’s Land of Dreams (2019) where the artist turns her lens towards American people and landscapes, investigating how her aesthetic and dialogic search for the Other within a demographically diverse state in the US, New Mexico, challenge the pre-conditioned expectations of her works as art from the Middle East. Engaging with Neshat’s surreal interactions with her sitters in this photographic and video installation, the focus is how she becomes a mediator to show a dynamic of Relation, in Édouard Glissant’s sense of the term, and the complexity of the individuals’ minds and life experiences through blurring the lines between dream and waking life, fiction and reality, past and present. The analysis further explores Neshat’s viewpoint as a diasporic artist manifested in her visual strategies to facilitate a nuanced and fluid understanding of the artist’s own sense of identity, belonging and homeland.

Painting and Socializing COVID-19 Dreams

Abstract: A catastrophic worldwide trauma occurred with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which caused changes in the content of dreams worldwide. In response to this, the science art collaboration DreamsID (Dreams Interpreted and Drawn; Dreams Illustrated and Discussed) held dream salons online, from March to July 2020, to explore the effects of the pandemic on the dreams of healthcare professionals and keyworkers. In each salon a worldwide audience discussed the dream of a key worker, and the dream was painted simultaneously so as to return the dream to a visual form. Three of these dreams are described here. Each is shown to reflect metaphorically the adverse circumstances of the pandemic. The painting of each dream is reproduced, with feedback from each dreamer about this process. This article shows how, through discussion with others, the socialization of the dream results in an artistic intervention and a collaborative act of creativity. It concludes that the dream salon, as a forum, combines the dream and rational waking life of the dreamer, one of the key aims of Surrealism.

Modelling perception as a hierarchical competition differentiates imagined, veridical, andhallucinated percepts.

Mental imagery is a process by which thoughts become experienced with sensory characteristics. Yet, it is not clear why mental images appear diminished compared to veridical images, nor how mental images are phenomenologically distinct from hallucinations, another type of non-veridical sensory experience. Current evidence suggests that imagination and veridical perception share neural resources. If so, we argue that considering how neural representations of externally generated stimuli (i.e.sensory input) and internally generated stimuli (i.e. thoughts) might interfere with one another can sufficiently differentiate between veridical, imaginary, and hallucinatory perception. We here use a simple computational model of a serially connected, hierarchical network with bidirectional information flow to emulate the primate visual system. We show that modelling even first approximations of neural competition can more coherently explain imagery phenomenology than non-competitive models. Our simulations predict that, without competing sensory input, imagined stimuli should ubiquitously dominate hierarchical representations. However, with competition, imagination should dominate high-level representations but largely fail to outcompete sensory inputs at lower processing levels. To interpret our findings, we assume that low-level stimulus information (e.g. in early visual cortices) contributes most to the sensory aspects of perceptual experience, while high-level stimulus information (e.g. towards temporal regions) contributes most to its abstract aspects. Our findings therefore suggest that ongoing bottom-up inputs during waking life may prevent imagination from overriding veridical sensory experience. In contrast, internally generated stimuli may be hallucinated when sensory input is dampened or eradicated. Our approach can explain individual differences in imagery, along with aspects of daydreaming, hallucinations, and non-visual mental imagery.

Employee Sleep Promotion Programs in Workplace Settings: An Exciting, Viable Area for Lifestyle Medicine.

In the past several decades, our population sleep health has fallen short of recommendations. Moreover, there has been an increase in sleep difficulties amidst COVID-19. Work consumes a huge proportion of our waking lives, and the nature of our work can impact the quantity and quality of employee sleep. Conversely, employee sleep also matters for work-related outcomes as evidence demonstrates poor employee sleep health is associated with increased presenteeism, absenteeism, and health care costs. Given the prevalence of poor sleep health in our population, the changing nature of work and increasing demands on capped time, the worksite represents a promising and potentially underexplored venue for lifestyle medicine practitioners to consider employee sleep health and, where possible, novel employee sleep health promotion programs. This article outlines the impact of work on sleep and reviews the potential for incorporating sleep into lifestyle interventions in workplace settings.

Dreaming of God and the Role of Faith in Everyday Life: An Empirical Study

AbstractIn Christian faith, dreams – at least some – have been seen as messages from God; very powerful examples can be found in the Bible. However, empirical research regarding dreams of God is relatively scarce. Four hundred and fifty-two persons participated in the present survey, including a group from theology-related professions (theology students, priests, etc.). The findings indicate that the belief that dreams can be messages from God is related to the importance of faith in the everyday life of the dreamer and a positive attitude towards dreams. About 20% of the participants reported having dreams about encountering God, which was related to their waking life religiosity. On the one hand, the findings support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, that is, that dreaming reflects waking life, while, on the other hand, these special dreams might help the dreamer to deepen their faith. Longitudinal studies are necessary to study this bidirectional relationship between waking life faith and religious dreams.

Evolution of coalescent agent-free ultra-low VOC paint with formaldehyde capturing properties

The majority of people spend a significant portion of their waking lives indoors, they are continually exposed to a higher concentration of indoor air pollutants. As new technologies emerge and more people become aware of the issue, it has become crucial to discover new methods for cleaning up polluted indoor air and minimizing people's exposure to it.This research aims to develop a waterborne, low-VOC, formaldehyde-capturing formulation for interior paint. In paint formulation, biocides, coalescing agents, ammonia, binders, and liquid phase additives are all possible sources of volatile organic compounds. In this study, formulations of coalescing agent-free and formaldehyde-free waterborne coatings with high performance characteristics and ultra-low VOC content were created by chemically adsorbing formaldehyde using an active ingredient. The colorimetric method, which is developed based on the color concentration change, and the cabin method test methods, which monitor the change of formaldehyde concentration in the interior environment, were developed within the scope of the study in order to test the effect of the product. The final formulation complies with the A + French VOC labeling and the Indoor Air Comfort Gold criteria for VOC emissions, and tests demonstrated an 87% decrease in ambient formaldehyde concentrations within 24 h of application (ISO 16000–9:2006, EN 16516:2017).

عبداللہ حسین کے ناولوں میں مذہب تصوف اور سیاست کے معنیاتی پیراڈائم

With his efforts of half a century, Abdullah Hussain has put history in front of his fellow Nasr generation and future generations with his dream consciousness and waking life. By removing many layers layer by layer, he exposed it in front of us as if it was in my heart too, highlighted all aspects of life and presented his stories in the form of art. He will always live because of his unique style, Urdu manners and light have been given to him that till today his art and thought are criticized by critics from different dimensions. He is a creator as well as a historian and a researcher. And have a thorough understanding of the basic teachings of their service.

A Few Close Friends? Adolescent Friendships’ Effect on Internalizing Symptoms Is Serially Mediated by Desire for More Friends and Social Goal Orientation

Interpersonal connection is a fundamental human motivation, and the extent to which it is fulfilled is a strong predictor of symptoms of internalizing disorders such as social anxiety and depression, perhaps especially during the “social reorienting” period of adolescence. However, little is known about the contribution to this effect of the individual’s social motivations, which are intensified during adolescence. Furthermore, social goal orientation – an individual’s priorities and intentions in social interactions – is an important predictor of vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. Adolescents spend most of their waking lives in classrooms, bounded social networks with a limited pool of candidates for befriending. This study investigated whether friendships within one’s class protects against internalizing symptoms in part by reducing the desire for more classmate friendships, which may tend to promote maladaptive social goals. Participants were 423 young adolescents (M age = 13.2, sd = 0.52 years; 49.4% girls). As predicted, adolescents’ number of reciprocated classroom friendships had a protective effect on internalizing symptoms which was serially mediated by desire for more such friendships, and social goal orientation. However, only demonstration-avoidance goals significantly predicted internalizing symptoms. Unreciprocated friendship nominations were unexpectedly associated with stronger desire and more social anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that the effect of number of friends is mediated by the individual’s thoughts and feelings about their number of friendships, such that a strong desire for more friendships promotes maladaptive goals, oriented toward social status and consequently less oriented toward the cultivation of interpersonal intimacy with the friends they already have.

Philosophical Pragmatism and the Challenges of Information Technologies

Philosophical Pragmatism and the Challenges of Information Technologies

Dreams: A Modern Perspective

Dreams are a universal human experience that can be described as a state of consciousness characterized by sensory, cognitive and emotional occurrences during sleep. Dreams are the stories and images that our minds create while we sleep. They can be entertaining, romantic, disturbing, frightening, and sometimes bizarre. Why and how we dream remains something of a mystery. There is no cognitive state that has been as extensively studied and yet as frequently misunderstood as dreaming. Reports of dreams tend to be full of emotional and vivid experiences that contain themes, concerns, dream figures, and objects that correspond closely to waking life. Dreams are an enduring source of mystery for scientists and psychological doctors. They are by nature difficult to study in a laboratory, but technology and new research techniques may help improve our understanding of dreams. They possibly represent a unique state of consciousness that incorporates experience of the present, processing of the past, and preparation for the future. Events experienced while awake are said to feature in 1 to 2 percent of dream reports, although 65 percent of dream reports reflect aspects of recent waking life experiences

Neuropragmatism, Neuropsychoanalysis, Therapeutic Trends, and the Care Crisis

Neuropragmatism offers a non-dualistic conception of experience from which scientific inquiries can provide resources for sociocultural critique. This reconstructive effort addresses what Emma Dowling calls the care crisis without succumbing to what Mike W. Martin calls therapeutic tyranny. This tyranny relies on problematic dualisms, between mind/body, mind/world, and fact/value, that are also found in neuropsychoanalysis. While pragmatism and psychoanalysis more generally share an evolutionary perspective and can overlap in therapeutic approaches, neuropsychoanalysis diverges from this effort in its dual-aspect monism and positivistic conception of science. Where neuropsychoanalysis seeks to reconcile the first-person subjectivity of lived experience with the third-person objectivity of science, neuropragmatism offers reconstruction. In taking the neuropragmatic turn, neuropsychoanalysts can better utilize Freudian therapies in conjunction with active inference principles, such as the free-energy principle and allostasis. Along with neuropragmatism’s conception of experience as organism-environment dynamic engagement, neuropsychoanalysis can benefit from allostatic approaches to experience and inquiry without reducing experience to brute mechanism or denying the utility of such mechanisms for prediction and intervention. Understanding the value-ladenness of experience, primary and secondary, in everyday waking life and in reflective inquiry, empowers people to better care for themselves without succumbing to merely coping with neoliberal oppression.