Dreaming is an exciting and still inexplicable human experience that occurs entirely in one’s brain during sleeping. Before taking this course, I was skeptical about the value of dreams. Indeed, I was influenced mainly by the studies that explained this phenomenon from the point of continuous activity of people’s minds that processes daily routine during the night. However, after studying various sources about our visions during sleep, I understood the reasoning behind less scientific explanations. This class allowed me to be more attentive to dreams to understand my emotional problems and helped me learn about the causes of students’ nightmares.
The new information that interested me was the dreaming experiences of Jordanian students that were similar to their counterparts from Western countries. It was unusual to learn from this chapter by Nasser & Bulkeley (2009) that negative dreams were recalled and reported more frequently. Most of the participants’ nightmares had some association with their daily concerns. Dreaming about elements of the supernatural world, like jinn, was the reflection of these individuals’ cultural and religious beliefs (Nasser & Bulkeley, 2009). Even though it is logical to think that people’s habits and thoughts would appear in their dreams, it was still fascinating to read how their brains were able to reconstruct these ideas into realistic images. I used to dream about book and movie characters, but I only recently admitted that my mind could create imaginary scenarios involving me in these fictional stories. Analyzing my behavior in these nightmares revealed that I isolated myself from my friends and became lonely in dreams. Indeed, I realized that our brains might generate visions to prepare us for similar challenges in the future.
The prophetic dreams of some people remain a mystery, and I am less skeptical about these cases after reading Icelandic stories. Specifically, the article by Heijnen (2005) made me alter my viewpoint about dreaming. Before enrolling in this course, I could relate to those Icelanders, mentioned in the paper by Heijnen (2005), who “qualify dreams as personal fantasies not worth much pondering upon” (p. 194). Although I did not become superstitious about nightmares after reading this manuscript, I started to be more careful about the psychology behind episodes that my friends or I may see while asleep.
There is no certainty in the authenticity of the stories presented in the article, but many real-world examples of similar dreaming experiences exist today. Indeed, as I discovered later, the stories of people talking to the dead or preventing some catastrophic events are not unique to Iceland’s ancient culture. Many of my relatives told me about their conversations with their deceased partners or parents. However, I cannot accept the idea of Icelanders that dreams are given from the external world rather than generated in our brains (Heijnen, 2005). Nevertheless, this manuscript helped me realize that science still cannot explain many events and behaviors; thus, I should remain open to various theories about human mental potential.
In summary, this course about dreaming helped me learn various opinions about this brain activity. I used to view dreams as processing information and experiences of our daily lives. In fact, it is partly true because studies demonstrated that people dreamed about the same concerns but mainly in a negative sense, which might be explained by cultural constraints and anticipation of a bad outcome. The most puzzling components of this phenomenon are people’s nightmares about the supernatural world that are probably caused by individuals’ beliefs, accentuated by their imagination. These elements are not universal across the globe, and thus it is hard to apply psychoanalytic principles to explain such visions. Overall, I think that this part of human life requires more research that should involve professionals in both scientific and non-scientific fields.
References
Heijnen, A. (2005). Dreams, darkness and hidden spheres: Exploring the anthropology of the night in Icelandic society. Paideuma, 51, 193-207.
Nasser, L., & Bulkeley, K. (2009). The typical dreams of Jordanian college students. In K. Bulkeley, K. Adams, & P.M. Davis (Eds.), Dreaming in Christianity and Islam. Culture, conflict, and creativity (pp. 200-216). Rutgers University Press.