Dreams
In this course, philosopher and historian of science, Marieke McKenna, will guide you through the world of dreaming and dreams. From ancient dream practices and cross-cultural perspectives to cutting-edge dream tech, neuroscience, symbolism, spirituality, Jungian analysis, and lucid dreaming. Dive deep, explore the unknown, and discover the hidden power of your own dreamscapes.
hosted by Marieke McKenna
Module 1Module 1
Neuroscientific perspectives on the brain during sleep, the function of dreaming and other insights from scientific sleep research.
Module 3Module 3
Dream cultures from around the world and cross-cultural perspectives and insights from Ancient civilisations & monotheistic religions
Module 4Module 4
Dream cultures from around the world and cross cultural perspectives and insights from Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Celtic mythology, Native American and Australian Aboriginal traditions.
Module 5Module 5
The way of the Oneironaut - awake in the dream: what is it, what do people do in lucid dreams and how can you learn it?
Module 6Module 6
A burgeoning state-of-the-art field, and pressing ethical questions it raises.
On average, we spend one third of our lives asleep. That’s roughly 26 years of our time on earth. Of that time, we spend around 6.5 years of our life potentially dreaming.
Dreaming is a universal experience found across time and space in humanity and other species. Historically however, dreams have been of great interest to many different cultures. Importance has been attributed to them that ranges from messages from the divine and predictions of the future, to key insights for the individual and/or society at large.
How might our lives change if we engaged more consciously with our dreams? Today, the way in which dreams are commonly viewed largely falls into two spheres: those who are convinced dreams are valuable, insightful, wonderful, and interesting, and those who consider dreams something akin to a mere random firing of neurons - left-over daytime memory residue. Something many people are able to agree on is that dreams have the ability to point us to elements of our life that might require more attention from an emotional point of view: fears, desires, and - essentially - truth.
By combining experience and knowledge from an interdisciplinary oral history approach, hands-on experience in a laboratory setting, historical analysis and philosophical reflection - as well as a life-long personal dream practice - Marieke McKenna will guide you into a deeper understanding of the spectrum of dream consciousness.
- General insights from dream research on the immense variety of dreams and dreaming.
- What state-of-the-art neuroscience teaches us about the dreaming brain and sleep in general.
- How to enhance your sleep habits, and consequently, dream habits, such as dream recall and interpretation. In particular, students will learn ways to deal with nightmares, and how to approach lucid dream induction.
- How various cultures across the world have viewed the realm of dreams and dreaming, including Ancient dream incubation and lucid dream techniques.
- How dreaming can support mental health, memory, creativity, resourcefulness, and spiritual practices.
FacultiesLearn more pre, during & post
hosted by Marieke McKenna