Jacob's Ladder -- Marc Chagall
Quirks and Quarks is the venerable CBC Radio science show whose host, Bob McDonald, does an excellent job of taking listeners through interviews with researchers and scientist who are often engaged in complex and sometimes arcane (at least to me) fields.
The other day I caught a portion of a piece on what was described as "lucid dreams." Here is a portion of the description of the segment:
The experiments took advantage of the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, which occurs when a person who's dreaming becomes aware that they're in a dream. They can in some cases then control aspects of the dream. In the study published in the journal Current Biology, the scientists wrote, "Our experimental goal is akin to finding a way to talk with an astronaut who is on another world, but in this case the world is entirely fabricated on the basis of memories stored in the brain." Scientists have known for several decades that lucid dreamers can communicate out to the real world from inside their dreams.
his photo shows Christopher Mazurek in a full EEG rig just before a sleep session in the lab. The electrodes on his face will detect the movement of his eyes as he sleeps. (Christopher Mazurek)
This research work sounds fascinating, and also timely, given that there has been a lot reported on the veritable dream explosion during this past year of the pandemic.Ruth and I are aware of vivid dreams, although we often can't recall their content. I was prompted to write this blog entry because last night I dreamed up a storm, although the stories slipped away on waking. The dreams I have remembered often involve leading worship services, even though I've been retired for going on four years.
When I heard the Q &Q piece I thought of all the dreams which figure prominently in the bible -- roughly two dozen. There is Jacob and his ladder, and Joseph and his fat and lean cattle. These are life-changing events which are certainly vivid. The worlds of these stories seems to take for granted that God enters into our lives in a host of ways, including our dream life.
In the gospels God speaks to Joseph in dreams, telling him to wed Mary, and to flee the murderous Herod. Peter has what he describes as both a trance and a vision -- a lucid dream?- regarding clean and unclean animals which opens the way for Gentiles to be recipients of the Good News of Christ.
I wish I could throw in a few examples of women who dream in the bible, because we know that they too are faithful and attuned to God. Curiously, the last dream recorded in our Christian scriptures is that of Pilate's wife, who warns him to leave Jesus alone.
Hey, if Bob McDonald can interpret some of the esoteric research of these scientists, perhaps we should give greater emphasis on the interpretation of lucid dreams in our life together as people of faith!
The Dream of Pilate's Wife by Alphonse François
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