Continuity, conscious dreaming and dying: implications of dream-travel to the afterlife

  • Raymond L.M. Lee (Author)
    University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
    I was previously an associate professor in the department of anthropology & sociology at the University of Malaya. I retired from teaching in 2005 but continue to publish as an independent researcher. My interest in dreaming goes back to my research on religion in the 1970s-1990s. Although I am not engaged in experimental work, my research on dreaming focuses on personal experiences, especially in lucid dreaming and how it relates to religious and spiritual interpretations.

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Abstract

The continuity hypothesis poses the waking state as hegemonic to that of dreaming with hardly any reference to the relationship between dreaming and dying. In the revival of shamanic dreaming as conscious dreaming, the traditional shamanic journey to the afterlife is repackaged as dream-travel for the discovery of otherworldly realms beyond death. Conscious dreamers are guided to construct personal geographies of the afterlife. If this form of dream discovery comes to make a difference in people’s waking lives, it would also lead to a reappraisal of the continuity hypothesis for including the meaning of dying in the nexus between waking and dreaming.

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Published
2017-05-02
Language
en
Keywords
afterlife, consciousness, continuity, dream-travel, dying, shamanism
How to Cite
Lee, R. L. (2017). Continuity, conscious dreaming and dying: implications of dream-travel to the afterlife. International Journal of Dream Research, 10(1), 75–79. https://doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2017.1.33389