Big Dreams: The Science of Dreaming and the Origins of Religion

Author:   Kelly Bulkeley (Visiting Scholar, Visiting Scholar, Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN:  

9780199351534


Pages:   354
Publication Date:   14 April 2016
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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Big Dreams: The Science of Dreaming and the Origins of Religion


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Author:   Kelly Bulkeley (Visiting Scholar, Visiting Scholar, Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 3.60cm , Length: 23.90cm
Weight:   0.590kg
ISBN:  

9780199351534


ISBN 10:   0199351538
Pages:   354
Publication Date:   14 April 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

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Reviews

William James said that 'white crows' and 'mystics'--the anomalous and the extreme--helped us to understand the common and the ordinary in religious life. Recent claims have reversed this insight, dwelling on the ordinary and the everyday and writing off the extraordinary as statistical blips or 'anecdotes.' Kelly Bulkeley draws on a lifetime of erudition and his massive digital database to return us to the extreme cases, the 'black swans' of 'big dreams, ' but only after throwing much light on everything from the evolution of the brain and the neurochemistry of sleeping to the adaptiveness, meaningfulness, and playfulness of dreaming. Dreams, it turns out, are not expressions of random neuronic stupidity. To the extent that they encourage us to imagine the possible, they are some of the deepest wellsprings of religious experience and the 'metacognitive potentials of human consciousness' itself. --Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms Bulkeley's erudite volume illuminates perspectives about dreams from the Upanishads through Thomas Aquinas, Charles Darwin, and Mircea Eliade to modern neuroscience and Dilbert. These lead to Bulkeley's own major ideas of dreams as play, and the distinction between the continuity of ordinary dreams vs. the discontinuity of big dreams. Novel and thought-provoking--I highly recommend it! --Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep Bulkeley's highly original contribution approaches dreaming from its most intense and transformative varieties, avoiding the more normative but less consequential dreaming as illustrated daydream. This allows us to better understand both the prominent place of dream studies in the history of psychology and how it is that such dreams have played a major role in the cultural origins of human spirituality. --Harry T. Hunt, author of On the Nature of Consciousness and Lives in Spirit


Big Dreams will appeal to a wide cross-section of religious scholars as Bulkeley draws from scientific, historical, mythological, and literary sources to show how dreams influence religions --<em>Reading Religion</em> William James said that 'white crows' and 'mystics'--the anomalous and the extreme--helped us to understand the common and the ordinary in religious life. Recent claims have reversed this insight, dwelling on the ordinary and the everyday and writing off the extraordinary as statistical blips or 'anecdotes.' Kelly Bulkeley draws on a lifetime of erudition and his massive digital database to return us to the extreme cases, the 'black swans' of 'big dreams, ' but only after throwing much light on everything from the evolution of the brain and the neurochemistry of sleeping to the adaptiveness, meaningfulness, and playfulness of dreaming. Dreams, it turns out, are not expressions of random neuronic stupidity. To the extent that they encourage us to imagine the possible, they are some of the deepest wellsprings of religious experience and the 'metacognitive potentials of human consciousness' itself. --<em>Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms</em> Bulkeley's erudite volume illuminates perspectives about dreams from the Upanishads through Thomas Aquinas, Charles Darwin, and Mircea Eliade to modern neuroscience and Dilbert. These lead to Bulkeley's own major ideas of dreams as play, and the distinction between the continuity of ordinary dreams vs. the discontinuity of big dreams. Novel and thought-provoking--I highly recommend it! --Deirdre Barrett, author of <em>The Committee of Sleep</em> Bulkeley's highly original contribution approaches dreaming from its most intense and transformative varieties, avoiding the more normative but less consequential dreaming as illustrated daydream. This allows us to better understand both the prominent place of dream studies in the history of psychology and how it is that such dreams have played a major role in the cultural origins of human spirituality. --Harry T. Hunt, author of <em>On the Nature of Consciousness and Lives in Spirit</em> <em>Big Dreams</em> is well written and provocative...[and] immediately earns classic status. --<em> CHOICE Reviews</em>


"""Big Dreams will appeal to a wide cross-section of religious scholars as Bulkeley draws from scientific, historical, mythological, and literary sources to show how dreams influence religions...""--Reading Religion ""William James said that 'white crows' and 'mystics'--the anomalous and the extreme--helped us to understand the common and the ordinary in religious life. Recent claims have reversed this insight, dwelling on the ordinary and the everyday and writing off the extraordinary as statistical blips or 'anecdotes.' Kelly Bulkeley draws on a lifetime of erudition and his massive digital database to return us to the extreme cases, the 'black swans' of 'big dreams,' but only after throwing much light on everything from the evolution of the brain and the neurochemistry of sleeping to the adaptiveness, meaningfulness, and playfulness of dreaming. Dreams, it turns out, are not expressions of random neuronic stupidity. To the extent that they encourage us to imagine the possible, they are some of the deepest wellsprings of religious experience and the 'metacognitive potentials of human consciousness' itself.""--Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms ""Bulkeley's erudite volume illuminates perspectives about dreams from the Upanishads through Thomas Aquinas, Charles Darwin, and Mircea Eliade to modern neuroscience and Dilbert. These lead to Bulkeley's own major ideas of dreams as play, and the distinction between the continuity of ordinary dreams vs. the discontinuity of big dreams. Novel and thought-provoking--I highly recommend it!""--Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep ""Bulkeley's highly original contribution approaches dreaming from its most intense and transformative varieties, avoiding the more normative but less consequential dreaming as illustrated daydream. This allows us to better understand both the prominent place of dream studies in the history of psychology and how it is that such dreams have played a major role in the cultural origins of human spirituality.""--Harry T. Hunt, author of On the Nature of Consciousness and Lives in Spirit ""Big Dreams is well written and provocative...[and] immediately earns classic status.""-- CHOICE Reviews"


Author Information

Kelly Bulkeley is Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is former President of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, Senior Editor of the APA journal Dreaming, and author of Dreaming in the World's Religions (2008).

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