Dreaming in the World's Religions A Comparative History

From the American Indian ritual of the vision quest to the Muslim prayer and dream-incubation practice of istikhara, there have been cultural traditions of enhancing people's awareness of their dreams and deriving insights from them. Modern researchers can learn from such practices and combine them with today's technologies, using new tools to fulfill an ancient pursuit. - Kelly Bulkeley (New York Times) With this original and provacative book, Bulkeley has shown what the 'new' comparative study of religion at its very best can offer. - Kimberley C. Patton (History of Religions) A pleasure to read, well written and full of fascinating examples. It is unique in combining a sensitive and sympathetic understanding of the religious meanings of dreams with a state-of-the-art treatment of the insights that cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology bring to our understanding of them. - Wendy Doniger,author of Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities Offers a sophisticated, yet easily accessible and engaging discussion of how and in what way dreams and a broad range of the worlds religions have enjoyed mutual influence throughout history. - Nina P. Azari,Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopaedia of Religions and Sciences The scope of Bulkeley's knowledge is impressive, as is his skill at synthesizing ideas from a variety of source material. (Publishers Weekly) The chronological/regional organization, along with the authors careful, scholarly prose, makes this practical as a classroom textbook. (Library Journal) Such a chronological/regional organization, along with the author's careful, scholarly prose, makes this practical as a classroom textbook...for interested readers and students, there are notes and an ample bibliography to stimulate further study. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with strong religion collections. (Library Journal) Psychoanalysis and phenomenology combine to understand dreams and dreaming as comprehended by a geographically and temporally wide spectrum of global and regional religions. Bulkeley argues that scientific understandings are not unique in their reflective critique of the nature or value of dreaming, that critical reflection on dreams can be found in a variety of traditions, and that even where evidence for formal analysis is lacking, dreams are categorized by type and value. (Choice)