The Nightmares of Puerto Ricans: An Embodied ‘Altered States of Consciousness’ Perspective
C. Jacobson
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry March 27, 2009 DOI: 10.1007/s11013-009-9135-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Mainland Puerto Rican community |
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness Dreaming |
| Key findings | Argues that nightmare experiences in this Puerto Rican community are shaped by and shape religious and spiritualistic beliefs, with sleep paralysis causing extreme fright and dreams reliving trauma themes. |
Abstract
This article examines nightmare narratives collected as part of a person-centered ethnographic study of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and supernaturalism in a mainland Puerto Rican community in the late 1990s. Utilizing a descriptive backdrop informed by cross-cultural studies of ASCs and highlighting the relevance of recent insights from the cognitive sciences of religion and from the anthropology of embodiment or cultural phenomenology, I examine the lived experience and psychocultural elaboration of diverse Puerto Rican nightmare events. Taking the nightmare to be a trauma in its waking-nightmare sense (i.e., through the extreme fright caused by sleep paralysis) as well as an intrusive, traumatic memory in its posttraumatic sense (i.e., a reliving of trauma themes in dreams), I show how the perceptual and interpretive processes evoked by intensely affective ASCs both inform and are informed by Puerto Rican religious and spiritualistic orientations and values.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on altered states of consciousness, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensory Isolation in Flotation Tanks: Altered States of Consciousness and Effects on Well-being Patients with depression, burn-out syndrome, and chronic pain | 2015 | Qualitative study | n = 8 |
| A Shaman's Cure: The Relationship Between Altered States of Consciousness and Shamanic Healing1 Nepalese shamans and their patients | 2009 | Ethnography | |
| Psychedelic Drugs: A Study of Drug-Induced Experiences Obtained by Illegal Drug Users in Relation to Stanislav Grof's Model of Altered States of Consciousness Anonymous former illegal drug users | 2000 | Qualitative study | n = 16 |
| Spiritual experiences and altered states of consciousness – Parallels between BDSM and Christianity Self-defined BDSM practitioners in Sweden | 2020 | Qualitative ethnographic study | n = 29 |
| When Seconds Turn Into Minutes: Time Expansion Experiences in Altered States of Consciousness People who reported Time Expansion Experiences | 2020 | Qualitative study | n = 74 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 6
- Cultural Variation in the Clinical Presentation of Sleep Paralysis Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005
- Sleep Paralysis in African Americans with Panic Disorder Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005
- 'The ghost pushes you down': sleep paralysis-type panic attacks in a Khmer refugee population. Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005
- Inuit interpretations of sleep paralysis. Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005
- Sleep Paralysis as Spiritual Experience Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005
and 1 more in the library