A Preliminary Study on English and Welsh “Sacred Sites” and Home Dream Reports

Sleeping at sacred outdoor sites in England and Wales was associated with more aggressive dream content and less friendly, failure, striving, and success content compared with sleeping at home. Thirty-five volunteers spent one to five nights at one of four unfamiliar sacred sites and were awakened after rapid eye movement to report dreams; the same volunteers also kept dream diaries at home. Equal numbers of site and home dream reports were obtained from each volunteer. Analysis using the Hall-Van de Castle Scale revealed several differences, but no significant differences in bizarre or paranormal content were found between site and home dreams. The authors propose expectancy, suggestion, unfamiliar surroundings, or possible anomalous properties of the sites as explanations.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article discusses preliminary data on advancing what we know about “sacred sites” and their effects on dreaming. Thirty‐five volunteers spent between one and five nights in one of four unfamiliar outdoor sacred sites in England and Wales. Another volunteer awakened them following the observation of rapid eye movement and asked for dream recall. The same volunteers monitored their own dreams in familiar home surroundings, keeping dream diaries. Equal numbers of site dreams and home dream reports were obtained for each volunteer. The 204 dream reports had previously been subjected to inspection for bizarre and paranormal content, with no significant differences. This analysis used the Hall—Van de Castle Scale, and several differences were found, most notably more aggressive content in site dreams and more friendly content in home dreams. In addition, home dream reports contained more incidences of failure, striving, and success. A number of explanations were proposed for these differences, including expectancy, suggestion, the effect of unfamiliar surroundings, and possible anomalous properties of the sacred sites.