Gauging oneiromancy—the cognition of dream content and cultural transmission of (supernatural) divination

Dreams are often seen as sources of trusted information for divination, a practice called oneiromancy. The CARDD theory proposes that certain dream features—nightmarish content, lack of self-agency, bizarre or counterintuitive elements, and SA imagery—make dreams more likely to be shared and used for divination. This study tested those predictions using ethnographic data from Nepalese Hindus. Only one feature, the omission of self-agency models in dream imagery, significantly predicted whether dreams were communicated and used for divination. This finding supports the idea that formal features of "ostensive detachment" are key factors in how divinatory practices are culturally transmitted.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Dreaming is often connected with religious ideas and enjoys distinct epistemic status as a source of trusted information for divinatory practices—oneiromancy. These tendencies suggest the existence of a distinct content affordance relevance for dream divination, hypothesized in the “CARDD theory.” CARDD theory predicts that dreams containing nightmarish and threatening content, omission of self-agency models, bizarre and counterintuitive content, and SA imagery enhance the proclivity for dream communication and divination. Drawing upon ethnographic research among Nepalese Hindus, the purpose of the present article is to extend assumptions from cognitive and cultural transmission analysis of divination to the subcase of dream research and divination. The specific aims are (1) to quantify and compare dream contents according to their prevalence as described in CARDD theory, and (2) to test CARDD theory against the assumption that the dream contents have affordance value and provide motivation for dream communication and divination. According to the present data, however, only omission of self-agency models in dream imagery was significantly shown to predict dream communication and divination—a result that supports the idea that the formal features of “ostensive detachment” (Boyer, 2020; Mercier & Boyer, 2021) are decisive factors in cultural transmission of divinatory practices.