Plans and Scattered Notions in Dream Reports, Science, and History
February 10, 2026 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198878117.003.0011 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Dream Plan archaeology Cognition Looming Consciousness Epistemology Cognitive science Aesthetics Psychoanalysis |
| Key points | Argues that dreaming is an active, cognitively permeated experience that must be learned, and that its contents are more scattered than precise, as elucidated by Maurice Halbwachs. |
Abstract
Abstract Working outwards from one dream report in the Threshold Worlds database, this chapter examines three aspects of permeability or ‘cognitive transit’ in dream experience, relating to perspective, planning, and precision. Reports of seeing oneself in the dreamed scene are common, and don’t require us to postulate an extra ‘self’. A plan formulated in the dream escapes, finding a life of its own. If the reported dream is a ‘world simulation’, its contents are more scattered than precise, as elucidated in French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs’ striking account of dreams. Dreaming is an active, cognitively permeated experience which must be learned as part of the slow manufacture of the developing mind. This approach promises integration between historical and cognitive scientific frameworks, and the chapter concludes with reflections on two-way traffic between dynamic brains and changing cultures.