In this article, we examined Revonsuo's view of consciousness, which he described as "biological realism".Essentially, Revonsuo attempts to consider the phenomenon of dreaming as a heuristic point of departure in elucidating the mystery of consciousness, which he describes as a higher level of biological organization in the brain.Because, according to him, the dreaming brain creates a kind of...
Sleep is a vital function to all species for reinvigorating the mental and physical senses. During sleep, specific synapses become less active to eliminate unneeded memories as other synapses strengthen to enhance memory consolidation. Healthy quality and longevity of sleep can also regulate moods by ridding fatigue and repairing integrity of the medial prefrontal cortex-amygdala connections....
The flow of thought is persistent, and at times merciless. Mental content is generated throughout the day and into the night, moving forward predictably at times but surprisingly at others. Understanding what influences the trajectory of thought—how thoughts continuously unfold over time—has important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of thought disorders like schizophrenia and...
Newly encoded memory traces are spontaneously reactivated during sleep. Since their discovery in the 1990s, these memory reactivations have been discussed as a potential neural basis for dream experiences. New results from animal and human research, as well as the rapidly growing field of sleep and dream engineering, provide essential insights into this question, revealing both strong parallels...
Dreams are still an enigma of human cognition, studied extensively in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. According to the Freudian dream theory and Solms' modifications of the unconscious derived from it, the fundamental task of meeting our emotional needs is guided by the principle of homeostasis. Our innate value system generates conscious feelings of pleasure and unpleasure, resulting in the...
Abstract This chapter begins with a philosophical exploration of what Schelling means by “God-positing consciousness.” It then explains his theory of the “mythological process” which emerges from it. This process, which consists in the dynamic interaction of Schelling’s potentialities, or principles of being, unfolds in the human mind in a compulsive and dream-like manner. Schelling’s theory of...
Consciousness is experienced as embodied in the human experience. The chapter disabuses the notions that consciousness in Indian psychology is otherworldly and, therefore, disembodied. Indeed, IKS presents a nuanced conceptualization of three bodies. These three bodies are also seen in Buddhist texts. One of the three bodies is the physical body; the rest are the bodies in consciousness. The...
Sleep paralysis is characterized by the incapacity to perform voluntary movements during sleep/wake transitions, and could bring great discomfort. During sleep paralysis, out-of-body experiences can occur. Out-of-body experiences refers to the sensation of being outside of the physical body and perceiving the world from this outside perspective; however, they are pleasant in comparison with...
In Brief 30 years... Study finds declining dementia rates among older adults... Innovative means to clean smartphone screens... Pediatric survival of in-hospital cardiac arrests... Lucid dreams reportedly experienced during CPR
The function and meaning of dreams continue to fascinate and allude humankind. Despite the near universal intrigue, the pendulum of public and scientific opinion on dream research seems to have regularly oscillated over the past 150 years between fringe parapsychology and mainstream scholarly pursuit. One contributing factor is that dream research has always and continues to primarily rely on...