Edinburgh Napier University

  The nightmare is a form of “affect-laden” or “self-shattering” dream, wherein the dreamer awakens in a state of high emotional disturbance. Such dreams include initiation and/or shamanic visions, close encounters with gods or spirits, sexual dreams, or some combination of these. While the subjective element of self shattering/emotional commotion common to these dream-types appears to be hard-wired through the physiology of sleep and consciousness, culture can and does provide a variety of templates to configure this dream-type – and its accompanying emotion – in various ways.

In dream-cultures with fully supernatural cosmologies, the visual rhetoric which codes the dream as an encounter with a demonic Other can be rearranged – even “pre-interpreted” – and the aspect of emotional arousal perceived as positive or negative, depending on context and expectation. This is particularly clear, as might be expected, in the case of initiatory visions, wherein specialised cultural institutions provide detailed context with which to frame and manage the experience of self-shattering.

This paper compares anthropological materials (Amazonian, Arctic, Melanesian) with ancient and medieval examples (Mesopotamian, Classical, Norse, Celtic) to demonstrate: first, the general model expressed in affect-laden dream-types; second, how this model is visualised cross-culturally, as a set of variants; and third, how the potential for variation in the model is exploited and expressed in cultural scripts and traditions.