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

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Paul Devereux
  • Stanley Krippner
  • Robert Tartz
  • Adam Fish
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/01/2007
<mark>Journal</mark>Anthropology of Consciousness
Issue number2
Volume18
Number of pages27
Pages (from-to)2-28
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

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.