INTRODUCTION

Amira Mittermaier's parents were both psychologists (one Freudian one, Jungian); she found their models of dreaming (it's generated by the self, is always about the self, and every dream-figure is an aspect of self) too narrow. As an anthropology student, the fieldwork for her dissertation was in Cairo (2003-4), studying Egyptian dreamwork. The late Shaykh Qusi mentioned below was leader of a large dream group in Cairo; he introduced her to many informants. She concluded that dreams in Islamic tradition don't always express personal wishes or fears à la Freud; sometimes they come not from you but through you. Her own dreams broadened to include new types--like Scratches.

SCRATCHES

Often during my fieldwork I was made keenly aware of my own reactions to, doubts about, and fascinations with the stories I heard, and at times I was reminded of the persistent limitations inherent in my assumptions.

One of these moments was the morning when I woke up with two big scratches on my left cheek after dreaming of having gotten into a fight with Shaykh Qusi. I still do not know what this dream meant and I never told Shaykh Qusi about it, but being left with a physical mark left me puzzled and slightly disturbed by how deeply involved I had become with Shaykh Qusi's community and how porous the line might indeed be between dream and waking life.

SOURCE: Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination by Amira Mittermaier (2011, University of California Press), p.28

EDITOR'S NOTES

Dreams leaving apparent physical traces aren't unheard of, but rare; no surprise that most dreamers assume they're nonexistent. Out of 40,000 dreams, I've had only two. Compare that to hundreds of lucid, clairvoyant, telepathic and predictive dreams. Sample size matters!

But so does worldview. Like Mittermaier, I grew up being told dreams were strictly internal. Shamanism sees some dreams as external, travels in another plane of existence; so it's not so shocking to bring back souvenirs--or scars. How common are such dreams in shamanic traditions? I know of no study on their frequency, but I'd bet it's more than my 0.005%! Worldview matters.

Shamanism emphasizes illness as a way to escape your cultural brainwashing. Travel's a less painful modern alternative. Modern Cairo is hardly dream-friendly--both secular and religious authorities scorn dreamwork as superstition; most disapprove even of the Sufis. Still, dreamwork has been part of Arabic culture right back to Muhammad; at least it's not oneirophobic, sleep-deprived America. Culture matters.

I've dubbed dreams leaving physical traces "Natalian" after the earliest example I know of, by Natalius the Confessor in the early Christian church... when it was a small cult not so different from Shaykh Qusi's. Hmm. Maybe that's not coincidence. Groups construing the world not as physical but spiritual (and thus flexible) may carry less baggage and cross borders more readily.

Experienced travelers pack light.

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