Dream Consciousness

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxv

   PDF

2. The William James Lectures on Dream Consciousness

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Introduction

      • J. Allan Hobson

      Pages 3-7

   3. Lecture I: Psychology

      • J. Allan Hobson

      Pages 9-28

   4. Lecture II: Physiology

      • J. Allan Hobson

      Pages 29-49

   5. Lecture III: Philosophy

      • J. Allan Hobson

      Pages 51-79

3. Commentaries

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 81-81

      PDF

   2. Do You Still Hold to an Activation Only Theory of the REM Sleep-Dreaming Correlation?

      • John Antrobus

      Pages 83-86

   3. What Is the Most Promising Avenue to New Understanding of the Sleep-Learning Process?

      • Mercedes Atienza, José L. Cantero

      Pages 87-89

   4. Are You Convinced That Dreaming Is A Conscious State?

      • Susan Blackmore

      Pages 91-93

   5. Your PET Studies Demonstrate Major Differences Between REM Sleep and Waking. How Do You Conceive of These Differences in Relation to Theories of Waking and Dreaming Consciousness?

      • Allen R. Braun

      Pages 95-100

   6. How Does Your Formulation of Lesion-Induced States of Diminished Consciousness Fit with AIM? Do You Suppose That Brain Stem Damage Affects Activation (A) and Modulation (M)?

      • Vanessa Charland-Verville, Steven Laureys

      Pages 101-109

   7. Does Your “Feeling of What Happens” Definition of Consciousness Extend to Dreaming? If So, How Do You Conceptualize Internally Generated FWHs?

      • Antonio Damasio

      Pages 111-112

   8. What Is Dreaming for, If Anything?

      • Daniel C. Dennett

      Pages 113-117

   9. Your Interest in Sleep and Memory Posits a Semantic Learning Function to NREM Sleep. What Are Your Views of Associative Memory Enhancement by REM?

      • Susanne Diekelmann, Jan Born

      Pages 119-122

   10. Your Imaging Group Has Coined the Term ‘Dream Imaging.’ Please Summarize the Concept in Relation to Dream Theory

       • Martin Dresler, Victor Spoormaker, Renate Wehrle, Michael Czisch

       Pages 123-129

   11. Do You Think That Scientific Psychology Has a Place for the Study of Dreaming? In Other Words, Do You Accept Introspection as Scientifically Useful?

       • Michael W. Eysenck

       Pages 131-132

   12. What Does Your Theory of Hallucinosis Make of Dream Experience? Do Both Reveal the Operation of Internal Image Generator Mechanisms in the Brain?

       • Dominic H. Ffytche

       Pages 133-136

   13. Please Comment on the Predictive Tenet of the Protoconsciousness Hypothesis. Is This Idea Consistent with the Helmholtzian Model of Free Energy That You Are Developing?

       • Karl Friston

       Pages 137-142

   14. How Does the Protoconsciousness Concept of Dreaming Fit with Your Model of the Animal Mind? Do Dogs, Parrots, and Monkeys “Think” Without Words?

       • Ludwig Huber

       Pages 143-148

This book presents three lectures by Allan Hobson, entitled “The William James Lectures on Dream Consciousness”. The three lectures expose the new psychology, the new physiology and the new philosophy that derive from and support the protoconsciousness hypothesis of dreaming. They review in detail many of the studies on sleep and dreaming conducted since the days of Sigmund Freud. Following the lectures are commentaries written by scholars whose expertise covers a wide range of scientific disciplines including, but not limited to, philosophy, psychology, neurology, neuropsychology, cognitive science, biology and animal sciences. The commentaries each answer a specific question in relation to Hobson’s lectures and his premise that dreaming is an altered state of consciousness. Capitalizing on a vast amount of data, the lectures and commentaries provide undisputed evidence that sleep consists of a well-organized sequence of subtly orchestrated brain states that undoubtedly play a crucial function in the maintenance of normal brain functions. These functions include both basic homeostatic processes necessary to keep the organism alive as well as the highest cognitive functions including perception, decision making, learning and consciousness.

• Associative Memory Enhancement
• Dream Imaging
• REM Sleep-Dreaming
• Sleep-Learning Process
• Theory of Hallucinosis
• Waking and Dreaming Consciousness

From the book reviews:

“The audience is scientists with an interest in the field of sleep and, specifically, dreams. … This is a worthwhile contribution to the field of sleep and dreams. It provides evidence of sleep as a sequence of brain states that play a role in brain function, which include homeostatic functions and higher cognitive processes such as perception, decision making, learning, and consciousness.” (M. Isabel L. Crisostomo, Doody’s Book Reviews, February, 2015)

• Harvard Medical School, Salem, USA

  Nicholas Tranquillo

Allan Hobson (author) is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School where he conducted research on Sleep and Dreaming as the Director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. This book represents his thinking about human consciousness as expressed in the William James Lectures at Roehampton University. He has written 12 previous books and published over 200 original scientific articles. He indulges his interests in art and architecture at his US home East Burke, Vermont and with his Italian family in Messina, Sicily.

Nicholas Tranquillo (editor) has been associated with Allan Hobson since 1997 when he was a student in Psychology E1450, The Biopsychology of Waking, Sleeping and Dreaming. Over the intervening years, he has served as the manager of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at Harvard Medical School. In addition, he has been deeply involved and responsible for manuscript production having worked on six successful books. In the preparation of the present volume, he solicited and edited the commentaries as well as taking full responsibility for readying the book for publication. Complimenting his academic interests are commitments to culinary creation, remote and exotic travel and the love of opera. He lives in Salem, New Hampshire.

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