Why has sleep become increasingly politicized in contemporary society? This book provides an account of the politics of sleep in the late modern age. The future of sleep has become contested and uncertain: something to be defended, downsized or even perhaps (one day) done away with altogether.

The war in the Middle East is marked by a lack of cultural knowledge on the part of the western forces, and this book deals with another, widely ignored element of Islam-the role of dreams in everyday life. The practice of using night dreams to make important life decisions can be traced to Middle Eastern dream traditions and practices that preceded the emergence of Islam. In this study, the author explores some key aspects of Islamic dream theory and interpretation as well as the role and significance of night dreams for contemporary Muslims. In his analysis of the Islamic debates surrounding the role of "true" dreams in historical and contemporary Islamic prophecy, the author specifically addresses the significance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban dream practices and ideology. Dreams of "heaven," for example, are often instrumental in determining Jihadist suicidal action, and "heavenly" dreams are also evidenced within other contemporary human conflicts such as Israel-Palestine and Kosovo-Serbia. By exploring patterns of dreams within this context, a cross-cultural, psychological, and experiential understanding of the role and significance of such contemporary critical political and personal imagery can be achieved.

Cinema--invented just before psychoanalysis formally developed--primed the public and scholars to rethink ideas about dreams. The author describes how surrealist artists purposely applied Freudian dream theories to their art to make the public aware of modern ideas about dreams. Most of our current cultural consciousness about the psychological value of dreams is traced to classical and contemporary cinema. This work examines how residuals of past approaches to dreams make conceptions of dreams in psychoanalysis and science more complex than ever today.

Scholars and students in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, cinema, medicine, and religion may find this volume useful. The book also examines academic psychiatry's increased emphasis in dream study on neuropsychiatry and psychopharmocology, as well as managed care's decreased compensation for dream therapy.

The work aims to provide an overview of the field of contemporary hallucinations research. It will consist of 28 chapters, the writing of which will be put out to international experts specialized in the specific fields at hand. The work aims to be unique, in that it intends to cover many different types of hallucination, and to approach the subject matter from four different perspectives, i.e., conceptual, phenomenological, neuroscientific, and therapeutic.

While citizens experiment with illegal drugs, their governments experiment with regulations to prohibit drugs. Scholars, analysts, and policy makers who know what legal prohibitions other countries have tried and found successful will have a better chance of crafting effective drug policy for their countries. This special issue of "The Annals" describes the experiences of eleven countries: Australia, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, France, Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, and Sweden. Articles are grouped by geography and wealth: the wealthy West, the western hemisphere, and the transition countries.

The drug problems of wealthy Western nations have generally worsened since the 1960s. Some have no clearly articulated vision behind their drug policy (e.g. Denmark); others have tough policies (e.g. Sweden). France and Portugal both recently instituted sharp changes in drug policy. While no outcome results are yet available from Portugal, France has experience a huge increase in the number of users in treatment. Australia s strong harm-reduction policy remains in place despite increasing heroin deaths and other drug-related problems.

U.S. consumption and U.S. international drug policies affect western hemisphere countries policy as well as generate problems for them. Although Mexican drug use remains at modest levels, the country faces violent and powerful criminal groups. The groups creation is related to Mexico s role as the principal source and primary transshipment route for drugs bound for the U.S. IN Jamaica, another route for cocaine shipped to the U.S. and another focus of U.S. international drug policy, drug trafficking has exacerbated the long-standing problem of politically related gang violence by increasing the moneys and weapons involved. Drug use is a relatively minor concern of Columbian policy, also under U.S. pressure; instead, it focuses on trafficking and related corruption and violence.

Iran and Russia are countries in transition. Contending with fundamental economic and social change following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has had little political debate regarding its highly intolerant drug policy. Iran s drug policies have frequently shifted during its long history of dealing with opiate abuse, from harsh punishment to regulation of use and back again. Most recently, more therapeutically oriented approaches have been tried.

Two articles address geographically broader issues. One shows how U.S. politicians distorted results from a study of needle exchange in Vancouver. The other discusses creation of a new regulatory regime for governing developed nations banking systems, in the belief that illegal drugs account for a substantial fraction of suspicious financial transactions, particularly across national borders. "

'Dr Beischel is a courageous, innovative pioneer who has brought immense respectability to a controversial area' Larry Dossey, MD, bestselling author. Julie Beischel PhD has spent most of her career investigating grief and after-death communication. Her research, along with that of many others, demonstrates that one of the most effective ways of addressing grief is recognizing that our connections to our lost loved ones endure. The bereaved can - and regularly do - experience a 'continuing bond' with the departed. Based on her research, Dr Beischel mindfully developed this unique card deck to guide users through loss and grief, allowing for continuing two-way, loving, inspiring relationships with departed loved ones. The deck features 52 cards, split into four themes: signs (which guide you to recognize specific and meaningful real-world content as potential messages from departed loved ones), messages (which feature messages from you to your loved one to emphasize a continued two-way connection), affirmations (which contain potentially transformative information and inspiration for addressing the different aspects of grief), and wisdom (which feature quotes from laboratory-tested mediums with first-hand experience of communication with the departed - including best-selling author Laura Lynne Jackson - that offer insights and tips to help you connect with your loved one). For those seeking to explore their loss through regular reflection and ritual, this deck offers personalized hope and guidance through each user's unique experience of grief and loss.

Offering the perspectives of some of the most respected thinkers in transpersonal psychology and consciousness studies, this book explores the farther reaches of knowing, both ourselves and the world, described here as transpersonal, post-conventional, or spiritual. The contributors' work is presented from their own authentic knowing, whether through personal narrative or through conceptualization informed by such knowing. They explore what "knowledge" can consist of as it stretches beyond conventional objective observation and analysis.

Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms, Second Edition, Six Volume Set is the most comprehensive work on sleep and circadian rhythms. This completely revised new edition, comprised of contributions from 450 renowned authorities in the field, covers what is new and known in the field. In addition to thorough coverage of the basics (physiology, sleep disorders etc.), this new edition includes a thorough examination of circadian rhythms that manage the sleep-wake cycle. Although this area is highly intertwined with sleep, it is a scientific discipline in and of itself, and will broaden the appeal of this work to health care providers and scientists. Other sections of interest explore consumer wearable devices to track sleep and circadian rhythms, artificial intelligence algorithms to detect sleep and abnormal sleep-related conditions, and new technology to treat sleep and circadian rhythm disorders. This book will be an ideal and primary reference resource for students, trainees, technologists, basic/clinical scientists, physicians, advanced practice providers, psychologists, nurses, and other medical and research personnel who want to explore any topic within the sleep and circadian rhythm field.

Summarizes Grof's experiences and observations from more than forty years of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness.

This publication encapsulates the work of this highly respected British therapist. "Precision Therapy" is an extremely practical book that describes how to initiate healing processes. It is eclectic in nature and free from dogma and jargon. The book is designed for the therapist-healer who does not have the need, the time or the inclination to subject clients to protracted mind games. Its practicality is illustrated in the training material: each page is a script or a prompt-sheet that can be adapted easily to deal effectively with most problems in a matter of hours rather than weeks or months. It is a comprehensive manual of fast, effective hypnoanalytic techniques designed for the professional.

Teaching the World to Sleep provides a complete, science-based overview of sleep and sleep problems, from environmental, legal and technological factors to assessment and treatment options. David R. Lee introduces the basic scientific concepts involved in sleep and provides a clear description of insomnias and the parasomnias. Teaching the World to Sleep discusses NICE recommended Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi) and the REST (R) programme and outlines considerations for at-risk groups, sleep and the law, and the application of dreams and dreaming in psychotherapy. This second edition includes a full update on research conducted since the publication of the first edition and includes new information on sleep in the legal setting, the rise of sleep apps and trackers and their impact on our sleep. Lee also considers neurodiversity, sleep in long Covid, rare and unusual sleep disorders and the delivery of treatment using the NHS recommended stepped-care approach. Teaching the World to Sleep will be essential reading for psychotherapists, occupational therapists, and other professionals working with clients with sleep problems. It will also provide an accessible introduction to the science of sleep to readers looking to understand their own sleep problems.

Builds on the work of Bion and Ogden, both of whom remain very fashionable in psychoanalysis * Contains new theory and practical guidance * Dreams remain a core topic in psychoanalysis

The Wilderness of Dreams does four things that no other work on dreams has done. First, it surveys the whole range of modern dream research--not just the work of depth psychologists and neuroscientists, but also the findings of anthropologists, content analysts, cognitive psychologists, creative artists, and lucid dreaming researchers. Second, it draws upon new advances in hermeneutic philosophy in order to clarify basic questions about how to interpret dreams. third, it develops a careful, well-grounded notion of religious meaning - the 'root metaphor' concept - to show that seeking religious meanings in dreams is not mere superstition. And fourth, the book reflects on the question of why modern Westerners are so interested in affirming, or debunking, the idea that dreams have religious meanings.

In this accessible overview of current knowledge, an expert team of editors and authors describe experimental approaches to consciousness. These approaches are shedding light on some of the hitherto unknown aspects of the distinct states of human consciousness, including the waking state, different states of sleep and dreaming, meditation and more. The book presents the latest research studies by the contributing authors, whose specialities span neuroscience, neurology, biomedical engineering, clinical psychology and psychophysiology, psychosocial medicine and anthropology. Overall this anthology provides the reader with a clear picture of how different states of consciousness can be defined, experimentally measured and analysed. A future byproduct of this knowledge may be anticipated in the development of systematic corrective treatments for many disorders and pathological problems of consciousness.

This book is a psychological exploration of unusual minds, a religious exploration of demonological myth, and a philosophical exploration of the reaches of pragmatism. It uses topics such as hypnotism, mediumship, and mass possession to argue for a comprehensive understanding of the demonic that acknowledges not only the creativity which it encourages, but also the danger it can bring. Professor Ruetenik uses James' religious pragmatism to evaluate the relevance of psychical research, and to explain common beliefs regarding demons, spirits, and other controlling personalities. The conclusion of this interdisciplinary research is as alarming as it is fascinating: When exploring the demons of William James, we discover that ordinary personality cannot be clearly separated from what we consider the demonic.

Millions of us suffer from addiction, including psychiatrist and recovering alcoholic Carl Erik Fisher. But where does this centuries-old behaviour come from and how should we treat it? As a young doctor, Carl Erik Fisher came face to face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Now, in The Urge, he investigates the history of this condition; how we have struggled to define, treat, and control it; and how broader understanding and compassion could change people's lives. The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician's urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced view of one of society's most intractable challenges.

Distinguished psychologist G. William Domhoff brings together-for the first time-all the necessary tools needed to perform quantitative studies of dream content using the rigorous system developed by Calvin S. Hall and Robert van de Castle. The book contains a comprehensive review of the literature, detailed coding rules, normative findings, and statistical tables.

Daydreaming, our ability to give 'to airy nothing a local habitation and a name', remains one of the least understood aspects of human behaviour. As children we explore beyond the boundaries of our experience by projecting ourselves into the mysterious worlds outside our reach. As adolescents and adults we transcend frustration by dreams of achievement or escape, and use daydreaming as a way out of intolerable situations and to help survive boredom, drudgery or routine. In old age we turn back to happier memories as a relief from loneliness or frailty, or wistfully daydream about what we would do if we had our time over again. Why is it that we have the ability to alternate between fantasy and reality? Is it possible to have ambition or the ability to experiment, create or invent without the catalyst of fantasy? Are sexual fantasies an inherent part of human behaviour? Are they universal, healthy, destructive? Is daydreaming itself destructive? Or is it a force which facilitates change and which can even be harnessed to positive advantage? In this provocative book, originally published in 1975, the product of the previous twenty-five years of research, the author debates the nature and function of daydreaming in the light of his own experiments. As well as investigating what is a normal 'fantasy-life' and outlining patterns and types of daydreaming, he describes the role of daydreaming in schizophrenia and paranoia, examines the fantasies and hallucinations induced by drugs and also the nature of altered states of consciousness in Zen and Transcendental Meditation. Among the many topics covered, he explains how it is possible to help children enlarge their capacity for fantasy, how adults can make positive use of daydreaming and how people on the verge of disturbed behaviour are often unconscious of their own fantasies. Advances in scientific methods and new experimental techniques had made it possible at this time to monitor both conscious daydreaming and sub-conscious fantasies in a way not possible before. Professor Singer is one of the few scientists who have conducted substantial research in this area and it is his belief that the study of daydreaming and fantasy is of great importance if we are to understand the workings of the human mind.

An engaging account of the science of dreaming. Written by a leading sleep researcher and a professional dream artist. Makes the biological, psychological, personal, and cultural causes of dreaming accessible. Surveys current theories of the function and meaning (or lack thereof) of dreams. Covers all current scientific work on dreaming, from what happens in the brain when we dream to how dream content relates to our waking life experiences * Each chapter tackles a different type of dream, illustrated through a scientific overview and a professional colour painting