Wisdom of Dreaming Minds-or-2012 Readers' Choice of Dreams

The Internet Crowd -or- Reading Dream Interpretations in the Global Village

Francis Galton tested the idea of the wisdom of crowds by asking individuals at a county fair to estimate the weight of an ox. As Galton's control group, he asked cattle experts to also provide their estimates. Galton found that the when the country fair's crowd estimates were averaged, that the estimate was closer to the true weight. James Surowiecki "The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations" discusses this phenomena. If wisdom can be found in the dreams of crowds, then we can look to find it in the dreams that have aroused the most interest to those visiting the IIDR website. The idiomatic saying of "people vote with their feet", can be restated for the internet crowd, and now reads; "people vote with their fingers' mouse clicks". 

By the end of the year (2012) over 40,000 people will have visited the IIDR Research website. Here are the top 10 interpretations that visitors have read this year according to Google statistics.

Top 10 Dream Interpretations; 

  1. Flying Fish -or- Feng Shui discusses the grafting of Western with Eastern art forms.
  2. Socrates on Death Row -or- Aesop Rocks discusses the philosophy, trial and dreams of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.
  3. In Loving Memory ephasizes the idea, that no one is dead as long as they are remembered.
  4. Anatomy of Nightmares -or- Collective Dissociation Disorder gives voice to the interpersonal horrors of life and living on our planet. Who is responsible for resolving these daily interpersonal problems?
  5. Confessions of a Porn Addict -or- The Devil in Disguise, is not a surprising readers' choice for the top 10 dream interpretations. "Confessions" illustrates the male problems of fear towards women and the ongoing transgenerational battle of the sexes. These themes ring out in many other interpretations found at the IIDR website.
  6. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -or- Civilization Die from Suicide emphasizes the schizotypal nature of the repressive Victorian culture of the late 19th century British Empire.
  7. Sleep Learning -or- Brave New World of Mass Media discusses the theme of the media's pervasive influence on our collective dream patterns. This thematic can be found time and again when reading dreams sent to the IIDR from all over the world.
  8. ABC's of Dreams and Dreaming -or- A Thematic Guide of Dream Vision organizes the IIDR dream interpretations by an A to Z thematic/topic search index.
  9. Quantum Mysticism -or- The Dreams of Wolfgang Pauli provides the basis for understanding the connections of mind, matter and mysticism as seen through the spectacles of the Swiss physicist Wolfgang Pauli.
  10. Magical Musical Mystery Tour -or- The Song Book I Write synoptically speaks of the polyphonic sounds of music found in numerous IIDR dream interpretations.

 

To summarize; we can see that readers visiting the IIDR website are interested in art, in music, in philosophy, in psychopathology, in the effects of media, and in interpersonal relationships. All these themes most likely find expression in dreams dreamt on the planet as we speak. Said differently, while you are awake reading this Field Note, other people are dreaming these very themes right now. In other words, the thematic anthropological process of dreaming on our planet is one that is happening non-stop 24/7.

 

 

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.