Evolutionary Dreaming
Back in August I commented in my review of Robert Moss’s new book that,
People are people…
The dirty little secret of the human potential movement is that even if we all develop to our fullest potential, our society will still not be perfect.”
Much to my surprise, I did not get a lot of blowback from that statement. Maybe people didn’t read the review that closely, or perhaps the human potential movement has lost some of its lustre—though I find that hard to believe, with our country’s obsession with self-improvement (and accompanying disregard for the real suffering of others) seemingly as dominant as ever.
In The Secret History of Dreaming, Moss details the way dreams have guided people and shaped history, and the book itself is a tremendously inspiring read. But in promoting a greater engagement with our dreaming minds, he also implies that if we do so everything will be better. Of course, the “secret future of dreaming” is outside the scope of an in-depth book on dream history, but that is what I immediately wanted to hear more about.
At the time, I thought the lack of controversy surrounding my review meant that I could set that subject aside for a while, but instead the opposite has occurred. I am increasingly curious about Sandor Ferenczi’s idea that “dreams are the workshop of evolution.” Great advances and cognitive leaps are being dreamed up by people all the time, but isn’t it premature (or at best wishful thinking) to call that process evolution?
Are we really evolving into anything new? Or is it just people, all the way down?
November 21st, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I think the take home wisdom is that it’s the journey, not the destination. Yes?
You saw the article in the New Yorker this week about dreams? And the NYTimes story last week? I’m sure you have. Dreams are in the news.
November 21st, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Much to my surprise, I did not get a lot of blowback from that statement. Maybe people didn’t read the review that closely, or perhaps the human potential movement has lost some of its lustre…”
I thought your review was spot-on. Seems to me that the notions of “fully developed potentials” and “a perfect society” are fictions. Myths, perhaps, though I tend to hold the mythic in higher esteem than the idealism espoused by the likes of Moss.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:48 am
I suspect that “the human potential movement” in its beginnings was not the same thing as what it fairly quickly–under the influence of marketing and massification and corporate group think–became.
What I recall of the early HPM (emerging in the regional culture of Northern California in the 60s) was an outlook on alienation and techniques to overcome alienation through personal and interpersonal experimentation. What somebody did to bust up alienation was not so important as doing something to bust up alienation.
The early HPM was just as much philospohical, spiritual, and eco-envionmental, creative/artisitc as psychological. Even if the seeds of mass group think were already sprouting.
Soon, HPM turned into everybody in a mass doing the identical activity, regardless of personal judgement or individual conscience. HPM got massified and commidified. Corporations liked it to build teams.
And what that so-called “HPM” ended up doing was producing the antithesis of “human potential.” What then mattered was not grappling with alienation. It was bowing down to being alienated just like a mass of others.
That is probably why–as a dedicated experimenter–I orbited around the then HPM and then continued on my own path as I grappled with alienation and never did get all that close to the massifed and marketed version.
November 28th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Put me in the “people all the way down” camp. Culture is a fragile thing. Shut off the electricity permanently and see what happens.
Spiritually speaking, we must always be reinventing the wheel.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Anne, just discovered your blog via the SF Examiner. so excited to see your work! on topic, I share your raised eyebrow about the HPM. too much light and not enough dirt. Especially as dreams are concerned, which so frequently reveal the dark parts of our mind and the shadows of the world. If dreams are evolutionarily significant, then it is precisely the darker material (working through conflict, social positioning, problem solving) that holds the promise.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I wonder how much of this is a product of economics. Perhaps it is just easier to sell evolution in a booming economy, more popular to speak of the fragility of culture and confronting the shadow when things are more uncertain. Thanks for your comments everyone…a new post in the same vein coming soon.