(This is a continuation of last week's post.) The Freudian idea of dreams, in a nutshell: The essence of the dream is wish-fulfillment. As transient dwellers in a world not exactly designed for our individual satisfactions, each of us is bound to harbor a host of intense and vital wishes, … [Read more...]
Prophetic Dreams – Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and “Blackhawk” Comics (Part 2)
I posted last week about Mark Twain's precognitive dream of his brother's death. This week I'll talk about my own prophetic dream--the one I had when I was 9 years old, or possibly 10. Of a "Blackhawk" comic book. Remember "Blackhawk"? If you're younger than about 55, you almost certainly … [Read more...]
Prophetic Dreams – Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and “Blackhawk” Comics (Part 1)
In 1858, Mark Twain had a prophetic dream of the death of his brother. In 1958, or possibly a year or so earlier, I experienced a prophetic dream of my own, on a subject vastly more banal. Specifically, a full-page panel of a "Blackhawk" comic book. Samuel Clemens--Twain's original name--was a … [Read more...]
An Initiatory Journey – Jeffrey Kripal’s “Comparing Religions” (Part 1)
Review of Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms, by Jeffrey J. Kripal; with Ata Anzali, Andrea R. Jain, and Erin Prophet. Wiley Blackwell, 2014. Has there ever been a book like Jeffrey Kripal's Comparing Religions? If there has, I haven't seen it, and in my 24 years as a professor of religious … [Read more...]
