Threat in Dreams: A Response to Threat Simulation Theory
A. Revonsuo (2000b) proposed an evolutionary theory of dreaming, stating it is a threat simulation mechanism that allowed early humans to rehearse threat perception and avoidance without biological cost.
The present study aimed to establish the proportion of dreams containing physical threats to the dreamer, whether these represent realistic life-threatening events, and whether the dreamer successfully and realistically escapes. It also examined incidence of threatening events in real life.
A sample of most recent dreams was collected (N = 401). Only 8.48% of dreamers reported realistic life-threatening events in dreams and a realistic escape subsequently occurred in only one third of these reports. Actual severe life-threatening events were experienced by 44.58% of the sample.
These findings contradict key aspects of Revonsuo’s theory. Link Previous SCR article
While reading this I began thinking about a presentation given by Jayne Gackenbach, PhD at the IASD 24th Annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Her work is on how heavy online gamers tend to have more lucid dreams than the normal population. If Revonsuo is correct, or at least somewhat correct, in saying there is part of dreaming involved in threat simulation, then this might explain why heavy gamers acheive lucidity above the normal population, ie that they are ‘relieving’ the brain of some of its dream-simulation needs in spending so much of the day in games that involve, well, threat simulation. This would ‘free up’ dream time for other purposes. That is, the dreaming mind, released of its constraints to simulate threats, might be free to self-reflect. This should be able to be tested by comparing gamers who focus on threat simulation type games to those who focus on other types of VR games (rare as that probably is at this time, but maybe Sim City fanatics or something). Also needing to be tested would be why the freed dreaming mind becomes self-reflective instead of say, occupied with flying or other dreaming pleasures and pains. Some of this has aleady been explored by Gackenbach, see http://www.spiritwatch.ca/
– Richard Wilkerson
Comment by Richard Wilkerson — July 22, 2007 @ 1:23 pm