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DREAMS OF THE ARAB SPRINGi

Deirdre Barrett and Stanley Krippner

Crick and Mitchison’s article on REM sleep as a random brain process in-

volved off-line memory consolidation.ii It reinforced the view, already held by

many neuroscientists, which dream content is basically without meaning. These

writers based their thinking on the notion that the brain is a neural network that

stores information during the day but nighttime stochastic noise is needed to

“cleanse” it of unwanted information that would otherwise overload its capacity.

However, later neural network stimulations tended to focus on the opposite prob-

lem of how such systems can overcome noise.iii Crick and Michelson pressed their

idea so far as to assert that people should not recall their dreams because such at-

tempts may retain patterns of thought that “are better forgotten.”

Contrary to these perspectives, many investigations of dream reports sup-

pose the conclusion that dream narratives are not random and unpatterned but, in

Alfred Adler’s terms, reflect a basic continuity with daily life.iv This point of

view was developed later by Calvin Hallv among others. This continuity between

dream reports and dreamers’ everyday life has been demonstrated not only for in-

dividualsvi but for cultures as well.vii

i We would like to thank DreamsCloud.com and Dr. Iain Edgar for their help in

locating relevant dreams.

ii Crick, Francis, and Graeme Mitchison. "The function of dream sleep." Nature

304, no. 5922 (1983): 111-114.

iii White, Olivia L., Daniel D. Lee, and Haim Sompolinsky. "Short-term memory

in orthogonal neural networks." arXiv preprint cond-mat/0402452 (2004).

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For example, Monroe, Nerlove, and Danielsviii studied three groups of

male Nigerian students, finding that their dream content differed in relation to

their tribal backgrounds. The Ibo culture has a value system favoring upward so-

cial mobility. Hausa culture does not support social mobility and individual

achievement. The Yoruba culture takes an intermediate position. The Yoruba stu-

dents’ dream reports contained more achievement themes than those of Hausa stu-

dents, but less than those of Ibo students. This is exactly what one would predict

if dreamlife reflects waking life.

Further contradicting the “garbage disposal theory of dreams” as dream re-

searchers nicknamed Crick and Michelson’s assertions, there is enormous anecdo-

tal evidence of dreams grappling with, and sometimes solving, major problems

ranging from the structure of benzene to plots for prize-winning literature.ix More

controlled problem-solving studies confirm the potential utility of dreams for this

purpose.x Cultures that emphasize dreams as a source of guidance have even more

examples of nocturnal guidance than dream-neglecting Western society. India’s

greatest mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, dreamed all of his mathematical

“proofs” and Mahatma Gandhi said that his non-violent protest of British rule in

India originated in a dream.xi The Arab world consists of various sub-cultures

with this type of emphasis.

Arab Dream Traditions and their Role in Previous Arab-world

Events

Secular Arabic traditions have focused on the potential of dreams to fore-

tell the future.  Sometimes the prediction is assumed to be literal and obvious,

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while on other occasions elaborate systems of symbolic translations were con-

sulted such as the tenth century Oneirocriticon of Achmetxii in which sever-

ity or even connotation often changed with the dream’s interpretation. For exam-

ple:

If someone dreams that he was decapitated in battle, he will re-ceive beneficence from a powerful man... (p.129)

If he dreams that a front tooth fell out, the closer of his kin will die... (p. 108)

If he dreams that his fingernails were pulled out, the misfortune will be even more severe, and this points to a short life... (p. 113)

In Islam, many of the foundations of the Koran were revealed to Muham-

mad in his ‘night journey’ which moderate branches of Islam construe as a di-

vinely inspired dream. Muhammad ordered the practice of adhan, the daily call

to prayer from the minarets and a central ritual of Islam to this day after one of his

followers dreamed of it. The split of Islam into the conflicting factions of Sunni

and Shiite was based partly on a dream of Mohammed, which the Sunnis used to

justify their rights as his successors.

The autobiographies of Muslim rulers often contain extensive dream di-

aries and examples of decisions ostensibly based on dreams.  When the Shah of

Iran was deciding whether to seek a loan from Russia, he dreamed that a famous

theological figure dressed in primitive Muslim garb approached the Shah and

threw at his feet a sack containing gold and silver.  The interpretation of this

dream was that the Shah shouldn't make any new loans with unbelievers but

should trust that fellow servants of the faith would restore his finances. Saddam

Hussein reported dreaming that Allah told him to enter and take back Kuwait just

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before the first Gulf War.xiii Before the second Gulf War, he reported a dream that

a snake came upon his path but he chopped off its head with a sword which he in-

terpreted to mean Western invaders would be vanquished.xiv

Contemporary Islamic militant jihadists (Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden,

Atta, Reid etc.) routinely legitimate their calling through reference to dreams, and

appear to interpret night dreams as being both inspirational and even strategic in

their jihad.xv xvi

Because of this emphasis on dreams as foretelling the future rather than

arising from the past, many Arabs who are having PTSD nightmares of an event

occurring each night experience even more anxiety over whether this will indeed

occur again than dreamers in other cultures. In a study of PTSD nightmares in

Kuwaiti survivors of the Iraqi invasion, the dreamers were extremely likely to

view dreams about horrific encounters with the Iraqi army as meaning that the

Iraqis were going to return rather than simply as being about the past.xvii

ivAdler, Alfred. (1938/1964). Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler.

HarperCollins.

v Hall, Calvin, S., and Robert Van de Castle (1966). The content analysis of

dreams. East Norwalk, CT, US: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

vi Domhoff, G. William. The scientific study of dreams: Neural net-

works, cognitive development, and content analysis. American Psy-

chological Association, 2003.

vii Prasad, B. "Content analysis of dreams of Indian and American college stu-

dents: A cultural comparison." Journal of Indian Psychology (1982).

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The positive side to this emphasis on dreams foretelling the future happens

when people in the midst of turmoil dream of positive outcomes.  These can be a

source of optimism and inspiration in Arab culture, while in Western traditions

they would be dismissed as "wish fulfillment" without the beneficial impact.

Dreams Occurring before the Arab Spring

In December 2010, the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi sparked

protests that toppled the government of Tunesia (where Bouazizi lived) and

spread across parts of North Africa and the Middle East. In her essay, “Is there an

Arab Dream? Musings at a Difficult Time in the ‘Arab Spring,’” Sarah

Eltantawixviii wrote from Cairo:

viii Monroe, R.L., Nerlove, S., and R. Daniels. “Effects of population density on

food concerns in three East African societies.” Journal of Health and Social

Behavior, 10, (1969): 161-171.

ix Barrett, D. (2001). The committee of sleep: How artists, scientists,

and athletes use dreams for creative problem-solving–and how

you can too. Crown/Random House.

x Barrett, Deirdre. "The" committee of sleep": A study of dream incubation for

problem solving." Dreaming, 3, no. 2 (1993): 115.

xi Barrett, D. (2001) op. cit. Chapter 8: When Gandhi dreamed of resistance.

xii Oberhelman, S. M. (Ed.). (1991). The Oneirocriticon of Achmet: a

medieval Greek and Arabic treatise on the interpretation of

dreams. Texas Tech University Press.

xiii Barrett, D. (2001). op. cit.

xiv Grove, Lloyd. The Reliable Source. The Washington Post, May 1 (2003)

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The air is still thick with heat. It’s the kind that sends you, ex-hausted, to bed midday to submit to naps so deep you are sure your cells are regenerating at accelerated speed. Your lungs ache a bit with breathing. The dreams of these naps are excessively sharp with color; the subconscious’ deepest tresses excavated, as if by di-vine pitchfork. The kind of dreams that give a strong cup of coffee upon awaking a feeling of a lifeline. Being forced into these dreams by nature, I wonder if they can be made of use.

If Adler’s continuity hypothesis is valid, one would expect to see aspects

of the so-called “Arab Spring” in dream reports of people in those regions. And,

given dream beliefs in the region, one might expect them to be “made use” of for

guidance, inspiration, and warnings by many of the dreamers. In 2013, we re-

quested our contacts in that part of the world to collect dream reports that seemed,

in some way, connected to the protest movements.

Some dreams in the collection we gathered presaged the events, often by

several years. Akbar (a pseudonym, as are all dreamer’s names in this essay ex-

cept those of public figures), an Algerian, reported a dream from November 2002,

one that he claimed reflected the spread of revolution fervor some 8 or 9 years

later.

I see a mountain. It is very high and wide, and it rises from the middle of a desert. I entered one of the caves in this mountain and found a medium-sized rock incursion in the earth. Then I moved that rock aside. Once I did this, huge amounts of oil came out of the slit. It poured onto the desert and spread wide until it became a river.

One could make the case that the spreading oil is a metaphor for the way

that protests appeared in several countries following Bouazizi’s suicide. However,

this is a post-hoc interpretation; more likely the flowing oil mirrored the way that

newly discovered oil behaves once discovered.

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A more likely premonitory dream was reported by Fawzia in July 2013, an

Egyptian, before Mohamed Morsi, the legitimately elected president, had been de-

posed in an army coup.

I am looking at Morsi and am surprised because he is dressed in tattered rags. He is the president, so why is he dressed so shabbily?

Fawzia recalled another dream a few nights later.

I see Morsi in the presidential palace. He is wearing a delicately colored suit. A military officer is asking him to go outside the palace to see the large crowd of his supporters.

Both dreams occurred very shortly before the coup. The first dream may

have reflected the rumors about the army’s plan to seize power, something that

Fawzia, a backer of Morsi, did not want to occur. Her second dream may have re-

flected her wish that Morsi remain in power. This might be an example of Freud’s

“wish fulfillment,” something he thought characterized most dreams, but a phe-

nomenon that backers of the continuity hypothesis relegate to a minority of dream

reports. A very interesting variation on a wish fulfillment dream occurred in this

dream of a young woman in Egypt just before the Arab Spring:

I am observing a group of women who are parading for their rights. I am not sure what country this is in.  There must be several hundred women protesting the government repression. They win their battle but it is short lived. There is a new government that gives the women their rights. But soon another government comes in that abolishes the rights, and the women seem to be right back where they started from. My mood is one of disappointment.

In a way, this parallels the government overthrow and then the military

coup ousting the new regime. However, this woman’s dreamed revolution was

more the one she would have liked to see. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood

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was not known for their sympathy for women's rights, and the military coup was

associated with suppression of women's rights. But it is still a remarkable dream

in many ways.

Majda, a young woman of the United Arab Emirates had a sober premoni-

tion of how events might go. As events were beginning to unfold in 2011, she

dreamed:

I am outside of Dubai in a desert area, and look back at the sky-scrapers.  I think that I am lucky to be in a stable situation because as I look into the distance I see a sandstorm coming. I know it will not hit my country but I feel badly about the people who will be hurt by it. When I wake up I am sad, which is an unusual feelings for me upon awakening.

The metaphor of a sandstorm which her unconscious offered and her res-

ulting sadness are much closer to how many of the participants might consciously

view the events now than they were at the time of this dream.

An Egyptian journalist sent us his translations of three dreams that were

circulated after the June 30 coup. The alleged dreamer was Abd El Fatah El Sisi,

the Egyptian Minister of Defence who toppled Mohammed Morsi. These dreams

were circulated by the Muslim Brotherhood in an attempt to portray El Sisi as a

megalomaniac who thought that his dreams predicted the future. These dreams

came from an old audio interview with El Sisi broadcast by Qatari station al Jaz-

eera, hence they are probably authentically something El Sisi was trying to pro-

mote in the initial interview but was asking after the coup. El Sisi observed, in the

interview:

I have had many dreams that came true, including these dreams

from 35 years ago. I am brandishing a red word in which the reli-

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gious slogan, “There is no God but Allah” was inscribed. I was

wearing a large watch decorated by a very big star. The watch was

the Omega brand and people kept asking me, “Why are you, not

anybody else, wearing this magnificent watch?” I say to them,

“This watch was made to be mine, and its name is Omega means

“universality.” And that word is mine too.. In the second dream, I

hear somebody say to me, “We will give you something very pre-

cious, something that nobody else has ever had.” And in the third

dream the late President Anwar Sadat is saying to me, “I already

knew that you would be Egypt’s next president.” I replied, “Me

too.”

The first dream is quite general, and the word “Omega” is given a strange

meaning, even in translation, since “Omega” is the last letter of the Greek alpha-

bet and in the Western world is generally thought to connote finality. The final

two dreams are both more recent and more specific. If El Sisi was giving an hon-

est report, they do seem to presage actual events. However, the use of these

dreams to discredit El Sisi is as provocative as the dreams themselves as it dis-

plays the Muslim belief that dreams can be premonitory. The newspaper article

was meant to expose El Sisi as a self-promoter who used these dreams to enhance

his own reputation.

Islamic militants indeed announced supposed premonitory dream content

during the events of the Arab Spring to legitimate their positions. In a 2011 video-

tape produced in Syria, titled “Dream (glad tidings) of the killing of the killer/

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criminal/illegal Bashar at the hands of his associates,”xix Sheikh Mohammed Alja-

mal and Sheikh Hassan Al-Hussein describe dreams of others which presaged

Arab Spring events which had already happened such as the killing of Muammar

Qaddafi in Libya and the imprisonment of Hussnei Mubarak. They use the term

"Ro'aa ُر;ؤى" which literally means vision, but implies a divinely-inspired dream

when it refers to the experience of an ordinary believer, as only prophets are as-

sumed to have waking visions. Then Aljamal and Al-Hussein describe dreams

which they imply predict the outcome of the Syrian Civil War which was in its

early stages at the time. Their first example is:

This dream came before the events in Tunis. One of the good peo-ple. . . saw a group gather over a lion and they ate it. And this dream was a prophecy of the falling of the regime and the humilia-tion of its members.

Their interpretation hinges on the fact that the name Assad means ‘lion’ in

Arabic. Indeed, in the pun-like manner of dreams which Freud dubbed “visual

representation,” this image could be a rather obvious metaphor for the fall or

death of Syrian President Bashar Assad. In an ironic aside, however, two years

after the video was made and just as this book was going to press, major newspa-

pers around the world flashed the headline: “Starving rebels eat lion from a Dam-

ascus zoo,”xx accompanied by graphic photos and video of men in the suburb Al-

Ghouta butchering the unfortunate animal--eerily reminiscent of the dream ac-

count. Al-Ghouta was one of the areas hit by chemical gas attacks, and papers re-

ported that Syrian imams had issued a fatwa that allows people living in those ar-

eas to eat meats that are normally forbidden under Islamic law, including dogs,

cats and donkeys.

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Aljamal and Al-Hussein’s next three examples are safer from alternative

interpretations as more obvious representations of the triumph of the rebels:

The second dream is that somebody saw the flag of Syria was be-ing placed in a coffin.

One of the imams in Lebanon narrated to me a dream that involved Syria with its

houses’ doors lying open.

Another good man of Lebanon, when remembering God Almighty, was taken into sleep. When he woke up he said: “Look forward in anticipation, for I have seen the people of Syria rejoicing happily and inviting us to have breakfast feasts over there during Ra-madan.”

Their last example is the most literal:

A man I consider from the good people, and he’s from Syria, nar-rated to me a dream that Bashar Al-Assad was killed by people around him close to him--people he trusts.

Aljamal and Al-Hussein assure listeners that these dreams mean that

“Bashar will be killed by the hands of his own associates as per Sheikh-ul-Islam’s

dream …. The victory is near . . . be patient. The Prophet said . . . near the [end]

time, the dreams of true believers will not lie.” So far, this seems to be wishful

thinking--whether by the original dreamers or by the imams in their cherry-pick-

ing of dreams. The only accurate prediction so far is the unfortunate lion; two

years after the video was made, Assad still hangs onto power.

Dreams Occurring during the Arab Spring

Other dreams are contemporaneous with political events--the unconscious

mind’s representation of what the waking self is witnessing. In 2011, an Indian

student, Nakul, was in Cairo during the uprisings leading to the demise of the

Mubarak regime when he had the following dream:

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I am in a dark house that is completely unfamiliar to me. Outside there are camels that seem to be searching for me. I am terrified because I do not know how to fight camels. But I do know that they can go a long time without water so they will keep looking in-definitely. One of the camels is unusually large and savage look-ing. But it is very dark inside and outside, so I am able to elude them. I wake up terrified.

This young man seems to be caught up in events beyond his control, with

hostile forces that are searching to destroy anyone not like themselves (in ideol-

ogy, perhaps) and so the hostility is not personal.  Because there is so much con-

fusion, he is able to escape them, at least at the time he had the dream. He did re-

turn to India safely.

In 2013, Azzam, an Egyptian, reported a dream in which “an Egyptian

general who had been sacked by Morsi was chasing me into a building. Canisters

were being fired at him as well as at other protestors, with tear gas being emitted

from small windows.” The dreamer was a supporter of Morsi who had been de-

posed before he had this dream. This dream may have reflected his anxiety about

the military leaders who could well have tracked down and imprisoned all sup-

porters of the former president.

Once Morsi had been deposed, the event was reflected in dreams of his

Egyptian supporters and opponents. One supporter, Areed, reported a dream that

he recalled in July 2013:

I dreamed that Morsi, who had been ousted by the military in June, was under detention. In this dream, I am sitting around a television set with members of his family. One of his sons attacks me ver-bally, even though I supported his father. Afterwards he tries to console me and apologizes. The whole family apologizes. Al-though I feel satisfied and tell them so, they keep apologizing. And then they stop.

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This dream might reflect Areed’s disappointment with the fate of Morsi.

He might have thought that some of Morsi’s actions were responsible for his loss

of power, and the dream indicates the dreamer’s hope that Morsi will recognize

the mistakes that he made. The family members are ambivalent about recognizing

the situation but finally take some responsibility by apologizing to the dreamer

and, quite likely, the other supporters who felt let down.

Ragab Ez El Deen--another Egyptian, and in this case a researcher in po-

litical science who wanted his real name included, also interjected himself into

contemporary events during the Arab Spring.

I am being chased by Tantawy, a military commander who headed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which took over power during the transition after the Mubarak regime collapsed.. He is chas-ing me from house to house. I wondered how Tantwi could be so earnest in chasing me although he is such an old man. I made him believe that I have holed  in a house. He stormed such house.   A mob caught him when he tried to go out of the house.

In this dream, El Deen may fear that his political sentiments may put him

at risk. However, there are many people who agree with him and he gets out of

harm’s way. This dream could well reflect the political realities of Egypt in

which shifting power structures endanger people whose allegiances differ from

the group in control at any given time.

In Jordan, where King Abdullah II was responding to protests by replacing

unpopular prime ministers and altering laws, a young woman, Aini, viewed the

Arab Spring much more positively. In August 2012, a month after the major

protests had replaced officials and a month before demonstrations over fuel prices

persuaded the King to drop the price, Aini reported:

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My dream started with me climbing a red mountain with someone (a distorted imp-like someone, come to think of it), and when he couldn't climb anymore he said he was going back down, and jumped all the way down from our height to the bottom. Being near the top, I struggled to the peak. But to my dismay, there was nowhere to go, so I decided to do the same as him and jump down.

Then, as I was waking up, I had a half-dream, half-day-dream. I thought what if I hadn't jumped down the way I came from, but had dived over the cliff on the other side? So I did. I jumped from the cliff. Then all of a sudden I was swimming in a clear lake, with fishes underwater, complete with corals reefs. I was swimming peacefully when all of a sudden a huge shark came, probably a great white. I was wondering if I should swim for the shore, when it started to come for me. But it kept missing, and re-ally I wasn't afraid at all. I realized that someone, or something, in-visible was protecting me. A strong and reliable entity. The shark darted for me one last time, and annoyed by its persistence (that was the feeling I got), the entity took it and smashed it down, one side then the other, like a pancake.

Aini’s dream repeatedly introduced danger--the cliff, the shark. And re-

peatedly there was some magic entity helping her, but she also gained in efficacy

herself. This seemed to reflect the nature of the protest process in Jordan: cer-

tainly scary at times, as the police stood by prepared to move in if demonstrations

got too intense. But eventually, as with the shark, Aini learned she didn’t need to

be too afraid and could assert herself. No doubt the dream contains many other

layers of personal meaning for a young woman struggling with becoming an adult

and being a woman in male-dominated world, but her role as protestor and citizen

of a country engaged in change seems to be a potent part of the story.

Madhia, a teenager from Afghanistan, told our informant that, in her opin-

ion, the Arab Spring had redefined the entire Arab culture. She continued, “Entire

populations broke the silence and openly criticized the then-current state of af-

fairs. Even in countries like Syria, where dissent is viciously marginalized, pro-

testers continue to call for an end to state mandated oppression.” Madhia had a

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dream in which a voice was signing about the Arab Spring. She recalled what she

could and recast the song, which she called “Dream with Me.” This translation

was done by our informant.

Dream with me.Tomorrow’s coming,And if it doesn’t comeWe will bring it ourselves.All of our steps will lead us to our dream,No matter how many times we fall.We can always get up.We can break through the darkness.We can turn our night into a thousand days.

Dreams after the Arab Spring

The hope expressed in Madhia’s song did not last. The expected “Demo-

cratic Domino” failed to materialize. Long-time dictators were deposed in Egypt

and Libya, but the governments that followed were not paragons of democracy or

even of stability. An uprising in Yemen failed to take hold, and protests in other

countries were repressed or simply fizzled out. Syria has been locked in a bitter

civil war ever since. Some commentatorsxxi have complained that the “Arab

Spring” term was the invention of Western journalists. The term is an allusion to

the European revolutions of 1848, which are sometimes collectively referred to as

the "Springtime of the People", and to the “Prague Spring” of 1968. These analo-

gies to Western-style democratic revolutions may never have reflected the reali-

ties of events in the countries at the epicenter of the protests.

Amir, a high school student living in the occupied West Bank who experi-

enced it’s turnmoil all of his life, now watches Syria’s civil war just over the bor-

der. He hears the news daily and encounters acquaintances who’ve been over the

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border and directly involved, but Amir has played no role in Syria. However, he

finds his dream tumbling him into the battle without warning in the midst of nor-

mal teenage activities:

I was in my Jericho house, and fixed something to eat . . .and Skyped a bit and solved some chemistry questions . . . Then, I took out a rifle for my duties as a Lieutenant in the Arab Syrian Army and went on a find-and-kill mission for Free Syrian Army (FSA) members in Jericho.... I saw some FSA members sneak-ing to the left...I shot them down, 2 men... There was no real recoil, or any sense of shooting, nor was there blood or screams or sounds...I just aimed and they were lying dead on the ground next... I saw one of my men get shot in the head...

So he eats, chats with friends, and then war rages--a reality in that part of

the Middle East that’s only gotten more exaggerated for anyone near the Syrian

border. The observation that the dream lacked gritty, real-life details as people

suddenly lay dead could result from the dreamer’s experiences playing video-

games, not military service; but it also could be dissociation developed through a

waking lifetime of witnessed violence. A couple weeks later, Amir had a dream--

the only one in our sample to overtly compare Arab Spring to European strug-

gles--but emphasizing their darkest resemblance:

I was a soldier in a militia, the black guardians, and our job was to cover the Arab Syrian Army by shooting the Free Syrian Army members... My fellow members were shooting bulls-eyes in the Free army's heads....I, on the other hand missed all my shots. Then I hit a fellow Arab Syrian Soldier...friendly fire. I saw the soldier collapse with a small burst of blood, through the scope of my sniper. I felt deep shame...not only am I failing in killing the en-emy, but I am killing our own men. A bullet hit me, in the leg. I collapse.... The enemy comes....They raise me and place me in an "ambulance." It was a donkey driven cart, with the cart being fenced with wooden fence. Like a large baby's cradle... I lay mo-tionless...

Then in the transitionless way that can only happen in dreams:

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I was a French soldier injured in a battle in the early 1800s be-tween the French and the British... I was thrown into the cart again, and dragged away.... I only showed agony and despair once we were negotiating the curb... as I was taken into the unknown....Next thing I know, I am an Orc and loosing to a battle against the centaur demigod as the last Orc Grunt. I try diplomacy, and slash my head goes off...I hear a voice saying “Our hero has been slain,” just like the video-game I was playing right before I fell asleep.

Conflict in his own country, war in Syria, ancient battles from history

books, and an intergalactic video-game swirl in a mix of permanent war. Awake,

Amir does view the FSA negatively, but he’s not an admirer of the SAA. He be-

lieves the current regime may be a slightly more stable force from the perspective

of the Palestinian refugee camps, but says “no side is an angel and you don’t re-

ally support a side in that sort of a free for all.” The dream’s imagery reflects that:

though Amir is cast on a particular side in each scene, both sides always behave

equally aggressively. And it’s a SAA member he ends up shooting. The general

message seems to be all wars are hell. For Amir, the battles around him have dis-

rupted his ability to enjoy childhood play and teenage exploration without vio-

lence and survival issues intruding.

Jasmine, who lives in Morocco, reported a gentler if perhaps equally sad

dream:

I am watching a scene in the desert. Some lovely flowers were blooming. Their colors are remarkable, like something I had not seen in my waking life. But the colors begin to fade and the plants begin to die. Soon there is nothing there but sand, shifting sand.

This dream could well be a metaphor for the dashed hopes of the Arab

Spring. Jasmine lives in a country barely touched by either the successes or fail-

ures of the protests. As a result, she can distance herself from these events and

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give a reaction that does not put her in the middle of the action, as was the case

with the Egyptian and Palestinian/Syrian border dreamers.

Naval, a man viewing these events from India has an equally removed per-

spective and his dreams perhaps incorporate more sense of the partial successes,

partial failures and continuing nature of the story:

I am watching a herd of horses running over a desert. They are all very strong and very powerful. They seem to be Arabian horses and I think that they represent various countries in the region. Sud-denly, the horses go off in their own direction and there is no more unity. The horses do not turn against each other; they simply run off toward different parts of the desert. I feel sad that they could not longer stay the common course.

Conclusion

Our review of Arab Spring dreams supports Alfred Adler's thesis of conti-

nuity between dream life and waking life. Each of the dream reports we have

cited is a reflection of actual events before, during, or after that period of history

and/or the dreamer's reaction to those events. Our review also mirrors many Ara-

bic traditions regarding dreams, suggesting that future historians include reported

dreams as an important supplement to their descriptions of the social and political

movements, and their sequels, that they study. These occurrences would be more

thoroughly understood if dream reports were added to first-person interviews,

post-hoc ruminations, media presentations, and other customary data sources.

Without paying attention to unconscious dynamics, a historical record of critical

world and region events is lacking layers of it’s psychological causation and

meaning.

xv Washington Post (2001). Text: Bin Laden Discusses Attacks on Tape, Dec. 13.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/nation/specials/attacked/

transcripts/binladentext_121301.html Retrieved 11/20/13.

xvi Edgar, Iain. R. “The Dream Will Tell: Militant Muslim Dreaming in the Con-

text of Traditional and Contemporary Islamic Dream Theory and Practice.”

Dreaming, 1, no. 41 (2004): 21.

xvii Barrett, Deirdre and Behbehani, Jaffar (2003). Post-Traumatic Nightmares in

Kuwait Following the Iraqi Invasion. In Krippner, Stanley, and Teresa M.

McIntyre, eds. The psychological impact of war trauma on civil-

ians: An international perspective. Greenwood Publishing Group, 135.

xviii Eltantawi, Sarah (2012). “Is there an Arab Dream? Musings at a Difficult

Time in the ‘Arab Spring,’“ Muftah: Free and Open Debate from Morocco to Pak-

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xix Bastawy, Mahmoud (2011). Dream (glad tidings) of the killing of the killer/

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xxThe Times “Starving rebels eat lion from a Damascus zoo” Nov 29, 2013

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xxi Alhassen Maytha (2012). Please Reconsider the Term "Arab Spring" Huffin-

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The research reflected in this chapter was supported by the Saybrook University Chair for the Study of Consciousness.