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Hugh Brody – The Other Side of Eden

Dreamers are aware of the facts, their brains are full of the right kinds of knowledge, but they leave it to a final ‘intuition’ to ‘see’ the correct choice.  Dreaming, like many shamanic techniques, allows a form of knowledge that in effect processes all other knowledge.

The hunter gatherers who rely on this form of knowledge could not achieve more reliable decisions by explicit deduction.  They acknowledge from the start that they do not and cannot control events.  Rather their task is to understand events by moving as close to them as possible.  Dreams take the dreamer not to some surreal universe in which the rational order is transcended .. but to the places and creatures he or she knows best.

The dreamer makes a journey into the land, although his body remains asleep in the safety of his home.  The dreamer crosses the boundary between humans and animals, making contact with his prey and may also move through the boundaries of time