the dream of spiritual
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The Dream of Spiritual Initiation and the Organization of Self Representations among
Pakistani SufisAuthor(s): Katherine P. EwingSource: American Ethnologist, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb., 1990), pp. 56-74Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/645252 .
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the dream of
spiritual
nitiation
and the
organization
of self
representations
among
Pakistanisufis
KATHERINEP.
EWING-University
of North
Carolina,
Chapel
Hill
A
Pakistani
man,
after
dreaming
that
two sufis come
to
him and feed
him,
may
find his life
transformedas a result of
his dream.
The
power
of dreams
to
change
a
person's
life has been
observed
by anthropologists
and
psychologists
(for
example,
Hallowell
1966;
Singer
and
Pope
1978;
Wallace
1952, 1956),
but
the
process
of transformation
s not well
understood.
This ar-
ticle will show how a semiotic model of the self, which sees a person as an ever-changing array
of self
representations
constituted
through
dialogue,1
can
explain
this transformative
power
of
a dream
in
terms
of the dream's
content and
its
relationship
to the dreamer's
subsequent
ex-
periences.
Too much
dream research
has focused
on content
at the
wrong
level,
at least
for
present
purposes.
Freudian
psychoanalysts
have
downplayed
the
significance
of manifest
dream con-
tent in their search for the
disguised
wishes
and conflicts
that constitute
the
latent content
of
a dream
(Freud 1965[1900]:345-347).
But,
while a dream
clearly
weaves
together
elements
from the dreamer's
past,
expressing
his
disguised
impulses
and
conflicts,
as Freud
demon-
strated,
it must also
be a
projection
into
a
culturally
articulated
future
(see
Basso
1987:99)
if
it
is to be transformative.Thisarticle will show that this
projection
can be identified in the man-
ifest content
of the
dream,
which
simultaneously replicates
a cultural
template
and
expresses
the dreamer's
idiosyncratic
concerns
in
a
cultural
idiom that
may
be
socially
communicated.
These concerns
can
be
understood
as a desire
to
establish
a
self-image
that
is
congruent
with
the
dreamer's
current
circumstances
and that
facilitates
his
resolution
of
persistent
personal
conflicts.
However,
the
significance
of
the content
of
a dream
ultimately depends
on
subsequent
events,
on
how the
future
actually
unfolds.
A
sufi
initiation
dream,
for
example,
may
have a
powerful
impact
on
the dreamer's
system
of
self
representations,
so that
as a resultof the
dream
the dreamer
comes
to
regard
himself as
the
disciple
of some
sufi teacher.
Butthe
social salience
of a
particular
elf
representation
will
depend
upon
subsequent
events
and
may
shift
over time
as
external conditions
change.
If
the
dreamer
does
not
succeed
in
resolving
conflicts
by
adopt-
ing
the new
self
representation,
the
relevance
of both
the self
representation
and
the dream
may
Pakistanidreams
of
initiation
into
a sufi
order
illustrate
how
a dream
may
have
the
power
to transform
the dreamer
by
becoming
the
basis
for
a
new,
semiotically
constituted self
representation.
The semiotic
power
of the dream
can be
under-
stood
only
by
considering
several
aspects
of the
dreaming
process:
how the
man-
ifest dream
content
simultaneously replicates
a cultural
template
and
expresses
the
dreamer's
idiosyncratic
concerns and
conflicts,
how the
interpretation
of the
dream
facilitates the
establishment
of
a new
self
representation
and associated
so-
cial
relationships
which
may
resolve
the dreamer's
conflicts,
and
finally
how
the
significance
of
the dream
is
ultimately
determined
by
the dreamer's
ability
to re-
alize
the
expectations
of
the new
self
representation
in
his
subsequent
life.
[dreams,
self-concepts, psychological
anthropology,
semiotics,
sufism,
Pakistan]
56 american
ethnologist
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diminish. The dream loses
its transformative
power.
A
dream's
potentially
transformative
power,
in
other
words,
comes from
its
ability
to
give
rise to an
appropriate
self
representation
and
is
limited
by
the dreamer's
ability
to
realize
the
expectations
of the
new
self
representation
in
his
subsequent
life.
dreams and self
representations
as
semiotic
signs
It
may
be difficult for some
readers to
imagine
how a
phenomenon
as insubstantial as a
dream could transform
omething
as
apparently
fundamental and
enduring
as
a
personality, 2
or
what Freud
(1963[1908])
called
character. 3
But if
instead
of
focusing
on a
reified
entity
such as
personality
or
character,
we
recognize
that dreams and self
representations
are both
semiotic
signs,4
the
transformation
becomes more
plausible.
The
ongoing
experience
of
self
is a
process
of
which
we are not
consciously
aware. We
cannot even reflect upon it without converting it into self representations (see Mead
1962
[1934]:1 73-178).
Through
this reflective
process,
self
representations
become
signs,
like
the
units
of
language
and other cultural
representations
such as
myths
and
images.5
Dreams,
which we
experience through language
and
imagery,
are also made
up
of
signs.
For
Peirce,
the
theory
of
signs
is embedded
in a
theory
of action. In
Singer's
words
(1978:224):
Peirce's
conception
of
sign processes
(semiosis)
as a
process
of
growth
and de-
velopment
of
signs
from other
signs depends
on
the
persuasive
force of
signs
in
the
mind
of the
interpreter.
t
is
precisely
this
persuasive aspect
of
signs
that
enables
the
signs
which
constitute
a dream to
give
rise
to new
signs
in the form of
new
self
representations
(this
rhetorical
process
being
in
part
an inner
dialogue)
and to
shape
the actions of the
dreamer
and his associates.6
Both dreams and self representationsare an amalgam of cultural ideas of personhood and
impressions
of
the individual's
unique
experiences
of himself
vis-a-vis others.
In all
dreams,
a
dreamer draws
upon
the cultural
concepts
and
signs
in terms of which he has
learned to or-
ganize
his
world,
but he breaks them
apart
and combines them
in
idiosyncratic,
even
absurd,
ways
in
order to assimilate
daily
experiences
and resolve
intrapsychic
conflicts
(Freud
1965[1900]:197-220).
Out of this
bricolage
(Levi-Strauss
1966:16-26)
may emerge
a
dream,
which
has as one of its
interpretants
n the mind of
the dreamer a new self
representa-
tion. This
new
representation necessarily
has roots
in
an
individual's
past experience
but in-
volves
a
realigning
of
signs
and
a
relabeling
of
intrapsychic phenomena,
such as libidinal im-
pulses,
aggression,
and
the
experience
of
dependency.
Thisprocess is most likely to occur when stress arises fromconflicts between a person's ex-
isting
self
representations
and his current situation.
A
dream has
the
power
to
transform the
dreamer's
semiotically
constituted self
representations by
providing
new
signs
in
terms of
which
the
self
can
be articulated. These new
signs
may
allow
the individual to feel a
greater
congruence
between his inner
experience
and his current social
expectations.7
They may
alter
the
dreamer's interactions and
relationships
with others.
Taking
off
from
the
perspective
that
the
dreaming process
facilitates
the
integration
of new
experiences
into
one's
existing organi-
zation of self
representations
(see,
for
example,
Palombo
1978),
I
go
furtherand
suggest
that a
potentially
transformative dream
may actually
become a node around
which a
nascent self
representation,
a
new
cluster
of
signs,
is
formed. The Pakistani businessman
who
experiences
a sufi initiationdream, for instance, may suddenly regardhimself as the futuredisciple of a sufi
teacher whom
he has not
yet
met.
This self
representation
may
affect
many
of
his
subsequent
actions and
interactions with others.
Given
this
perspective
on the
self,
the
potentially
trans-
formative
power
of the dream is
more
apparent.
Dreams
have the
greatest
transformative
potential
in cultures that allow
people
to
experience
their dreams
as
significant.
Because we
Westerners
separate
our dreams
sharply
from
waking
life,
we
typically
do
not
regard
our
dreams
as
significant,
at
least in
public
discourse.
When the
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dreamer remains
silent about
his
dream,
it
usually
slips
away
and takes on no social
signifi-
cance,
so that
even
highly synthetic,
reconstitutive
dreams,
while
they may help
the
dreamer
assimilate his
experiences
to
existing
self
representations,
may
not
provide
any
basis for ac-
tually
modifying
the self
representations.
But
other
eras and
other cultures have attributed
sig-
nificance to dreams in
very
different,
far
more
public
ways.
Thus,
the
phenomenology
of
dreaming
is
shaped
by
cultural codes
for
interpreting
dreams,
indigenous
discourse about
dreaming
(such
as dream
sharing),
and the social contexts in which
such
discourse takes
place
(Bastide
1966;
Herdt
1987;
Kracke
1979,
1987;
Tedlock
1987;
Tuzin
1975).
These are all as-
pects
of the
culturally shaped
manifest content of a dream.
Among
Pakistani
Muslims,
many people
feel that
they
have
significant
dreams,
and
dreams
are often the
basis
for
decision-making
and
action.
A
dream that is
interpreted
o
mean initiation
into
a
sufi order is
regarded
as rare and valuable and
is
particularly ikely
to become the node
around
which
a
nascent self
representation
is
formed. From a
Pakistani
perspective,
such a
dream takes on its
significance
because of its
particular, culturally
recognized
structure and
content,
which form the
basis
for
interpretation
of
the dream.
In
this
case,
as in
other societies where dreams
are
regarded
as
socially significant,
a cultural
template,
that
is,
a
particular
structure of
signs
with a
consensually
agreed
upon
significance,
is
available for the
dreamer
to draw
upon
to
shape
and
organize
the manifest content of a
dream.8
The
manifest
content of the
dream
is,
in
other
words,
based on
a
culturally
available
model.
The
dreamer has
actually
dreamed
a
variant
of a
myth
(see
Kracke
1987).
When
this
happens,
the
apparently intrapsychic
act
of
dreaming may,
paradoxically,
become a form of
social
action.9 The dream narrative
(the
dream as
told)
becomes
as
public
and
culturally
or-
ganized
as
a
myth, yet
it
retains
the
particular
characteristics that reflect
the
dreamer's
unique
situation. The act of
dreaming
a
particular
dream then becomes
the
basis
for
redefining
social
relationships and the foundation of a transformed self representation.10These changes are
linked
because
a self
representation
is
inherently
a mode
of
relating
to others.
But transformationoccurs
over
time,
and
it is also
important
to consider the aftermath
of a
significant
dream-what the
long-term
effects
of the
particular
dream are on the
dreamer's life.
Though
the
relationship
of the sufi
initiation dream's
manifest
content to a cultural
template
and the cultural code
of dream
interpretation
are
necessary components
of
the dream's
signif-
icance,
they
are
not sufficient
for
explaining
the extent to
which the dream
shapes
the dreamer's
life. Such a dream takes
on its
significance
in the social world
not
solely
because
of the structure
and content of the
dream,
which are
what Pakistanis
themselves
would focus
on,
but
also be-
cause of interactions
between
the
dreamer
and
others
in
particular
situations,
as individuals
establish, maintain, and alter their social relationshipsand manage conflict and inconsistency
in
their
daily
lives. The
new self
representation
may
be
developed
and consolidated
in subse-
quent
interactions,
or it
may
not be
and so lose
its salience.
The dream itself
may
become a
central
episode
in a dreamer's
account
of
himself,
appearing
readily
in
dialogue
with,
for
in-
stance,
the
inquiring
anthropologist,
or it
may
disappear
from view
if the self
representation
which it
helped
to
constitute has not
been
socially
developed
or reinforced.
In Peirce's
terms,
the dream
and self
representation
are
linked
signs,
the latter
being
an
interpretant
of the former.
The self
representation
is,
in
turn,
a
sign
which
gives
rise to
interpretants
in
the minds
of the
dreamer and
others)
that are
shaped
by
the social
environment.
There is thus
a
dynamic
rela-
tionship
between dreams
and self
representations
in
a
social
environment
which is
inevitably
fluid.
In
order to
substantiatethis
relationship
between
dreams
and self
representations,
I
will
focus
on a
particular
ype
of dream
which
I
call
a
dream of
spiritual
initiation.
Such
dreams have
a
recognizable
common
structure
and
are
typically interpreted
o
mean
that
a
pir
(a
sufi
spiritual
guide
and
healer)
has
spiritually
called the dreamer
to
become
his
disciple.
I
will examine
three
specific
versions of the
initiation
dream,
a
medieval Persian
example
and
two modern
Pakistani
examples,
to
illustrate, first,
the
common
organizing
structure
that forms
the basis
for
seeing
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these dreams as
initiation
dreams,
and,
second,
the
isomorphism
between the
specific
details
of each dream
and the
idiosyncratic
situation of the dreamer.
Finally,
I
will consider how each
of these
dreams,
each of
which is in
part
a
projection
of the dreamer's wishes and
goals,
be-
comes the basis for
the
organization
of a new
self
representation,
and how this new self
rep-
resentation evolves
over time.
In
the first
contemporary
Pakistani
dream,
the
goal
represented
by
the dream was fulfilled
and the dream became
an
important
part
of
the
dreamer's
self-presentation
as a sufi. The second
dream involved
the case of a
man
who,
when he
told me his
dream,
aspired
to become his
pir's
successor. When
I saw
him
again
nine
years
later,
there was no
longer
any
possibility
of his
becoming
the
pTr's
successor.
As his
situation had
changed,
so had the
importance
of the
dream. This
example
illustrates
my
point
that the
salience
of
a
self
representation
and the
sig-
nificance
of
the associated
dream
may
shift
over
time,
confirming
Simmel's
(1971 [1908]:352)
observation that when
the
life,
which
pulsates
beneath outlived
forms,
breaks these
forms,
it
swings
into
the
opposite
extreme,
so to
speak,
and
creates forms
ahead of
itself,
forms which
are not yet completely filled out by it. There are times when these forms are never filled out,
and a
life must
take a new
trajectory.
dreams in Pakistan
The
postcolonial
situation
in
modern
Pakistan
is one
in which
many people
are forced
into
situations in which
they
must
organize
strands
of their
lives that are
highly
inconsistent with
one another.
Many
Pakistanis have
found that
self
representations
developed
in
a traditional
Muslim
family
are
difficult to reconcile
with those
formed
in
British-dominated
educational,
governmental, and business settings. As these individuals strive to resolve the conflicts gener-
ated
by
such
inconsistencies,
they
employ
those
strategies
which
are
culturally
available to
them. Dreams are one such
strategy.
Furthermore,
a fundamental characteristic of dreams is
that
they express
and
attempt
to resolve
a
conflict that
the
dreamer is
experiencing
(Freud
1965
[1900]).
As Pakistanisuse this
powerful
tool
in
their
attempt
to
resolve
the
inconsistencies
in
their
lives,
they
create new cultural
syntheses
which are
in
turn available to others
facing
similar issues.
Dreams have
traditionally
been an
important aspect
of Islamic belief and of Muslim
daily
life.
They
continue
to
play
a central role
in the lives of
many
Pakistanis. Pakistanidream
theory
and
techniques
of
interpretation
are
to
be found
in
printed
manuals which are
readily
available
in book bazaars. As is the case with many of the popular manuals of dream interpretation o be
found
in
American
supermarkets,
these manuals
specify
techniques
for
decoding
dream
sym-
bols that
are based
on
medieval
Arabic and earlier Greek sources. Pakistanis make a basic
distinction
between
true
and false dreams. False
dreams
are
thought
to be caused either
by
Satan and other
evil
spirits
or
by
disturbances in the
body
or
mind of
the dreamer. True dreams
are
thought
to
be caused
by
God
or
angels
and to
be, often,
a
warning
to the
dreamer
that harm
may
befall the dreamer or
a
family
member
if
proper
action
is not
taken.
A
person
may
thus act
or avoid
action because of
a
dream,
often
drawing
other
family
members into the
prophylactic
activities as
well,
making
the dream
a
socially
significant
event.
Many
Pakistaniswill
consult
a
specialist,
such
as a
sufi
pir,
when
they
feel that
they
have had a
significant
dream,
in
order to
determine the propercourse of action.
From
a Pakistani
perspective,
a
sufi initiation dream
is
also understood to be
essentially
a
social
phenomenon,
since it
is
believed that the dream has been
directly
induced and its con-
tent
shaped
by
an external
agent,
the sufi
pTr.
Pakistanis
thus see an indexical
relationship
be-
tween the
sign
(the dream)
and the
object signified
(the
pir).'2
An indexical
sign
like this
directly
links
the
sign
to
the social world
of
the dreamer. It is
not
unusual
for
a
Pakistani,
particularly
a
man,
to
begin
his
search for a
pTr
because of a
dream,
thereby initiating
a
new social relation-
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ship,
or, rather,
ollowing through
on
a
relationship
which he
believes the
pir
has initiated.
The
dream
thus becomes a
pivot
in
terms
of which
the dreamer reorients his life. The
experience
of
finding
one's
pir,
validated
by
a
dream,
becomes
encapsulated
in a
story,
a
relatively
fixed
narrative
hat,
in
turn,
may
be
used
in
the
organization
of
a
self
representation,
to the
extent of
constituting
a
new social
identity.13
Many
Pakistanis
actively
seek
a
pTr,
ypically
because
they
are
experiencing
some sort of
distress.
The distress
may
be as
specific
as an
illness
or loss
of
a
job,
and the
solution
sought
may
be as
practical
as
a cure
or a new
job.
But,
in
contrast
to
most of those who visit
pTrs,
he
person
who
actually
experiences
an initiation
dream
has
typically
been in a
relatively
pro-
longed
state
of
general
malaise
or conflict. Such
a
person may
go
from
pTr
o
pTr,hoping
that
one will
overwhelm
him
with
his
spiritual
power.
This
type
of
dream validates the
relationship
between
the
seeker
and a
particularpir,
but
it
can
occur either before or after
one has
met one's
pTr.14
requently,
an encounter with one
particular
pTr
auses
a seeker to feel that
he
has
undergone
a
fundamental
change
in
his life.
After he meeting the seeker has a dream which he interpretsas confirmationthatthis is in fact
the
pTr
or
whom
he
has been
searching.
Alternatively,
a
person may experience
an
initiation
dream
and then set out
in
search of the
man of his
dream.
When he
finally
meets the
pir
face
to
face,
the new
disciple
is overwhelmed
by
the
current which he feels
passing
to him from the
pTr.
He
expresses
the idea
that the
pTr
has been
waiting
for his
disciple
to come
to
him,
sending
him
messages
through
dreams,
waiting
for the time when his
disciple
will be
receptive
to that
message.
The
initiation dream is
a
particularly
powerful
dream form
among
Pakistani
Muslims,
given
its
potential
for
transforming
he life
of
the dreamer.
In
the
right
circumstances,
the
dreamer is
able to make use
of
this
type
of dream
in
the
reorganization
of self
representations
and social
relationships
because the dream and associated
personal
narrativeare constructed out of ele-
ments that conform to a cultural
template
or scenario.
This
template
is
itself
embedded
in
a
web
of
signification
which carries
the label sufism
(tasawwuf).
Sufism
encompasses highly
specific
prescriptions
or
action.
As a
body
of
knowledge
and
literature,
t articulates
and
makes
meaningful
(and
acceptable)
the
type
of
interpersonal
relationship
which the dreamer is
seeking
and which
has been
expressed
in
the
dream. The dream
images
themselves
are
emotionally
powerful
because
they
bear
an
iconic
relationship
both to the details
of the dreamer's
specific
life
situation and
to a
cultural
template
for
the
sufi initiation
dream,
which the dreamer
may
have
experienced by reading
or
hearing
of
the
dreams
of others who
have
become
involved
in
sufi-disciple relationships.
The
dream
is
thus
the
product
of an interaction
between a
culturally specific
interpretive
scenario and the
intrapsychic,
though
also
culturally
organized,
conflictual
processes
of the
dreamer.
But the
power
of the dream
to
generate
social
action lies in its indexical
relationship
to a
social world
in
which
the dreamer
experiences
himself as
marginal,
but
in
which he
may
potentially
become embedded.
The dream draws
him into that world and facilitates
his involve-
ment in
it.
After
becoming
a
disciple
the
follower enters
a new social world defined
by
rela-
tionships
to the
pir.
This new social situation and
new social
identity may
themselves
be
the
means
by
which
the individual
resolves the
initial conflict
that led him to seek out a
pTr.
The
Pakistani initiation
dream,
in
other
words,
is a vehicle for
articulating
a
particular
self
repre-
sentation,thatof sufidisciple, and associated representationsof others.15The appearance of an
other
(the saint)
in the dream allows the dreamer
to
experience
a
self in
relationship
to that
other,
thereby constituting
a new self
representation.
The
sufi initiation dream
is
thus
a
complex
sign
made
up
of at least
three
major components.
First
s the cultural
template
embedded
in the dream.16
Second
is the iconic
relationship
of the
dream to
the dreamer's
particular
situation
and
conflicts-that
is,
its
metaphorical representa-
tion
of them
through imagery.
Third is the
dreamer's
belief that the
dream
bears
an indexical
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relationship
between the dreamer
and a
sufi
pir,
thus
directly
linking
the dream to the
dreamer's
social world.
In the
following
sections,
I will
draw
on
specific
instances
of
the
initiation
dream
to
highlight
each of these
components
in turn.
First,
I will
examine the evidence for the existence
of a
cul-
tural
template
and
begin
to
identify
the
structure
of this
template.
I will
then consider
variations
in
instances of
the
initiation
dream,
unpacking
the
ways
in which a
specific
dream
expresses
the circumstances of
the dreamer
while
simultaneously
manifesting
the
common dream
struc-
ture;
like the variants
of a
myth,
instances of the initiation
dream
vary
systematically
and
reveal
a
kind of
vocabulary
of
imagery
out of which
they
are constructed.
Next,
I
will
highlight
the
indexical
link
between the dream
and
a sufi
par
n
the
social
world in order
to demonstrate
the
vicissitudes of this
relationship. Though
all the
components
of
the dream
are
important
for
the
articulation of
a
new
self
representation,
it is this
aspect
of
the dream that
is most
intimately
linked
with the
development
and
fate of
a
new
self
representation.
a cultural template
A
comparison
of
examples
drawn from
sufi literatureand from modern
Pakistan
suggests
that
sufi
initiation dreams
have a common
structure.
This
structure
provides
a
cultural
template
or
scenario
in
terms
of
which
the dreamer both recalls the dream and
assesses its
significance.
The
sufi initiation
dream
in
its most
general
form,
abstracted from several
instances in
my
own
field data as well as
from
examples
in
published
sufi
literature,
is
as
follows: the
dreamer sees
two sufi saints
whom he
does
not
recognize. They
are
dressed
in
white
or,
according
to
infor-
mants'
reports,
like
the
Prophet
Muhammad and are
engaged
in
some
kind
of
activity
which
the
dreamer
interprets
as an invitation
to
partake
in
the
spiritual
life. The
scene
is
perceived
as
being extremely vivid, as if the dreamer were actually there; informantscan later describe
dreamed
conversations word for
word,
the tastes
of
foods,
the
perception
of
colors.
The dream-
er
usually experiences
a
feeling
of
great
love for the unknown
men
of
the
dream.
Although
specific
instances
of
the initiation dream
may
share additional
features,
this form
is
the basic
template
underlying
dreams
of
initiation into a sufi order.
When
these
features are
present,
a
dream will be
recognized
as
an invitation
sent
by
a sufi
pTr,
a
call to the
dreamer to
become a
disciple.
But
this
form,
in
bare
outline,
tells us
little about the
significance
of
the dream or
the
meaning
of
its
elements. The
initiation dream is like
an
open
text
(Barthes
1977),
continually
redreamed
and
reinterpreted.
Each
instance
contains elements which
modify
the
tradition while
locating
the particulardreamer within it. One strategyfor interpretingan element of the dream is to
consider it
as a
sign
which
acquires
its
significance
in
part by
its
relationship
to other
signs
that
the dreamer
could
have used
in
its
place.17
These
alternative
signifiers,
which
are
(or
at
least
may
be)
the
langue,
or
vocabulary,
out of
which the
dream
has been
constructed
(de
Saussure
1966[1959]),
may
be
discovered
in
instances of the
dream
dreamed
by
other individuals in
other
situations. To
follow a
strategy
developed by
Levi-Strauss
1963),
variants of the
initiation
dream
may
thus be
interpreted
as
a set
in
order to
understand
the
vocabulary
out of
which
they
have been
constructed,
and
thereby
help
uncover
what
is
being signified.
The
pervasiveness
in
Islamic
sufism
of
a
cultural
template
for
initiation
dreams
is
illustrated
by
comparing
an
example
drawn from
Persian sufi
literaturewith the
accounts
of
Pakistani
sufis
whom Iinterviewed.There is a visionarydream recordedby Ruzbehan BaqlT f ShTrazd. 1209
A.D.)
in his
spiritual
diary,18
or
instance,
which
bears
a
striking
resemblance in
structure and
in
detail
to modern
Pakistani initiation
dreams,
despite
its distance in
time
and
space.
The dif-
ferences in
the
circumstances of this
Persian
spiritual
leader
and
the
Pakistani
businessmen
whose
dreams I
recorded make
the
parallels
all the
more
suggestive
of
a
common
cultural
tem-
plate
underlying
their
experiences.
The text
quoted
here
is taken from
Corbin's
discussion
of
the
dream:
the
dream
of
spiritual
initiation
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I
remained.
MypTr
eckoned o
me. He
said,
You
havetakena
long
time
coming,
but
you
are
here.
I
embraced
his feet
and started
obbingmy
heart
out.
He
said,
Tomorrow,
ook
some
food.
Find
ome-
one
who
needsa
good
meal butcan't
beg
for
his
food.
Serve
him
yourself.
t
mustbe
given
in
the
name
of Allah
andfor
HazratMuinuddin
ChishtL.
said,
This
s the
dreamI saw
so
many
years
ago.
He
said,
That s
why
Itold
you
to do
this.
There
are
striking
resemblances between
this dream
of Ahmad
Sahib
and that
of
Ruzbehan
BaqlT
which
suggest
that the
dreams
share
at least a
culturally shaped
organizational
skeleton.
Though
dreams,
these are also
publicly
communicated
narratives. It
is thus
reasonable
to
jux-
tapose
them
as one would
a
pair
of
myths,
because
they
are
not
merely
the
private
productions
of
sleepingindividuals.
Like the variants of a
myth,
the
differences
between
the
manifest
con-
tents of
these
specific
dreams can be seen
as
structural
ransformations,
variants
that
may help
us
understand
the
significance
of the
constituent
elements
and
identify
the
core,
the
template,
which
is
not
any
single
dream
or
myth
but
rather the
structure
or
scenario
that
may
underlie
them
all.
By
examining
these
transformations,
we
may,
like
Levi-Strauss,
nterpret
the
social
significance
of
these
dreams as
they
were
publicly
communicated,
as well
as the
social
position
of
the
particular
dreamer.
In
each
case,
the
core of the
dream is an
encounter with
two
unknown
men. At
the
moment
of
meeting,
the
dreamer is
transfixed
in
awe at
the mere
sight
of
these men.
Each
dreamer char-
acterizes the
unknown
men in
terms
suggesting
that
they
are
saints. Each
dreamer
partakes
of
a
communal
meal with
the two
unknown men. In
each
case,
the
dreamer is in
his own
house
and
the
two men
are
visitors,
yet
the visitors
serve food to
the
dreamer. In
addition to
elements
which
the
dreams
share,
there are
points
at which
the
dreams
seem to
be
systematic
transfor-
mations
of
one another.
This
suggests
that
certain
elements,
although
they
are
not
identical,
may
nevertheless
represent
further
aspects
of
the
cultural
template
and thus be
open
to
cultural
interpretation.
When
the
manifest
contents of
the two
dreams are
compared,
oppositions
strikingly
remi-
niscent of some of the
myth
variants
Levi-Strauss
analyzed
emerge
in
relief
(see
Levi-Strauss
1966).
Both
dreams
specifically
encode the
dimensions of
high
and
low in
terms of
the
drea-
mer's
own
house.
Ruzbehan
goes
up
to the
roof of his
lodging,
where he
meets
two sufis
who
are
waiting
for him. In
my
Pakistani
informant's
dream,
Ahmad
Sahib
does the
waiting,
in
the
basement,
below
ground
level.
The
directions
up
and down
are
explicitly
associated in
Islam
with
closeness to
and
distance from
God.
Muhammad
ascends to
meet
God,
for
example.
Ruz-
behan
ascends in
his
dream
above the
spiritual
level of
creation
and
becomes
a
spiritual
leader
himself.19
Ahmad
Sahib,
in
contrast,
does not
rise above
his
former
condition in
the
dream;
he
becomes a
follower,
a
disciple.
In
both
dreams
ground
level
takes
on
significance
too,
as
the
domain
of
everyday
worldly experience.
The
mystical
experience
of the sufi
is
separated
from
this
everyday
world. The distinction between active and
passive
movement is also encoded.
Ruzbehan,
an
ardent
practicing
sufi at
the
time of his
dream,
actively
ascends to
meet
two
spiritual
leaders;
Ahmad
Sahib,
who
has not
yet
begun
his
spiritual
quest
in
earnest,
passively
waits
for
the two
sufis
to come
down
to him.
The
contrast
between
inside
and
outside is
pervasive
in
Muslim
thought
and
organizes
con-
ceptions
of
the
body
as
well as
many
aspects
of
social life.20
Both
Ruzbehan
BaqlT
nd
Ahmad
Sahib
use
this
imagery,
but in
opposite
ways.
Ahmad
Sahib's dream
suggests
that
he
concep-
tualizes
the
spiritual
experience,
his
encounter with the
sufis,
as
interior,
within
the
heart,
in
sharp
contrast
to the
public
street,
the
everyday
world,
which
is exterior.
But
Ruzbehan's
dream
reverses
these
terms: all of
creation is
inside a
house,
surrounded
by
a wall.
He has his
spiritualexperience on the roof, the outside. It is as though he has penetrated the interiorof his
heart
so far
that
the
universe has reversed
itself,
like a
sphere
that
has been
turned inside
out.21
dreams
as
expressions
of
idiosyncratic
concerns
When
examining
these dreams as
instances of
a cultural
template,
we are
looking
at the
manifest
content of
the dream as communicated. A
juxtaposition
of initiation dreams
highlights
the dream of
spiritual
initiation
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cultural
themes such as
high
and
low,
inside
and
outside,
that are
expressed
through
this man-
ifest
content.
By
drawing upon
the
idiosyncratic
background
of
each
dreamer,
including
his
free
associations
to
the
dream,
we can
reexamine
the
components
of each
dream to show
its
significance
for
conflict resolution
in
the
life of the
particular
dreamer. From his
perspective,
these
dreams
represent
a remarkable
interweaving
of
personal
and cultural
themes,
an inter-
weaving
which arises
out
of
the dream
work, 22
and
which is
essentially
a
process
of
bri-
colage
(Levi-Strauss
1966:16).
I
will not
presume
here to
interpret
the
dream of
Ruzbehan
Baql?
n terms of his
personal
conflicts on the
basis
of
the manifest content of
his
dream,
though
the material
to do so on
the
basis of free
associations
(defined
loosely,
as
psychoanalysts
are wont to
do)
may
exist
in
Ruz-
behan's
personal diary.
The
dream narrative itself indicates that he had access
to
certain
psy-
chologically
primitive experiences,
such
as
the sensation
of loss of
bodily
boundaries,
but the
form in
which he
presents
them
in
his
diary suggests
a
capacity
for
controlled
regression
which,
from a sufi
perspective,
represents spiritual
strength
ratherthan
psychopathology.
Suffice
it
to
say that this dream was clearly significant for Ruzbehan's system of self representationsand,
ultimately,
his
public significance.
He
understood himself to
be
a
major
saint and was
per-
ceived as
such
by
his
contemporaries
and successors.
This
dream confirmed
his
status.
We
can
take
Ahmad
Sahib's
preliminary
remarks,
which act
as
a
preamble
to
the
dream
(Freud
1965
[1900]:138),
and his
description
of
subsequent
events as free associations to the
dream which
point
toward its latent
content,
that
is,
toward the conflicts which the dream was
working
to resolve.
His
preliminary
remarksallude to his sense of
something missing
because
of his
immersion
in
Britishculture and
his
move to
England.
His
comments
suggest
that at that
point
in his
life,
Ahmad
Sahib
was
experiencing
a
fundamental conflict between his
upbringing
as a
South
Asian Muslim
and
the
identity
he
had
shaped
as a
student
in
England.
His
conflict
was a direct consequence of the colonial experience, an experience shared by many of his
contemporaries,
and his reactions to
this
experience
are similar to those
of
other South
Asian
Muslims
in
similar circumstances.
In
the
manifest
content of
the
dream
itself,
the
idiosyncratic
components
of Ahmad Sahib's
dream differ from those of
Ruzbehan
BaqlT
n
ways
that reveal the distinctive character of
Ah-
mad
Sahib's
personal
situation
and
the
conflicts he was
trying
to resolve. The dreams of
Ruz-
behan
BaqlT
nd Ahmad Sahib
diverge
after the moment
in
which the saint feeds the dreamer.
Ahmad
Sahib's dream continues
past
the
communal meal to his
anxiety
at the loss
of
his
spir-
itual initiators.The scene shifts
to
ground
level,
suggesting
a
return
o
everyday
life. The
image
of
standing
in a
telephone
booth
and
searching
through
a thick
directory
for the name
of
Khwaja
MucinuddTn hishtTuggestsan experience of psychological disorientationand loss. The dream
is
set in
Calcutta,
but
the
telephone
booth
is a hallmark of Western
technology
and cultural
influence.
The thickness
of the
telephone
book
is
apparently
a
reference to
London,
where
Ahmad
Sahib had
spent
the war
years.
His search for
the name of a
13th-century
sufi
saint in
a
telephone
directory
is a vivid
image
expressing
his sense of the
incongruity
between
his life
in
England
and his earlier
experience
of
growing
up
in a
South
Asian Muslim home.
Ahmad
Sahib's
dream also stresses
a
discontinuity
between the
private
and
public
aspects
of
his life at that time and
an unfulfilled
longing
for
synthesis.
The
basement
setting
of his en-
counter with
the sufis
may
be
an overdetermined
image.23
This
image expresses
not
only
his
low
spiritual
status
(in
contrast
to
Ruzbehan's
use of a
similar
vocabulary
to
express
high
status),
but also the idea that in a Britishcolonial setting, and particularly n Englanditself, he felt that
his
Muslim
spiritual
ife was
private,
subterranean.
The
dream sets
up
an
intrapsychic
spatial
organization-public
(the
street)
and
private
(the
basement)-and
expresses
an unsuccessful
effort to
integrate
the two
aspects
of his
life. This
effort
is
epitomized
in his
frustratingattempt
to find
a medieval sufi's
name
in
a
London
phone
book.
The dream
also
expresses
one of the
fears
arising
from his wish to
become
involved in a
spiritual
life even as he
maintains a wes-
ternized
identity:
he is concerned
that
he will look like a
madman.
This fear reveals
his
expe-
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rience of the internalized
gaze
of the
(British)
other-he observes himself as
if
from the
outside,
running
down
the
street.
Though
the
analysis
could
go
further,
there is
in this
case insufficient
evidence for
any
definitive statements
about
the
intrapsychic underpinnings
of
Ahmad Sahib's
reactions
to his
explicit experience
of
stress as
an
adult.
As
is the case with
any
dream,
he
is
using
the cultural
template
as
a
vehicle for
the
expression
of
personal
concerns at all devel-
opmental
levels,
concerns
which
could be examined
through
additional free associations
to
the
dream.24
Ahmad
Sahib's
dream,
when
compared
both to
the
dream
of
Ruzbehan
BaqlT
and
to
the
dream of another of
my
Pakistani
informants,
which
I
will discuss
below,
illustrates how the
significance
of
a
dream
ultimately
rests
upon
the
subsequent unfolding
of events
in
the social
world. Ruzbehan
Baqli
became
an
important
sufi leader
himself
and,
being
without
a
living
sufi
teacher,
he
used the
dream,
which
he
recorded
in
his
diary,
to
verify
his
spiritual lineage
(a
phenomenon
also found
today
in
Pakistan).
Ahmad
Sahib used his dream to
organize
his
thoughts
about his
spiritual
life,
even
though
for several
years
the dream had little overt
impact
on his life or self-image. Beforethe dream he couldn't define [his]thoughts clearly. Afterthe
dream,
his
search
for
a
pTr
who
could
help
him
express
his
spiritual longings
was more
focused,
although
it remained unsuccessful for
many years.
When he
finally
did
meet his
pTr,
heir dia-
logue
was
a
public
enactment of his
dream,
which until then had remained
private.
He inter-
preted
the
pTr's
nstructions to
give
a
dish of
food to a
person
in
need as evidence of the
index-
ical
relationship
between the dream
and the
pTr.
These instructions
pushed
him into
an action
that was
even more
public, enabling
him
to consolidate
a
new
self-presentation
in
a broader
social context. AfterAhmad
Sahib
had met his
pTr
nd had transformedhis
initiation dream into
a
publicly
articulated
narrative,
he was able to transcend the
disjunction
between two
formerly
inconsistent
self
representations,
the
publicly recognized
westernized
businessman and
the
pri-
vately spiritualMuslim, by acting as the chosen spiritualsuccessor of his
pir.
Ultimately, his
dream
became the cornerstone of
a new
self
representation
and the basis
for
a new
type
of
relationship
with others.5 He
incorporated
the dream narrative nto a
story
which
served
as
the framework for
a self
representation
and
provided
a scenario for
his interaction
with others
as a
sufi.
a dream that
faded from
sight
I
have discussed two
dreams
that
led
to
personal
transformation.But transformation
s
not
an
inevitable consequence of an initiation dream. Inthe following case, a Pakistaniprofessional
man
communicated
to me his
relationship
with
his
pir
in
terms
of
an initiation
dream.
In
con-
trast to
the
previous
examples,
this
dreamer's
goals
were not
ultimately
fulfilled. When
I
met
him
again
nine
years
later,
his
expectations
about
his
relationship
with
his
pTr
had
changed.
The dream's
significance
had also
changed,
and
he no
longer
used the
dream in his
self-pre-
sentation.
This case
illustrates the
point
that even
a
dream
constructed
according
to
a
cultural
template
is
not
inherently meaningful
out
of
context,
but
rather
acquires
its
significance
dia-
logically,
in
social interaction. As circumstances
change,
the
interpretants
of
the
signs
that
con-
stitute
the
dream
evolve
in
the minds
of
the dreamer and those
who
respond
to him.
This
man,
whom
I
shall call Muhammad
Sahib,
was
just
resolving
a
personal
crisis and
had
recently experienced an initiation dream when I met him at the home of his pTrn 1976. Like
Ahmad
Sahib,
he was
going through
extreme
personal
distress
when
he
had this
dream. He
became not
only
a
follower
but
a
devoted
disciple
of his
pTr,
at least
in
part
because
of
the
dream.
But in
this case the dream did
not become the
foundation
of
a new mode
of
self-pre-
sentation
and social
identity. Although
Muhammad
Sahib
did
undergo
initiation
with his
pir,
he
was
not
appointed
one of
the
pir's
successors.
After
his
pir's
death,
several
years
later,
the
dream
apparently
faded into the
background.
When I saw
Muhammad
Sahib
again
in
1985,
he
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never
mentioned
the
dream,
although
we
had
extensive
personal
conversations
over the course
of
several
meetings, during
which
he
repeated
all
the
other stories that he
had
originally
told
me
about his
pTr.
In
contrast to Ahmad
Sahib,
Muhammad
Sahib
had
already
met
his
pTr
whom
I
shall call
Sufi
Sahib)
when he
experienced
this dream:
When
I first
tarted
oming
here
[to
the
dwelling
of
Sufi
Sahib],
saw a
dreamone
night.
I
saw
in
the
dream
hat
I
was
entering
small
mosque.
When I
was in the
centerof the
courtyard
f the
mosque,
wo
persons
ame from
he
interior
f the
mosque.
One was
clad
in
white clothesand
had
a
very
attractive
face,
fair
eatures,
beardwith some
grey
hair,
medium
height,
and a
magnetic
attraction. couldn't
take
my
eyes
off his face. I
kept
ooking
at
him;
I
was
totally
absorbed;
didn't
even
look
at the second
person.
Thefirst
person
was
smiling.
He said
[in
Punjabi],
You
please
sit here.
We
are
coming.
That
was
his
exact sentence.
The
strange
hing
s
that
a name
[Sufi
Sahib]
ame into
my
head.
No one men-
tioned
t;
thatwas
just
my impression.
After
hat
dream started
my
research,
eading
biographies
f
old
Muslim
aints,
rying
o findout the
appearance,
ress,
and
personalities
f all
the saintswho were
namedSufiSahib.
Eventually
came to
know
hat he
description
f
Miyan
SherMuhammadit he
description
f the
person
n
my
dream.
Miyan
Sher
Muhammads
the fountain
rom
which
[Sufi
Sahib]
becamesaturated
that
s,
Miyan
Sher
Muham-
mad
had been
SufiSahib's piritual uide].When Icame to know hat,Ifelta verydeepattachmento
[Sufi
Sahib],
and
now
I
come here
daily.26
Though simpler
than the dream of Ahmad
Sahib,
this dream
shares several elements with
it,
again
suggesting
that
it
follows a
cultural
template;
it
is characteristic of
dreams associated with
becoming
the
disciple
and
ultimately
the
successor of a saint.
In
both
dreams,
as well as
in
the
medieval
Persian
sufi
dream of Ruzbehan
BaqlT,
he dreamer meets two saints.
In
each
dream,
one
of
the two
saintly
men
is
the
dreamer's
pTr-to-be.
The
place
of the other saint is
somewhat
different in
each dream. Muhammad Sahib in
his
dream is so absorbed in the
face of his
pTr
that
he
neglects
even to notice
the
second
saint
and thus cannot
identify
him. When he
was
questioned
about this
later,
he
suggested
that the saint was
probably CAbdu'l-Qadir
GilanT,
who
is the highly revered founder of the Qadiriorder of sufis (d. 1166). In Ahmad Sahib'sdream, on
the
other
hand,
the
identity
of the
dreamer's
pTr
s not
revealed,
but the second saint's
name,
MucinuddTn
hishtT,
omes
clearly
to
mind.27
Thus,
in
both cases the dreamer's
pTr
s
accom-
panied by
a founder of
one
of the
major
sufi orders. The
presence
of
two
saints
in
such a
dream
represents
at once
the idea
of
spiritual
descent
through
the sufi orders and at the same time the
idea of
spiritual
ascent,
through
the dreamer's
experiential
link to the
Prophet
Muhammad and
God. This
mode of
spiritual
transmission
in an
unbroken chain
is at
the heart of the sufi tradi-
tion.28
This chain of
succession is
symbolized
by
and maintained
through
the
ceremony
of initiation
(baicat).
Muhammad Sahib's dream does not
express
the idea of initiation as
directly
as
Ahmad
Sahib's dream of being fed does, but it is present indirectly, in a near-homonym. Homonyms
are
noted and considered
significant
in
Arabic and Pakistani
dream
interpretation
(see
Daim
1958).29
In
Muhammad
Sahib's
dream,
the
pir
tells the dreamer
to
be seated.
In
Punjabi
and
Urdu,
there
is
a close resemblance
in sound between the word
for sit
(baith)
and
the
word
for the initiation or oath of
allegiance
to
a
saint
(baicat),
he
only phonetic
difference
being
in
the
pronunciation
of the
final t. It is
interesting
that bait means
house,
from the
Arabic,
and is often used
in
compounds
to mean the house
of
God.
The
image
of a house is
partic-
ularly
salient
in
Ruzbehan
BaqlT's
ream
and also occurs
in Ahmad
Sahib's
dream,
furtherrein-
forcing
the
imagery
of
initiation.
The manifest content
of Muhammad Sahib's dream
is
thus
heavily dependent
on
the
language
and culture
of the
dreamer
(Freud
1965
[1900]:131
n.).
The personal, idiosyncratic components of this initiationdream are not as clearly evident in
the manifest content of Muhammad Sahib's
dream as
they
are
in
Ahmad
Sahib's,
though
certain
themes can
be teased out.
In
telling
the
dream,
Muhammad
Sahib mentioned
something
he
failed to
do because
of his
absorption
in
gazing
at
the firstsufi:
I
didn't even look at the second
person.
Since this second
person
was
cAbdu'l-Qadir GTlanT,
epresenting
the
link
to
the sufi
tradition,
the omission
suggests
that
Muhammad
Sahib
felt
he had
been unable
to take in the
whole situation
in
which
he found
himself,
even
at the
moment
of
connection with his
pTr
n
66
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the dream.
His
reaction
to the dream
was to
pursue
the matter
intellectually,
to do
research
in
order
to find his
pTr.
This dream
configuration suggests
that in other situations as well he
is
overwhelmed
by
affective
stimuli,
so that his
cognitive
response
is
faulty.
He then tries
to com-
pensate
for his failure
to attend
to
relevant
detail
through
a kind of obsessive intellectual
effort.30
These
interpretations
of the
manifest
content
of the dream can be confirmed
by
examining
Muhammad Sahib's
associations
to the dream
(which
I
interpret
loosely
to mean what
he
told me before
and after
the
dream).
He told me his
initiation dream in the context
of a
long
narrative
depicting
for me
his current
life situation and
his
relationship
with his
pTr.
He moved
gradually
from externalized
stories
of
miracles about
his
pir,
stories
having
little to do
overtly
with his own state
of
mind,
to
direct
narrations of
highly
charged
emotional
issues,
told in
a
manner that served
to
downplay
his conflicts.
Specifically,
he
presented
the issue
of his
early
retirementnear
the end
of his
narrative,
almost as an
afterthought,
although
that retirement
was
the culmination
of
a
series
of events
(including
several
motorcycle
accidents)
that
began
well
before the
episode
of an
apparition
in his
house,
the
episode
with which he
had
begun
his
narrative.31 Retirement
involved
a
major
redefinition
of
his life and
goals.
He was
facing
a life crisis-the
prospect
of
retirement,
which
in his case
involved a confron-
tation with a new
self-image.32
He described
his reaction to Sufi Sahib's
prediction
that
he
would soon retire:
It
surprised
me,
because
I
was
too
young
to retire from
service,
though
I
suffered from the after-effects
of
the road
accidents.
But
I
had never
thought
of
becoming
a
disabled
person.
In
effect,
Sufi
Sahib,
by making
the
prediction
of
retirement,
allowed
Mu-
hammad Sahib
to admit to
himself what
he had to do.
It was
in
this context
of
deep
crisis that
Muhammad Sahib
experienced
his
initiation dream.
Evidence
from the dream and
from his
associations
suggests
that
Muhammad
Sahib
longed
to become
involved
in an intense relation-
ship
with his
pTr.
Muhammad Sahib
had,
as he
thought,
already experienced
Sufi Sahib's
power
to work miracles, but it was because of the dream that he formed a deep, indeed therapeutic,
attachment to
him.33
Even at the time of our
first
meeting
in
1976,
the dream
itself held an uncertain
place
in
Muhammad Sahib's
self-image
and
presentation,
despite
his intense attachment
to Sufi Sahib.
Muhammad Sahib's
presentation
of the dream
to
me,
approximately
five
years
after he had
first
experienced
it,
reflected
this ambivalence.
In
keeping
with his
style,
the
dream,
like the retire-
ment
issue,
was
presented
almost
as an
afterthought.Though
able to
acknowledge
his
depend-
ency
wishes
fairly
openly,
he also
harbored
a
highly
conflictual wish
to be the
special
center
of
attention.
It was
this
wish that he
strove to
disguise
and
deny,
in
part
because he was afraid
of
rejection.
In
interaction he
tried to
deny
or
disguise
the wish
by emphasizing
his
own un-
worthiness and shortcomingsand stressingthe accomplishments of others.
When
I
met Muhammad Sahib
again
in
1985,
his situation
had altered
considerably.
In
the
intervening
years,
his
pTr
had
died,
having
chosen another
disciple
as his
only
successor. Mu-
hammad Sahib thus knew that
he was not one of the
designated
successors of his
pir. Though
I
specifically
sought
out Muhammad
Sahib,
contacting
him at his
home,
he was
very
modest
and asserted that
I
could not
possibly
learn what
I
needed
to know from him. He
said,
So far
as I
am
concerned,
I
am
an
ordinary person.
I have
nothing.
I
have no
supernatural power.
He
repeated
many
of the miracle stories
that he had told me
in
1976,
in
most cases
nearly
verbatim. But he made
no mention of his
initial dream about Sufi Sahib. Like his 1976
account,
this account stressed
Sufi
Sahib's
cures and
pronouncements,
but it
downplayed
Muhammad
Sahib's own active role or ability to be receptive.
Though
he did not
say
so
directly,
I
would
surmise
that Muhammad Sahib was
profoundly
disappointed
that Sufi Sahib had
not selected him
to
be one of his
spiritual
successors. His
particular
trategy
for
handling
his
disappointment
was to
retain an idealized
image
of the
pTr
by
placing
the onus of failure on himself:
I
got
a lot of his
affection,
but I didn'tavail
myself
of the
qualities
he
possessed.
I
mean,
it was his
desire hat
I
should earn
omething
rom
him
and
gain something,
but
I
was
always
analyzing hings.
I
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was
always
hinking
n
termsof
why,
when,
and
how. He
usedto tell
me,
Oh,
you
arean
accountant.
Youare
always
calculating.
Youare
making
wo
plus
two is
equal
to four.
Youare
always
hinking
n
termsof
math.
mean,
in
some
things
he
used
to tauntme.
Sometimeshe was
not
displeased,
ome-
times.
But,
on
the
whole,
I
got
all of his
affection.
This
is a
poignant
passage, brimming
with
sadness,
longing, disappointment,
and
carefully sup-
pressed anger. He attributes his failure to a self representationwhich is, in other situations, a
source of
pride,
but which
he
regards
as
incompatible
with his
experience
as a
sufi:
being
an
analytical
thinker and an
accountant. Sufi
Sahib had reified this
self
representation,
pointing
out
that
Muhammad Sahib
behaved
like an
accountant at
all
times,
even when
such
behavior
was
not
appropriate.
The
case of
Muhammad Sahib
suggests
that we must
consider how a
particular
dream is
(or
is
not)
taken
up
in
the social
order,
precisely
how
it is acted
upon,
and what
consequences
flow
from
it. It
is
likely
that
Muhammad Sahib's dream
faded
in
significance
because it did
not be-
come a
nodal
point
in
the
reorganization
of
his life and
self-image, although
under other cir-
cumstances it
might
have. It
may
still
be a
part
of his life
story
in
certain
contexts,
but the
prom-
ise of thatdream was not realized: he did not become a spiritualsuccessor of his pTr.However,
this
failure
was not
something
that was clear
immediately
after
the dream: the dream
continued
to be
the
potential
basis for a new self
representation
and social
identity
for several
years.
discussion
Many
Pakistanis
experience
initiation
dreams
very
similar to the
dreams of
Ahmad
Sahib and
Muhammad Sahib. This
phenomenon,
though taking
a
particular
orm
in
Pakistani
Muslim cul-
ture,
illustrates
more
generally
how the
experience
of
spontaneous
imagery
outside of con-
scious
control
may
be an
expression
of
an individual's
personal conflicts,
conflicts that strive
for
resolution
through culturally
established
means.
In the
two cases
presented
here,
dreams
came at
times of increased
stress.
Ahmad
Sahib had his dream after
returning
rom
England,
at
a time
when he had to
face the issue of
reconciling
two
very
different cultural
traditions and
orientations
to
life.
Muhammad
Sahib,
also
trying
to reconcile
two cultural
traditions,
was fac-
ing
a crisis
stimulated
by
a loss of
cognitive functioning
and the
necessity
of
giving
up
his
career.
Specifically,
such initiation dreams
play
an
important
role in
the
shaping
of self
representations
and the
making
of decisions about one's life.
For
any
human
being,
dreams both
express
the
experience
of distress and are an
effort of the
mind to relieve it. But
dreaming
can become
an
active
effort
to resolve
conflict,
a form of social
action, only in societies where dreams are believed to be significant. For PakistaniMuslims,
dreams can
play
an
especially powerful
role
in
the resolution of
situations of
stress,
in
part
because
of a
particular
constellation of beliefs about the nature of
dreams and their
sources,
and
in
part
because of the
way
in
which
specific
types
of dreams are linked to
social institutions
such
as initiation into
a sufi order.
According
to
indigenous
dream
theory,
dreams are not sim-
ply
an
intrapsychic
phenomenon.
Certain
dreams
may actually
be induced
by
another human
being,
a sufi
pTr.
From this
perspective,
the dream
itself,
while
being
dreamed,
is
perceived
as
a social
phenomenon.
Itestablishes or redefines a
relationship
between two human
beings,
the
dreamer and a
particular
pTr.
This is most true of a
special
form of
dream,
the initiation
dream,
which
intricately
interweaves elements of
a
cultural
template
embedded
in
the sufi tradition
with the specific personal concerns of the dreamer. The sufi initiation dream, when commu-
nicated as a coherent
narrative,
takes on the
qualities
of a
myth
and articulates characteristics
of the social and
cultural
order
by
means of semiotic
processes,
just
as
myths
do.
In
addition to
offering
itself
as an immediate resolution to the conflict
facing
the dreamer as
he
sleeps,
the initiation dream
points
to the future. It
has
the
potential
to
provide
the foundation
not
only
of a new
social
relationship
in
an
existing
social
context,
that of the sufi
order,
but also
a new
representation
of self and other.
Ideally,
if
not
typically,
the result of such a dream in-
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volves
not
only acceptance
of the dreamer
as a
disciple
by
a
specific pTr,
but also the
ultimate
selection of the dreamer as
a
spiritual
successor
to the
pir.
It is
particularly
n the latter
case
that
the dream becomes the cornerstone
of a new self
representation corresponding
to a social
iden-
tity
that has been
accepted
and
affirmed
by
others.
The
dreams examined here
made
it
possible
for two Western-educated
professional
men
to
bridge
what
they
had felt
was a chasm
between,
on the
one
hand,
their
concepts
of
themselves
and
their
relationships
in
a
working
world that has been
significantly shaped
by
the
postcolonial
situation of modern
Pakistan,and,
on
the other
hand,
their
experiences
of self and
relationships
in
the context of their
religious
lives.
They
found solutions for themselves that involved
making
slight changes
in
the semiotic
system
in which
the institution of sufism is
embedded,
as well
as
perhaps
more
profound
changes
in the
ways
a businessman or
professional represents
himself
to self
and
others,
just
as
many
other
professional
men have done.
Incremental
changes
such
as
these
give
rise to continual
transformationsof both sufism and Pakistanioffice
relationships,
as
sufism
gradually
penetrates
the
working
world
(see
Ewing
1987b).
The
changes
in
sufism
are
evident in its institutionalarrangements, in certain teachings, and in the relationshipsbetween
sufis
and their followers.
Nevertheless,
the sufi tradition remains
fundamentally
continuous
and
intact.
Wallace
has observed that
in
situations of extreme cultural
disruption
and
stress,
the social
significance
of dreams
appears especially prominent.
Not
only
may
a
significant
dream have a
transformative,
therapeutic
effect on the
personality
of the individual
dreamer
(Wallace
1956:271-272),
but it
may occasionally
result
in the
relatively
sudden
transformation of the
society
as a
whole.34 But even
in
more stable
societies,
dreams
may
act
as a mechanism of
adjustment
and
gradual
cultural
change.
When an individual
dreams a
culturally
prescribed
dream,
he
alters,
however
slightly,
the
culturally
transmitted dream form and its
associated
social institutions,just as individual narrators ransform a myth in the telling. This process of
alteration
may
take a
particular
direction when
many
individuals find themselves in
similar
conflictual situations
and
experience
dreams that
attempt
to resolve the conflict
in
similar
ways;
the result
may
be considerable cumulative
change
in
the cultural
system.
Dreams are thus an
arena for
the
operation
of culture as a
system
in
motion
(Boon
1986:239),
the
components
of
which exist
in
dynamic
tension.
notes
Acknowledgments.nearlierversionof this articlewas presented s partof the panel Culture, elf,
and the
Autonomous
magination
t the Annual
Meeting
of the American
Anthropological
ssociation,
Philadelphia,
ecember
,
1986. The ieldwork n which
this research s basedwas
conducted n
Lahore,
Pakistan,
n
1975-77
and
n
1984-85 andwas
supported y grants
rom
he American
nstitute f Pakistan
Studies. would like to
thankMichele
Stephen,
Gilbert
Herdt,
McKim
Marriott,
Donald
Tuzin,
Waud
Kracke,
Roy
D'Andrade,
Melford
Spiro,Roy
Wagner,
and the
members f the
Triangle
outhAsia
Collo-
quium
or their
helpful
commentson earlierdrafts.But
my greatest
debt is to the
Pakistanis ho
shared
their
dreamswith
me.
'For
arious
pproaches
o this ssueof the
dialogic
constitution f
selves,
see
James
1950[1890]:1,
93-
296),
Mead
1962[1934]:140-142),
Schafer
1976),
Crapanzano
1980),
and
Singer
1980).
Thoughpop-
ular-and
many cholarly-Western
concepts
of self
assumeotherwise
Erikson's
1956]
concept
of iden-
tity
would be a
good
example),
ndividuals o not construct
single identity
r
self. As
Schaferhas
suggested,
uch an
experience
of self-sameness s itself
a kindof self
representation
Schafer
976:189).
Analysesof dialogue n psychotherapeuticLabovand Fanshel1977) as well as othercontexts(Ewing
1987a)
suggest
hatour
various elf
representations
onstitute
repertoire
f
possibilities
rganized
nto
response
tructures r habitual
dispositions
James
950[1890]:1, 20;
Mead
1962[1934]:163;
Bourdieu
1977).
Various
elf
representations
re often
radically
nconsistent,
ut such
inconsistencies
may
go
un-
noticed,
ince self
representations
re
typically
ontext-dependent,esulting
n
what
may
be
regarded
s
a
contextual
nconsciousbased
on habit
Mead
1962[1934]:163;
Bourdieu
977:78-79).
The
prominence
of one
self
representation
r another
hifts romone
context o another
Schafer
976:189;
Ewing
n
press).
We
may
be
quite
unaware f these
shifts,
and
inconsistent elf
representations
ay
never
be
juxtaposed,
so
that
nconsistencies
o
unnoticed.
Alternatively,
e
mayexperiencepainful
onflict
or
discontinuity
f
the dream of spiritual initiation 69
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existing
elf
representations
re not
appropriate
n
newly
encountered ocial
situations,
r
if
we areforced
to
juxtapose
nconsistent
elf
representations.
2Wallace bserved hat n
situations
f extreme
tress,
a dream ould have
a
transformative,
herapeutic
effecton
the
personality
Wallace
1956:271).
3By
character,
Freudmeantan
individual's
ermanent
onstellation
f
impulses,
defenses,
and subli-
mations
1963
1908]: 3).
4Following
eirce
1955[1940]:99),
a
sign
... is
something
which stands o
somebody
or
something
[its
object]
n
some
respect
or
capacity.
t
addresses
omebody,
hat
s,
creates
n
the
mind
of that
person
an
equivalent
ign,
or
perhaps
more
developed ign
[the
nterpretant].
eirce's
heory
f
signs
hus
posits
a triadic
elation f
sign,
object,
and
interpretant.
51t
ollows
hat he self as we
represent
t to
ourselves
nd
others
s
not
a
cohesive
presymbolic ntity,
as,
for
example,
he theoriesof
Kohut
1971)
would
suggest.
6The inkwith a
theory
of action
gives
semiotic
heory
an
advantage
or
presentpurposes
ver two al-
ternative
pproaches
ound
n
anthropology:
aussurean
semiology,
he decontextualized
tudy
of the
(arbitrary)
elations
mong
signs
within
a
linguistic
radition
de
Saussure
966(19591),
r the
popular
but
rather
ague
symbology
commonly
alled
symbolic nthropology ),
n which he main
object
of
study
is
symbols
and their
meanings,
he term
symbol being
used in a most
general
ense.
7Simmel
oted he
discrepancy
hat ends
o
develop
betweenan individual's
nner ifeand the forms
n
terms fwhich it is articulated: Our nner ife,whichwe perceiveas a stream, sanincessantprocess,as
an
up
and
down
of
thoughts
nd
moods,
becomes
crystallized,
ven
for
ourselves,
n formulas
nd fixed
directions ften
merely
by
the
factthat
we verbalize
his life. .... Whether
hey
arethe formsof individual
or
social
ife,
hey
do not
low
as our
nner
development
oes,
but
always
remain
ixedovera
certain
period
of time. For
his
reason,
t
is their
nature ometimes o
be aheadof
the inner
reality
nd sometimes o
lag
behind
t
(1971 1908]:352).
8Thenotionof a culture
pattern
ream was
proposed
n
1935
by
Lincoln
1970[19351),
who made
what
oday
appears
o be
an
arbitrary
istinction
etween heseand individual
reams
see
Tuzin
1975).
Building
n
Lincoln's
istinction nd
usingpsychoanalytic
echniques
o
investigate
ow his native
Amer-
ican
informants sed cultural lements
n
their
dreams,
Devereux
ubsequently
rgued
hat the
culture
pattern
reamwas a
product
f a
culturallynspired
secondary
laboration
f an
individual
ream
1957,
1969[19511:148).
DorothyEggan
emonstrated
ow
an
individual
may
draw
heavily
on
myths
n
dreams,
using
hem as
personal antasy
o
help
bolster
his
ego.
She even
suggested
hather
Hopi
informant,
ho
dreamedoftenof a guardian pirit, timulated greater nterestn guardian piritsamongothers n his
village,
thus
producing
cultural
hange
(1955:453).
More
recently,
Kracke as
explored
how
myths,
when
hey
appear
n
the
dreams f
particular
ndividuals,
mayoperate
as a
template
or
he
mastery
f new
emotional
xperiences
nd offer
a storeof
culturally
ramed ondensations
f fantasieswhich
can
stim-
ulate he
personal antasy
process
or
integrating
ifficultnew
experiences
Kracke
987:51).
9A
prominent
xample
rom he
ethnographic
ecord
of
dreaming
myth
s
the
NorthAmerican ndian
vision
quest
dream,
n
which,
as
part
of the rite
of
passage
o
manhood,
a
boy
is
expected
to
receive a
dream
romhis
guardian
pirit,
a
dream
which determineshis
future
see,
for
example,
Benedict
1922;
Hallowell
1966;
Lincoln
1970[1935]).
Within
Islam,
dreamsare
important
n
many
social contextsand
have
shaped
he livesof
many
Muslims
see
Corbin
1966;
Fahd
1966;
Grunebaum
966;
LeCerf
966).
10Obeyesekere
1981)
has
explored
he
personally
ransformative
alue
of certaincultural
ymbols
n
ritual ontexts or
religious
cstatics
n
SriLanka.
uch
symbols,
which
he
calls
personal
ymbols,
fford
at a
symbolic
evel the resolution
f
opposition
and conflict
and have both sociocultural
nd
personal-
psychologicaleferents.Although agreethat he personalymbol s an importantonceptual ool for
investigating
he
relationship
etweencultural
ormsand
personal
ignification,
t is
arbitrary
o
suggest,
as
Obeyesekere
oes,
that
only
certain
ultural
ymbols
are articulatedwith
individual
xperience
and
op-
erate
imultaneously
n the
levelsof
culture nd
personality
see
Obeyesekere
981:44-51).
Iwould
argue
that rom he
perspective
f the
individual
ctor,
all
symbols
are
organized
elf-referentially
nd
can
serve
such
functions.
1SeeGrunebaum
1966:7-10)
for a discussion
of
several
sources
of
medievaldream
nterpretation,
including
Nabulusi's
1641-1731)
encyclopedicguide
o dream
nterpretation,
hich
includes
principles
of
interpretation
hatare
essentially
he same
as those used
by
modern
Pakistanis,
hough
NabulusT's
ere
more
highly
laborated.
Daim
1958)
has summarized
nd
analyzed
he dream
heory
of the
legendary
bn
Sirin
d.
728),
whose
work
he takes
o
be
representative
f Arabic
dream
nterpretation.
runebaum
lso
discusses
ufi
approaches
o
dreams,
withseveralreferences
o useful
ources
on the
topic
(1966:14-16).
'2According
o
Peirce,
hree
ypes
of
signs
can be identified
n
terms
of the
relationship
ach bears
o the
objectrepresentednthesignrelationship:heicon,the index,andthesymbol.The con has somequality
in commonwith
he
object
t stands
or,
such
as
physical
esemblance.
he
ndex refers
o
the
object
hat
it denotes
by
virtue f
beingreally
affected
by
that
object
1955[19401:102).
eirce
imits he
meaning
f
the
term
symbol
o cases in
which the
sign
refers o the
object
that it denotes
by
virtueof
a rule or
convention;
here
s an
arbitrary
elationship
etween
the
sign
and
the
object
which is established
nly
within he
symbol-using
mind
as,
for
instance,
s the case for most
inguistic
igns
(1955[1940]:114).
131t
houldbe noted hat
not all
Pakistanis ave
these
beliefs,
and
certainly
not all
experience
prescient
dreams ndthe
like;
even
within he
same
family,
herewill be different
mphases,
f not
actually
different
beliefstructures.
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'4One's
pTrmay
even be
already
dead
at the time of
the dream. This
does
not,
at least
according
to
some
Pakistanis,
affect the
relationship
between
pTr
nd
disciple.
'5Self
representations
always
exist
in
relationship
to
representation
of
others. A new
self
representation,
such
as that of sufi
disciple,
acts as an
ego-syntonic
image
which attaches
itself to and
displaces
existing
self
representations.
These earlier self
representations
may
be
conceptualized
as a
developmental
chain
of
images
which involve
attachments
to an
authority figure
in
ways
that
emotionally
replicate
childhood
patterns.The new representationmay be transformativeand healing, because earlier images had become
unacceptable
(ego dystonic),
resulting
in conflict
and
vigorous
efforts to
repress
what were felt to be
un-
acceptable
wishes
and needs.
This
attachment of a
new
symbolic
form
to
old
configurations
is
essentially
the
process
that
Freuddescribed in his
discussion
of
dream
formation,
in
which
repressed
material
attaches
itself
to
insignificant day
residue. Freud
labeled
this
process
transference,
and
understood the rela-
tionship
between
patient
and
therapist
in similar
terms
(Freud
1965[1900] :601).
i61nPeirce's
rather
complex
scheme
for
classifying
all
possible
sign relationships
into ten
categories,
a
cultural
template may
be
understood as a rhematic iconic
legisign
(Peirce
1955[1940]:116).
The
dream
template
is rhematic
because it is
pure
possibility-that
is,
the
template
is not
itself
any
particular
nstance
of a
dream;
it
is iconic because it has some
quality
in
common with
the
object
it
stands
for;
and
it
is
a
legisign
because it
operates
as a
general
law or
type,
the
way
a
diagram
does. A
particular
dream is an
interpretant
f this
rhematic iconic
legisign,
and this
interpretant
s,
in
turn,
a
sign
with
its own
interpre-
tants.
'7According
to
Freud
(1965[19001),
dreams are
products
of the
individual
psyche.
Though
Freud noted
the
existence of
universal dream
symbols,
such
as
flying,
which have their
roots in
universal
human child-
hood
experiences,
he
demonstrated
the
idiosyncratic
significance
of the
symbols
appearing
in
a
dream. He
stressed that in
order to
discover the
significance
of
any particular
dream,
the
interpreter
must have
access
to the
dreamer's
free
associations
to
the
dream.
Nevertheless,
in his
interpretations
of
the dreams of
his
patients,
he
made
heavy
use of the
culturally
organized
imagery
and
knowledge
that he
shared with
those
patients.
Culturally
organized imagery
is the
vocabulary
out of which the
initiation dream
is
constructed.
8According
o
Corbin,
this is a
diary
of visions
entitled Kashf
al-asrar
(Uncovering
of
Secrets),
which
Ruzbehan
assembled at
the
age
of
55;
it is
based
on
experiences
that
began
in
his
fifteenth
year
(Corbin
1966:388).
Corbin
calls
these
experiences
visionary
dreams.
Muslims do not
typically
make
a clear dis-
tinction
between
dreams and
visions,
since both are
believed to
come from
the same
sources,
though
whether
one
is in a
waking
or a
sleeping
state when
one receives
a
visionary
experience
does
reflect the
level
of one's
spiritualdevelopment
(Corbin
1966:384;
Meier
1966:422).
19The
ncoding
of
the
dreamer's
high
spiritual
rank
is also
suggested by
another
detail. When
Ruzbehan
Baqli
looks
at the two
sufis,
he
sees his
own
face
in
theirs,
indicating
that he
himself
is
one of
the saints in
the
dream.
20The
eclusion of
women,
for
instance,
makes
the
distinction
between
inside
and
outside
particularly
salient. Even
the
interpretation
of
the Koran
s
based on this
type
of
contrast.
According
to
many
sufis,
the
Koran
has an
esoteric
inner
meaning
and an
exoteric outer
meaning.
The
body
is
also
conceptualized
in
these
terms: the
physical
body
is
exterior
and
the
spirit
is
interior.
21That his
is a
bodily
image
is
suggested by
the
final
segment
of
the
dream,
in
which
he
notices seven
openings through
which
God shows
himself
to
the
dreamer,
suggesting
the seven
orifices of
the dreamer's
body.
22AsFreud
sees
it,
the
manifest content of
a
dream
is
merely
the
outcome of
extensive
symbolic
manip-
ulations
(the
dream
work )
on
the
part
of
the
dreamer.
Freudwas
interested
in
exposing
the
latent content
of dreams by identifyingthe symbolic processes by means of which
unacceptable
wishes and conflicts
buried in
the
unconscious are
disguised
and
translated
into the
manifest content.
23Freud sed
the term
overdetermined with
reference to dream
symbols
to
mean that
several
separate
trains
of
thought
converge
at
and are
expressed by
the same
image
(1965 [1900]
:317-318).
24Forhe
purpose
of
illustration,
we
can take the
analysis
further,
tentatively
hypothesizing
that
under-
lying
the
immediate stress of
culture shock
is a
regressive
wish for
oral
dependency,
perhaps
stimulated
by
the
recent
experience
of stress
and
expressed
in
the
image
of
being
fed.
Ahmad
Sahib reacts
with
anxiety
to
the
expression
of
this
wish,
as if
giving
in to
it
will
lead to
abandonment
and
unendurable
loss.
251n
he
context of
modern
Pakistan,
such a
transformation s not
implausible.
Particularly
ince
Partition,
many
such
Pakistani men
are able to
operate
in a
business
and
professional
world which is
infused with
Western
values and
language,
while
simultaneously
maintaining
public
reputations
as sufis
(see
Ewing
1987b).
26MuhammadSahibexplained that at the time of the dream he had alreadymet SufiSahib, but since the
pTr
f his
dream did not
appear
to resemble Sufi
Sahib,
he
had
thought
that
he
must
have seen a
different
sufi
with the
same
name.
When
he later
discovered
that the
pTr
f his dream
had
the
appearance
of
Miyan
Sher
Muhammad,
who
had been Sufi
Sahib's
teacher,
he then knew
that
Sufi Sahib was
actually
the
pTr
n
his
dream.
The
dream also
proved
to
Muhammad
Sahib that
Sufi Sahib
had taken
on all
the
characteristics
of
Sufi
Sahib's
teacher and
for this reason
had
appeared
in
the
form
of
Miyan
Sher
Muhammad in
the
dream.
27The xtent to
which
the
manifest
content of these
initiation
dreams rests on a
cultural
template
is
further
demonstrated
by
the
fact that both
dreams conclude
with the
name of a saint
running
through
the
mind
of
the
dreamer
as he
awakens,
although
that name is
not
actually spoken
by
either of
the
saints in
the
dream.
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28Miyan
Sher
Muhammad,
who
was
Sufi Sahib's
spiritual guide, belonged
to the
Naqshbandi
order of
sufis,
rather
han to the
Qadiri
order,
but
Sufi
Sahib claimed
links to
both orders
and held
monthly
rituals
in honor
of
cAbdu'l-Qadir
GTlni,
thus
accounting
for the latter's
appearance
in Muhammad
Sahib's
dream.
29Freud
lso discusses
the use of
homonyms
and
punning
during dreaming.
He observes
that a dream
will often
abandon
the
meaning
that
a word
originally
had
in
the
thoughts
of
the dreamer
(the
latent
content)
and
give
it a fresh
one consistent
with the
imagery
of
the
manifest content
of
the
dream. This is
particularly
true of speeches that occur in dreams. Such speeches typically are amalgamations of fragmentsof utter-
ances
that
have
actually
been
heard,
a
kind of
day
residue
that is
being
used to
convey
another
meaning
(Freud
196511900]:454-455).
30The
possibility
that
Muhammad
Sahib
tries to
use
his intellect
to
compensate
for disturbances
in
his
affective
functioning
at
a
pre-verbal
level is also
suggested
by
the fact that the saints do not offer
him
food
in
the
dream,
an
omission that derives
its
significance
from the
vocabulary
we have seen
employed
in
the other
initiation dreams. He
receives
words when he needs sustenance.
31Muhammad Sahib
began
our
conversation
with
an
account of
why
he had first
come
to Sufi Sahib.
He
had had
several
motorcycle
accidents between
1967 and
1969,
which
he attributedto
repeated
episodes
of
mysterious
water and even blood
splashing
in
his face as
he
drove.
The
accidents,
particularly
he
first,
had caused
some serious
head
injuries
and had
impaired
his
cognitive functioning
and
memory.
Then in
1969 he had
begun
to be bothered
by
some
kind of
female
apparition
that
repeatedly
tried to suffocate
him
in his
bed.
Because
of the
apparition
his wife
sought
out
Sufi
Sahib,
who cured
him
of
this
problem
and
also of the problem of water and blood splashing in his face. Afterhe met Sufi Sahib he continued to suffer
from headaches and had
difficulty
even
reading newspapers.
His
job
involved
budgetary
responsibilities,
and
he
could
only
work
two or three hours a
day.
His doctors had
begun
to attribute
his
ongoing
difficulties
to
psychological problems.
32Neitherhis
experience
of
mysterious
happenings
such as blood
and
water
splashing
in
his
face nor his
possession experience
fit
easily
into
his
cognitive
orientation-he
was
highly
educated and
spent
much of
his
professional
time
with
Europeans.
His
possession-like
experiences
of
spirits
were
intrusive,
disruptive,
and evidence that his defenses were
failing.
These
experiences
suggest
that he was
experiencing
consid-
erable
regression
in
his
psychological
functioning
in the face of the stresses associated
with his head
injuries
and
job
difficulties
and found himself
unable to defend
himself
against
the
intrusion of
disturbing thoughts
and
impulses.
Under these
circumstances,
he formed an
intense
attachment
to Sufi
Sahib.
He
was
explicit
about certain transference elements
in
this
relationship,
which he
expressed
in a
culturally
standard
way:
He is
just
like a father
to
me.
He used Sufi
Sahib as
a
self
object,
who functioned
to shore
up
his
defenses (see Kohut1971:26-27).
33When
I
met
him in
1976,
after
his
dream
experience,
he was
spending
two or three
hours
daily
serving
his
pTr-answering
his
telephone, doing
errands,
and
sitting
in his
presence.
He
spent
so much
time
with
Sufi
Sahib,
he
said,
Because
I
love
him. I
find
in
him
parental
love.
34Wallace
was interested
in revitalization
movements,
which
often
rely heavily
on
dreams as
a
source
of
inspiration
for social action
and
change.
These are
situations
in which
individuals have been
severely
disrupted
and
face irreconcilable
conflicts,
and old cultural
forms
are
violently
transformed.
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submitted
1
March
1989
accepted
21
July
1989
74 american ethnologist