Abstract

The Limits of Dream focuses on what we currently know of the human central nervous system (CNS), examining the basic sciences of neurochemisty, neuroanatomy, and CNS electrophysiology as these sciences apply to dream, then reaching beyond basic science to examine the cognitive science of dreaming including the processes of memory, the perceptual interface, and visual imagery. Building on what is known of intrapersonal CNS processing, the book steps outside the physical body to explore artificially created dreams and their use in filmmaking, art and story, as well as the role of dreaming in creative process and creative “madness.” The limits of our scientific knowledge of dream frame this window that can be used to explore the border between body and mind. What is known scientifically of the cognitive process of dreaming will lead the neuroscientist, the student of cognitive science, and the general reader down different paths than expected into an exploration of the fuzzy and complex horizon between mind and brain.
* The clearest presentation of research and philosophy currently available relating to the mind/brain interface
* Discusses the cognitive processes of dreaming utilized in film and artificial intelligence
* Describes the functioning of dream in the creative process
"Jim Pagel's The Limits of Dream delves into the scientific, philosophical, creative and psychological aspects of this very human phenomenon and manages to be both coherent and consistently interesting. The only other book I've read about dreams told you how to play the horses."
--John Sayles, Director, Writer, and Actor
"Dr. Pagel is an extremely well regarded researcher in both the worlds of sleep and of dreams. What he is proposing is quite unique and could be an important "bridging" book between these two domains who have unfortunately had a previous relationship somewhat analogous to one of being water and oil."
-Bob van de Castle, University of Virginia Medical Center and former president of the Association for the Study of Dreams
"This wonderfully creative book, based on the author's many original studies of sleep and dreams, as well as his masterful knowledge the relevant fields in neuroscience, provides us with a new theory of dreaming as well as a devastating critique of the highly visible but simplistic neurophysiological theories of dreams that have been on the stage for all too long."
-G. William Domhoff, Research Professor in Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
"This marvelous book starts from research neuropsychology and blazes on into the intricate beauty and creativities of dream phenomenology and cognition, and all that bridging into film as dream and dream as film. Its breadth and philosophical sophistication are unique in dream studies. It is a major achievement."
Harry T. Hunt, Psychology, Brock University