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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



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

the dream of spiritual initiation 57



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

58

american

ethnologist



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-




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

60 american

ethnologist



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

61



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

63



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-

64 american

ethnologist



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




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

american

ethnologist



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

the

dream of

spiritual

initiation 67



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-

68 american

ethnologist



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




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.

70 american ethnologist



'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.




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

the dream of spiritual

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