Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I analyse the ambiguity and affect associated with dreams and discuss according to what circumstance and factors, they may impact upon decisions in waking world. I look at examples of dreams and explore the path from personal doubts to a shared certitude inspiring actions.

Paper long abstract:

Dreams are an imaginative source of knowledge and are cross culturally perceived as a way of communicating with the 'other' through dialogues, inspirational messages or warning sings. Although the dream is generally accepted as a 'seen' phenomenon, the experience of dreaming is based on affect. The feelings evoked during the process of dreaming and their aftermath hint at the meaning behind the dream. Furthermore, the interpretation of the dream is influenced by both the feelings of the dreamer as well as those of whom the dream is narrated.

In this paper I discuss examples of dreams experienced as a consequence of different forms of social encounters. I explore how the dreams and associated feelings may create meaning and influence acts in daily life and how they may assist coping with the reality of the waking world or its manipulation. I analyse how the ambiguity of the dream may develop into certainty of an interaction in a social encounter. One of the dreams that I describe is a specific oneiric experience of mine, directly associated with my ethnographic presence in the field in a small Aboriginal settlement in the far north coast of New South Wales, Australia. I explain how members of one of the local Aboriginal families interpreted my dream and responded to it in different ways. I also analyse dream experiences associated with a complex type of social encounter between men who sought asylum in Australia and were exiled to Papua New Guinea, and the local people of Manus Island.