Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 27, 2026

The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
Published on: June 12, 2020
From living metaphors in impactful dreams to sublime disquietude and sublime enthrallment
1Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Introduction:
The continuing impact of spontaneously recalled dreams sometimes depends upon the same kind of unfolding semantic complexity that literary scholars attribute to poetic literary metaphors.
Methods:
We present the results of two online studies of impactful dreams (i.e., nightmares, existential dreams, and transcendent dreams) that reinforce this account.
Results:
In both Study 1 (N = 147) and Study 2 (N = 157), assessment of dream experience indicated that (a) existential dreams transition into sublime disquietude (inexpressible realizations, self-perceptual depth, disquietude) and (b) transcendent dreams transition into sublime enthrallment (inexpressible realizations; self-perceptual depth, reverence), while (c) nightmares, in contrast, transition into inflexible vigilance.
Discussion:
Because existential dreams and transcendent dreams support a type of metacognition that enables continued attunement to tension between the metaphoric ("is") and literal ("is not") truth-value of metaphoric dream images, these two types of impactful dreams may precipitate the epistemic-and aesthetic-significance of unfolding semantic resonance within the dream.
Related Concept Videos
Dreaming
Lucid Dreaming
Studies have shown...
Altered States of Awareness
The ingestion of substances like stimulants or hallucinogens leads to chemical alterations in the brain that...
Magical Thinking
High-Level and Low-Level Awareness
Understanding Consciousness
Sleep, a crucial state, is characterized by reduced physical...
