Credit: Special Arrangement
The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) is organising ‘Dream and Spirituality Conference’ over the weekend. It is a part of the organisation’s annual dream conference.
The three-day event aims to raise awareness about dream literacy in India. “At present, barely 1 per cent of the population knows how to work with their dreams or how to interpret them. We want to change this,” shares Bhaskar Banerji, conference director.
The event will feature seven talks, including ‘The potential of lucid dreaming: From problem-solving to spiritual enlightenment’, ‘Dreams and Leadership’, ‘Haistory of dreams in India’, and ‘Eight common signposts to help identify health-related dreams’. The conference speakers include A S Katoch, Haritha and Santosh Nayak, Joanna Kowalewska, and Ghulam Rasul Dehlvi.
Speaking about the importance of dream interpretation, Banerji adds, “Dreams serve multiple purposes. The most common purpose is what we call ‘memory consolidation’. Usually, we go about our day, have all these experiences, and at night, our dreaming mind determines what memories to store and what to discard.” Apart from this, dream interpretation can also help in problem-solving and emotional resolution, claims Banerji. “Dreams also give us warnings about impending disasters. Be it a physical or a financial problem, our subconscious tries to send signals our way,” he adds.
Over the course of the weekend, six workshops will also be held covering a wide variety of topics like ‘Illuminating dreams through yoga nidra’, ‘Animals, dream guides, and special figures’, and ‘Designing the life of your dreams’.
During a night’s sleep, an individual dreams approximately four to five times, shares Banerji. “But often people don’t remember their dreams, because when we wake up in the morning our brains go through a major chemical shift. In order to delay that chemical shift, we should remain very still and start to rehearse the dreams in our minds. So, for anyone interested in understanding their dreams, step one would be to make an effort to recall your dreams,” he tells Metrolife.
The conference will be inaugurated on March 14, 7.30 pm, at JW Marriott, Vittal Mallya Road.
On March 15 and 16, 10 am to 5 pm. To register, visit indiadreamconference2025.org. For queries, write to regionalrep@asdreams.org