Dreamscapes for social learning

Your dreams are not your dreams. They are linked with everyone and everything around you. That makes dreaming a social phenomenon. Shared dreaming has been found in indigenous cultures throughout history. People gather to discuss their dreams and make meaning out of them when awake.

Gordon Lawrence, a psychoanalyst and educator in 1980, inspired by a 1930 diary of a German woman in which dreams are recorded, coined the idea of the social dreaming matrix. He asked: Can our shared dreams reflect our society?

A matrix for cultural probe

Dreams reflect societal influences and shared contexts. The focus of social dreaming is on the dream, not on the dreamer. It is a cultural enquiry using dreams, not the personal interpretations of dreams. Social dreaming practice involves a group sharing their dreams within what is known as the social dreaming matrix. Chairs are arranged in a geometric pattern like a beehive, starting with four, five, or six chairs and expanding.

This structure mirrors how the pattern of thinking in dreams develops. Often, the first dreams become the focus around which the matrix grows. Participants recount their dreams while others offer associations, insights and guidance, including past dreams. The objective is to construct a matrix reflecting the collective consciousness of the members.

Over time, this matrix strengthens, opening common hopes, fears, and connections between group members' dreams and real-life experiences. Through shared narratives, collective wisdom evolves, new thoughts surface, and stories emerge. Thus, social dreaming explores the unconscious dimension of the social world. However, it needs a safe space conducive to open sharing.

Can dreams drive learning?

No one wants to sleep and dream in a classroom. With that common sense, our education is sculpted around wakefulness. If dreams are symbolic experiences that bridge the conscious and the unconscious, why don't we use them in learning? According to Gordon, social dreaming helps to maximise creative thinking and increase access to unconscious resources.

Learning about dreams and dreaming in the context of education is not new. Oneirology, the scientific study of dreams, primarily focuses on the mechanisms underlying dreaming with neuroscience and sleep research. Some aspects of learning, particularly memory consolidation, can occur during sleep. The social dreaming matrix gives this a community dimension.

You need not suspend your rationality to understand social dreaming. Research in the last decades holds promise for its use in educational settings. Scholars advocate for its use in creating student-led learning environments, pointing to its potential for action research, generating fresh insights, or enhancing cultural humility (Balogh, 2015; Long, 2017; Goncalves, 2016).

In imaginative and collaborative learning environments, dreaming is not a distraction but a way to deepen understanding and reflective learning. Teachers may find social dreaming helpful in reflective pedagogies and collective inquiry.

Practices and tools

Social dreaming finds applications in clinical, organisational, and institutional settings. Conferences featuring a social dreaming matrix use the content of the shared dream to shape daily discussions. Therapists gather for regular sessions, where shared dreams may foretell events.

Reportedly, some companies use social dreaming for strategic planning. When organisations must respond to rapid changes, tapping into the collective unconscious is essential, and social dreaming is a valuable tool. Last year, a dedicated social dreaming group convened monthly for two years, capturing their collective unconscious.

Dream circles are regular small group meetings to provide a supportive environment in which to share and discuss dreams. Dream workshops are structured events to facilitate a collective understanding of dreams using activities ranging from open discussions to guided meditations.

It goes to understand dream symbolism, introspection, and reflection. Emerging online dream communities, festivals, and dreaming conferences unite dream enthusiasts globally. Through storytelling, social dreaming promotes understanding and learning from diverse familial and experiential backgrounds.

Towards the learning dreams

According to Henry David Thoreau, dreams are what we are. They are the touchstones of our characters. Integrating social dreaming into education faces ethical dilemmas and challenges requiring careful consideration, including training. Despite obstacles, integrating social dreaming can create culturally attuned and adaptable learning spaces that value collective experience over individual narratives. This is important if we aim to restore the sense of community to learning in a world consumed by competition.

Courses on social dreaming are offered at psychology faculties in Rome and art faculties in Australia. Social dreaming works well for teachers seeking dynamic, non-hierarchical interactions that promote independence and collaborative authority among students.

Through the interplay of personal, shared, and amplified dreams, we push the limits of what we know about ourselves—each offering gateways of understanding, from associative to archetypal, even prophetic dreams. The potential of dreaming in pedagogical practices, alongside the development of an educational theory on anticipation and imagination through dreams, will soon emerge. Why? Beyond the individual psyche lies a shared dreamscape for all of us waiting to be discovered.

(The author works with the University Grants Commission. Views are personal.)