Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The present study is about the religious narrative & interpretation of dreams in a culture. The study was carried out in the rural areas near Islamabad Pakistan. One of the aims of this study was to examine the folk knowledge about the dreams and symbolic significance of dreams in a culture under the religious interpretations of dreams. The study was conducted under qualitative research design. Anthropological research methodology is employed in which cluster of tools were used for data collection including rapport building, participant observation, interview guide, in-depth interviews, key informants, case studies, field notes, diaries and visual aid. A total of 47 respondents on the basis of snow ball sampling were interviewed for the purpose of this study. The unit of data collection was natives and dream interpreters. The study was designed under the course of certain research objectives including natives’ perceptions about dream and reality. The study portrayed that dreams are generally considered in Islamic societies because of religious factors. Majority (70 percent) of the respondents believed that dreams reveal meaningful information about themselves and their surroundings. It has been ascertained that two accustomed systems of dream interpretation i.e. cultural (individual & traditional) and religious interpretation of dreams were followed by the natives. The study proclaimed that dreams are source of making sense of the world in a relational and inter-subjective manner as well as instances of the human dexterity to formulate new forms.