Zhuangzi, Peirce, and the butterfly dreamscape: concentric meaning in the Qiwulun 齊物論

Waking from a vivid dream, the sage finds himself lost between worlds of possibility and ultimately transformed. Zhuangzi’s famous butterfly story may seem familiar, but the text-linguistic structures of its broader interpretive context are little discussed and poorly understood. In this paper I argue that the Qíwùlùn 齊物論 chapter, like so many other ancient writings, is composed in a concentric, chiastic pattern, with sections in each half mirroring each other throughout, while the central sections provide a pivotal peak and interpretive key that radiate meaning back out to the margins. To quote Mary Douglas, “the meaning is in the middle.” The middle is also the place of Peircean Thirdness. In this paper I map the chapter’s text-level chiastic structures and trace its intimations of Peircean semiotic pragmatism. The core rings of the text endorse contrite fallibilism while also prefiguring triadic structure, the pragmatic maxim, and the continuity thesis. Referencing cultural and historical contexts plus recent scholarship on Zhuangzi and Peirce, I ultimately argue that this ancient text, like the pragmatist semiotic it foreshadows, can be better appreciated and applied by embracing the interplay of centers and margins, discarding debilitating ideologies, and waking up to new degrees of freedom.

Gamma band alterations and REM-like traits underpin the acute effect of the atypical psychedelic ibogaine

Ibogaine is a psychedelic alkaloid that has attracted scientific interest because of its important antiaddictive properties evidenced in observational studies in humans, and in models for substance-use-disorders in rodents. Its subjective effect has been described as intense vivid dream-like experiences occurring while awake; hence, ibogaine is often referred to as an oneirogenic psychedelic. While this unique dream-like profile has been hypothesized to aid the antiaddictive effects in the past, the electrophysiological signatures of the ibogaine psychedelic state remain unknown. In our previous work, we showed in rats that ibogaine administration promotes a waking state with abnormal motor behavior, accompanied by a decrease in NREM and REM sleep. Here, we performed an in-depth analysis of the intracranial electroencephalogram during “ibogaine wakefulness”. Ibogaine induced gamma oscillations with larger power than control levels but less coherent and less complex; i.e., this state shows clear REM sleep traits within the gamma frequency band. Thus, our results provide novel biological evidence for the association between the psychedelic state and REM sleep, and an empirical basis for the oneirogenic conjecture of ibogaine.

Going down to the crossroads: popular music and transformative magic

If there is a single narrative that captures the modern understanding of transformative crossroads magic it is the spurious fable of the selling of Robert Johnson's soul. When, in the palaeoanthropology of 20th century rock and roll music, the biographers of the short-lived blues legend claimed that he had been down to the Dockery Plantation crossroads at midnight to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for guitar skills, they were perhaps unwitting witnesses to the deep history of myth and ritual that has long been associated with the transformative space of the crossroads. They were not lacking in foresight, however, about the way in which such a claim would enhance their subject's credibility. The value of such a sulphurous reputation for a musician is not merely a recent phenomenon but also has historical precedents. A hundred years before Johnson (who lived 1911–1938), the guitarist and violinist Niccolo Paganini (1782–1840) was considered such a suspiciously devilish virtuoso that his audiences were reputed to cross themselves before his concerts in hope of protection from subtle demonic influence. One audience member even fled a concert after reporting seeing the Devil himself aiding Paganini's performance. Going a little further back, Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770) explained of his best-known sonata, The Devil's Trill (1713), that he had ‘written down the piece after waking from a particularly vivid dream of the Devil playing a violin with ferocious virtuosity’, and claimed that it was ‘but a shadow of what he had witnessed in the dream, for he was unable to capture on the page the Devil's full intensity’. His long career was certainly not harmed by this youthful excursion into Hell.

Prevalence of central nervous system adverse effect and associated factors among HIV patients on efavirenz based ART regimen

Background: Efavirenz based antiretroviral regimens served as a first line treatment in our country, however commonly lead to central nervous system toxicity, which is the main reason for non-adherence, switch and discontinuation to antiretroviral therapy. We aimed to assess prevalence of central nervous system adverse effect and associated factors among HIV patients taking efavirenz based regimens. Methods: Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted on 345 patients who were taking efavirenz based ART medications on follow up at UoGCSH from March 15 to may15, 2018. Information on socio-demographic characteristics and detailed history regarding central nervous system adverse effect were taken from both the patient and medical record.. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were done using binary logistic regression to find out the associated factors. Level of statistical significance was declared at P value of ≤ 0.05 levels. Result: The central nervous system adverse effects of EFV based ART regimen were observed in 52.8% of participants and vivid dream was the most commonly reported adverse effect. Upon computation of bivariate binary logistic regression economic status, EFV based regimen type, Stage of RVI, alcohol use and concomitant medical condition had shown association on the occurrence of central nervous system adverse effect of EFV based ART regimen. But in multivariate analysis alcohol use (p = 0.004; AOR = 4.450), stage I RVI (p = 0.001; AOR= 0.006) stage II RVI (p = 0.001; AOR=0.017) stage III RVI (P=0.01; AOR=4.13) became significantly associated with the occurrence of CNS adverse effect. Conclusion: More than half of HIV patients taking efavirenz based regimens at UOGCSH experience the central nervous system adverse effect. The most commonly reported central nervous system adverse effects were vivid dream, confusion, and insomnia. Stage III and IV HIV patient need special attention to prevent and decrease central nervous system adverse effect of EFV based regimen. Health workers need to tell the patients to avoid alcohol, especially in the initiation of the treatment.

The Camel and the Prophecy

Moving from the ‘Dreaming’ stories that structure Aboriginal geographies to Muslim practices of dream interpretation in Beltana, Chapter 5 examines the Ahmadi variety of Islam that flowered along Australian camel tracks. Established in Punjab in the 1880s, the Ahmadiyya movement grew as its founder issued prophecy after prophecy following vivid dream after dream in Urdu, Persian, Arabic and occasionally English. Piecing together the traces Ahmadi dreams left in Australian newspapers, I plot a practice of dream interpretation that circulated across the Indian Ocean during the era of camel transportation.

Epilogue

IN HIS SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL Orange County: A Personal History, Gustavo Arellano describes a surrealist dream of return migration to his ancestral village of El Cargadero, deep in the heart of north-central México. “A couple of months before finishing this book,” Arellano writes, “I experienced the most vivid dream: I won a contest in which the main prize was the ability to fly” (2008: 25). After crisscrossing disparate geographies, from South East Asia to Eastern Europe, Gustavo decided to descend on El Cargadero, arriving in the late afternoon, when “the sun bathes everything in a soft, radiant glow.” Gustavo’s dream depicts the village quite accurately, verging on the utopian before taking a surrealist turn: “El Cargadero sits on the slope of a mountain, so rays either enveloped houses or cast them in shadows.” Hovering above, Gustavo tried to eavesdrop on conversations, “but all I heard was the laughs of contentment,” he writes. Once he landed on terra firma, “Streetlights flickered on, lending a beautiful shine to the village,” and people greeted him warmly....

A Critical Essay on the Exercise of Critique

Ontology and epistemology will never be reconciled, this article argues. There is widespread opinion among scientists and laymen alike that we are standing at the threshold of a fusion and reconciliation of ontology (being, what the world is) and epistemology (acknowledgement theory, how the world is). But my thesis is that this will never happen – and my argument can be read as a credo for non-identity. The tensions between being and thinking are here to stay, and this philosophical ‘position’ has a wide range of implications for politics, education, Bildung and thinking. Strongly rooted in Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno’s philosophy, it is claimed that he was right in emphasizing that the non-identical must be honored, defended and emancipated. The vivid dream is that conceptual work opens and ‘dignifies’ the non-identical, while the non-identical ‘longs for’ conceptual assistance so it can come to exist among us.

Christian Dickens

In September 1844 Charles Dickens had a vivid dream while he was staying at the Villa Peschiere in Genoa. He dreamed that he was ‘in an indistinct place, which was quite sublime in its indistinctness’ and he was visited by a spirit which wore blue drapery, ‘as the Madonna might in a picture by Raphael’, but which bore no resemblance to anyone he had known. He recognized a voice, however, and concluded that this was the spirit of his much loved sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth. The seventeen-year-old Mary had died in his arms on 7 May 1837, six years before she conjured herself up in Dickens’s dream. At the time he had been distraught. For months after her death he had dreamed of her ‘sometimes as a spirit, sometimes as a living creature, never with any of the bitterness of my real sorrow, but always with a kind of quiet happiness’. Those dreams had long ceased, but the new manifestation of Mary in Genoa was evidently of a different kind. He beheld this visionary Mary ‘in a great delight, so that I wept very much, and stretching out my arms to it called it “Dear.”’ He then entered into a dialogue with the spirit. ‘Oh! give me some token that you have really visited me!’, he pleaded.’Form a wish’, the spirit replied. Dickens then asked that Mary’s mother might be released from ‘great distresses’ and he was told that this would be so. He then posed a new question: ‘What is the True religion?’ The spirit seems to have hesitated, and Dickens blurted out:’Good God … You think, as I do that the Form of religion does not so greatly matter, if we try to do good? – or’ (the ghost still hesitated) ‘perhaps the Roman Catholic is the best? Perhaps it makes one think of God oftener, and believe in him more steadily?’ ‘“For you,” said the spirit, full of such heavenly tenderness for me, that I felt as if my heart would break; “For you, it is the best!”’ Dickens then woke up, with tears running down his cheeks.

The divorce of REM sleep and dreaming

The validity of dream recall is discussed. What is the relation between the actual dream and its later reflection? Nielsen proposes differential sleep mentation, which is probably determined by dream accessibility. Solms argues that REM sleep and dreaming are double dissociable states. Dreaming occurs outside REM sleep when cerebral activation is high enough. That various active sleep states correlate with vivid dream reports implies that REM sleep and dreaming are single dissociable states. Vertes & Eastman reject that REM sleep is involved in memory consolidation. Considerable evidence for this was obtained by REM deprivation studies with the dubious water tank technique.[Nielsen; Solms; Vertes & Eastman]