Lucid Dreaming and Mysticism: A Personal Observation

As I read the literature on lucid dreams, I see the occasional temptation to refer to un-usual lucid dream phenomena as mystical experiences, or to imply that it is. These phenomena include the “enlightenment” of knowing one is dreaming, the recognition that what one sees is part of oneself, the feeling of energy or currents through the body, the seeing of light, the feeling of levitation or that one is out of the body, the hearing of “divine” music, and many others. It is true that many lucid dream phenomena may be found in a wide variety of mystical literature, and the connection between dreaming and mystical experience is worthy of study. But a cautious language is called for

From the medicalisation of dementia to the politics of memory and identity in three Spanish documentary films:Bicicleta, cullera, poma, Las voces de la memoria and Bucarest: la memòria perduda

This paper explores how the concept of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is constructed through Spanish media and documentary films and how it is represented. The article analyses three documentary films and the cultural and social contexts in and from which they emerged: Solé´s Bucarest: la memòria perduda [Bucharest: Memory Lost] (2007), Bosch´s Bicicleta, cullera, poma [Bicycle, Spoon, Apple] (2010) , and Frabra’s Las voces de la memoria [Memory´s Voices] (2011). The three documentary films approach AD from different perspectives, creating well-structured discourses of what AD represents for contemporary Spanish society, from medicalisation of AD to issues of personhood and citizenship. These three films are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective, in an effort to strengthen the links between ageing and dementia studies and cultural studies. Examining documentary film representations of AD from these perspectives enables semiotic analyses beyond the aesthetic perspectives of film studies, and the exploration of the articulation of knowledge and power in discourses about AD in contemporary Spai