Threshold Worlds 

This project is jointly funded by IMH and the Institute of Advanced Study (Durham University). 

Dreams have been fascinating multiple disciplines for centuries, from philosophy to literature to contemporary cognitive science. Why we dream remains to a great extent an enduring mystery. Yet today we have more technologies, methods and conceptual frameworks than ever to explore how and what we dream.

Are dreams similar to wakeful perceptual worlds? Are they narrative reconfigurations of our waking life? Where does dreams’ emotional, spatial, visual material come from? How does our waking consciousness mutate and transition into dream states? What happens to our self in and out of dreaming events?

There is no single discipline that can answer these questions alone. In this project, narrative theorists, psychologists, artists and literary scholars will come together to assess how we can improve the exploration of dreams from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

To find out more about Threshold Worlds, visit the project website.