SG - Awareness in Dreams
In short
Lecture- 8 September
- 20:00h
- Impulse Wageningen Campus
- Speaker: Gabriela Torres Platas
Dreaming
Since time immemorial, dreaming has been a deeply personal, mysterious and even sacred or magical realm. What we know about dreaming and how we know it are at the centre of this series. How have ancient contemplative dreaming cultures contributed to what we know today about dreaming? What is actually known and still unknown about the brain during sleep? And just where do reality and fantasy meet when it comes to sleep state steering, the mechanics of your wildest nighttime mind wanderings, dream hacking and even dream engineering?
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Awareness in Dreams
What if modern cognitive neuroscience could be merged with age old contemplative sleep practice traditions that have explored consciousness during dream states for centuries?
Reality shapeshifts in dreams. This universal human phenomenon has been an elusive, magical mystical or even sacred part of very private and personal experiences throughout history. Tonight, we consider a groundbreaking interdisciplinary approach to better understanding it. What if modern cognitive neuroscience could be merged with age old contemplative sleep practice traditions that have explored consciousness during dream states for centuries? What might we discover about the nature of reality experienced during sleep? These questions led neuro-scientist Gabriela Torres Platas to initiate an exploration of awareness cultivation during dreaming. She joined forces with Tibetan Buddhist monks and expert practitioners to investigate Dream Yoga and ancient insights into steering it. This research on Contemplative Sleep Practices has helped establish one of the first research programs of its kind to study these practices using modern neuroscientific methods. What has their ongoing research revealed? Find out as she shares her passion for crossing borders of scientific questioning. Join us to discuss the boundaries of consciousness and what dreaming can mean for cognition, emotional regulation, and psychological well-being.
About Gabriela Torres Platas
Dr. S. Gabriela Torres-Platas, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on the biological mechanisms underlying mental health and contemplative practices. She earned her Ph.D. from McGill University (Canada), where her doctoral work explored the role of glial cells in the inflammatory processes associated with depression and suicide. This pivotal research advanced the understanding of how the brain's immune system contributes to psychiatric disorders.
Following her Ph.D., Dr. Torres-Platas expanded her expertise by pursuing clinical research training, co-leading a laboratory in Montreal, investigating the biological effects of mindfulness-based interventions for treating psychiatric conditions, merging her interests in neuroscience and mental health.
Currently, Dr. Torres-Platas is research associate at Northwestern University, working in the Paller Lab. She studies the neural correlates of Tibetan Dream Yoga, a centuries-old practice within Buddhist traditions. In collaboration with the Emory–Tibet Science Initiative and Tibetan monastic scholars in India, she conducts laboratory and field studies examining these practices within both experimental and traditional contexts. Her work investigates how lucid dreaming and dream yoga can enhance contemplative practices during sleep, aiming to understand how these practices influence neural pathways and cognitive habits.
By combining traditional Tibetan practices with modern neuroscience, Dr. Torres-Platas' research brings innovative insights into how the brain can be trained to achieve greater mental clarity and well-being. Her studies involve monitoring advanced practitioners of dream yoga using EEG, post-sleep reports, and even real-time communication with lucid dreamers, pushing the frontiers of dream research.
Date
20:00 - 22:00