the dream of spiritual initiation and the organization of self representations among Pakistani sufis

Pakistani dreams of initiation into a sufi order illustrate how a dream may have the power to transform the dreamer by becoming the basis for a new, semiotically constituted self representation. The semiotic power of the dream can be understood only by considering several aspects of the dreaming process: how the manifest dream content simultaneously replicates a cultural template and expresses the dreamer's idiosyncratic concerns and conflicts, how the interpretation of the dream facilitates the establishment of a new self representation and associated social relationships which may resolve the dreamer's conflicts, and finally how the significance of the dream is ultimately determined by the dreamer's ability to realize the expectations of the new self representation in his subsequent life. [dreams, self-concepts, psychological anthropology, semiotics, sufism, Pakistan]