Motivation and Justification from Dreams: Muslim Decision‐Making Strategies in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Dreams may serve to justify or motivate decisions. This paper examines two dream incidents in Pakistan which have implications for the study of decision making processes. In the first incident, the centrality of the dream is questionable in the decision making process, while the second incident suggests that dreams may be more than justificatory props that enable people to do what they had already decided. If dreams play a motivational role in the decision making process then models of decision making may benefit from explicit recognition of the role unconscious, uncontrolled experiences though the narrative may be conscious and controlled.

Keywords:

• Dreams
• Decision Making
• Punjab
• Rationality

Notes

[1] Though clearly not all—if one treats certain bodily functions as decisions, then one could argue that little higher cognitive functioning is necessary to arrive at appropriate decisions.

[2] As with a great many terms used in this paper, I shall dispense with a systematic discussion of the ambiguities and contradictions introduced with the concept of indigenousness. Suffice to say that I do not restrict such a term to subsistence rainforest dwellers or small‐scale isolated communities, but rather, imply something broader that encompasses any relatively coherent, identifiable local population that self‐identifies as having some communitarian cultural systems in common.

[3] Charpai perhaps needs no translation for a British audience, but for the sake of clarity, a charpai is the four legged cot, sofa or bed that serves so many functions across South Asia.

[4] Even those who subscribe to astrology and accord it a certain degree of external, universal validity, are often disdainful of the daily horoscope found in newspapers.