Daniel Deslauriers, Ph.D.
Professor Daniel Deslauriers was born in Montreal, Québec, in French speaking Canada. He began meditating at the age of 16 with TM, and continued to follow a contemplative life exploring a number of Eastern, Western and Indigenous practices. His scholarly background is in the cognitive sciences, consciousness studies and cultural psychology.
His early research focused on the cognitive processes in dream understanding based on metaphorical mapping of dream images onto life events, articulated within the story-like nature of dreaming. By joining the ideas of organismic balance (derived from Assagioli's Psychosynthesis) with script analysis, he and his mentor-colleague developed a model of narrative problem solving in dreams: the dream being a complex enactive space for the self to try out creative scenarios. This led to their co-authored monograph (1), Le rêve, sa nature, sa fonction et une méthode d'analyse and a series of co-authored research articles (2,3,4).
He joined the Sleep and Chronopsychology laboratory at Carleton University, Canada, to collect and analyze REM dreams for scriptual content. His doctoral work on the story structure of the dreaming experience later blossomed in his interest in the field of narratology and narrative research (5). This also led him to develop the idea of a grammar of emotions active in dreams.
In the mid 1980's, he co-founded the Montreal Center for the Study of Dreams, and published its bulletin. He joined the International Association for the Study of Dreams during their first meeting in San Francisco in 1984 and became a member of its Board of directors; he has been a frequent presenter at the conferences. Before joining CIIS in 1990, he taught at the University of Montreal and McGill University in Canada; the University of Auckland in New Zealand and JFK University in California. Collaborating with Fariba Bogzaran, he has taught retreats and workshops on Integral Approach to Dreams in Asia and Europe.
CIIS
When he joined the faculty of the East-West Psychology program at CIIS, he brought his expertise in qualitative research, in particular narrative research, creating curriculum integrating the human sciences and consciousness studies within East-West psychology.
He worked on articles, chapters and professional presentations focusing on dreams and emotions (6), participatory approaches to dream meaning (7), dreams and self-reflectiveness (8), transcultural strategies of dreamwork (9) and lately on dreams and intersubjectivity (10).
In the mid 1990's, adding to the more cognitive and emotional aspects of dream understanding, he became interested in the spiritual dimensions of dreaming (11) and began formulating ideas, research and course on spiritual intelligence (12). He became the first CIIS professor to be the recipient of a grant from the Templeton Foundation to create a course on Consciousness, Science and Religion (13).
He served as the Director of the East-West Psychology program for ten years, and previously directed the Individualized Studies Doctorate. He helped start the HRRC (Human Research Review Committee) and initiated the CIIS Research Committee, which created the Dissertation Proposal Rubric. He also helped convene the first CIIS grievance committee and served as interim Dean for the School of Consciousness and Transformation for one year.
Cultural and artistic endeavors
Intersecting with his professional and intellectual life, he has been keenly involved in cross-cultural encounters, around the arts and traditional healing modalities. At age eighteen, he joined Canada World Youth, a program bringing together youth from developing countries with Canadian youth. He lived in Indonesia and worked there in the late 1970's. Over several extended stays, he embedded himself in the life and culture of Bali and learned the language and the traditional temple dance of Baris and Topeng (mask). He was invited to dance in religious ceremonies alongside his late dance teacher, Agus Partha (14). In the Bay Area, he joined the gamelan Sekar Jaya, with whom he performed for a number of years. This work brought him in touch with issues ranging from cultural fusion, paradox and hybridity (15).
Daniel also worked closely with Apela Colorado in the Traditional Knowledge and Recovery of Indigenous Mind programs at CIIS where he taught qualitative research (16). Some of his work addresses the context and issue related to intercultural work (17) and the importance of situating ourselves as part of a larger ancestral journey.
He currently serves as a Voting Member for the Lucid Art Foundation (18) and has done documentary videos on Gordon Onslow Ford and participated in several theater performances with Fariba Bogzaran on dreams. His interest embodies art as way of knowing and research. He lives in nature and is interested in sustainability.
Current projects
He is currently completing a book with Fariba Bogzaran on Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach in Working with Dreams (SUNY Press) and is editing a book on joy entitled Liberating Joy (forthcoming)
Bibliographical references
1. Baylor, G.W. & Deslauriers, D. (1988). Le rêve, sa nature, sa fonction et une méthode d'analyse. Sillery, Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec.
2. Baylor, G.W. & Deslauriers, D (1986). Understanding dreams. Method, maps and metaphor, Dreamworks, 5.
3. Baylor, G.W. & Deslauriers, D (1986). Dreams as problem solving: A method of study-Part I. Imagination, cognition and personality, 6 (2), 105-118.
4. Baylor, G.W. & Deslauriers, D (1987). Dreams as problem solving: A method of study--Part II: The oral defense dream. Imagination, cognition and personality, 7 (1).
5. Deslauriers, D. (1991). Dimensions of knowing: Narrative, Paradigm and Ritual. ReVision, 14 (4), 187-193.
6. Nielsen, T. A.; Deslauriers, D. & Baylor, G. W. (1991). Emotions in dream and waking event reports. Dreaming, Vol 1(4), 287-300. http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&uid=1992-22402-001
7. Deslauriers, D. & Cordts, J. (1995). Dreams and current concerns: A narrative co-constitutive approach. Dreaming, 5 (4), 247-265.
8. Deslauriers, D. (1995). Dreams, Self-reflectiveness and Self-Knowledge. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco.
9. Deslauriers, D. (2009). Transcultural Strategies for Working with Dreams. In S. Krippner & D. Joffe Ellis (eds.) Perchance to dream. The frontiers of dream psychology. NY: Nova Science Publishers.
10. Deslauriers, D. (in press). Dreams at the boundary of self and others:
Intersubjective fields, emotions and culture. In S. Kakar (ed). Wasan Institute Consciousness Studies series: Dreaming [working title]). NY: Penguin.
11. Deslauriers, D. & Bogzaran, F. (1994). Dreams and Epiphany. Paper presented at the 10th International Conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Santa Fe, NM, June 1994.
12. Deslauriers, D. (2000). Dreamwork in the light of emotional and spiritual intelligence. Advanced Development. Vol 9, pp. 105-122.
13. Deslauriers, D. (2001). Consciousness Studies & the dialogue between science and religion. Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Symposium: Consciousness and the Self. Montreal, Qc.
14. Deslauriers, D. (1996). The role of Dreams and artistic training: a Balinese example. Paper presented at the Society for the Anthropological Study of Consciousness. Los Angeles. April 1996.
15. Deslauriers, D. (1994). Maturity as Paradox: The fugitive intentions of East-West Psychology. Journal of East West Psychology, Vol. 1 (1), 65-69.
16. Deslauriers, D. (2000). Celebrating the living tree of knowledge. Inquiry within Traditional knowledge. Social Ecology Journal Vol 2, 103-114.
17. Deslauriers, D. (unpublished). Reflections on East-West Psychology
An Interview with Daniel Deslauriers by Gianluca Bocchi of Pluriverso (1999).
18. www.lucidart.org
