Sóunar

Sóunar is a term used in speculative fiction and worldbuilding to describe a deliberate, shared dreaming practice. In the imagined contexts where it appears, sóunar denotes a coordinated mental state in which two or more participants enter a common dream space through consent, ritual cues, and synchronized focus. The concept is typically presented as a tool for collective storytelling, memory preservation, or decision making, rather than a solitary dream experience.

Practice and methodology: Participants agree on ground rules and a safety framework. They prepare a sleep environment with agreed sensory cues such as sounds, scents, and imagery. A facilitator or rotating facilitators guide the session, offering neutral prompts to steer narrative direction without imposing a fixed outcome. After waking, participants record dream content and compare journals to reconstruct the shared narrative, resolve conflicts, or extract symbolic meanings. Ethical considerations around consent and mental boundaries are often emphasized in the narratives.

Origins and use: In fiction, sóunar is used to explore themes of communal memory, trust, and governance, or to unlock hidden knowledge within a society’s lore. Authors may contrast sóunar with solitary lucid dreaming to examine how collective experiences shape cultural memory and decision making. While it inspires worldbuilding concepts and storytelling, sóunar is generally described as a fictional or speculative practice rather than a real-world phenomenon.

See also: lucid dreaming; dreamwork; shared dreaming; collective storytelling.