Benjamin built his method from dreaming and ecstasy to expand consciousness beyond academic limits

Evidence

Two of Benjamin’s central ideas formed the basis for this. The first was connected with method. From the exemplary experiences of dreaming and ecstasy, Benjamin was attempting to draw the principles of a method of perception that would go beyond the boundaries of what was usual in academic work: the principles of a sober expansion of consciousness. He found important insights here above all in Klages, Proust and the surrealists. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 811

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Benjamin sought to broaden Kant’s concept of experience to include the religious. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 344; Benjamin sought to win surrealism’s intoxication energies for revolution, but beyond dream — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 771; Benjamin grounded his method of perception in dreaming and ecstasy. (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Benjamin saw the masses as perceiving reproducible art through a dream-like consciousness #expands (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 850
• Benjamin’s own work fused mysticism and modern urban experience #expands (0.78) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 1494