Dreams

[Flawed_Ravvn]

What is your guys theory on dreams? Why do they happen, do they mean something?

 

[Jennywocky]

My impression is that it's your brain processing things of importance to you using symbolism constructed of recent memories (or else the reverse... the brain is unpacking and storing memories and you unconsciously are trying to read meaning into them, essentially whatever broad things that you've been mulling over).

So I don't necessarily buy into things in a dream having a static universal meaning (bears mean one thing, the color red means something else, etc.) But if you have seen a bear IRL or in a movie or have thought about them in conjunction with something, your brain might drag that in as a potential symbol in whatever underlying personal drama you've been going through.

it's like trying to make a picture of something, but you're only allowed to use a bunch of jumbled together pieces from many puzzles representing recent memories.

 

[Cherry Cola]

I think we experience dreams while our brains story memory by semantic content in a way that allows us to draw analogies and make allegories between what we remember and what we see in real time in order to make sense of the world around us.

It's defragmentation of a very complexly woven harddriven, and while it's beeing defragmentated everything must be loosened up, say we have 20 categories for memories, when we sleep and dream these are reduced to 5, their contents are measured up against one another and then put back into 20 categories again. When we are conscious but only using 5 categories we experience the world quite differently, people and objects blending into one another etc. This defragmentation process of sorts likely goes on when were not dreaming but are asleep too. The reason why we experience dreams being that they give us an additional perspective on things, they let us experience events and thoughts directly which may in our waking state only reside in the subconscious. Hence, dreams can provide many things: warnings, insights, emotional ventilation, among others.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Diversion of energy from waking life(coordination to act/think externally) to the sleep state where the brain indulges itself and goes wild with internal processing.

If we are truly from nihilistic evolution then dreams can't mean anything more than issues we are ignoring or have been thinking about to some extent. Besides the possibility of genetic episodic memory, dreams should be mostly the visual, auditory, and tactile perceptions we have in the waking life, sometimes structured and sometimes chaotic.

I think what is interesting, or what could be, is how & what a person dreams who is either blind, deaf or both. That should lend more insight into the nature of dreams.


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He hasn't posted in this thread, but Puffy has mentioned the "cut up technique" before which I think can pull from the same power of the subconscious mind which could probably mimic the dream state.

 

[BigApplePi]

What is your guys theory on dreams? Why do they happen, do they mean something?

I absolutely love the possibilities for dream theory to produce insight into how the brain works. If people haven't done this already I'm really disappointed and wonder what I should do. Maybe you guys can take it up and try it out as my mind is distracted elsewhere all over the place.

As ICcold says your mind goes wild*. What goes on in consciousness (when one is conscious by memory of a dream) is unrestricted by the willful directions of everyday life. If one could remove those restrictions I'll bet one could dream while being awake. Think daydreams.

I have dreams frequently of scenes from 30 years ago of travel and office situations and other things I'm not recalling at the moment. Repetitions, that is. I propose they happen because certain situations in the present are duplicated in (connected to) the past. The dreams are simply a continuation of the present situation where my brain left off with it in the past. The wonderful thing about this, psychoanalytically speaking, is the dream identified what the issue in the present is as connected with what is really totally us. If we were to try to explain things with our meager weak reasoning during the day we couldn't do it unless we were highly skilled.

Note: my dreams are rather specific but if you have highly symbolic dreams, I'll have something else to say.

Questions?
________________

*Your mind is free is a better way of putting it.

 

[StevenM]

I've read something based on research, that while dreaming, the amygdala (something I remember as causing fear especially, and other emotions), is going haywire. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex (in charge of logic and critical reasoning), is mostly inactive. Thus, it would make sense why dreams are so bizarre.

I believe that it is just the brains way of cleaning up, storing, and categorizing memories and information. Getting set for the day ahead. When I was younger, I would be right into the meaning of dreams, and what they mean. I have now gotten more skeptical; I just put them down as meaningless. But who knows for sure?

 

[BigApplePi]

I've read something based on research, that while dreaming, the amygdala (something I remember as causing fear especially, and other emotions), is going haywire. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex (in charge of logic and critical reasoning), is mostly inactive. Thus, it would make sense why dreams are so bizarre.

There should be brain scans already of dreaming people to check out the active areas of the brain. Yes to emotion and no to logic. I can't imagine doing much unconscious logic anyway though images could signal things. See the discovery of benzine (hex format?) or something akin to that.

I believe that it is just the brains way of cleaning up, storing, and categorizing memories and information. Getting set for the day ahead. When I was younger, I would be right into the meaning of dreams, and what they mean. I have now gotten more skeptical; I just put them down as meaningless. But who knows for sure?

I'd want to see examples before I'm ready to say "cleaning up, storing, and categorizing." I'm skeptical because of the tendency to interpret recollected dreaming. Like seeing things in an inkblot test! Think associations: the associations are all valid. I'd say look for what emotion is being portrayed.

 

[Helvete]

Dreams are there to let you know that your brain is still functioning when you're asleep. It's just for reassurance purposes. It stops potential thoughts of questioning whether you're dead or not when you wake, as you have no recollection of what went on when asleep. Fact.

 

[Variform]

What is your guys theory on dreams? Why do they happen, do they mean something?

Are you provoking me girl? Everywhere you ask these interesting questions I have no choice but to answer!

I have read several books on sleep and dreams. I have been on oneironaut. I have studied my dreams and busied myself a while with lucid dreaming.

I am very good at dream explanation by engaging people about them.

I like to think as dreams as the poor man's shrink :-)

I find the information out of them very useful and often pragmatic. Sometimes scarily precise and to the point. And now and then profound.

All dreams mean something. But it is our own approach that give them significance. In that when you consider a common dream about something you did in the day, the significance might merely be a processing of the experiences of the day, as a filter of what is important to keep. Whereas other dreams have great meaning to you and thus are important.

I always urge people to make more work of their dreams. Theyc an be useful.

For example, when I had motorcycle lessons I had some trouble trusting the bike to 'fall into a curve'. In my dreams I practiced this and it felt wonderful to fall into the curves. And I could take that out of the dreamworld into practice.

In general dreams will show you what you are preoccupied with. And that is quite helpful too.

I am fascinated by dreams. Sometimes they are so spectacular. I have story outlines of complete books that I dreamed up.

And sometimes they are quite real and intense.

E.g. I often have dreams about collapsing buildings. I am on the ground looking up and someting happens and the whole damned building is collapsing threatening to cover me. And I run like a mofo. Sorry, only cuss words may describe the anxiety that propels my legs to move.

Scary but I love those. In some cases I am inside them and need to get out rather quick :-)

I have dreams about crashing planes too. You would not believe with what intensity and detail these crashes are shown.

In one particular dream I was in a car looking out the right window. I did not drive, rode shotgun so to say. And I see this plane flying parallel and really low.
It is then I suddenly realize it has a problem.

So I get outside the car at a corner and am quite emotional, something is about to go really bad! And then the plane comes in over the road, it flips on its side and miraculously flies several hundred meters upside down before crashing like that. And the explosion is so close, that I need to actually run to a building with a porticula as to avoid the debris raining down around me. And I am scared out of my wits.

And then I see the front wheel set of the plane crash down right in front of me outside my hiding place. The details of it...my god.

In another dream I am afloat on water looking at a coastal town and behind there are mountains with woods. And there is a war, from the hills there missiles are fired into the town. I see the explosions and smoke. And then suddenly I realize that I am in the line of fire! If one missiles or rocket overshoots the town, I am a goner!

So I make my way to the town, enter it and find myself amongst a crowd fleeing through a street. At some point I stop in a store window. People running by. The fear and panic... I move on and come to a square alongside a canal. People get in boats. But I remember I have to get some people. I can't remember friends or family, SO I run back into the town, into danger to find them.
The explosions, the crowd, the feelings were all very real.

That is why I love dreams. This scene can be copied into a book with ease. Unfortunately, whatever it is, ADD or whatever, prevents me from staying motivated to keep doing much dream work. And so that too is just one of many little interests or hobbies that I have had.

 

[Variform]

There should be brain scans already of dreaming people to check out the active areas of the brain. Yes to emotion and no to logic. I can't imagine doing much unconscious logic anyway though images could signal things. See the discovery of benzine (hex format?) or something akin to that.[/quotes]

Niels Bohr dreamt up his atomic model. But Descartes too, I am sure revered here by many logic loving INTP's, had an angel appear in his dream when he was 19, he was a soldier in the Hapsburg army, laying siege to Prague (summer 1619), but then retreating and camping at Ulm (birthplace of Einstein), Southern Germany, who said that 'The conquest of nature is to be achieved through number and measurement.'

This is the man to kill had I a time machine. Cause taking that message he became the father of modern science by removing spirit from matter, causing science to become materialist and us as well, causing now great harm to our world and its species.

I'd want to see examples before I'm ready to say "cleaning up, storing, and categorizing." I'm skeptical because of the tendency to interpret recollected dreaming. Like seeing things in an inkblot test! Think associations: the associations are all valid. I'd say look for what emotion is being portrayed.

Yes, all dream imagery needs to be considered carefully for its symbolism and together as a whole.

 

[Variform]

Dreams are there to let you know that your brain is still functioning when you're asleep. It's just for reassurance purposes. It stops potential thoughts of questioning whether you're dead or not when you wake, as you have no recollection of what went on when asleep. Fact.

Show me the proof.

 

[Flawed_Ravvn]

@Varifomr- If I wanted to provoke you, I would do something completely different. And plus, what would I accomplish by provoking you?

 

[digitalbum]

My impression is that it's your brain processing things of importance to you using symbolism constructed of recent memories (or else the reverse... the brain is unpacking and storing memories and you unconsciously are trying to read meaning into them, essentially whatever broad things that you've been mulling over).

So I don't necessarily buy into things in a dream having a static universal meaning (bears mean one thing, the color red means something else, etc.) But if you have seen a bear IRL or in a movie or have thought about them in conjunction with something, your brain might drag that in as a potential symbol in whatever underlying personal drama you've been going through.

it's like trying to make a picture of something, but you're only allowed to use a bunch of jumbled together pieces from many puzzles representing recent memories.

Shocking. This is pretty much exactly how I feel.

Basically dream interpretation is ALL about how the images, sequences make you FEEL. Scared, happy, lonely, etc. And the images can give clues as to WHAT you are scared of, for example.

If your teeth fall out in a dream, it can mean a different thing for each person. However, since this is so common, it could have something to do with concern over appearance. But that feeling, to me at least, is of fear. Not necessarily of appearance but just some deep fear about something.

 

[Cognisant]

Perhaps a better question would be why do we need to be unconscious for eight hours a day?

 

[Flawed_Ravvn]

Scientist don't have a set answer for that. Many believe its to help reset the human body per say. Or to help recharge.

 

[digitalbum]

I sleep more when I work out more. Pretty sure it's recovery, or partially.

 

[Grayman]

I sleep more when I work out more. Pretty sure it's recovery, or partially.

I sleep more when I am lazy.

 

[digitalbum]

I sleep more when I am lazy.

 

[Variform]

Shocking. This is pretty much exactly how I feel.

Basically dream interpretation is ALL about how the images, sequences make you FEEL. Scared, happy, lonely, etc. And the images can give clues as to WHAT you are scared of, for example.

If your teeth fall out in a dream, it can mean a different thing for each person. However, since this is so common, it could have something to do with concern over appearance. But that feeling, to me at least, is of fear. Not necessarily of appearance but just some deep fear about something.

Not just feel, dreams can be very precise. E.g. you can have dreams in where numbers play an important role. These can be very specific to your life. Dreams are not contained just to feelings.

Sometimes you may hear a voice saying something which can be precise. So it is also not just imagery that is important.