What do you think of dreams?

I've been browsing this forum for some time and although I enjoyed reading the discussions I have only recently begun being more interactive online.

So here's my first post.

Do you feel dreams have any use or do you feel they are generally just meaningless? I have had all kinds of different dreams and although I've never given it much thought I do tend to wonder if they are trying to tell me something, if my brain is trying to tell me something, and if they affect my life when I'm awake.

What about dreams you don't remember? We all dream at night but only remember a fraction of them. Do you believe they affect us if we don't remember them?

In general, if something happens to us and we don't remember, does it matter?

Thanks

Nice to meet you Sammy K!

I definitely believe dreams have a use for us. I actually think we are our dream world. Everything that feels "different" or "separate" is really just a part of us that hasn't been assimilated into our conscious experience. It seems that unconscious or subconscious things seek consciousness.

From my own experience I have gotten insight into some acquaintance or friend's true nature - or a better idea into what my relationship is with people.

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I do tend to wonder if they are trying to tell me something, if my brain is trying to tell me something, and if they affect my life when I'm awake.

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If I wake up from a particularly emotionally charged dream (whether positive or negative) I find that it greatly affects how I feel starting my day.

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What about dreams you don't remember? We all dream at night but only remember a fraction of them. Do you believe they affect us if we don't remember them?

In general, if something happens to us and we don't remember, does it matter?

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That's a good question. If a tree falls in the forest... I would argue in the tree's case that since sound waves are particles at a fundamental level they do affect the environment but in such an immeasurably small way that it would be pretty much impossible to ever detect.

I think an unremembered dream can affect us in more noticeable ways though. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and feeling uncomfortable and a bit fearful... and so I just tried going back to sleep and almost right when I closed my eyes I heard a hair raising scream in my head that I definitely didn't control... and then a flood of memories from a nightmare came to me which I promptly wrote down in my dream journal.

So no matter how unremembered a dream is we will always be conscious for the aftermath, in my case feeling uncomfortable and fearful. In fact, I've noticed that when I wake up with strange or uncommon feelings that that's usually a good thing to pay attention to and sometimes it leads to remembering the dream that caused them.

Gotta go eat... nice first post!

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gotten insight into some acquaintance or friend's true nature

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Can you tell me more about this?

Thanks for the welcome.

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Can you tell me more about this?

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Sure. One off the top of my head, I was in my house and my dad was going through some chests upstairs. I tell him something like "you can be here but you can't snoop around".

--a little back story... my parents are divorced and conversation with my dad and stepmom is very stilted and difficult--

The dream went on but this little bit helped me realize why I felt an instinctive urge to clam up whenever my dad or step mom would ask questions about my job or personal life. There's a distinctive feeling when someone asks questions out of friendly conversation and when they're prying. It can be subtle though and not easily recognized. This dream confirmed it for me.

It's actually a bit of a coincidence that you write this post about dreams since a couple days ago I started getting serious again with my dreams. I've been tracking them on a dream calendar which a friend of mine developed. Definitely check it out if you're getting into your dreams!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocyp5OTsz8E

Do you think your dream was created by you or something else trying to guide you?

What's that video about?

I think my whole dream world is made up entirely of different parts of me. Every conflict, every person or thing I'm scared of, is just another part of my total being that hasn't been assimilated into my consciousness yet. By the way this doesn't mean a dream can't still scare the pants off me... your dream world knows exactly what you're scared of, and then does just that.. lol

I think sometimes it's obvious when I'm creating a dream. I've had many instances where I've been able to manipulate my world as if I know it's a dream, albeit unconsciously. Like if I was running from a bear I might imagine there's a hole it falls into and then that will happen.

Then there are other times when it's like the production value of the dream is way higher than usual and there are twists in the dream that my conscious self can't account for. It just doesn't feel like I control them. I think these are dreams where it's a confrontation between my conscious self (me) and parts of me that are unconscious (though they seem to be conscious, just not in my consciousness). It's as if my mind creates these perfect scenarios to make assimilation the only solution. If assimilation isn't achieved it will just come up with a similar dream sometime down the road.

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What's that video about?

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That video is of a dream map calendar. It's a spiral calendar that starts in the center and moves outward for a total of 364 days (13 months of 28 days). So every time you have a dream you draw a little picture to symbolize the dream in the appropriate day slot on the calendar. You could start the calendar on any day you want since it's not marked - today, tomorrow, 39 days from now, whatever.

It's just a tool to help you get deeper into your dream world faster. Drawing a picture for a dream you had acts as a mnemonic device among other things. Plotting dreams on a calendar like that could also reveal any hidden patterns that would otherwise be difficult to discover.

The person who came up with this dream calendar idea also recommends spinning it. There's no definitive evidence whether this actually does anything but he claims that the act of spinning a filled out calendar accelerates the process of dream mastery even more.

It's an interesting creation if nothing else. I think it warrants investigation, which is exactly what I'm doing. And hey, if it is all a bunch of hooey you end up with a really cool art piece and a great reminder for your year when you're done.

I think dreams are stupid. I don't put any reliance on them.

I like to think that its possible dreams take me to a supernatural place. I don't know if it is true or not, but somehow it helps me feel more free and open about them, even if they are scary or bad.

You make good points about the challenges though. It makes sense that there is a conflict between your conscious mind and inner conscious mind although I don't know exactly what the difference is or why each one exists.

I think I have unpleasant dreams more than I have happy ones. The most recent one that comes to mind is me having an argument with my mom but in the dream I was incredibly angry and she was really stubborn like I just couldn't talk to her. It was like it wasn't realistic because I've never had a fight like that with her.

Well the basic Freudian idea of dreams and dream analysis is that our dreams show us our desires or fears... But not rationally. So a hill in a dream isn't a hill, but a representation of an obstacle we must overcome in real life (So...Exams, confrontation or any sort of thing which puts pressure or stress on someone).

But there are many other theories behind dreams... Some say that dreams are our subconscious organising all the information that it has collected, whereas other theories include more ancient ideas that part of the soul actually leaves the body and visits the people it sees in the dreams. (I think that's from the Sumerians...Not sure though, feel free to look it up though )

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I like to think that its possible dreams take me to a supernatural place. I don't know if it is true or not, but somehow it helps me feel more free and open about them, even if they are scary or bad.

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It's definitely valid and possible to look at dreams that way, just like you can look at waking life that way. It's just a different lens. It's like the difference between Goethe and Newton. Both are rightly respected as geniuses, Goethe being more poetic with his interpretation of things and Newton being more cold and analytical. I'm not sure if one is more right than the other. Perhaps they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

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It makes sense that there is a conflict between your conscious mind and inner conscious mind although I don't know exactly what the difference is or why each one exists.

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Freud or Jung would probably explain the parts of us that are unconscious or subconscious (literally meaning "below" consciousness) as repressed parts of our personality. If you've ever changed your behavior for the approval of someone you respect then you've either repressed something of yourself or rerouted it to a different channel of expression.

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The most recent one that comes to mind is me having an argument with my mom but in the dream I was incredibly angry and she was really stubborn like I just couldn't talk to her. It was like it wasn't realistic because I've never had a fight like that with her.

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No one can truly interpret a dream for you. Dreams tend to exaggerate a point, as if putting a magnifying glass on something, to make it more obvious to us. For this dream ask yourself what it was you wanted to talk about to your mom. Do you think your anger was justified? By the way you don't have to respond to these questions, I'm just giving you an example of the kinds of questions you might want to ask to figure out what the dream was telling you.

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Well the basic Freudian idea of dreams and dream analysis is that our dreams show us our desires or fears... But not rationally. So a hill in a dream isn't a hill, but a representation of an obstacle we must overcome in real life (So...Exams, confrontation or any sort of thing which puts pressure or stress on someone).

But there are many other theories behind dreams... Some say that dreams are our subconscious organising all the information that it has collected, whereas other theories include more ancient ideas that part of the soul actually leaves the body and visits the people it sees in the dreams.

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Do you think it could be all of these things?

Sorry I should have explained.... My comment wasn't really in answer to the question directly, it was more a "Well...I'm not sure what it is, but here's some other theories.."

I'm basically saying it could be anything, there's not really any direct fact to prove any theory towards dreams, and so I struggle to pick one and go "Yup, that's it.", so I look into multiple ones and go "Oh, that's interesting." instead

I think dreams are just like thoughts when you're awake except they are more believable because you are sleeping. like when you're in a movie because it is dark you become less aware of the outside world, so when you sleep the same thing happens except multiplied

With regards to Freudian ideas, they claim some pretty strange stuff, like having your teeth falling out in a dream (I'm sure we've all had that) shows "fear of castration".

To be honest, I think that our dreams represent our subconscious mind refreshing and processing information because it has nothing else to do when our concious is "asleep."

Dreams are what we want. Even if its a nightmare its because its what we want in real life but are too afraid to go for. What these guys said about the subconscious

I think it would be really useful to try to investigate the real purpose of dreams starting with where they come from. People should be tested in labs and parts of their brain studied so that we can find out what things are similar to dreaming. Like if you write a story, do you use the same parts as when you dream?

That way we could even try to trigger dreams when we are awake by doing similar things or thinking in that particular way.