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Compendium of Dreams (1)

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Anonymous

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dreams??

This thread is a merging of several old Dream threads: all were at least a year old, and mostly very short. - Rynner 6.12.02
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i'm going to start this thread for people to post any weird dreams they have had lately, and for anyone who could explain what the dreams mean. well to start off here is one of my dreams that i had last night. it is quite weird, and it scared me really bad, but now it seems funny.


ok during the begining of the dream i found these documents that said when i was young i had experienceswith people from beyond the dead, but then, after a few months of my experiences i said something and all the ghosts that were bugging me went away. well my mom and i were in our car driving to our old house, i was in the back seat reading this article about my experiences, and i came across the saying that I said to get rid of the ghosts, but before i could read it we were at our old house so while i was getting out of the car i heard a mans voice say evilawakatuck, so i kinda got scared stood up and there was my pricnipal standing there, so that freaked me out too, but then he walked away and there was what looked like a guy dressed in a rabit suit standing behind him, i yelled to my mom look!!!! and i was about to cry when i woke up. it was strange cause i felt like i had seen that rabbit thing before.... anyway thats one of my strange dreams
 
THE MEANING OF DREAMS

A lot has been written about dreams but is there any definitive proof tha dreams are telling us something about the way we live our lives and can dreams predict the future?
 
Well Freud dreamed that his Interpretation of Dreams was
so important that it should be dated 1900 not 1899.

In a heightened and creative state, everything is important.

In a dead state nothing counts for much.

Being only sometimes alive, I have had three prophetic dreams
in my life:
One was a dream of finding fifty pence in a place where I did;
One was of receiving a letter from some old friends;
One was something disgraceful, that was quite nice.

None of them changed my life, which makes them even odder.

Whatever God is, he isn't an accountant. :confused:
 
Okey dokie, this seems to be the best place, as I don't think that this bit will fit in either Ufology or Parapsychology...

Yep, I have had quite a few dreams (and 'snapshots' of the future) where that I dreamt the horrible death of my rat, drinking hot chocolate, dreaming of a guy that was going to break my heart (dumped him quickly, and later found out that he was planning to break my heart anyway in a week, and he loved a million other girls) dreaming of people and their names, and meeting them for the first time in real life, blah blah blah...

Still, one of my dreams (the most recent one, and i know that it'll come real because I just know it) stands out from all of that, and I'm quite paranoid and having a few insomanic nights because of that dream...

Right, I had just woken up from one of my pleasing surreal, lucid dreams, and I decided to just close my eyes and snooze for a second before getting up. I immediately dreamt of myself, lying on my left side in the bed, and then a brilliant yellowish light shining through the window (like a beam) and then I flung out, screaming. I woke up, sitting upright, finishing off my scream.

Anyone have something like that?
 
I believe that dreams are an important thing to pay attention to. I am unsure of whether they are any tool for the future or a warning in any supernatural sense, but I certainly think that they are very important.

I see dreams as your brain sorting things out, trying to give your concious mind a clue as to what's really going on. I know my dreams often indicate what I really want, or maybe something I know I don't want. Sometimes they are totally inexplicable, but I know that they almost always clue me in to something going on my confused head!
 
DREAMS & REALITY

Does anyone have any thoughts on the nature of dreams, I mean in dreams the most fantastic things can seem mundane, but in reality would be outrageous, why do our minds accept things in dreams that our waking minds can not?:confused:
 
because its a dream lol
no seriously i think its something to do with the unconcious in a concious state you have preconceptions you have to overcome you have a world of things to think about without realising but when your asleep these things dissapear
so the mind is free to play
casio
 
When I was a kid I read a book in which a character said, "I'm so surprised I must be dreaming." and one of the other characters replied, "Then you're not dreaming, in a dream you can experience any emotion, sadness, happiness, fear, but never surprise."

And it's true. Think about all the fantastic things that happen in dreams, and you are NEVER surprised!

Carole
 
Usually you are the victim of a dream. You dont have time to stop and consider what is going on so you dont have time to be shocked. The point where you are surprised is often the point where you catch-on you are dreaming and wake up. If you dont wake up you start having lucid dreams and these turn you into a hippie. I think.
 
Dreams do seam to have access to subconscious abilities we are unaware of. I have had at least one predictive dream and often had moments of Deja Vu where I could remember current events happening as though I had dreamed them. The way you can suddenly remember that you dreamed something but have absolutely no idea of when indicates to me that time in dreams does not necessarily work as it does in real life- perhaps we are even slightly less controlled by pure temporal order when we dream than we are usually. It is a very interesting area.
 
I used to have a lot of dreams about the end of the world. From time to time I have very vivid and extremely bizarre dreams. In a lot of dreams, I've found myself quite surprised as to certain turns of events. Sometimes I even think that things in the dream are really weird. Like, "how the hell did that happen?", but then I just pick up and keep on going through the dream.
So my mind doesn't accept _everything_ as kosher. It seems to me that different dreams may serve different purposes. Sometimes it seems like I'm just there watching things happen, that I'm really not involved in the dream. Perhaps in these dreams our brain isn't trying to work out problems, but just sorting through different combinations of information?
Then in other dreams I definitely feel like I'm require to act in different scenarios. It even feels like some kind of problem is being confronted or analyzed. Maybe the mind accepts all (even absurd) situations in an attempted solution?
Finally I _rarely_ have a dream where information is being conveyed directly to me. The ones I remember are of people I know telling me exactly how they feel about me. Seems obvious that the lower levels of the mind are putting 2+2 together and pushing 4 up to the higher levels of consciousness.
What do you think?
 
The standard interpretation of dreaming is that the brain is resorting all its memories, seeing how recent experiences fit in with older memories. Perhaps an analogy would be if you were to reorganise all the files on your computer, chucking out the accumulated junk and collecting other stuff into into new more relevent directories. And then you defrag your machine to pack it all down tidy!

I often dream about boats and sailing (not unusual in view of my history), especially on strongly tidal harbours and rivers, which I find fascinating. But what is odd is that I can dream of sailing up a river and then the boat morphs into a car or a bike, and the river into a road. And the reverse has happened too: driving through a town to a dockside I seamlessly find myself sailing down the harbour.

I frequently revisit my dream places, which are mostly fictional, although with elements related to places I do know. Often I find myself trying to find a particular place but getting continually sidetracked - often in ways I 'know' (in the dream) have happened before!
 
some times i find it gets harder and harder to remember some dreams
casio
maybe it has something to do with getting older?
 
I occasionally wake up laughing my head off at something hilarious that happened in my dream, but can't remember what it was that was so funny

Carole
 
I bet you have a good happy feely day after that kind of dream though.
 
Re: DREAMS & REALITY

p.younger said:
Does anyone have any thoughts on the nature of dreams, I mean in dreams the most fantastic things can seem mundane, but in reality would be outrageous, why do our minds accept things in dreams that our waking minds can not?:confused:
Click to expand...

In dreams, our conscious, critical mind sinks out of sight, and the greater portion of mind - the Unconscious - takes its nightly precedence, taking us back to the child-like approach of acceptance-without-question.
Children, below a given age, are mental sponges; they absorb everything around them - including conversations adults may be having 'out of ear shot'. Unlike us, they haven't yet learned to prioritise sensory data or focus on a part of the daily flood - a necessity abliity in an adult world fraught with the risks of sensory overload.
The conscious mind, then, is effectively an analytical tool that serves our best interests in our interactions in the physical world. It allows us to survive by focusing our attention in the hunt, or when driving, or crossing the road. We are in most danger when that critical faculty is under-used or unchallenged (monotonous activities leading to day-dreaming or highway hypnosis), or when it is overloaded, and it just quits (stress, mental breakdown, etc).
When in the resting (sleep) state, that critical function is not required to the same degree, so the unconscious mind jumps into the driving seat.
Since the unconcious lacks any real critical ability (apart from the autonomic functions, it is the source of inspiration, intuition, imagination, and so on - all the non-logical faculties), it cannot distinguish between its records of reality (memory of experience) and those of fantasy. It simply has file after file of relational subjects, which, if followed by the drifting mind in sleep, map out a narrative thread - a dream. A boat, a plane, a car, a bike are all filed under 'transport', for instance; so getting from the harbour to a point inland simply utilises the appropriate mode of transport for the terrain, but doesn't have the critical ability to decide when to move from one to the other.
The relational nature of dream content also explains why some situations are recurring - like nightmares. And why dreams are useful indicators of our waking attitudes.
As soon as we encounter a given situation in a dream, all the related associations are on hand to provide a potential narrative. A book I read (I'll give the reference at the end) mentions an example to illustrate the point:

You're in a darkened ally. You see someone ahead, waiting. Depending on how you view this figure will dictate how the dream will evolve. Is it a mugger/murder (with knife, gun?) out to kill you. Or might it be a friend waiting to meet you? (whereby you greet the figure and happily continue on home or to the pub). And then, at the pub...you see how it goes.

Occasionally - and this is the primary focus of the book - one meets an unlikely or impossible situation in a dream which, for some reason, engages the critical mind. If the critical mind, on analysing the situation, upholds that sense of inconsistency (regarding what is and isn't possible within that context), it 'wakes' up - and you find yourself having a Lucid Dream, and the conscious and unconscious minds find themselves active at the same time.
Now, you have the bizarre situation of realistic, vivid awareness and 'reality checking' faculties, but applied to a mental universe - one that, according to your critical sense, looks, and feels, and sounds just like the real world, but now that 'reality' can contain anything your unconscious can imagine or fear - and it will appear to you as if you were really there.
This is where the importance of getting the right emotional framework is important, since whatever you can conceive of is given flesh in all the sensory richness of wakeful experience.
The 'good' side is many people learn to take control of their dreams, and can fashion and experience adventures or fantasies that would be impossible in normal life.

Anyone who has had a lucid dream knows exactly what I mean. For those who haven't, or haven't heard of lucid dreaming, the book I refer to above provides a very good introduction, and a number of DIY techniques:




Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBerge & Howard Rheingold (Ballantine Books; ISBN 0-345-37410-X)
 
Thanks Hermes, what a great reply, I think you have answered my question very well.
 
Re: Re: DREAMS & REALITY

Hermes said:
Occasionally - and this is the primary focus of the book - one meets an unlikely or impossible situation in a dream which, for some reason, engages the critical mind.
Click to expand...

Occasionally? I can not remember the last time i dreamed of anything that wasnt unlikely or impossible. I thought that is what dreams were all about?
I think if i had a mundane dream then my critical mind would start working, after all mundane is what it does best.
 
Floating Dreams

Not particuarly weird.... but the best dreams i have are the ones.. where i float in a weightless state, like an astronaut aboard Mir or the ISS. They are truely lovely dreams to have, because you feel free. Just pushing off from walls or the ground, and gently floating along, a few metres off the ground.

I wonder what physical or mental processes cause such dreams, and if i can invoke them more often...

any suggestions??
 
I don't know if it's easy to invoke dreams, but I have found a way to feel like I'm floating using breathing and thought control techniques.

I don't know anyone else who can do this, but i'll try to describe what i do, I learnt how to do it over several years and find it very useful to relax, and an alternative to sleep.

Lie still in bed, and focus on your finger tips. Imagine electricity streaming out of them. Imagine that your finger tips can spread out to something nearby, and imagine that you're actually touching them. Practise this, and also steady breathing techniques that help reduce blood pressure/heartbeat.

I don't know how easy it is to "learn" this, as I've always been able to control mine, but deep sea divers and the like can do so also, but I don't know whether they do it through training or natural ability.

After about a half hour of this, I can feel myself filling the room and touching everything at the same time, and sometimes reach out to a few hundred meters. It is an experience similar to flying, but I actually stay in the same place, and only "feel".

It isn't a dream state as I'm fully aware of my location, and don't feel sleepy.

Sorry, it's not much help about actually dreaming as I have boring dreams, this is just a great, cheaper and sometimes superior alternative to beer and other 'things' ;)

Even if it doesn't give a trip like experience, just the fact of concentrating on breathing and thoughts is a nice way to relax, and given time can be used as a way to banish negative thoughts, which is one of the methods I use when things get me down :)
 
i often do the same thing only i imagine im in differnt places watching whats going on like as if im sat watching people at work or in a local wood watching the sky and the clouds float by

well it works to relax me lol
cas
 
Dreams

I have had lots of weird dreams, wonder if anyone can make any sense of them. There was this really weird one, where i thought i was actually wake, i sat up in bed and saw a grey like being sitting on the edge of my bed. It wasn't no alien or shit like that, cause i tried to push it off my bed and when i did, i fell into it.

Then i was in this dark void, emptyness is the only way i can describe it. Then there was these two spirits pulling and pushing me. I felt like i was going to be pulled apart. This was when i realised i was dreaming, and even though i knew it was a dream i was quite frighten.

So i started scream, but couldn't i felt paralysed. I felt like i needed someone to shake me out of my sleep, or i would never wake. Then all i remember is breaking free of there grasp and waking up.

The thing about that dream, was it was so vivid and real, more so than any other dream i have ever had.

I was also wandering what subjects people have crossed in there dreams and any inspiring visions etc.........


Quote...

"Hard work never killed anyone but i figure why take the chance"

Ronald Reagan
 
I wonder if someone can tell me something about dreams thats been bugging me for as long as I can remember:

Do people who have been blind since birth dream, & if so, do they dream in sounds and touch?

(Presumably if you have no concept of vision, then you are unable to 'see' things in dreams:confused: )

Answers on a postcard please......................
 
Charlotte said:
I wonder if someone can tell me something about dreams thats been bugging me for as long as I can remember:

Do people who have been blind since birth dream, & if so, do they dream in sounds and touch?
Click to expand...

Sorry, can't attach a postcard...
But yes, everyone dreams - if you look at your own dreams, you'll realise you don't use just the visual sense in them, you hear, maybe feel, maybe touch as well. Blind (or deaf) people are no different. What you you dream depends on your experience, so obviously, if you have no experience or concept of sight, you won't 'see' in dreams - much the same with hearing if you are deaf (although, as deaf people can feel vibrations, they do have some concept of sound).
So, yes, people who have been born totally blind dream in what they know - sounds, smells, touches etc.
 
Freud: "Dreams are the royal road to the unconcious".

Or words to that effect.
Freud thought that dreams are basically a projection of the unconcious mind- personal desires and deep held fears can be expressed through dreams. They are often symbolic in nature; a dream of a train going into a tunnel is a (rather obvious) projection of sexual desires for instance.
To take an example from this thread (and possibly to cause some amusing embarresment...) rynner's dreams of sailing and tides sound pretty sexual in nature- masts on sailing boats could be phallic symbols, the tides could represent...

Anyway, you get the idea.
Remember, a lot of strange stuff lurks in your unconcious; dreams are probably the best way of expressing them.

Just don't belive all that new age stuff about dreaming about unicorns means that you are brave and strong and a good leader.

Unicorns are rather more... blatant... than that.

Az
 
Sometimes I dream in concepts more than images, which is weird, because I have terrible difficulty relating thosedreams to anyone. I also tend to forget those dreams more readily than particularly vivid dreams.

As for Freud, I've always remained doubtful. If you had underlying sexual desires, why dream about trains and tunnels and tea-cups and sailing when you can just dream about sex? Why would your subconscious put 1 or more layers of abstraction between blantant desires and their representations?

I agree that new-age fancy dream books are quite a stretch of the imagination, but maybe you dream about unicorns because you think they're cool, or because you came across one in a book, or something.

Just a thought. You know that game/excercise of loose association? Well I've got a feeling that your brain is especially good at that when you're sleeping. Perhaps there's a unicorn in my dream, and the other day there was a story I was reading where the unicorn came from, so then something loosely associated (a book, or a character from the book, or the person that loaned you the book) shows up in the dream also. And perhaps other loose associations manifest themselves, or don't, at your subconscious whim. This actually seems to happen in some of my dreams.
 
Some good stuff covered, but most seems to be the "how", rather than "why". The best theory I have come across for this is that of training the mind to deal with emotions. Supposing you have been under some mild stress. Your brain may decide that you need some practice at dealing with stress, and so during sleep will find some image or situation to induce fear. This image does not need to be logical, or particularly scary to the waking mind (although it can be either or both); as long as it produces the sensation of fear it has worked. Although "produces" is not quite right.. it is more likely that the image and sensation are synonymous, rather than cause-and-effect.

Next time you feel fear, it will not be a completely alien experience, even if nothing scary has really happened to you before.

On top of this you can add the symbolism and relational drifting to explain which image is chosen for which emotion.

I like this theory, it explains nightmares, and the way dreams are in some ways linked to our waking lives and in some ways fantasy.
 
I think the symbolism of Freudian dreams is meant to be because the desires of the unconcious are repressed and the sybolism is a way of expressing these desires in an acceptable way. Also note that it doesn't have to be sexual- dreams could be a way for the unconcious to confront fears from real life (kinda like DanJW said) or solve other problems.

mike-legs, have you been dreaming about unicorns a lot recently?

Actually I also reckon that dreams can be influenced by, for instance, things we've just read.

Az
 
mike-legs, have you been dreaming about unicorns a lot recently?
Click to expand...

Nah, I just thought the thing about it being a phallic symbolism was rather humorous. Mostly I wanted to argue the point: 'Why the suppression?' A lot of what has been said on this thread indicates (to me, at least) that the subconscious is exposing, in dreams, that which you supress on the higher levels of consciousness. So if you want to kill off your boss, but don't really admit to it consciously, your dreams let you do it as many times as it takes until you feel better. If you want to 'get it ON', then dream about 'getting it ON' as many times as you like until you feel better. Or chew on some ice, I hear that helps.

As for why?, well I think the reason there is much disagreement is because there are a number of answers. Some of my dreams are completely meaningless and mundane. Perhaps my brain is just sorting out info. Some of my dreams seem to convey information to me, maybe how someone feels about me. The why seems to be because I posess this information, but my upper levels of consciousness aren't explicitly aware of it. I also agree with DanJW, though I don't ever seem remember any of these types of dreams, except ones that make me sad (maybe I need to learn how to be sad?). Of course, that leaves out my most memorable dreams, the really bizzare ones. Not sure why I have those. Maybe my subconscious is trying to work out an idea for a novel?
 
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