Dreams?

[Tim_Lou]

ah~dreams

 

i have dreams every night... (really)

they are very weird.

 

sometimes, i see someone in the past that i no longer remember. but i see him! it is weird, i would never think about that guy, its too long ago, i dont even remember his name....and hes not really connected to me (just a classmate in the past).

 

and sometimes, i can control my dreams! when i know i am dreaming, i can do whatever i want, and see whatever i wanna see.

 

dream is like going to another world...it is so real, when your in it. sometimes i dream that i was killed, and i can feel the pain of it...

 

whats special about dreams?

why do we dream?

is there special meaning of it?

.......

 

anything??

[Crazy Ed]

Well, we arn't computers so we cant completly shut down. We're always semi-conscience. I think dreams are like screen savers, there images made to entertain the brain while it and the rest of our body rests. Now what interests me is dreams that predict things. I dreamed that I would have a convosation with my mother while Mad-tv was on, and I would say sumthing (that I can't remember now). Then the next day, the convosation happened just like in my dream, andI said whatI would say and then after that I had the feeling of de ja vu. This is not the first time, sometimes i would think of something funny from tv, and then it would come on later. This is just something that puzzles me.

[Uncle Martin]

Welcome to our discussion group Crazy Ed,

 

I was considering some dreams and deja vu type experiences that I have had, just recently. I have been in situations where I knew verbatum how the conversation would progress, but could not say anything about it, for that would change things. On the other hand, this has only happened while in the company of long time friends or family members, which could indicate a memory of a similar event rather than an extra-sensory perception event. I have never experienced such a "feeling" when only with new aquaintances. As far as dreams are concerned, I have not studied the subject in a long time. The last hypothesis I read that I thought held any promise was that dreams were our way of filtering new data and storing what was deemed important. As I said, it has been several years since I've studied the subject.

 

Hopefully there are others that have knowledge or experiences they would like to share with the rest of us. I would very much like to learn more about this.

 

Thanks for bringing the topic to the forefront of conversation.

 

Edit; you would think I could spell "convesisition"(conversation) correctly, wouldn't you. Sheesh!!!

[alexander]

Ok, i can explain to you Freudian personality model, but then depending on whether you believe in Freudian psychology you yourself can try to explain your dreams.

Ok, Freud being an innovator in psychology did a lot of research on dreams and people's personalities. His, in my opinion greatest work (that he didnt get to finish himself) was on defense mechanisms (the book is out there, written by his daughter).

Now, Freud believed that peoples personality consisted of 3 parts: Ego, Superego and ID. Ego would be equivalent to contiousness, ID to uncontiousness and Superego is the link between the contiousness and the Uncontiousness named precontiousness (notice Freud did not believe in subcontiousness). Freud believed that ID is the dominating part of personality that is dominated by uncontiousness or in other words our biological instincts. So talking about dreams this is the part that i will focus on.

Freud said that ID

1) Acts irrationaly, impulsively and with no regard of the consequences.

2) Operates on the pleasure principal

3) Desires immediate satisfaction of needs, wants and innermost desires

4) Is identified by forces: Sexual i.e. libito, Life survival i.e. eros and death i.e. thanatos

Having built the model, as i said Freud did a lot of research on dreams and here basically what he said about them in his book "Interpretation of Dreams". Dreaming is a much lessened state of quiet and anxiety, dreams are about uncontious impulses being played out, many deal with unacceptable things in life. Dreams are repressed, and a lot of them will be played out (wish fulfillment). Dreams provide universal symbols, coninsation i.e. putting things together to represent something ex: say a person looks like Bush, talks like kennedy and uses things like Rosovelt. Dreams change your point of focus; make you focus on unaccaptable wishes to be expressed in a more acceptable way. Freud said that dreams have meaning, but you need help in order to interpret them.

He came up with a system that helps people interpret dreams, he also has a list of things in your dreams and their meanings, their hidden meanings.

there are other authors out there with their own dream theories and i think people should pick and choose what they believe is the truth

Carl Jung "Quasi-Freudian Theory" - dreams compensate for what we lack

Rosalind Cartwright "repair Shop Theory" - dreams help us deal with life problems

Patricia Garfield "Control Theory" - you can develop lucid dream ability or you can dream about what you want to dream about

Ann Faraday "Rearrangement Theory" - dreams reflect everyday experiences and offer solutions

Steven Rose "Energy Diffusion Theory" - brain cells fire at randon and there is no story they tell

Michel Jouvet "Brain Simulation Theory" - dreams are most important to infants, they substitute for real waking experience, they create constant learning and prevent sensory isolation

Ok finally to explanation of things that may perplex you...

Tim_Lou said:

and sometimes, i can control my dreams! when i know i am dreaming, i can do whatever i want, and see whatever i wanna see.

 

dream is like going to another world...it is so real, when your in it. sometimes i dream that i was killed, and i can feel the pain of it...

What you have to realize is this:

There are 2 types of sleep, REM and nonREM. REM stands for Random Eye Movement, and nonREM is a type of sleep with high physical activity, that's where you sleepwalk and turn side to side, sit up and talk and so forth this is a type of sleep with low brain activity so i wont go too far into it, it doesn't interest us. REM sleep however is different, in this state our brain emmits a type of wave that is close to the one emmited when we are awake. Infact we wake up in REM because our brain activity goes so high that it wakes us, or goes into our daily pattern (daily meaning during the day or awakened ours). During REM our brain fires randomly and gets random

[Tim_Lou]

hmm, dreams are crazy, arent they?

 

so, does that mean your right brain is more active than left brain during a dream?

[alexander]

does that mean your right brain is more active than left brain during a dream?

Although I don't know too much about brains since i am not a neuro anything except for user, I would have to say that both sides do just about the same ammount of work; your left side of the brain is responsible for logic, remembering past, likes factial evidence, deals with words, can comprehend, ackgnowledge, order, perceive and strategize while the right controlls feelings, is picture orented, is more philosophical than factial, is artistic and likes to fantasize as i recall. Really no one side could create dreams without another...

[Panda]

As far as I can tell there is no meaning behind dreams. Many artisits have found inspiration in dreams. A cartoonist named Jesse Reklaw publishes a weekly four panel strip called Slow Wave. The cartoon is based on his dreams and the dreams of others.

 

Click here to read some Slow Wave.

[wisdumn]

hey, new to this forum so what's up to everyone, i recognize uncle martin from another discussion page so hey also uncle martin. MY BELIEF on dreams is that some dreams are a re-play of past events from our subconscience that are just stringing themselves together while we sleep, i do believe though that some dreams are meant as indicators for some things that will occur and some dreams are indicators of things that we need to change in ourselves or things that need attention in our lives. also i BELIEVE and this is not fact but i think REM stands for rapid(not random) eye movement and also to alexander just for your benefit this is the correct spelling of conscience, it can be broken down into

con-science for easier memory storage, i don't mean to correct you but i noticed it a number of times in your post on freud. freud also believed that everyone we see in our dreams were representations of different facets of ourselves

[TheBigDog]

Every once in a while I have a dream that I remember well when I wake up. Last night was one of those nights. Unlike many dreams, the meaning behind it seemed perfectly clear to me, which I will go into in a minute. But first let me reminisce a bit.

 

When I worked as a machine operator on the midnight shift back in the day there was a guy I worked with who was an increadible intellect. While we were politically opposites, we were great friends. In the seemingly endless conversations we had while watching a machine spin out paper we talked about a repeating dream I had been having for years. In the dream I was always running from something ominous. Its specifics were unimportant aside from it being a relentless pursuer of me. And in my dreams I was heroically trying to save people from this hobgoblin image. The dream always ended the same way; cornered, and desperate I would finally face the evil for a showdown, and as if would be stepping into my view for the first time I would wake up. In a split second he told me that it was obvious. That what I was running from was life and responsibility. And that I was mistaken when I said I didn't see the monster. Being awake was seeing the monster. I have rarely felt so vulnerable as a felt at that moment, because it was all exactly true. And it was in that moment that I began to work to take control of my life leading me to be the man I am today. I have never had that dream again because even in my sleep I recognize it for what it is and reject it. Chris, if you ever get the chance to read this, thanks.

 

So this brings me to last night. I had a dream last night where I was handling a poisonous snake. Not a huge snake. I think it may have been a green mamaba, but the fangs and mouth were different. In any event, I got hold of this snake in my right hand. Its mouth is open and the fangs are sticking out dripping with poison. And I am trying to do all sorts of mundane tasks, while holding this poinsonous snake in my hand. I am driving a car and holding the snake. I am reading a newspaper and holding the snake. I am playing catch and holding the snake. I am riding on a crowded bus and holding the snake. You get the picture. My problem is that I do not have the best grip in the world on the snake. My hand always seems too high or too low. It can open its mouth and twist its jaws so its fangs scratch my hand. If I hold it lower it will bite me. If I hold it higher it will bite me. And I am so preoccupied with holding the snake that it distracts me from everything else that I am doing. Near the end I notice that I have been poked by the fangs many times, and every spot that was poked is dead and black. I squeeze the snake harder and harder to try and keep myself from being bitten again. I remember not wanting to hurt the snake, and that I was holding if to begin with because I was trying to protect it, or care for it. But in the end I end up squeezing it to death trying to keep it from biting me again. When I realized the snake was dead I woke up.

 

It struck me as being very symbolic, more than just random synaptic firings. I think it was a product of my subconcious mind shouting to me some sort of message. And the message I heard was that I am trying to do to many things at the same time. That I cannot handle a snake all the time. That I need to stop doing all things all the time, and instead find each thing its own time. Or the things I love doing will poison me, and I will kill the things I love for my inability to let them go.

 

I am still thinking about it. So, what do my fine fellow hypographers think this might mean? As any of you could easily be another Chris. :lol:

 

Bill

[InfiniteNow]

So, what do my fine fellow hypographers think this might mean?

Well clearly the snake is a phallic symbol and you're choking it... :hihi:

 

Your interpretation seems pretty spot on. That is definitely (as definitely as dreams can be that is) representative of your anxieties with the MBA and caring for your kids and little celtfaery...

 

It could also mean that you fear killing your relationship with the kids. The mundane tasks could be work. The snake being held at arms length, the relationship with the youngens... The bite/venom, the loss of your connection with them...

 

 

Or, it could be you were watching too much Discovery Channel before bed again. Dreams are fun that way. They mean what you want them to, and your interpretations can change with experience. ;)

 

I'm not a dream interpreter, but I saw it done once on tv...

 

 

Cheers. :hihi: