Do you believe dreams?

[blazeofglory]

I oftentimes think, and this thought comes not from any philosophical readings, but I feel it that dreams reverse our stress levels.

I feel different every time I wake up from my sleep. And in my dreams I enter a different world, maybe it is a mysterious world. A world that seems as real as this world we are in our wakeful moments.

I have read different treatises on dreams yet none of them has convincing answers at all.

Dreams kind of soothe us and think about a dreamless world. If we are always wakeful.

I oftentimes think dreams foretell me something. It forebodes something and keep us on the alert at times.

There are dream analysts like Freud and they have different versions and interpret dreams differently and complicatedly of course but I feel dreams are what liven me up.

Maybe this wakefulness is also a dream. There is nothing to separate dreams from realities.

[1n50mn14]

I've had some very strangely accurate dreams, but my memories of them are also somewhat warped. I always have to remind myself that my mind has the ability to invent 'memories' of a dream on the spot, to suit a specific situation that maybe I never did dream of. When I first left my boyfriend to move back in with my parents, I had a dream that he had a car crash and became a paraplegic, yet married Angelina Jolie.

The car crash part I take as the embodiment in my dreams of me being worried about him without me around. He doesn't even have his license.
The paraplegic part I took as something I felt vengeful about: no more sexual functions, and hence no unfaithfulness, though I was no longer around.
The Angelina Jolie part, I took as my worry that he would find somebody better than me, even though he no longer had most motor functions.

*shrug*

That one never came true, needless to say...

[Haunted]

yes. Some dreams are real -- when departed loved ones come back to visit us. If you ever had those dreams, they are really visitations

[blazeofglory]

I am writing out of inspiration. I just woke up. I have just faint memories of what I have dreamed and it is very vague. It is set in my distant memory lanes and now forming or translating them into ideas is now rather difficult for me. They are fragments.

In my life, though I am somewhat skeptical of things called dreams, dreams have taught, guided and at times inspired me. Dreams have foreboded something to me and I was aghast at what I have seen. All the morning the memory of what I have dreamed has gnawed at me. I anticipated something awesome and it really happened.

I will not tell you now what I had really dreamed but I will in due course. Dreams have in fact confuse me in life. I mostly ignore such things as astrology, palmistry, things of other-worldliness, dreams, even rebirths.

But I had some moments that transformed me totally and I am now a mystic and believe in the other reality than the mundane. I do not believe in the Hindu or Christian or the Islamic God or the mythological or theological God. I am not a ritualistic person nor the religious one.

Yet I believe in the fact that there must be some reality or knowledge that is beyond the comprehension of the mortals of this planet. I beleive that there is just not chaos as scientists have hypothesized but there must be some laws or principals that form or create things or cause things to happen the way they do in point of fact.

I do not run after philosophical propositions for philosophers are as ignorant as any laypersons. This universe is really mysterious and the entire theories of science with regard to the creation of the universe including the Big bang theory building around creationism.

Science has much to say when it comes to analyzing natural phenomena and there are some paranormal or supernatural phenomena which cannot be explained away by scientific hypotheses. Things do not happen systematically or the way the theory of causes and effects illuminates.

For example my dreams forewarning me that something ominous is going to happen.

Of course I will have to debate with both supporters or critics of this notion but I have fixation with regard to the fact that dreams predict, forewarns, inspires in life.

[blazeofglory]

I ofttimes think that dreams are a mystery and so many theories, interpretations, analyses by psychoanalysts notwithstanding, I feel that dreams always remain a mystery,unsolved. At times I travel a zone I never in real life and I come across people I have never seen in wakefulness. I cannot relate, analogize or compare or analyze. This remains a mystery though I have read enough of interpretations of dreams by Sigmund Freud or the way most psychologists try to relate to man's subconscious minds.

I remember an anecdote by a zen master who said he dreamed of being a butterfly. When awoke he was confused whether he was a butterfly dreaming of a man or he is a man dreaming of a butterfly. There is no clear line to know whether our dreams are a realty or what we call reality is just a dream.

[Dodo25]

I don't believe in unsolvable mysteries, at least not when they concern our time and universe. I would assume that there are some evolutionary and neuroscientific explanations that make quite a lot of sense, even though not everything might be figured out yet. But since this isn't a subject I have researched, I'm not able to explain it.

[blazeofglory]

We cannot explain all phenomena and dreams despite so many interpretations or configurations is still a mystery and there is no single argument or analysis that can satisfy us fully or that solves the mystery of it. Many times I dream the same place and people and I try to check or remember whether I have visited or not domain but I always fail to relate to that and that made me have faith in the mysteriousness of it

[Dodo25]

Have you researched it? Have you studied evolutionary psychology or neurosciences? Only the fact that you don't have a clue why and how we dream what we dream doesn't mean that nobody does.


[...]that made me have faith in the mysteriousness of it

I'm glad not everybody thinks like you. We would still be believing in the 'mysteriousness' of diseases, lightening, rain, fire, life, love, gravity and many other things.

Dreams are indeed cool and baffling, but
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" - Douglas Adams

[blazeofglory]

But since this isn't a subject I have researched, I'm not able to explain it.

You too haven't. And you have a presumption that evolutionary psychology and neuroscience have explanations. Of course there are explanations, hypotheses but that does not mean that they have fully understood the mystery of it. You cannot hold anybody as complete authority on dreams though there are treatises written on this. In fact nobody thinks along the same line and few think the way you do. Since you do not know the fact your hypothetical criticism is trash

[Dodo25]

I'm just saying that before you go on about nobody knowing what and why dreams are, you should have at leased have skimmed through the scientific literature. Because even though you might not be able to imagine there being an explanation, there might well be one.

i.e. Have you ever wondered why we see color and what color is? Why we are conscious instead of mere 'machines'? These questions used to confuse the hell out of me, yet I did research and found out that science and philosophy have very convincing explanations, not for every detail, but for the general picture. And frankly, to me dreams seem much less challenging than the above questions. I think they are quite interesting still though, and I might look into it when I find time.

You said "And you have a presumption that evolutionary psychology and neuroscience have explanations." Indeed I do. And indeed it's only a presumption, altough I base it on the inference that if there are explanations for our world-interpreting-software and consciousnoss, dreams shouldn't pose a big problem.

You claimed that they don't have an explanation, yet you haven't looked at the subject so your claim is unjustified. Additionally, I'm not really criticizing your attitude towards dreams, I'm critisizing your attitude towards science in general. I think humanity has achieved so many great things that we are out of the 'mysteriousness' mindset. We should seek for explanations, not give up looking because it might prove to be difficult.

There are reasons to accept that the origin of the big bang might be a mystery, because frankly, it seems a bit difficult to investigate something that happened before there was time. Yet even this might be overcome someday, even know some physicists are suggesting that we might find evidence of other universes, more dimensions and other cool stuff.

[whathappened]

blazeofglory: At times I travel a zone I never in real life and I come across people I have never seen in wakefulness.

This seems to be what we do whenever we imagine. I guess that many of us like the dream world of imagination for its relative freedom and crystality, even prophetic power. This might have something to do with the butterfly quote. Seems interesting because dream might suggest that the power of imagination is in some respect diminished by sense organs and consciousness. Is this why the poet likes alchohol? But without reason and consciousness the power of imagination is in some respect diminished. Must we booze towards the edge of reasonland for the optimal...

[Kyriakos]

Perhaps it is usefull to note that dreams always take place at a level of consciousness immediately below that in which the person is functioning in the non-dream life. So if you live on the absolute surface, your dreams will be slightly below that. If you live in some hellish depth of the mind, your dreams will be immediately bellow that as well.
In some discussion i once had about this with a psychiatrist, he claimed- and i think it is a logical claim- that this happens because one's consciousness has to be preserved as distinct from the dream world, otherwise he would be broken up to pieces mentally.

[formality hater]

I think science has a bit of a clue but I haven't found it satisfactory. I ,too, think that it is a mystery but I believe it won't stay for long. Science will come up with a more convincing explanation as it never ceases exploring.

[MarkBastable]

Of course there are explanations, hypotheses but that does not mean that they have fully understood the mystery of it. You cannot hold anybody as complete authority on dreams though there are treatises written on this.

We might not know everything, but we know a lot more than nothing. You shouldn't assume that something's mysterious simply because you don't know about it. Me, I have absolutely no idea what makes my car go. It's a mystery to me, honest. And sub-atomic physics? Man - there's a book that closed to your current correspondent, let me tell you. Also knitting. What the hell is going on there? It's a mystery!



In fact nobody thinks along the same line and few think the way you do.

See, that's not true. Well, unless you consider me nobody.

[Revolte]

True Story: I once had a dream that I got kicked in the stomache, I woke up with a bruise on that location and it lasted for about three years or so, if my memory served me right. that is a mystery to me, for sure.

[Kyriakos]

True Story: I once had a dream that I got kicked in the stomache, I woke up with a bruise on that location and it lasted for about three years or so, if my memory served me right. that is a mystery to me, for sure.

Reminds me of a short story by Kafka, where one dreams of a battle between nights, and wakes up having a sword stuck below the skin in his back :)

[Dodo25]

I stumbled over this today and thought of this thread: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/100813-sleep-dreams-smarter-health-science-naps-napping-rem/?source=link_fb08172010dreams

It's not a comprehensive explanation, but that's the kind of thing we should be looking for. Makes a lot of sense actually.