Dreams...do you believe in them? what do they mean to you....what was the nicest and the most horrible dream you've ever had...what was your last night's dream...and, in fact what are dreams? these are the questions i would like you to answer to in this thread...I, for one, believe that dreams are just bullcrap; my guess is that they are just representations of the most intense feelings and events that happened to a person during a day, or a certain period of time, that come out at night....so, i'm looking forward to seeing what you guys have to say about this...

I've always wondered what dreams are and I've come across several answers. One I've heard is that dreams are generally a desire we want so bad but we can't express it in the normal world because it is not socially acceptable. So we unleash it in our minds. However, this doesn't seem to apply to realistic dreams.

My brother told me that he read somewhere that dreams were warped interpretations of memories, which is probably a more likely way of looking at it. I dunno, but I'm really interested in dreams either way.

I keep a dream journal, basically I write down all the dreams I have. I like it because I look back on the dreams I had several years ago and a lot of the time they're usually about an obsession I was going through at the time. Also, it helps me notice patterns in my dreams. Interestingly, they say you only remember up to 80% of you dreams and I always wonder what happened in the missing 20%.

It changes - dreams will normally be something related to something you desire, or have just generally been thinking about. Other times, it is just a release in a metaphysical form. However sometimes they can predict the future, as I have rather scarily found out, which actually caused me to take medical drugs for a while to try and get rid of dreams. But generally - its just what your mind thinks about at the time.

I am a student of Jung; so those familiar with his work will know where I am coming from.

To me, dreams are, in the most basic descriptive terms possible, a way of communicating and becoming familiar with ourselves and the unconscious. They seek to guide our waking form into a state of wholeness, or, oneness. They offer, among other things, solutions to problems or dillemas we may face in waking life.

There are various ways in which our unconcious mind seeks to achieve this. The use of signs and symbols, in representation of things we know (have been familiar with whilst awake) or don't know (have been familiar with perhaps, sometime, as part of our collective concious) serve to back our mind and imagination up, to provide basis for those things which challenge our life.

In example, if I might summarise a dream or two I have had of late: I am always far away from my lady, and as per the dream, I must get back to her, or find a way to bring her to me. Now, this more often than not involves some sort of veichle, or other mode of transportation, such as a horse, which can traverse the rough, threatening terrain between myself and her, that I at that moment cannot. The weather, indeed, also plays a large part. Rain and thunderstorms often cloud my vision, making it harder to cross whichever obstacle I must cross, in order to be reunited with my lover.

I have choosen these dreams as an example, as they are pretty self explanatory in light of what our dreams have to say about our waking life. --I am currently apart from the one I love, for a short time, and this, in waking life as I have been calling it, causes stress and occasional frustration. My mind and its symbols, its, collective archetypes, is divising ways in which to strengthen my outlook; to make it easier for my body and mind.

And now...I think I've talked enough. I hope this proved at least, of little interest to someone.

Cheers.

Carl Jung have done a very interesting work. I see where you're coming from Daibh. As a believer of a true nature in human, I also see archetypes in our collective unconcious appear in several mind activities, especially when we "release our minds" - in art and creativity of all forms, imaginations, and of course in dreams. While dreaming, these archetypes are released pure - without the 'ego'(the concious mind) leading and manipulating them - combined with the persistent feelings of the present. And yes, if we could reach dreams with sincerity, to discover symbols' extensions in our lives and translate them, we may find solutions to the present problems. Now, in this post, I reached the 'dreams' from a psychological view, in a quite simple post. Maybe I shall return to this topic to discuss dreams from other views - physiological or metaphysical.

I think that dreams may have many meanings, I agree that dreams are things collected in the subconcious mind and I'm sure that dreams are message that come from it
When we sleep we are unconscious and many things go to the head, wishes, answers, etc, that's what I think of dreams, I don't know very much about them, anyways, great thread

@Daibh well, yes, your explanation proved of great intrest, i can assure you...great documentation, and good explanation.Thank you very much.
@The Alchemist Thanks dude

I have, on the occasion (whilst letting my mind wander in a psychology lecture), wondered if some dreams might come from somewhere besides us, directly. I believe it was Jung also who came up with the idea of the "collective unconscious", which relates directly to the idea of hereditary personality traits. However, others have speculated that since there is no way to prove, physically, the presence of consciousness, that it might come from somewhere outside of us - or, perhaps, I wonder, somewhere inside of us? Perhaps DNA is the essence of consciousness?

Well, if anyone has followed thus far...

If our collective consciousness has followed us through generations, all of humanity's experiences are wrapped up somewhere inside of us. Another buzz word for this is "cellular memory". Some people relate this to theories of reincarnation and past lives, but that's another discussion. The point here, is thus: that there may be experiences or archetypes that drift about in our collective unconscious that we experience while we sleep, and our ego has taken a rest for the day. While our unconscious has free reign, who is to say that it doesn't play back experiences that actually belong to someone else?

Now, I remind everyone that this is simply speculation, and is but a good brain tickler for now, but could, in fact, be possible.

Written by Guest on 20.06.2006 at 05:24

I have, on the occasion (whilst letting my mind wander in a psychology lecture), wondered if some dreams might come from somewhere besides us, directly. I believe it was Jung also who came up with the idea of the "collective unconscious", which relates directly to the idea of hereditary personality traits. However, others have speculated that since there is no way to prove, physically, the presence of consciousness, that it might come from somewhere outside of us - or, perhaps, I wonder, somewhere inside of us? Perhaps DNA is the essence of consciousness?

Well, if anyone has followed thus far...

If our collective consciousness has followed us through generations, all of humanity's experiences are wrapped up somewhere inside of us. Another buzz word for this is "cellular memory". Some people relate this to theories of reincarnation and past lives, but that's another discussion. The point here, is thus: that there may be experiences or archetypes that drift about in our collective unconscious that we experience while we sleep, and our ego has taken a rest for the day. While our unconscious has free reign, who is to say that it doesn't play back experiences that actually belong to someone else?

Now, I remind everyone that this is simply speculation, and is but a good brain tickler for now, but could, in fact, be possible.

Well, i get your point...but it was proved (from what i know) that the material that the DNA carries is strictly genetic ; this ensures your correct physical development..i don't think it has any link with consciousness, though this may as well be a very plausible theory

@TheKreator: I perceive what Proud Autumn said as the DNA is the essence of the mechanisms that make us have consciousness, which I find very possible.

Btw, now I think that the only ways to pass *behaviour* characteristics through generations is by DNA or/and tradition. I mean, I'm not sure if the cause of feeling individuals (to have consiousness) is the essence of development of certain mechanisms in our brains, straight from our DNA, or there is only a predisposition and we learnt to feel this individuality because we live in societies which may help it grow. I get out of topic, but I wonder, if we could do an experiment: If might be able to leave somehow a newborn child grow in nature without any social interaction with other humans, could be able to develop a consiousness of her ego?

I mean, finally, consiousness (as a behaviour characteristic) is an instinct or is developed though the process of learning? (Unless it may not be a behaviour characteristic and this expresion is completely false. I don't know.)

Written by Guest on 20.06.2006 at 12:12

@TheKreator: I perceive what Proud Autumn said as the DNA is the essence of the mechanisms that make us have consciousness, which I find very possible.

Btw, now I think that the only ways to pass *behaviour* characteristics through generations is by DNA or/and tradition. I mean, I'm not sure if the cause of feeling individuals (to have consiousness) is the essence of development of certain mechanisms in our brains, straight from our DNA, or there is only a predisposition and we learnt to feel this individuality because we live in societies which may help it grow. I get out of topic, but I wonder, if we could do an experiment: If might be able to leave somehow a newborn child grow in nature without any social interaction with other humans, could be able to develop a consiousness of her ego?

I mean, finally, consiousness (as a behaviour characteristic) is an instinct or is developed though the process of learning? (Unless it may not be a behaviour characteristic and this expresion is completely false. I don't know.)

well...the way you put it, the most plausible choice is that consiousness is somewhat instinctual...thus, you might receive impulses from your counciousness, and never know where they come from, or you can develop it in such a way, you can use it to become, let's say...a medium...right?

last week i had the most scaring dream i've had in years. i opened my eyes and i was facing the wall, but i felt like if something was bitting my head. not like a dog or something, it was more like if an animal opens the mouth, bittes you but his mouth is still there. and i heard this voice like of a old women saying i don't know what things, like if she was talking to someone else. i don't know why i though this, but i said to me "this is a witch" and i was sure that the "thing" bitting my head was a bitch. so i though what the fuck should i do? i tried to move (and here comes the scary stuff) i couldn't move, in fact, i couldn't do anything but think and keep with my eyes open, and there was my little brother, sleeping normally and i couldn't anything to ask for help. suddenly, all this gone, no witch and no paralysis, but, and this is even more scarier, i didn't woke up. i remember i didn't knew what to do, and i felt asleep. laugh if you want (i did it next morning) but waking up with something in your head and without chances of escape if not funny at all

@Kreator - I think you didn't understand completely what I said... I have ambiguous expression, excuse me for that. I'll try to be more understandable when I have the time. Thanks for the thread, btw, it's a great one

This is a great thread
I see my dreams as a mixture of emotions going on inside me & mostly the ones I try to surpress or hide from the people they involve. With the majority of the dreams that I remember, they are about things I am scared of or worried about and I put it down to my subconscious messing me when I am in my most relaxed and vulnerable state of mind - sleep. I have 2 dreams that are constantly recurring - as in the theme. And the outcome is always the same too, its just the situation that is different.
I have gotten myself to a point where if I wake up in the middle of a dream, I can go back to sleep and finish it off, I'm not bullshitting here. Sometimes I can change the outcome/result at the end but usually the ending is the same (if its one of the recurring dreams).
I love dreaming and I feel sorry for people who can't remember their dreams.

In my opinion dreams are not all that complicated, they are as you view them.
I have had dreams that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. One of my dreams involves me being chased in a playground pull of pipes, and (oddly enough) I am being chased by the xenomorph from the Alien series. The is no gravity, so the chase is not limited to just the ground. Makes no sense huh? Of course most of my dreams are alternate or "skewed" versions of current reality.
I dont try to understand my dreams, I just let them be as they are, dreams.

My dreams are often absurd,they make no sense. if anything.My dreams are usually on something that I have seen on television or heard about.It is a mixture of everything,it might not seem like it sometimes but when I think about it my dreams were all something that I expiernced or watched once just all mixed up.Last night I had a dream that my friend came and slept over and then I went to my exam and did perfectly on it,but in reality I did horrible,maybe I dream about what I want to?maybe it's a coincidence?I remeber one day I had a dream about Varg vikernes playing handicapped basketball on the Norweigan team and then he chased me home and tried to kill me.But when I think about it when I woke up,I watched handicapped Norweigan hockey that day and later on that night I read a book about the church burnings and killings in Norway so it all comes together.:)

Written by Guest on 21.06.2006 at 04:34

last week i had the most scaring dream i've had in years. i opened my eyes and i was facing the wall, but i felt like if something was bitting my head. not like a dog or something, it was more like if an animal opens the mouth, bittes you but his mouth is still there. and i heard this voice like of a old women saying i don't know what things, like if she was talking to someone else. i don't know why i though this, but i said to me "this is a witch" and i was sure that the "thing" bitting my head was a bitch. so i though what the fuck should i do? i tried to move (and here comes the scary stuff) i couldn't move, in fact, i couldn't do anything but think and keep with my eyes open, and there was my little brother, sleeping normally and i couldn't anything to ask for help. suddenly, all this gone, no witch and no paralysis, but, and this is even more scarier, i didn't woke up. i remember i didn't knew what to do, and i felt asleep. laugh if you want (i did it next morning) but waking up with something in your head and without chances of escape if not funny at all

That is probably a sleep paralysis.

If you go into the old forum archive and search for the topic "Sleep Paralysis" you can find a lot of information about it. I opened that thread because I have this kind of experiences on a regular basis.

Quote:
That is probably a sleep paralysis.

If you go into the old forum archive and search for the topic "Sleep Paralysis" you can find a lot of information about it. I opened that thread because I have this kind of experiences on a regular basis.

would you like to share some of these experiences with us?

Ever since ive been eating magic mushrooms I have had the strangest and most vivid dreams I've had in my life, they are always really cool though. Like last night I had a dream where I was trapped on on island with a bunch of people like the tv show Lost, and people would appear and kill us off one by one, then I started to question how I got on the island and suddenly I was transported to my grandmothers house where michael jackson (black michael not the white freaky one) explained that it was a new reality tv show that he set up and the whole world was watching the show and whoever survived all the attacks at the end was the winner.

Also once I had a dream where I was having sex with a really fat ugly black man that had glasses, it was so funny that I swear I was lauging while sleep, atleast woke up lauging. It was actually very creepy. Also once I had a dream where I inflated my bong and used it as a parachute/hang gliding thing and I kept swooping at someone I knows hair.

I'm pretty sure that dreams for me aren't anything related to anything going on in my life and are just ways to entertain myself while I'm asleep, because most of my dreams are hilarious. None of my dreams have ever come true that is probably good though, I don't want to have sex with a fat black man. :|

My dreams usually make no sense, but they always feature people I know. Also, I moved hous about 2 months ago, and in the past couple of weeks almost all of my dreams have at some point taken place in the new house, although they've also featured other locations. Also I tend to dream of places I've never been before, and then months later I'll go to that place. Freaky...

Written by Guest on 25.06.2006 at 07:56

would you like to share some of these experiences with us?

The old topic explains a lot about it. Anyway, I can share my experiences.

To me, it only happens when I try to sleep when I am not tired. Because then my body get "stuck" between a fase of sleeping and awaking. My conscious is working when my brains are still creating the muscle-paralysing substance. At that moment I will get a sleep paralysis. However, this depends on the person, because I mainly have them when I am trying to sleep, when other people mainly have them when they are almost done with sleeping.

In most cases I feel myself laying in bed. Sometimes I can see my room(which isn't really my room, but is a room created by my mind - a hallucination). Sometimes everything is just black. I can hear myself breath and I can tell myself that I am sleeping. When I try to awake myself it just doesn't work. I experience this as a coma, because my body is completely paralysed. In almost all the cases I hear a beep or a noise in my ears. I use this sound to awake myself. Somehow I can manipulate this sound. I can force myself to make this sound louder and louder. After a few seconds(though, the seconds feel like minutes in this condition) I awake with a shock.

It happens rarely that I have an hallucination. I did see different colours sometimes. Sometimes I see red or blue spots in the darkness. However, I am not sure if this is just the light that are falling on my eyelids(the same thing as you close your eyes after looking to the sun) or that my mind created these colours. Once I did have a hallucination. I saw a blue, female ghost floating above a lake. I was completely paralysised and could only look at this girl. I was struggling to get out of this paralysis. Suddenly the image was gone and I awaked.

Other funny facts are that I can listen to music while being in a sleep paralysis. Also, it is possible to control dreams and stuff from this condition. However, it needs a lot of training, I only succeeded once, but that was pure luck. I am not an experienced dreamer to actually force myself to control my dreams.

Written by AntaeusM on 25.06.2006 at 14:20

Written by Guest on 25.06.2006 at 07:56

would you like to share some of these experiences with us?

The old topic explains a lot about it. Anyway, I can share my experiences.

To me, it only happens when I try to sleep when I am not tired. Because then my body get "stuck" between a fase of sleeping and awaking. My conscious is working when my brains are still creating the muscle-paralysing substance. At that moment I will get a sleep paralysis. However, this depends on the person, because I mainly have them when I am trying to sleep, when other people mainly have them when they are almost done with sleeping.

In most cases I feel myself laying in bed. Sometimes I can see my room(which isn't really my room, but is a room created by my mind - a hallucination). Sometimes everything is just black. I can hear myself breath and I can tell myself that I am sleeping. When I try to awake myself it just doesn't work. I experience this as a coma, because my body is completely paralysed. In almost all the cases I hear a beep or a noise in my ears. I use this sound to awake myself. Somehow I can manipulate this sound. I can force myself to make this sound louder and louder. After a few seconds(though, the seconds feel like minutes in this condition) I awake with a shock.

It happens rarely that I have an hallucination. I did see different colours sometimes. Sometimes I see red or blue spots in the darkness. However, I am not sure if this is just the light that are falling on my eyelids(the same thing as you close your eyes after looking to the sun) or that my mind created these colours. Once I did have a hallucination. I saw a blue, female ghost floating above a lake. I was completely paralysised and could only look at this girl. I was struggling to get out of this paralysis. Suddenly the image was gone and I awaked.

Other funny facts are that I can listen to music while being in a sleep paralysis. Also, it is possible to control dreams and stuff from this condition. However, it needs a lot of training, I only succeeded once, but that was pure luck. I am not an experienced dreamer to actually force myself to control my dreams.

very, very interesting...i don't know if it resembles with what you said, but did know that you can self-induce a state of come? some people do by collecting as lot of anger, other through extreme relaxation, and others, just by experiencieng really intense feelings

I'm not going to be profound, but I do know that dreams reflect what you think of during the day. For example the last vivid dream I had was this:

I was walking around Wal-Mart with a squirt gun that shot blood at quite a far length and it had another trigger that played different Cannibal Corpse songs when I pressed down on it. I remember walking around Wal-Mart shooting it, and to my surprise George "Corpegrinder" Fisher (vocalist of CC of course) saw me and started following me around watching me shoot at stuff. Well, I ran out of blood and tried to buy some tubes of fake blood but a Wal-Mart employee said I had to buy one of these red plaid shirts that was on display right behind him, so I opted not to.

That's all I remember, but the thing was, that whole day I kept telling myself when I cash my check I was going to buy Cannibal Corpse's 'KILL' album. Really absurd stuff I know, but a definite source of one's dreams.

By the way Blackgir, lucid dreaming has always interested me.

hmm...dreams are very interesting, i dont know if they actually mean something...i guess its only the reflection of whats on your mind, of what you were thinking before going to sleep and sometimes movies or tv shows you were watching...ive got many dreams, very weird some...last night i dreamed i got pregnant and somehow i got into jail because of that...i dont remember it very well but it was funny...i like to dream alot...i wish we could record our dreams in a dvd or something like that...wouldn't it be great?? wake up next morning and watch your last night's dream

Written by nana.MD on 27.06.2006 at 07:45

hmm...dreams are very interesting, i dont know if they actually mean something...i guess its only the reflection of whats on your mind, of what you were thinking before going to sleep and sometimes movies or tv shows you were watching...ive got many dreams, very weird some...last night i dreamed i got pregnant and somehow i got into jail because of that...i dont remember it very well but it was funny...i like to dream alot...i wish we could record our dreams in a dvd or something like that...wouldn't it be great?? wake up next morning and watch your last night's dream

hehe...yeah...it would be awesome..to create your own dream archive hmm..what if every woman that gets pregnant went to jail....boy power kidding of course

Yeah that'd be so good! I'd love to be able to watch my dreams, see how screwed up I really am! Kidding, but I'd still like to see what I'm dreaming, 'cause they're usually pretty surreal from what I remember of them.

I reckon that as well as thoughts, dreams also have something to do with emotions. I'd like to learn more about this self-induced coma thing...

Written by TimmyPix on 27.06.2006 at 19:30

Yeah that'd be so good! I'd love to be able to watch my dreams, see how screwed up I really am! Kidding, but I'd still like to see what I'm dreaming, 'cause they're usually pretty surreal from what I remember of them.

I reckon that as well as thoughts, dreams also have something to do with emotions. I'd like to learn more about this self-induced coma thing...

try to search on the internet about the so-called "astro-projection"....is when you project your spirital body out of the material world, but can come back in a snap..anyway, make sure to be very well informed, and take notice, that this kind of stuff is very dangerous for your brain...hmm, any interesting dream you would like to share with us?

i once dreamt i was in some kind of a room full of people,and i was chatting and stuff, then i felt the urge to go to the bathroom,being it that(in the real world ) i have been to the bathroom only oncec in that day,and then,well i "fired" but nothing...again,nothing...and then(i usually have "evrika" moments in dreams,stuff like "omg i have to wake up or i'll miss the exam) i thought "holy shit i pissed my pants".i immediatley woke up and, presto!i peed my pants

Written by Valentin B on 28.06.2006 at 14:14

i once dreamt i was in some kind of a room full of people,and i was chatting and stuff, then i felt the urge to go to the bathroom,being it that(in the real world ) i have been to the bathroom only oncec in that day,and then,well i "fired" but nothing...again,nothing...and then(i usually have "evrika" moments in dreams,stuff like "omg i have to wake up or i'll miss the exam) i thought "holy shit i pissed my pants".i immediatley woke up and, presto!i peed my pants

quite embarassing ...what age were you?

yeah, i know it's embarassing.'twas 'bout a year ago...