AsPD and Dreams

The research of Stephen LaBerge suggests that dream recall isn't connected to interruption of REM cycles. It's interesting. I'll post some stuff later

solemnlysworn wrote:The research of Stephen LaBerge suggests that dream recall isn't connected to interruption of REM cycles. It's interesting. I'll post some stuff later

If you could post the specific material relating to this it would be useful. He seems to do a lot of work on lucid dreaming and I find that dull reading.

I can fly in my dreams, but only a couple of inches off the ground. It's sort of like heelys but without the skates. It feels like a carefully controlled fall. I can also breath underwater in my dreams. I pull the water into my mouth and then breath it back out in somewhat the same way as how fish breath. Neither one feels like anything particularly amazing. I'm *just barely* flying and *just barely* breathing, which is probably what makes is so strikingly real.

The thing about both of these is that not only do they pervade all of my dreams regardless of topic, but it seems so strikingly normal in my dream that I've woken up more than one occasion not completely certain whether I can do these things or not.



I find the entire dream experience fascinating. It's all happening in our head, the environment, the other people, etc, yet, at least in my own dreams, I'm only one entity. I don't control the other people and I have no idea what they're thinking. So, are they automatons of my consciousness? Am I so firmly stuck in this one way of seeing the world (as one person) that dreams can't happen outside of that paradigm?

Also, metaphors. I had a dream where I was mouse the size of a large pig, running through a maze of old stone that looked roughly like a more realistic Wolfenstein 3D. I had no idea what I was doing. I actually felt trapped and a little freaked out, but when I woke up it hit me that I'd just solved this puzzle I'd been working on for a few days.

Why that way? Why a freaked out mouse in a Nazi prison maze instead of something more direct?

The mind is a fascinating thing.

fiveintime wrote:Also, metaphors. I had a dream where I was mouse the size of a large pig, running through a maze of old stone that looked roughly like a more realistic Wolfenstein 3D. I had no idea what I was doing. I actually felt trapped and a little freaked out, but when I woke up it hit me that I'd just solved this puzzle I'd been working on for a few days.

Why that way? Why a freaked out mouse in a Nazi prison maze instead of something more direct?

Because your dream was impacted by your emotions.

The puzzle you had been trying to solve for days must have been causing you some stress, worry or concern and that affected your dreams.

Reaper wrote:The puzzle you had been trying to solve for days must have been causing you some stress, worry or concern and that affected your dreams.

Interesting take on it--I hadn't thought about it in that way.

I've also been wondering if it relates to different parts of the brain or different hemispheres. My waking approach to the puzzle was probably very analytical and linear, left hemisphere dominant, but the problem wasn't a linear problem. The dream part of my brain was very creative, non-linear, and spatial, right hemisphere dominant.

I imagine it's somewhat like those experiments they've done with epilepsy patients who've had the communication between the two hemispheres of their brain severed. They can look at an object, know what it is, see it's color, shape, etc, but can't come up with the word for it. Likewise, they can hear the word, know what's being talked about, but can't physically describe the object.

Maybe the part of my brain that could figure this out isn't the same part that can communicate in nice structured ways. Instead it communicates in the form of spatial, experiential metaphors.

Also, seems to imply that the broad way we think about things can severely limit our capacity.

I HAD A DREAMM

I dream nearly every night and every time I dream about some accidents, war or disasters. There are dreams where I have to fight zombies or kill mafia-boss and dreams where someone kidnaps or want to torture me. And there are only two possibilities how my dream ends: I kill someone or I am killed.
My dreams are very realistic in sensory way and all details. For example, I dreamed of someone burning my hand on the stove and afterwards I was curious if it feels like that in the real life, so I tried it out and the sensation was pretty the same.
I like my dreams because they are interesting, full of action and heroism.

how do you guys interpret your dreams? what do they mean to you?

crystal_richardson_ wrote:how do you guys interpret your dreams? what do they mean to you?

Sometimes I think dreams have meaning. I am not sure if I think dreams always have to do with the subconscious (although there are some that definitely do). The dream I have about another life tends to mirror what happens in this life but about a day ahead. I am not sure if that is a coincidence, if it only happens because I let myself be influenced by that dream, if I am just looking for patterns or if there is a larger meaning to it.

crystal_richardson_ wrote:how do you guys interpret your dreams? what do they mean to you?

Same as waking life. Don't force the meaning--just let it happen, and if there's meaning, it'll come to you.

Wasn't there a synchronicity thread a little while ago on this?