Until the truth is discovered, we may speculate all we want without being right/wrong about what dreaming is all about. — TheMadFool
I am raising the question of the purpose of dreams and understanding them. — Jack Cummins
Perhaps dreams aren't really dreams, a statement that makes complete sense since some have voiced the opinion that reality, our waking experience, isn't really real. — TheMadFool
That's an unpleasant comment. I hope I am better than this TC. — Tom Storm
Some people don't seem to remember their dreams as much as others and I don't think that there are any clear explanations why. I know that there are times when I don't really remember them and other times when I remember so many that I feel tired just from thinking about them.
It is unclear whether it means one has been asleep but not in REM sleep. I don't think that you should really worry if you don't have dreams to recall, and this may change.I know people who don't think that they dream and it changes. The subconscious may have its own logic. — Jack Cummins
I prefer symbolic-semiotic structuring (e.g. Cassirer-Langer, Bataille, Levi-Strauss, Eco) for "dream" analysis / interpretation over neurosis-anxiety repressions (e.g. Freud, Jung, Lacan, Žizek) if only because the latter approach is less physiologically grounded (e.g. accounts less empirically for cognitive biases) than the former approach. Others have already touched on some compelling findings from the neurosciences of sleep so I won't bother repeating them except to add that active REM-like dreaming sleep-behaviors are observed in (all?) mammals which convinces me that "dreams" are only by-products of sleep's homeostatic maintenance functions and N O T independent, or transcendent, messages or bearers of "meaning". Yeah, subpersonal "bowel movements" (or defragging memory-buffers) are much more like it. Contra (daily increases of) CNS-entropy, no?So, I am raising the question of the purpose of dreams and understanding them. Do they have a purpose and meaning? — Jack Cummins
Exactly... though I'm open to an explanation, I've been constantly wondering while reading this thread how certain people opining here would account for the fact that our furry cousins can dream just as well as the naked variety. Is there supposed to be something unique about our dreams, or does a bat's dream have meaning too? (Or is the meaning supposed to be just in the interpretation... dreams as ink blots?)except to add that active REM-like dreaming sleep-behaviors are observed in (all?) mammals which convinces me that "dreams" are only by-products of sleep's homeostatic maintenance functions and N O T independent, or transcendent, messages or bearers of "meaning". — 180 Proof
I noticed in one of your comments, you say that 'Perhaps dreams aren't really dreams.' and you go on to say that would mean that our waking experience isn't real. If that were the case it could be the basis for the Eastern idea of maya, or the idea of reality as an illusion. Or, alternatively it could even be the basis for the soliptist point of view. Do you have any further thoughts on the matter? — Jack Cummins
I think that such confusion over whether certain experiences really happened or not does exist in certain states of delirium, such as those involved in alcohol intoxication, psychosis and dementia — Jack Cummins
Nevertheless, the brain, as a precautionary measure, might want to forget dreams so that we don't confuse them with the real. — TheMadFool
As I said, it could have been a big coincidence. But the dream was really clearly different in quality from all my previous ones. — spirit-salamander
Of course, the idea does involve the belief that the astral body is there all the time, and is involved in the emotional life and also comes into play when people get sick .It is closely related to the idea of auras, which some people claim that they can see. — Jack Cummins
The problem with that argument is that people do remember dreams. Perhaps not always and not perfectly, but dream recollection isn't at all unusual. What seems to be the case is that we remember dreams that appear to have a meaning or are otherwise of importance to us personally.
IMO the fact that sometimes people aren't sure whether their experience was a dream or something more real is a separate issue. — Apollodorus
If you have trouble remembering dreams, you're in good company. Most of us have 4 to 6 dreams a night, but we forget the vast majority of them. — www.healthline.com
I have heard that dreams of falling, on the verge of sleep, are connected to going into the astral dimension. I have these frequently and they often jolt me awake. — Jack Cummins
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