They are unusual from an evolutionary perspective since they appear to present false information which could endanger the animal itself. All I can think is that perhaps before we were saturated with culture, and our minds were more limited, they were useful predictive devices. — JupiterJess
I actually enjoy a lot of my dreams more than real life and the more I write them down the more real they appear when I sleep. I hope to gain greater control over them at some point. — JupiterJess
I meant they would have had greater evolutionary value than their current forum. The reason I say this is because dreams present adverse information that overtime could be confused as being something that happened. — JupiterJess
They are very odd in thier current form. — JupiterJess
I've tried Lucid dreaming techniques and they worked for a time. Eventually the prompts become ineffective. It's weirdly exhausting so I keep putting it off. — JupiterJess
Interesting – so you think the current form of our dreams is different than our caveman ancestors? Do you think our caveman ancestors believed their dreams to be real? — woodart
What are the benefits of lucid dreaming? Is there a downside? — woodart
Not cave folk, I'm thinking older than that.
What I mean is that some of the information would obviously be adverse. Let's say one dream has a predator killed and a few days later they mix up the dream and believe the predator is dead only for it to later kill them. This is what I mean when I say they are odd in evolutionary terms. All I can think is that dreams were different back then (had a different function) or the truth does not matter so much because it gave a fitness (encouragement?) that was beyond fact.
Yes, people can act on dreams now because we are all have an intuitive understanding of semiology and can differentiate information through self reflection. I do not know if the earlier animals were able to do that. — JupiterJess
What are the benefits of lucid dreaming? Is there a downside?
— woodart
I do not know. I was interested in occult AP stuff at that time. — JupiterJess
They are unusual from an evolutionary perspective since they appear to present false information which could endanger the animal itself. — JupiterJess
I don't consider the "meaning" of dreams to be very significant. — Luke
Dreams take us out of reality for a reason – to expand our reality – to see over the horizon – to envision a new horizon. This is an important function. — woodart
I don't believe that the main purpose of our dreams is to "tell us something," to "give us an alternative reality," to "jolt our thinking," to "expand our reality," or to help us find solutions to problems. Some of these may occasionally be a fortunate byproduct of some dreams, but it strikes me as too 'new age-y' or mystical or unscientific to consider this as their main function. — Luke
What is a dream? Is it a story we tell ourselves while we are asleep? — woodart
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