Do Dreams Mean or Represent Anything?

[Summerlander]

Who thinks that dreams mean or represent something? Could they be reflections on how we feel about certain waking life situations? situations? If you imagine that the brain is a computer, could dreams somehow provide us with a "report" on our status? Is there any truth to dream interpretations?

I have often come across strong evidence for this but always slightly equivocal. What do you guys think? Could the metaphysical realm be more than just what it seems? Rather than just considering the appearances, should we pay attention to symbolism?

Once, I had a vivid dream where I was peeing in a urinal. It was partially blocked. There was urine on the floor which belonged to other people. My drops of urine mixed with the filthy wet floor. This dream was very realistic. It's appearance could convince anyone that it was physical. There was a janitor there to whom I complained about the mess.

At the time, in waking life, I was clashing with certain people because I thought they had made a mess and then I realised that by acting the way I was I was adding to the mess and I was indeed complaining about everything about the situation.

You see, when I woke up I wowed how convincing the reality of the dream was and then, it hit me. It appeared to have been more than just something that emulated a physical reality. It also seemed to reflect what had been happening in waking life, only this appeared to have been expressed in a simpler way but with puns and symbolism. Think about the word "piss". Then the applications in informal vocabulary: "pissed off", "pissing about"... and indeed I had said to the dream janitor that there was "piss everywhere, look!"

Then the janitor and what he represented. I had looked at him because I had expected him to clean it up. Again, in waking life I expected others to take responsibility and 'clean up'. Perhaps I should have been the janitor instead of adding to the mess too.

Anyway, you get the point? Have you ever felt like your dreams are...erm...not telling you something but...rather...giving you a reflection on what is going on and sometimes you may acquire new perspectives if you pay close attention to them.

[breadbassed]

Absolutely, i would say this is the main purpose of dreams, representing worries or fears, or perhaps some thoughts that aren't necessarily in the forefront of your mind, and putting them into some symbolic, metaphorical situation, i think dream interpretation can be useful, but sometimes it can be very hard, as they can be so personal.

[ElRaay]

I think dreams are vital for the brain to do its job correctly and help us during waking life. The brain is extremly complex and dreams is considered to be more active than when you are awake.
I was watching a nova show about dreams. In the show they examined 3 groups on their creativity. One group took the test after being awake for some hours, 1 group took a nap but was awaken before they could hit REM sleep. The third and final group slept well into REM sleep. The most creative group by far were those that went into REM sleep. About 40% more. the non REM sleep did even worse than those who never took a nap.

http://madisonjazz.files.wordpress.com/ ... ebrian.pdf

this website shows those who practice an instrument mentally and those who practice in waking life. It was a cool article i read that showed that mental practice is almost just as good as awakening practice. It also shows muscians actually get better if they practice before sleep because during sleep do us muscians grow our muscial talent.

The brain to me is indeed a biological computer and i think sleep is what happens when we restart a computer. The computer becomes very active during the first stage of restart but when the computer is just on and still its like on stand by. Kinda also how new borns sleep for like 16 hours.

I think we are more alive in sleep then we are in awakening.

[Summerlander]

Absolutely, i would say this is the main purpose of dreams, representing worries or fears, or perhaps some thoughts that aren't necessarily in the forefront of your mind, and putting them into some symbolic, metaphorical situation, i think dream interpretation can be useful, but sometimes it can be very hard, as they can be so personal.

I think dream interpretation can be useful too.  Certain things seem to become clear or apparent if we spend enough time thinking about them.  Why the specific imagery, why the storyline, why the emotions that went with dream etc. etc.

Dreams have often given me a clear understanding on how I truly feel about certain situations and have sometimes given me clues on how to solve problems.  A pity that a lot of people don't pay enough attention to them.

All this talk brings me to comment on another great post:

I was watching a nova show about dreams. In the show they examined 3 groups on their creativity. One group took the test after being awake for some hours, 1 group took a nap but was awaken before they could hit REM sleep. The third and final group slept well into REM sleep. The most creative group by far were those that went into REM sleep. About 40% more. the non REM sleep did even worse than those who never took a nap.

http://madisonjazz.files.wordpress.com/ ... ebrian.pdf

That's reliable evidence right there.  It looks like dreams serve many purposes.  The brain is definitely very much computerised and dreams could serve as reboot, upgrade and a 'gist-report' on status to the self.  Thanks for the link, btw!  I read it all!  I found it interesting how mental practice was just as useful as physical practice when it came to practicing on the keyboards.  The "hose with holes" analogy for the neurons and the synaptic connections was genius.  The relevant connections are reinforced the more we learn and practice something, and, what do you know...SLEEP can speed up the process.

The brain to me is indeed a biological computer and i think sleep is what happens when we restart a computer. The computer becomes very active during the first stage of restart but when the computer is just on and still its like on stand by. Kinda also how new borns sleep for like 16 hours.

I love the computer analogy when we talk about the brain. 

[wiii]

I think dreams definately represent something!
Lucid dreams or awareness of the dream is already phase practice!
Phase practice I think at a certain level,could lead us to what we truly feel about things,and what we truly think!
So if we could know what we truly think we could more easily mold our reality by our taughts!
Conclusion:PRACTICE THE PHASE!BECOME AWARE OF YOUR CAPABILITIES!


WIII

[Jeff]

Good topic,
Dream content can be most definitely meaningful!(though there seems to be nonsense as well)The symbolic representations and senarios experienced by the ego,to me,often seem to have been reflected upon,assembled and presented in ways that demonstrate hidden creativity,intelligence,wisdom and even humor-qualities I would associate with sentience as opposed to conditioning, random 'noise' and predictable biochemical behavior.(Just one reason I believe neurophysiology and phenomenal experience are related but not at all equivalent)

This part of the mind knows the situation and daily life of the ego and seems to be able to prod the ego into examining it's outlooks and behaviors.It never ceases to amaze me.I think we would be very wise to pay attention to possible messages in dream content-especially considering that this portion of mind seems sensitive to future probabilities and can occasionally demonstrate this as well.

I also enjoyed the article on learning and the brain.I have been a guitar player obsessed with speed,scales and memorizing musical pieces most of my life -so this hit home with me.Something worth mentioning here is that I often experience entire pieces of music in my dreams,fully formed and original. This other part of mind absolutely astounds me. 'I' seem to be only able to witness it's finished products because they are very difficult to remember and carry back to the waking world.Only fragments seem to make it back.

Comments I want to make about the computer analogies are:
1.There is no reason to draw a boundary at the skull and brain tissue when in fact most, if not all of nature demonstrates computational aspects.

2.Computational aspects of nature are not confined to space-time.Therefore,I see no reason not to consider the possibility that the creativity demonstrated in dream content could have a similar origin.

See here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... omputation

And here:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26421/

A note here is that protein folding is NOT determined by DNA.Yet thousands of proteins/second are created in the body.Protein is essential for animal life and they constitute some neurotransmitters.The optimal electron configurations that determine their shapes do not seem to be calculated inside of space-time. Another thing worth mentioning here is that there has been many  recent discoveries showing that proteins play  essential roles in neuron function.



"to put this in perspective,a relatively small portion of only 100 amino acids can take some10^100 different configurations.If it tried these shapes at the rate of 100 billion per second ,it would take longer than the age of the universe to find the correct one."

[Summerlander]

I also enjoyed the article on learning and the brain.I have been a guitar player obsessed with speed,scales and memorizing musical pieces most of my life -so this hit home with me.Something worth mentioning here is that I often experience entire pieces of music in my dreams,fully formed and original. This other part of mind absolutely astounds me. 'I' seem to be only able to witness it's finished products because they are very difficult to remember and carry back to the waking world.Only fragments seem to make it back.

I'm a guitar player too (besides being an artist).  What kind of music do you fancy?  Blues, jazz, rock, metal...?  By the way, I once played guitar in the phase...I was better!! 

By the way, don't be upset about getting the fragments...record as best as you can remember it.  Get it down on paper and you may remember more or even piece it all together.  Here's a good link from Lucidity:

http://www.lucidity.com/NL11.DreamRecall.html

[Jeff]

I also enjoyed the article on learning and the brain.I have been a guitar player obsessed with speed,scales and memorizing musical pieces most of my life -so this hit home with me.Something worth mentioning here is that I often experience entire pieces of music in my dreams,fully formed and original. This other part of mind absolutely astounds me. 'I' seem to be only able to witness it's finished products because they are very difficult to remember and carry back to the waking world.Only fragments seem to make it back.

I'm a guitar player too (besides being an artist).  What kind of music do you fancy?  Blues, jazz, rock, metal...?  By the way, I once played guitar in the phase...I was better!! 

By the way, don't be upset about getting the fragments...record as best as you can remember it.  Get it down on paper and you may remember more or even piece it all together.  Here's a good link from Lucidity:

http://www.lucidity.com/NL11.DreamRecall.html

Hey SL thanks for the link,
I like it all really,but I play Classical/Flamenco and Metal.( I really like scar symmetry right now)When I was a kid and in my twenties I played in metal bands around my area (Tampa Bay) when there was a bit of a scene.I was in one band briefly that had Matt Barlow,the singer for Iced Earth. ( I'm not a fan at all though) Some other people around here went on to do good stuff like the band 'Atheist.'One of my best friends went on to play in Andrew WK (not a fan of them either though) But the guys I played with never got their shit together,or they always went on to greener grass.I was always burned or left behind.

It was frustrating so I went on to concentrate on classical for a period.I even learned the 'Concerto De Aranjuez' for my local orchestra;but lucky for me they dropped it after a year of learning on my part because they didn't want to hire extra musicians.We played a much easier vivaldi concerto which worked out to my benefit.As it turned out I didn't like performing for an audience that wasn't forming a pit..LOL. It was pretty scary to play for a crowd that actually listens!...Now I just play for fun at home, weddings and parties.

I've played in the phase only at sublucid levels..what was it like?? For me,things didn't respond as they do in waking life...

What kind of stuff are you into?

[Summerlander]

I like Scar Symmetry too.  Those guys are fast and heavy.  Iced Earth are not my cuppa.  I love thrash metal bands too...love old Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus etc.

Lately though, I've been listening and learning to play slower and more melodious songs.  I'm going through a Tool and A Perfect Circle phase.

And then there's blues and jazz.  Love it!

But I guess I'm more of an artist than a musician.  Art is definitely what I'm into.  And I get a lot of inspiration from the phase. 

I also like to write.  I can write for England!!  The notes in my dream/phase journals always turn into essays.  I just can't help it.  I write fast too. 

[jarekf]

I'm a guitar player too (besides being an artist).  What kind of music do you fancy?  Blues, jazz, rock, metal...?  By the way, I once played guitar in the phase...I was better!!

LOL, I played my classical guitar just last night, in a normal dream, not lucid. But I couldn't play it as well as normally, maybe because I almost always improvise, and play well only when I get an inspiration, which didn't happen in this dream.

[Jeff]

I'm a guitar player too (besides being an artist).  What kind of music do you fancy?  Blues, jazz, rock, metal...?  By the way, I once played guitar in the phase...I was better!!

LOL, I played my classical guitar just last night, in a normal dream, not lucid. But I couldn't play it as well as normally, maybe because I almost always improvise, and play well only when I get an inspiration, which didn't happen in this dream.

LOL..another guitar player.There are some on Mortal Mist and My Big TOE too-and probably all of the rest of the sites..? I'm really thinking there's a connection with being an artist or musician and a propensity for the phase.


I think this topic seeded my experience last night.It was in regular dream consciousness,but I played some generic metal riffs and tremolo picking with my 'grandfather' - who was better than me... For me,for some reason the music is harder to remember than a whole night of dreams and phases.It's strange because I memorize all music in waking life because I'm lazy about sight reading  nowadays...

[breadbassed]

I actually used to use playing guitar as a way to try and help induce lucid dreams. I would wake up after a few hours of sleep and play a little guitar to help activate my brain then go back to sleep, but it probably only worked about half the time.

[DreamInception]

Lately I've been writing a lot about the world of dreaming and also reading a lot and just this process has given me soaring energy with my nightly dreaming, and I"m having many more dreams and lucid dreams as ever before. 

And you have to find ways to be receptive of your dreams and their meaning. For me being receptive means having the right perspective on my daily life, not being overtaken by anything that blurs my ideal life. I think we all have that within us yet connecting to it is something that everyone has to work towards.