Dreams

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Dreams are what stop us from dying of boredom during sleep.

There must be some good reason why we dream. I believe we dream because our brains can't process all that we experience during the day. We can't possibly take in all the sights, senses, nuances from people, desires, logical processes and such, and gather it in a coherent fashion. There is just too much information. So, I think our subconscious mind (or some other parts of our brain that are more acute at perceiving what goes unrecognized by the mind that is operating at a typical mundane level) sends messages to us in a different language. This is the language of abstracts and maybe psi which is basically another sense which is not used in ordinary life.

Sand seems to be able to switch in and out of these brain hemispheres. I have a question for him. Would you rather not think like you do? I mean, would you rather see things the way they should be seen? By that I mean, would you rather see things that can be proven to be seen by everyone else and not see blue lobsters when you close your eyes? Why do you think you hallucinate when you close your eyes?

If it is possible to shut down hallucinatory factors of the brain, do you think we should do that? Should we just ignore this aspect of our brain or should we try to delve into it and learn as much about this as we know about our standard perceptions. It may help to control people into thinking more logical and allow for a more reasonable world if people cut this abstract side out of their brain.

I do see things like everybody else. I have no hallucinations. But when I close my eyes the changing amorphous and structured shapes that my visual apparatus produces is resolved into different types of images. I do not mistake them for reality nor do I kid myself that they are anything more than fascinating interactions of my visual and data mechanisms. I have no idea what you mean by things as they "should" be seen.

I don't kid myself into believing that my dreams are real either. But if I saw blue lobsters and shapeshifting pictures when I closed my eyes I would find that disturbing because that is just not something that is considered normal. I was wondering if you would rather not see those things or if you find meaning in them the way let's say I find meaning in my dreams.

If I found no meaning in my dreams then I would wonder why we dream at all. Since I understand the importance of dreams and have a good amount of proof that other people dream as well, then I can say that I would want to keep my dreams. However, if I dreamed and found no meaning in them (the way you find no meaning in your visions) I would rather not dream at all simply because it has no basis in reality nor does it help me in any way. In fact, it would only serve to make me more different and therefore make me feel more misunderstood and alone. Would you rather not hallucinate like you do?

I don't know if you're stubborn or illiterate. I clearly stated that I don't hallucinate. To hallucinate is to see things with your eyes open and confuse the images with reality. I don't do that. With my eyes closed I have several "screens" to work with. One screen is a free running series of images and they can vary in quality from mere unfocused black and white to full color and high resolution. The fuzzy screen is a kind of homing in on quality. The higher resolution screen is quite precise and the images may be strange or be mere variations of local reality. I do not control the images on these two screens. The third screen is fully under my control and I can, at will, create dynamic images of any project I'm working on be it graphics or sculpture or objects I'm designing so I can change structures or materials and try them out in three dimensions. It is a kind of internal AutoCad which I use as a design tool. I am always fully aware they are virtual creations and certainly not hallucinations. I believe all people who design develop this capability.

Of course you don't have to answer my question, but I hope you at least understand what I was asking. I asked if you would rather keep your visions or think like people should think. By that I mean, think in terms of what is real. You stated that you don't know how a person should think. I meant that people are expected to think in terms of reality and to see what is there and not make up what is not there. Would you rather just see what everyone else sees (should see) in order to have a better footing in reality? *smartass grinning*

Dreams can be considered hallucinations. Our brains emit DMT at night which causes this phenomenon. There must be a reason why we do this. People who don't get enough deep sleep have problems. That is well documented. There were also studies that show that people who are woken up during REM stages experienced irregular behavior and mood disorders later on in the day.

HEY! Read your definition!

hal·lu·ci·na·tion audio (h-ls-nshn) KEY

NOUN:

1.
1. Perception of visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory experiences without an external stimulus and with a compelling sense of their reality, usually resulting from a mental disorder or as a response to a drug.
2. The objects or events so perceived.
2. A false or mistaken idea; a delusion.



A compelling sense of their reality. I stated many times that I was not deluded as to their reality. I am fully aware they are products of my nervous system and very interesting and useful ones at that. Why would I want to be without them? Its a special delightful capability. Would you like to lose any useful mental capability? Not me.

Since you said that your visions seemed so real that you assumed everyone had seen them when you were a child, I assumed that the definition of hallucination was an appropriate word.

A vision is not a delusion. My opinion is that visions are as meaningful as dreams. Some would argue that placing meaning in visions is a bit wacky but analyzing dreams is a standard practice in psychology. Most people understand the significance of dreams because of Jung and Freud. If it weren't for them there would be no proof that this type of thinking has any value.

I'd still like to explore the reason why we have this ability/disability to begin with. Dreaming is something that most people do and remember. It's already established that denying a person of the dream state has a negative impact on a person.

During sleep, I get so bored that I fall asleep.

That has happened to me, too. I have dreamed about sleeping, and in one dream I even "woke up" in the dream, went about my business, before realising that I was still in a dream. The process repeated itself several times, and at one point I worried that I might become trapped in an inescapable cycle of pretending to wake up.

There seems to be several theories of what is the purpose of dreaming, I dont' know if there is a consensus on one though.


That's interesting and even intriguing, how can we think different in our dreams than in our reality, in my dreams I usually live in an alternate reality and sometimes impossible, and believing that is the real thing at the time, and often I don't think on the real one or even remember it.

A problem is that I forget my dreams after several minutes after waking up, damn! I do have some interesting ones that very well one could make a novel out of of each of them

I've had similar hypnogorgic imagery, though I'll admit that I had chemical assistance. My eyes were closed and I started seeing something like a channel selector of faces from all over the world, most were either Arabic, Mediterranean, East European, Latino, African, Asian, and the selector looked like it had the artificial wide-screen 9:16 dimensions except that it was flipped a vertical access - much of it seemed to be in something of a dusty sepia tone fading to black on the edges. When I did dial in one one face it was a real steely-eyed guy, maybe 32 or 33, kinda looked like Lane Staley of Alice In Chains with shorter hair and without it died up (so yes - pretty much the blend of artistic, intelligent, and R-type personality). The guy appeared to have been in the military and was living in a sort of a sparse and dark apartment with dirty wood floor, barely anything to call furniture, looking out on an East European city that was all mud with peasants, farm animals, and occasional military convoys rolling through. I then sort of saw his psyche (well, per the sensation of that moment), got enough dose of reality to where it might have well simulated me drilling into a real person's thoughts outside my own. I think by the time I then saw a dirty VA hospital and the guy being choked to death under a plastic sheet that it was my mind more concretely interfering because I was starting to think of it like a movie and give it bad plot twists or let the mood of things expound too much - still, it was an interesting run of thought.

I think this is why I'm also so in touch with music and why I love the kinds of beats, melody, and rhythm that really dive abstractly into the psyche. The high quality examples are out there and it seems like people have really gotten away from the need for a traditional mold and structure (pop is still out there but its not anything close to the be-all-end-all) and really gotten to the point where they can really express the darkest and most abstract sides of themselves, life, etc.. Being that things like psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DXM, all bring out excaburated senses of something similar - its amazing as well just how much of everything from movies to commercial art have sought sometimes almost dangerously (to the privacy of the user) direct pull from that mind state. Some people may be able to dream that vividly on a regular basis, some are just able to build a sort of reservoir of that kind of thought as linked with their conscious state and have learned to tap it without aid (I think the later point I've really been lucky with).

At this point though I'm kind of in a similar boat to where I very rarely remember my dreams and when I do it seems like they're almost too directly related to present concerns, like struggling to figure something out at work and having my mind turn to mash on it - because I'm sleeping and because I'm dealing with a complex problem that has no hinges on reality as my mind makes up the rules of the project or drops them as I go (my working memory in sleep is something of an atrocity as well so I can really get the sense of drowning under pressure).

Speaking of dreams... it recently occurred to me that I haven't had sleep paralysis in nearly a year. It baffles my mind that when my brain is faced with some slight misalignment of sleep mechanisms, the damn thing feels the need to assail me with freaky as hell auditory and even visual hallucinations.

I figure dreaming is just and epiphenomenon of a process which benefits efficient cognitive function. The content may contain some degree of meaning, but it is not explicitly meaningful.

Dreams are brain farts. They are mental flatulence.

ruveyn

I thought I had made it quite evident that these phenomena may be internally visual but they are not, by any sensible definition, "visions" as the term is usually accepted. They are internal visual phenomena extremely distinct from any association with external reality. They are manifestations of the functions of the neurological systems and can be more closely associated with memory recall than external data input. I do not need either Freud or Jung to examine my comprehension of how I visually recall or manipulate any of my sense memories, any more than I need a philosopher to explain how I walk or flex my arms and hands. These are essential internal functional capabilities and if other people do not have them it does not make me psychologically defective. I did not mean to convey that the personal internal visual manifestations I experienced were available to anyone else, merely that, as a child, I assumed that other people had their own internal visual manifestations like my own and it seems this is not universally true. A flexible visual memory is extremely useful and not in any way a delusion.

Ruveyn, don't be a dunce.