Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mr Space Cat]

There's no meaning to be concerned about the content of one's dreams. It is, at worst, demonstrating things that you are already worried about and that you already know you are worried about because you've been worrying about them. There's no great meaning that can be discerned from them, just what's already going on in one's head.

Dreams don't have to be completely disregarded. Scientifically, most dreams can be written off as nonsensical results of thoughts being thrown together during REM sleep or whatever, but there are still theories (crazy hippy theories, if you will) of astral projection, out of body dreamwalking experiences, shared dreams, and that stuff.

Then there's extreme hardcore meditative day-dreaming where a person could easily imagine their own little fantasy land and dick around in it if they meditate on it enough, and thoughtforms like imaginary friends or Tibet's tulpas, that could be summarized as a result of consciously dreaming, either lucidly while asleep or just day-dreaming.

Then there's also just flat lucid dreaming, in which you take control of the dream and manipulate what's happening. That has meaning because you force meaning on it to happen.

It's debateable whether any of that would have influence on the physical world outside of the dreamer's realm of influence, but there are still those crazy crackpot theories, man. Y'gotta, like, open your mind to, like, the energy of creation, man, and become one with the groovy psychic flow, dude.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Those aren't theories, those are the baseless conjectures of people who don't know what's what.

Dreams aren't anything special or supernatural, and they definitely can't effect the physical world. Every child has to learn this easily observable truth when they wake up terrified from their nightmares. And people such as myself, who maintain a high level of nightmares into adulthood, have to be even more aware of it. I've woken up before believing that I've had life altering crises to deal with many a time, only to have my rational mind kick in and realize it was all a dream.

So yes, dreams have to be disregarded as the nonsensical products of a partially shutdown mind. They have no mystical significance and anybody who tries to convince you that they do is most likely either trying to scam you or mentally ill.

[Xantalos]

While we do already have a dream thread, eh. This'll either continue or die.
I did have a few people I was attracted to, but I banned them from my dreams and edited them out whenever I saw them because my subconscious was trying to do things that would have violated their dignity.
Not them, their dignity.

[Knight of Fools]

Reminds me of a dream I had ages ago. A blond girl on a university campus walking away from me, turning to look at me over her shoulder and laughing as if I'd said something funny. It was over in an instant, but it was very clear and detailed. She was beautiful and I felt like I loved her.

I'm not one to discount prophecy, dreams, or personal revelation, and for a while I'd thought that it meant something. Now I realize that it was nothing more than a vivid dream playing with my emotions. Kind of weird that I had a dream about college long before I'd even thought seriously about going, though.

I still feel good when I think of that dream, so there's that.

[kaijyuu]

I'm gonna agree with Space Cat since I'm predisposed to liking anything resembling crazy hippie bullshit.

Maaaaaan.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Theory implies it is backed up by evidence. What those are are hypotheses. Baseless hypotheses, but hypotheses non-the-less

The word you are looking for is conjecture. Hypotheses have to be testable and based off of prior knowledge.

[Fniff]

I don't believe in true love and soulmates because that would be horribly depressing.

I just believe that if two people want to get together, they should be able to be friends without any romance. They don't have to have just friends for a while, but if all they have going for them is "You're my soulmate!", that's not a stable relationship.

[scrdest]

Those aren't theories, those are the baseless conjectures of people who don't know what's what.

Dreams aren't anything special or supernatural, and they definitely can't effect the physical world. Every child has to learn this easily observable truth when they wake up terrified from their nightmares. And people such as myself, who maintain a high level of nightmares into adulthood, have to be even more aware of it. I've woken up before believing that I've had life altering crises to deal with many a time, only to have my rational mind kick in and realize it was all a dream.

So yes, dreams have to be disregarded as the nonsensical products of a partially shutdown mind. They have no mystical significance and anybody who tries to convince you that they do is most likely either trying to scam you or mentally ill.

For the most part I agree, but The Grand Nitpicker that speaks to me in my dreams demands I read some posts and nitpick at them

Anyway: Silly New Age Hippies are Silly. Yay for tautologies. Dreams, much like the rest of your mind, are products of 100% physical processes (funny, now that I think of it - it's much easier to accept things like dreams or mood disorders or hallucinations are caused by chemical reactions in your brain, but it's much harder to convince someone that the 'you' that reads this is, as well). So yeah, I agree.

What I disagree is:
a) Dreams affecting reality. Sure, what happens in a dream, stays in a dream. But what most people refer to as 'having' a dream is actually remembering a dream. And this way, dreams may affect reality indirectly. In fact, there is a medical hypothesis that night terrors (distinct from nightmares - nightmare is a bad dream, during REM phase, night terror is pure, irrational, abstract fear during NREM phase) may have caused a number of unexplained deaths in sleep, especially since people who died that way generally had minor heart abnormalities.

And, crossing over into b), you should NOT disregard dreams. I find dreams, regular ones, not nightmares, equal parts fascinating and utterly terrifying, because they reveal what sort of mind lurks just beneath the threshold of consciousness.

I'm going to be rather vague, but I'll just say that: ideas are like vengeful ghosts. If you let one inside your mind and don't satisfy it (for whatever reason), the only thing you can do is to drop it from the stairs and into the unconscious, but it can and WILL, if it got implanted hard enough, haunt you in your dreams. So, to return to being a bit more plain language, dreams reflect ideas you don't want to surface.

I don't believe in true love and soulmates because that would be horribly depressing.

I just believe that if two people want to get together, they should be able to be friends without any romance. They don't have to have just friends for a while, but if all they have going for them is "You're my soulmate!", that's not a stable relationship.

First part I agree with, the second is a bit confusing, I am not sure if you mean what I think you mean.

Are you trying to say that a romantic relationship is kinda like an upgrade of a friendship? So, if you want to have a romantic relationship with someone, you must have all the things that constitute a friendship plus that little bit that makes it into a romantic relationship?

[kaijyuu]

I find it difficult to imagine a healthy romantic relationship where both people don't also consider each other friends. Pretty much everything that constitutes a "friendship" is also important in a serious romantic relationship, be it respect, enjoying time spent together, etc.

[Mr Space Cat]

Theory implies it is backed up by evidence. What those are are hypotheses. Baseless hypotheses, but hypotheses non-the-less

The word you are looking for is conjecture. Hypotheses have to be testable and based off of prior knowledge.

eh, theories or conjectures or whatever the proper word is, in the context of my hippy post it still gets the point across that it's loopy metaphysical mysticism stuff.

Although I'm pretty sure lucid dreaming is scientifically proven to be a thing.

[Fniff]

Basically, what I mean is that you shouldn't have a relationship with someone if the only thing you have going for them is thinking they're attractive and getting butterflies in your stomach when you're around them.

[hops]

Basically, what I mean is that you shouldn't have a relationship with someone if the only thing you have going for them is thinking they're attractive and getting butterflies in your stomach when you're around them.

Shit
Does it count if those things came later after liking them for a while?

[Fniff]

Well, I'm not exactly the greatest person to ask for dating advice, all of my knowledge of it comes from second hand, so... Think about whether or not you'd still like the person if you didn't have any feelings for them romantically.

[hops]

He was and is still my best friend, so I guess.

Ontopic:

Well, for "dreams", I had tons of "nightmares" though. Not very healthy, but yeah.

[scrdest]

Basically, what I mean is that you shouldn't have a relationship with someone if the only thing you have going for them is thinking they're attractive and getting butterflies in your stomach when you're around them.

Fun fact: 'butterflies in the stomach' are not a symptom of being in love. They are a symptom of stress. Sure, the two are related in most cases, but don't confuse one for the other.

He was and is still my best friend, so I guess.

Ontopic:

Well, for "dreams", I had tons of "nightmares" though. Not very healthy, but yeah.

If it's mutual, sure, shouldn't be a problem.

But you got me curious, are those nightmares nightmares or 'dreams of true love' nightmares?