My Dream Theory

I'm of the opinion that the key to understanding dreams lies in the mechanics of our reality. If one were to assume the Theory of Evolution to be correct, than dreams evolved as a way for an organism to understand its environment as well as to make more efficient its future reactions. I know I write with a kind of detachment, I tend to think analytically and know no other way to express this, so please bear with me.......

Why do we Dream?

Every organism interpretes its environment through 5 senses, but at any given time dependent on the physical need or focus only one sense is being used, usually sight.....How many times have you closed your eyes to enjoy an aroma? Regardless of how many senses you tend to focus on at any given time, the brain is still percieving the world with all of its senses; the word subliminal essentially means "below conscious perception".

In order for the brain to process all that it has perceived in waking life, it "dreams".As such, dreams are the assimilation of all direct and peripheral perception into long-term memory. This process is conducted so that the organism may understand better and interact more efficiently with its environment by "re-experiencing" recent sensory perception. This re-experiencing is done by "combining" new experience with similar memories; since the overall physical environment rarely changes once it has been lived in, most new dreams center on the emotion and feelings of the organism.

To take this last sentence further, try a quick index of your most recent dreams.......how many of them were "feelings" amidst a social environment? And how many were focused on physical details such as the "knot in a piece of wood" or "words and numbers?" The focus on social activity is a natural default after a person has matured; he/she is already very familiar with his/hers physical reality and the only great unknown(for the most part) is other people and how they think/feel in corrolation.


For the sake of arguement, we'll use anxiety as a reference since all of our actions are affected by the intensity of it. .....all of those motivational speakers earn their money by instilling confidence. The more confidence you have means less anxiety. Anxiety comes in a myriad of forms(guilt, shame, fear, instilled responsibility conflicting desire, and others). Remembering your dreams allows you to consciously reflect on how your subconscious reacts to your continuing life. From there it is almost just a matter of deciding how/if you want to change it. This type of reflection is self-evident with how well you interact with others and the activity you involve yourself in.....knowing how and why you react allots you the option to change how you act.....since dreams are the summation of all ingested information by which our behaviour is based upon, it would stand that understanding our behaviour would help us to more efficiently interact.....essentially what you stand to learn from increased awareness of your dreams is a better understanding of 1)yourself 2)how you react to the world. 3)How the world reacts to you 4)Specific details about anything(conscious control, or lucid.

As to the seeing of the future via dreams, the brain is an incredibly sensitive and calculating organ. I would imagine that precognition could be explained by intuition, anticipation w/ regard to pattern recognition, and individual interest/focus and the intensity thereof.........


Of course learning is not meant in a way to exclude fun as this aspect of dreaming(having fun) is where most of the theraputic value lies - also, I have never heard of anyone not enjoy "learning" how to lucid dream. I am trying to express that interacting with your environment is a constant learning experience and dreams are there to continue adding into your memory the encountered reality. Learning begins, obviously, at infancy and these memories are what establishes the type of reactions, in part, that particular human will have. Later in life when the physical world has been learned, most of the new "information" will be in the form of social experience.....


I submit that the division of the mind into "conscious" and "unconscious" is done merely for convenience in explaining the functions of our mind. I would think it more accurate to describe our mental state as a constantly flucuating consciousness and if that were so than of course an emotional shock would undoubtedly dominate it. An emotional shock is usually the povacateur of recurring dreams. An attempt to understand how deeper levels of consciousness express the shock, such as dreaming, could lead to a "conscious" assuaging of the trauma. Maybe I'm trying to implicate dreams in concert with conscious thought.....



The brain, in using symbols in dreams, has demonstrated that it is very efficient and as such wouldn't use old memories that have been "updated" by more recent experience that incorporate the same subject matter. This thought I could expand on further, I think, as it relates more to memory with relation to behaviour, but I do think that in a dream state you have access to all of your memories.....If you experienced it, then it must have a biological representation in the brain - that's why neural networks grow in response to experience. If you take a look at the biological development of neurons(dendrites, axons, etc.) and their responses to neurotransmitters, memory is more vivid the more "similar experiences" you have. Hence, "Practice makes perfect." The more you encounter a specific experience/situation/environment/relationship/etc., the stronger those particular regions of neurons become........


I'm still refining etc., so please feel free to call me on anything, I'm sure their are holes somewhere. However, I believe this to be an accurate description of the reasons for dreams and the use in our lives. Because dreams have evolved in response to our learning process, it would stand to reason that dreams exist for us to learn from. The best way to do that, IMO, is to start with the mundane details, such as "why did I react that way when this subject came up," or, "Why did I feel this way when I am usually quite comfortable with my life." It's all ways the details that lead to more provocative questions and, subsequently, more provocative reasons.

This is why I think it a sham that dreams are usually religated to the mystical or new age section..........they're as natural as two arms and two legs!!! I believe the unlimited capacity for learning and memory allotted by our dreams and the relative disregard people in general give them is no accident.........a conspiracy to ensure that the full learning and operating potential of the brain is never realized. Life in America is motivated by distraction after distraction and the constant barrage on our "animal instincts." This of course leaves no time for self-reflection, for the healthy cultivation of the "why" aspect of our nature.......



I believe the third eye is actually our capacity to imagine, and dreams are a nightly process of imagination.

I believe dreams are no different than conscious reality. I recomend you watch a movie called "Waking Life" if you haven't already.

Anyway, i believe that we experinece reality based on duality. Life is entwined with a balance, good and bad, left and right, black then white, order and chaos, men and women, young and old, and on and on...

Conscious reality is no different. There are two hemespheres of the brain, left and right (well duh) but each interperet differently. When we are "awake" we interperet based on the Left/ logical side. When we "sleep" we interperet based on the right sided/ creative/ emotional side. Who is to say that over there in LaLa land we really aren't awake. Because if you can recall even in a dream you have no recelection of being a sleep or even of any memory of the previous day (not to mention the strange parallel of having no recelection of our dreams when we wake...) The only thing that seperates the two realities is the sence of awakening. Mabey when we go to sleep here, we wake up there, and visa versa...


And the twain shall meet...

[edit on 20-2-2005 by Pandoras Box]

Originally posted by Pandoras Box
Because if you can recall even in a dream you have no recelection of being a sleep or even of any memory of the previous day (not to mention the strange parallel of having no recelection of our dreams when we wake...)

I disagree. The act of remembering whether or not you are asleep in a dream is called lucid dreaming. It can be learned; I've been able to do it a couple of times and will continue to try and control it. Remembering dreams after you have awaken is merely a matter of training yourself to do it.

The whole point of this thread, and I admit my expression may be wanting, is to state that dreams are a result of how you interact with your environment; that when you dream your mind is associating actions/interactions/places/things/persons with how you reacted on a biological level. Does a certain person cause feelings of comfort or anxiety? Does a particular place have an association of despair or comfort? How about more generalized reactions?

I stated above that, after a person has matured, the physical environment has become known and as such requires less attention. The learning of information such as vocabulary, statistics, and various other scientific details don't usually manifest in dreams due to the fact that they don't invoke any emotional/chemical response in the body. These emotional/chemical responses are what the body attentuates itself to, thus addictions and why people "chase the chemical highs." Chemical reactions occur in the body in response to social situations, but usually not as dramatically as a drug induction.

Since the body is really an ongoing series of chemical reactions, it would stand to reason that dreams are the sensory perceptions associated with these chemical reactions. As associated experience is assimilated over a lifetime, dreams can get complex in their presentations........I'm still trying to figure out how to word this.......