Could it be that dreams are memories of future events?

I am not normally very philosophical or metaphysical but this has just occurred to me… perhaps I’m behind everyone else here, if so, bear with me… it’s kind of a revelation to me.

Let me start with saying that I’ve always been interested in dreams but haven't really done any research on them except for the occasional curiosity about what a particular dream meant. I think my interest stems from not being able to remember almost all of my dreams and what I may be missing out on. I only remember about 10 a year – but those that I do remember always leave me with a strong emotion that lasts, most times, through the following day, almost nagging at me to think about it. It is this that convinces me that dreams are important in some way.

So, I’ve been thinking… … (lol, my family hates it when I start a conversation with that phrase…)

Could it be that dreams are memories of future events? Most of the research done on dreams says that dreaming is the process that the brain uses to record events into memory. Since the concept of time is supposed to be limited to this existence (or this whatever we're experiencing), then minus the concept of time, wouldn't that mean that dreams are very likely just memories?

Said another way, because I'm having difficulty explaining what I'm thinking:

Our biological (and thus time-restricted) brains acting the way they should combined with our non-biological mind could result in dreams here that look like they are predicting the future (in our time restricted reality) when they are just recording the memory of the non-time-restricted mind. Remembering the future, per se.

Going further with this thought... when dreams don't come true or manifest in this reality, then could it be that we have changed this reality in some way? Or, could it mean that the particular mind-memory (non-biological), manifesting as a dream in this reality, is from an alternate future reality? This would imply that dreams are even more important than normally considered and, to either consciously or unconsciously ignore them is dangerous.

Is this a form of free will? To choose whether we adjust ourselves, our surroundings, etc… (and thus our futures) based on this knowledge? Do we do this adjustment anyway, even if done subconsciously? If we don’t remember our dreams (as is in my case), could it mean that they are “remembered” at some other level and, in some way, acted on? Or does it mean that I’ve missed an opportunity to act altogether? I’d like to think that at some subconscious level it does impact me and therefore my actions but who knows…

Sorry for the rambling, just had to get it off my chest…

YES YES YES! I believe MANY dreams are in fact memories of both past and future events. I had a very vivid occurring dream when I was a kid. My parents used to fight a lot and had a dysfunctional marriage. I ALWAYS had nightmares about them getting a divorce. It happened when I was older i..e 18 years old.

I also have very vivid recurring dreams on nuclear war. I feel nuclear war is going to happen in my lifetime.

Maybe they are more like preminitions but interesting none the less.

Your description of how you dream fits me well. I don't remember my dreams very often (probably less than you), but they are always meaningful in some way.

I think the concept of lucid dreaming rules out all dreams being future memories. However, I also think there are a few different types of dreams.

One type of dream is where the dreamer is 100% in control, i.e. lucid dreaming.

Another type of dream is where you are merely the observer, sort of like you are watching a movie. It's usually these types of dreams which *seem* to me to predict the future and leave me with a niggling feeling. I think these dreams are more a mirror of your subconscious. i.e. what thoughts (fears, perhaps) you have deep down (nuclear war, alien attack, etc.) will surface in these ones.

Another type of dream (which I have only read about, not experienced) is where the dream *does* predict future events. Usually a mundane conversation with a friend or something that usually happens the day after the dream. The dream is usually only remembered after the conversation (or whatever) has started but is correct right down to the each word. Is deja vu the same but you don't remember it was from a dream last night?

I'm sure there's others but these are the ones to first come to my mind.

I'm a failure then. With the exception of one dream which foretold a local fairground accident later that day, my dreams incorporate things said and done the preceding days and also reflect any current worries.

I really hope not. I had a horrific dream that involved zombies.

I dont know what year, date and time it was but i saw scenes at a University, a school and a airport.

These zombies were similiar to the ones in 28 Days later except their skin was pale and their eyes were milky. The zombies cannot infect and they dont bite except they are shown to rip people's limbs off.

I also saw that these zombies are created by some people launching grenades into certain places that causes people to turn violent and kill people. They cant be killed easily with a few shots or a shot to the head but dismemberment can slow them down.

The gas that causes people to turn like this eventually fade away reverting people back to a primal stage and not their true self.

So judging from my dream there are terrorists that walk into a crowded University, school and Airport and launch little gas grenades that change them to zombies and eventually kill the people that launched the grenades. I am guessing they are similiar to suicide bombers.

Dreams really interest me, i have read that people have 'foreseen' future events through a dream and have seen the past as well. I have a theory, I don't know if it's already a theory used nowadays but it was just something i have thought of. Now from what i have read, our dreams last about 7 minutes, in that 7 minutes we can see just about anything, sometimes good or sometimes bad. Now my theory is that a dream is just a bunch of thoughts both conscious and unconscious thoughts made into like a slide show, lets say if you think about a friend of yours even for a split second, conscious or sub conscious, that picture of them could be incorporated into the dream you will have later that night. Now we have about 2 thoughts every second, most subconsciously and quite a lot of them we don't even know what we are thinking about so they could be random as anything but if we took a bunch of them thousands of pictures and made a slideshow, that is basically my theory of a dream.