A dream theory

I didn't see any forum dealing specifically with dreams or dream interpretations, so I figured "paranormal studies" would be a good place to put this topic. If I missed something, mods, please feel free to move it.

So, for as long a I can remember, I've had very vivid dreams where I am myself, obviously, and in a lot of the dreams I even interact with people I know; in others, people who are complete strangers to me, but I know them in the dream. In some of the dreams I live where I live now; in others I live somewhere else but where I live is familiar to me. My dreams are very rarely far-fetched, you know things that just couldn't possibly happen.

So, the other day after one of my morning meditation sessions, when my mind was particularly fresh and clear I had a bit of a realization.

What if some of our dreams - surely not all of them - aren't really "dreams"? What if they are memories or even current happenings of alternate versions of ourselves in alternate dimensions? Like, what if when we dream, our minds are actually fusing with alternate versions of ourselves and we're experiencing something that happened to some other "us."

Anyone else think this or have this experience?

reply to post by AlienBuddha


Its plausible. Impossible to confirm.

For some reason, I only remember about one dream per month. I could probably do something before I go to sleep to help me with that, but I'm not sure how committed I'd be to whatever practice that would be.

reply to post by six67seven


Meditation could work, or keeping a dream journal. I dunno. Sometimes I hardly remember any dreams, and other times I get a lot of them nights in a row that I remember.

reply to post by AlienBuddha


The ones i do remember are usually awesome, at least to me. Dreams are never as exciting to whomever you're communicating them to.

Actually, I may not remember them because I'm a light sleeper or something like that. Sleep analysis should be covered by insurance, right? Lol

reply to post by six67seven


See, a lot of mine are very mundane which is what's odd to me lol. Like in one I had a couple days ago I walked outside and realized my car was missing, and I just knew it had been repossessed. Like, what?! lol

reply to post by AlienBuddha


I still remember an incredible one from a few months back. In my dream, it was probably 1am or something and I was outside in a neighborhood I didn't recognize. No one else was out. I look up to see a UFO a couple hundred feet up, and I start booking it down the street and it chases me, keeping the same altitude. After running for a bit, I come to a brick wall cutting off the street I'm running down and a few feet before I reach it, I get shot. I don't think the shots came from the UFO cuz they specifically feel like bullets. So I'm laying face down after being shot 5 or 6 times and I can feel myself dying. It's on my last breathe that I wake up, sweating of course.

It's such an incredible feeling being shot or any NDE in dreams. I DO remember that!

reply to post by AlienBuddha


This is one of the BEST books I've found on dream interpretation:

Dreaming Insights: A 5-Step Plan for Discovering the Meaning in Your Dream

The book was written by a psychologist--Dr. Gilllian Holloway.

She tackled the concept of dream analysis from the perspective that dreams are a form of communication like spoken language. So basically a language all their own, complete with their own grammar and syntax rules. Those rules are abstract and apply to all dreams, but it is the subjective symbolism of the dream that individualizes them between people.

Honestly, the book is very short, about 100 pages. It did not take me long to learn "the language of dreams" simply by keeping a dream journal. Once I realized the profundity inherent in dreams symbols, it changed my attitude towards them completely.

We have the tendency to falsely believe that dreams are just arbitrary images of our daily lives strung together in no apparent logical order by the subconscious.

Any being that had no concept of spoken language would probably feel the same way about English, or Spanish, or French--if they could actually vocalize such a thought. Just strings of incoherent, gibberish.

reply to post by LewsTherinThelamon


Interesting

Besides the change in attitude towards dreams, have you been able to interpret any meaning out of yours? I'm sure any meaning extracted would only affect the individual and be subjective, but thought I'd ask.

Hello friend, there is a forum dedicated to dreams but I guess you missed it. It's ok, a mod will shortly move this thread to its appropriate forum.

On topic: Dreams fascinate me to no extent. Sometimes I can't wait till the day is over so I can journey in my dream world, acquire lucidity and experience true freedom where the laws of gravity don't apply and I can materialize whatever I can imagine. Truly amazing huh?

Interestingly enough I have come up with a similar conclusion in regards to how our mind works in the dream world, documenting hundreds of my dreams and analyzing them thoroughly. I have noticed an interesting pattern. Before I mention this pattern, I want to state that dreams are the alternate possible versions of our reality, we'll at least mine. For example, I have episodes of dreams where I'm hanging out with a group of people in my old neighborhood. They are complete strangers to me in real life, but I KNOW them in my dream. I call these dreams episodes because for a straight week I see these same people but we are doing different activities. It's as REAL as this life. In the dream I've known these people for a very long time, they are my friends, but complete strangers when I wake up. The pattern here is everyone, everything and everyplace has its alternative version in my dream. My own mother in my dream was my dream mothers best friend... I immediately became lucid looked at my real mother in her face and curiously said " Ma?" She looked at me with a state of confusion and laughed. I'm a let that sink in for you

I'm still exploring and learning what I can but in the back of my mind I know an alternate version of me is plausibly dreaming me at this moment and typing these words...

Great post. I view dreams as a form of language that is used to communicate between aspects of our compartmentalized consciousness and the collective unconscious as described by Carl Jung.

Here is a study showing that collective consciousness affects RNG (Random number generation) during peak events: www.noetic.org...

If we start to factor in the big picture of dreams and for those who have them, dreams that come true ie. precognitive dreams or deja reve. Then we also start to see that dreams and this objective reality also have a relationship.

Dreams are a fundamental component of cognitive reality and we are living breathing examples of what a grander Universal dream creates.

We are all connected, we are all one and reality is a sub-set of a much larger, grander Universal dream. So learn to dream and dream well.

reply to post by six67seven


See! Why would you dream that? Why would your "subconscious" make that up? In my eyes I'd definitely consider as qualifying for the type of dream mentioned in my theory.

reply to post by PurpleVortex


lol yes I must've missed it. See, "lucid" dreams could also fit in my theory. Obviously if my theory is correct we are connected mentally to our other selves. So we could end up experiencing something in our dream from another universe/dimension/reality and actively be involved in it. See, I have yet to master lucid dreaming but I am getting close

me and my husband moved to a small town in oklahoma and every since we both have very strange dreams they feel so real some times after ive had one of those dreams something along the lines of the same thing is in the news we have had alot of weird experinces since moving here not sure what to make of it all

reply to post by AlienBuddha

I agree with you 100% i believe there is more in the works than your brain just projecting images in your head. I think there is some trans-dimensional travel going on through our dreams. This just really interests me because i only have recently have been having extremely vivid that seemed more than a dream. The weird thing is i also have been experiencing sleep paralysis if i try to wake myself up from them which is very scary if you have experienced it.

AlienBuddha
reply to post by PurpleVortex

 

lol yes I must've missed it. See, "lucid" dreams could also fit in my theory. Obviously if my theory is correct we are connected mentally to our other selves. So we could end up experiencing something in our dream from another universe/dimension/reality and actively be involved in it. See, I have yet to master lucid dreaming but I am getting close

Yes! You hit the nail on the head.

I think that this is a fantastic theory. It actually makes a lot of sense. I ponder about the nature of dreams often. Actually, I started to write a novel where this is true, and the main character gains complete control of the version of themselves in the alternate universe and lived out a second life there while they slept in this world.

I think some dreams could possibly be past life memories. When I was very young, I had a recurring dream about being chased to the top of a building by a man with a gun. Rather than be shot, I jumped from the top of the building. I always woke up on the way down and I would be lying on the floor beside my bed. I was deathly afraid of heights as a child but as time goes on, I am less so.

I tend to think that there are several different types of dreams. Past life memories, prophetic/deja-vu, pure imagination, insightful dreams, who is to say that they can't also be tied into different realities or dimensions.

Excellent thread, OP! S/F

I am completely in agreement with you, and experience the same sort of "real-ness" and "mundane" events. Often with people I used to or do know in physical life, but also with characters that I "know" in my dream life, who are not 'here' in my physical/waking life.

We come across one another from time to time in varieties of locations - I often return to places I've been before - hell, I could draw a map of my "dreamscape" locations, buildings, stores, malls, venues, schools, etc.

There are probably 6 or so places that I'll find myself 'living' in while dreaming - I know my way around, and how the buildings and outlay of the land are...

It FASCINATES me. Like someone above said, I LOVE sleeping and dreaming. Just this morning I had a delicious dream of finally telling off a young woman who has been difficult in my physical life. Couldn't manage to slap her, though. As per usual.

LOL!!

But, yeah, I believe it is another dimension of our actual existence. Our bodies need to sleep - our "ethereal selves" not so much.
ETA: I also have had recurring 'nightmares' of death scenarios, and do believe those are past-life memories of our 'demises.'

I have reoccurring themed dreams. Just like the other posts, with strangers. But it is always with extreme numbers of people, most of the time just walking around. Also the locations tend to be places where large numbers of people can be. Here are a couple off the top of my head(I need to write my dreams down).

A large indoor mall with 2-3 floors. Tons of people walking about, I was not interacting with any of them. I explored around the mall for a while, eventually making it outside. It was dark with fewer people out doors. This one sticks in my memory with how it looked. It had a strange bright yellow/orange lit feel to it, I distinctly remember an escalator that went straight up to the 3rd floor and I remember being intimidated by it because of my fear of heights.

Another was at an airport, which is weird because I never fly. Have not been in a plane for 20 years. In this one I am with a small group of "friends" and again there is a ton of people, scurrying around. I had a girlfriend that I have never seen in RL but she was familiar in the dream. I know we were in a group with a couple other people but I do not really remember much about them, my "friends" were more like a sense, hard to explain. Anyway, I eventually get in a plane and fly away and that is where my memory stops of it. Again this one sticks in my head because of the number of people and location.

I tend to be in strange, unfamiliar places. Odd houses with multiple odd rooms tend to stick in my memory banks too. Been in some strange houses in my dreams. I wish we had definitive information on what how and why dreams happen. Just as the others above me, the thought has crossed my mind about other places being traveled to through some sort of consciousness shift.

Cool thread Op, thought provoking. S&F.