What Are the Best Sites for Dream Interpretation?

[collinsmark]

What I really want to know is the chemical or biological reason behind dreaming. You need to sleep, but why dream?

I often wonder the same thing. Speaking of which, not too long ago I had a dream that I was investigating that very subject. Weird, huh? Dreaming about dream studies.

In my dream I had discovered that, contrary to other theories, that dreams occur as a form of a distraction. In the process of sleeping, the brain processes and reorganizes memories. And in the physical/neurological sense, it involves various neurons. It's the process involving what things end up getting stored as long term memories and what things do not, and it involves changing chemistry of particular, related neurons in the process. (I'm in no way stating any of this as true fact: this was all simply part of my dream -- I haven't actually discovered any such thing in real-life.)

So, in the dream I had, I had discovered that when the brain is processing a particular memory, it produces a dream in order to distract the active part of the brain from accessing that particular memory while the associated neurons are being processed/manipulated. While others had theorized that while dreaming, the mind thinks about the very things which are being stored in memory, I had discovered that dreams are a mechanism to temporarily inhibit the mind from thinking about the very things which are being stored in memory. [Edit: although dreams sometimes take on an overall theme regarding what is being stored in memory, the memory itself is seldom accessed directly due to the abundance of distractions.]

In my dream, I was going to write a paper about it, or speak at a conference about it (or something like that), but then I woke up.

Of course, it was all just a dream. So I take the whole thing with a grain of salt. I have no idea why people dream.

 

[AUK 1138]

I could just as easily say I'm smarter because my brain doesn't waste energy remembering pointless things like dreams.
Sounds deliberately offensive to go straight to "smarter than you".

well, i was being deliberately offensive. so, kudos.

 

[disregardthat]

I personally consider dreams to be the "random noise" of the subconscious mind forced into structured situations.

The other night I had a dream that a bulldozer was next to my apartment and it started a landslide and destroyed my place.

I woke up, went to the bathroom, sprained my ankle, and was lying in bed until the sun came up. Then I heard a strange noise outside, so I ran out and there was this guy in a bulldozer dumping dirt into the severely eroded areas among the rocks holding up the hillside next to my apartment (the land has been sliding down). What a mess! The bulldozer dug big ruts in the grass and tore everything up.

I told Kurdt about this amazing coincidence and he said "pffttt".

Is it not common that we react to noises and other sensations while we sleep and include the implied cause of them in the dream? For example, if someone are rattling with dishes while you are asleep this may cause you to find yourself in a gun-fight in your dream, or some other crazy thing. It might very well have been the bulldozer you heard, and by recognizing the sound it makes you included it in your dream. Not much of a coincidence other than that you recognized the correct cause of the noise.

 

[runner]

From: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm#dreaming

REM sleep stimulates the brain regions used in learning. This may be important for normal brain development during infancy, which would explain why infants spend much more time in REM sleep than adults (see Sleep: A Dynamic Activity ). Like deep sleep, REM sleep is associated with increased production of proteins. One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep could not.

Some scientists believe dreams are the cortex's attempt to find meaning in the random signals that it receives during REM sleep. The cortex is the part of the brain that interprets and organizes information from the environment during consciousness. It may be that, given random signals from the pons during REM sleep, the cortex tries to interpret these signals as well, creating a "story" out of fragmented brain activity.

 

[Evo]

I personally consider dreams to be the "random noise" of the subconscious mind forced into structured situations.



Is it not common that we react to noises and other sensations while we sleep and include the implied cause of them in the dream? For example, if someone are rattling with dishes while you are asleep this may cause you to find yourself in a gun-fight in your dream, or some other crazy thing. It might very well have been the bulldozer you heard, and by recognizing the sound it makes you included it in your dream. Not much of a coincidence other than that you recognized the correct cause of the noise.

if you read my post you will see that that the dream was hours earlier before the sun came up. So, no, I didn't hear anything in my sleep.

 

[disregardthat]

if you read my post you will see that that the dream was hours earlier before the sun came up. So, no, I didn't hear anything in my sleep.

That's quite overly dismissive, as far as I could know from your post the bulldozer could have been there while you slept as well; stationary before you noticed again. And you didn't mention hours at all.

 

[Evo]

That's quite overly dismissive, as far as I could know from your post the bulldozer could have been there while you slept as well; stationary before you noticed again. And you never mentioned hours.

Fair enough.

I woke up long before the sun came up. There was no bulldozer there at 3am when I let the dog out (and before I went back to sleep and had the dream). I woke up after the dream around 5am and was still awake when the bulldozer showed up at 8:30am.

 

[Evo]

It is quite a coincidence that a bulldozer appeared in your dream and also the next morning. Also that after your dream, you "wrecked" your ankle. Sometimes there are subtle clues that we gather from our environment that later on show up in dreams... like the erosion going on outside the apartment. And then there's the possibility that the dream is totally symbolic for some other issue that's lurking beneath the surface.

I think the dream is a funny coincidence, nothing more. But it is an example of how a coincidence can appear to have a meaningful connection.

If we're going to get into dream interpretation. I would say that the dream was about the upheaval in my life recently and that I have been "bulldozed", no choice in the matter and the *destruction* to home and life.

The fact that a bulldozer actually showed up later that morning and destroyed the yard was too funny too pass up relating.

 

[brainstorm]

"Steep inclines, ladders and stairs, and going up or down them, are symbolic representations of the sexual act. "

http://www.psychwww.com/books/interp/chap06e.htm

This seems like such a far-sought interpretation to me, and then strangely it caused me to remember a famous quote from George Bataille's book, The Accursed Share:

"the sexual act is in time what the tiger is in space"

I've never really understood this quote but maybe it is related to the same subconscious logic as a dream about being chased up ladders and stairs by a tiger actually being about sex.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I dreamt that Evo went through an entire year without injury. I am a firm believer in the predictive power of dreams.

 

[Evo]

I dreamt that Evo went through an entire year without injury. I am a firm believer in the predictive power of dreams.

 

[runner]

This seems like such a far-sought interpretation to me, and then strangely it caused me to remember a famous quote from George Bataille's book, The Accursed Share:

"the sexual act is in time what the tiger is in space"

I've never really understood this quote but maybe it is related to the same subconscious logic as a dream about being chased up ladders and stairs by a tiger actually being about sex.

I've never read The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy, and I'm not familiar with Bataille (only through internet searches), but it seems like these authors are spot on with the meaning of the phrase, in the context of his theories:

the tiger represents the power of consumption of life

the sex act... read on

See pg. 214 http://books.google.com/books?id=k0... in time what the tiger is in space"&f=false"

 

[zomgwtf]

I don't know about that.. some dreams are just too strange. There seem to be some dreams that occur in populations that are very symbolic and they represent some deep psychology, like dreams where you lose your teeth. I've never studied the subject, so I'm no expert.

I haven't read the entire thread but dream interpretation is bogus. I wrote a paper specifically on the psychology of dreaming a few years ago and that was my conclusion .

I think dreams are pretty important function for our brains but rather not get into that in this thread. I wouldn't bother wasting time on trying to figure out what secret symbols in your dreams represent. Especially considering you don't remember the VAST majority of your dreams.

 

[brainstorm]

I've never read The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy, and I'm not familiar with Bataille (only through internet searches), but it seems like these authors are spot on with the meaning of the phrase, in the context of his theories:

the tiger represents the power of consumption of life

the sex act... read on

I read the Bataille quote from this link but it didn't contain any useful interpretation, as far as I could tell. If the tiger represents "the power of consumption of life," then the OP's dream of being chased up ladders and stairs by a tiger may mean that s/he is fleeing from the power to consume life. There may also be relevance to the fact that she is ascending, since attainment of higher altitude must have to do with exerting energy to attain a position where "it's all downhill from there." So, s/he may be experiencing his/her sexual desire as immanent yet inimical, as a consumptive force that has the power to consume all that s/he has achieved working her/his way up in their life. Sorry for the awkward "her/his" etc. I can't remember if the OP expressed her/his gender. I have the sense it is a she, though, because the whole issue of trading in your career to have a marriage/kids is still more a female than a male issue, unfortunately.

 

[alt]

I think the dream is a funny coincidence, nothing more. But it is an example of how a coincidence can appear to have a meaningful connection.

If we're going to get into dream interpretation. I would say that the dream was about the upheaval in my life recently and that I have been "bulldozed", no choice in the matter and the *destruction* to home and life.

The fact that a bulldozer actually showed up later that morning and destroyed the yard was too funny too pass up relating.

and earlier, you said;

I woke up long before the sun came up. There was no bulldozer there at 3am when I let the dog out (and before I went back to sleep and had the dream). I woke up after the dream around 5am and was still awake when the bulldozer showed up at 8:30am.

You have to ask yourself first and foremost, were there any clues, any hint of suggestion that would have led you to contemplate a bulldozer, before you went to bed.

If you can eliminate the possibility of clues or suggestions, then you would have to say that the dream of the bulldozer, followed by an actualisation of same, is in fact a very interesting event, and not easily explained. Just because the rest of the dream content does not quite match the reality, does not obviate the fact that the bulldozer element is, well, a direct hit. I have similar dreams often - the most recent;

Last night at about 4 AM, my 11 year old son came into our bedroom. He was hovering over my wife and I, eventually woke us up, and told us he was having a nightmare or something.

As soon as that happened, I had a clear and distinc recollection that about an hour or two before that, I was dreaming that he came into our bedroom and was hovering over us, exactly as he had done. The dream however, contained no content in relation to him saying anything to us.

How do I reconcile this ? I subject it to much critisism, taking into account the possibility of coincidence, prefiguring, etc.

Facts;

- Yes, kids do this sometimes, but the last time it happened was years ago, when he was maybe 6 or so.
- There is no other unusual or out of the ordinary occurance that I can recall that occurred to him earlier, that would have led to me prefiguring that he would have taken this action.
- Even IF something unusual HAD happened, it is still a stretch to say that I then prefigured he would wake in the middle of the night, walk into our bedroom and hover over us for a while.
- In fact, new and unusual things happen to kids often.
- But as stated above, this is the first time he's done this in many years.
- Therefore, the coincidence level here is miniscule.

I think that there's a lot more to this sort of thing than we think. Precognition is not out of the question.

 

[runner]

Has anyone here ever been confronted with a technical issue at work that you were struggling with, and then in a dream, the solution to the problem appeared? I have, and the solution in the dream was very clear and logical. According to research, the answer I received in my dream was the creation of my right brain hemisphere to a left hemisphere problem I was dealing with during my waking hours.

Though these parts of the brain are all active during REM sleep, it is important to know that the two hemispheres of the brain work unilaterally in dreaming. The right hemisphere of the brain actually creates and displays the dream, shown by an increase in blood flow and electrophysiological stimulation in that hemisphere during REM. The right hemisphere uses a form of visual-spatial and emotional language, which creates the themes and images of the dream through remembered emotions. These sorts of memories, such as those used as the material for dreaming, and those that later will become the remembered dream are called lateralized memories, for they are only remembered by one hemisphere of the brain, the right(1).

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1837

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Mom died in May. She was in my dream last night. I was hurrying along a long entrance road toward a large building. On the way some people were getting out of a van and walking into a smaller building on the same campus. One of these was Mom, in good health. We greeted each other and made a promise to meet again later that day. But as ...I went on my way, I knew that I was not going to be able to make that second meeting.

 

[runner]

Mom died in May. She was in my dream last night. I was hurrying along a long entrance road toward a large building. On the way some people were getting out of a van and walking into a smaller building on the same campus. One of these was Mom, in good health. We greeted each other and made a promise to meet again later that day. But as ...I went on my way, I knew that I was not going to be able to make that second meeting.

JS, do you think maybe it's about the realization that you will no longer see her and it's a way of coming to terms with your loss? I had a similar dream a long time ago, also after a loss.

 

[brainstorm]

Mom died in May. She was in my dream last night. I was hurrying along a long entrance road toward a large building. On the way some people were getting out of a van and walking into a smaller building on the same campus. One of these was Mom, in good health. We greeted each other and made a promise to meet again later that day. But as ...I went on my way, I knew that I was not going to be able to make that second meeting.

I have talked with people lamenting the loss of a friend or loved one and suggested that having that person inside you in the form of memories, dreams, etc. is a way of keeping them in your life. This person strongly insisted that this was nonsense and then went on and on about how terrible it was that they lost their life and how much she missed him etc. I don't understand the point of torturing yourself with the idea of loss when you can take comfort in knowing that subjective experiences like memories and dreams will always keep a part of that person with you. Why would anyone not treasure memories and dreams as opportunities to experience people that you otherwise wouldn't get the chance, either because of death or some other reason? An unrelated example would be meeting someone in a dream that you couldn't meet in person, like a celebrity. I saw a video on youtube where it recommended lucid dreaming as a way to kiss George Clooney. For someone who would really like to kiss George Clooney, isn't this an ideal solution? Why do people feel shame for seeking gratification through dreams? Why does materialism prescribe that people are supposed to let go of everything that doesn't exist physically and only seek gratification in what is available to them materially and not in what's not?

 

[Char. Limit]

I personally consider dreams to be the "random noise" of the subconscious mind forced into structured situations.



Is it not common that we react to noises and other sensations while we sleep and include the implied cause of them in the dream? For example, if someone are rattling with dishes while you are asleep this may cause you to find yourself in a gun-fight in your dream, or some other crazy thing. It might very well have been the bulldozer you heard, and by recognizing the sound it makes you included it in your dream. Not much of a coincidence other than that you recognized the correct cause of the noise.

I know this to be true. The other night, I dreamed I was playing Mario on an SNES and I dreamed that it froze up and kept emitting this strange beeping sound. I woke up to the same sound - the buzzer on my brand new alarm clock. First time I had heard it.

 

[Danger]

Precognition is not out of the question.

Yes it is.
Superdeterminism is impossible by the laws of quantum mechanics.

"the sexual act is in time what the tiger is in space"

Well, there's one mystery finally solved. I've always wondered how Space Tiger came up with his name.

My ex-, and my ex-in-laws, are Cree. Natives have a whole subculture based upon dream interpretation. It's somewhat interesting from an anthropological viewpoint, but unfortunately a lot of them actually believe the crap.

 

[Char. Limit]

I know this to be true. The other night, I dreamed I was playing Mario on an SNES and I dreamed that it froze up and kept emitting this strange beeping sound. I woke up to the same sound - the buzzer on my brand new alarm clock. First time I had heard it.

Oh, I should also mention that after it froze up, I dreamt that I tried both the power buttons (on the SNES and the TV) and unplugged them both, and the frozen image and the beeping sound kept going, to my subconscious annoyance. If you can interpret that, you're the man/woman/human!

 

[Danger]

the beeping sound kept going, to my subconscious annoyance. If you can interpret that, you're the man/woman/human!

Perhaps one of your bedbugs had its iPod turned up too high?

 

[Proton Soup]

Mom died in May. She was in my dream last night. I was hurrying along a long entrance road toward a large building. On the way some people were getting out of a van and walking into a smaller building on the same campus. One of these was Mom, in good health. We greeted each other and made a promise to meet again later that day. But as ...I went on my way, I knew that I was not going to be able to make that second meeting.

it sounds as if you've accepted that she's gone and that it is OK.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I saw a video on youtube where it recommended lucid dreaming as a way to kiss George Clooney.

Kewl. I'm going to try this tonight.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

No, I grew up without knowing concepts like acceptance, closure, or coming to terms with loss. Perhaps they were around, but I missed them and don't see things in that light. Mom and I were close. I worried about her regularly in her last years and I think about her a lot these days too. It's only natural I would, as she just died. On Saturday I visited my nephew and she was the center of a lot of conversation. She came into my dream Monday morning.

Before there was wikipedia, there was my mother. She had index cards with information about people, places, events and whatever. It came to somewhere between 90 and 120 thousand cards. My nephew is a historian and rather than toss them, as any sane person would do in the post-wiki era, he is making a study of them. We'll see what he comes up with. For background material, he interviewed me Saturday. Mom said that the cards were a defense against Alzheimers. Perhaps so, she was active and independent up until 5 days before her death. One of the last cards concerned Beau Biden and his recent stroke.

 

[brainstorm]

Danger, is your avatar designed to stimulate nightmares?

 

[Danger]

Danger, is your avatar designed to stimulate nightmares?

A young lady here on PF once begged me to change it because it scared her. Once I explained it, her fear melted away and she has since become one of my best friends (as in real-identity e-mail friends).
A few years ago, a young lad asked "What is it? Is it a monkey?" I spewed about 1/2 ounce of beer through my nose onto the keyboard when I read that.
The simple fact of the matter is that it is a photo of me in my Hallowe'en werewolf makeup. It is less frightening than a photo of me without the makeup.
If you so desire, check out the Members Photos section. The full (not cropped) version of the picture is there, along with one of my bartender friend who I spent almost 1/2 hour transforming into a devil that same night. (Come to think of it, I also put a bullet hole in the forehead of the band's lead singer, but I don't have a picture of that.)

edit: I just went to check it out and realized that the thread alluded to no longer exists.

 

[Evo]

A young lady here on PF once begged me to change it because it scared her. Once I explained it, her fear melted away and she has since become one of my best friends (as in real-identity e-mail friends).
A few years ago, a young lad asked "What is it? Is it a monkey?" I spewed about 1/2 ounce of beer through my nose onto the keyboard when I read that.
The simple fact of the matter is that it is a photo of me in my Hallowe'en werewolf makeup. It is less frightening than a photo of me without the makeup.
If you so desire, check out the Members Photos section. The full (not cropped) version of the picture is there, along with one of my bartender friend who I spent almost 1/2 hour transforming into a devil that same night. (Come to think of it, I also put a bullet hole in the forehead of the band's lead singer, but I don't have a picture of that.)

edit: I just went to check it out and realized that the thread alluded to no longer exists.

We have two member photo threads I know it's in one of them. I'll try to find it, that was 2-3 years ago, at least?

 

[brainstorm]

A young lady here on PF once begged me to change it because it scared her. Once I explained it, her fear melted away and she has since become one of my best friends (as in real-identity e-mail friends).
A few years ago, a young lad asked "What is it? Is it a monkey?" I spewed about 1/2 ounce of beer through my nose onto the keyboard when I read that.
The simple fact of the matter is that it is a photo of me in my Hallowe'en werewolf makeup. It is less frightening than a photo of me without the makeup.
If you so desire, check out the Members Photos section. The full (not cropped) version of the picture is there, along with one of my bartender friend who I spent almost 1/2 hour transforming into a devil that same night. (Come to think of it, I also put a bullet hole in the forehead of the band's lead singer, but I don't have a picture of that.)

edit: I just went to check it out and realized that the thread alluded to no longer exists.

Well, it is quite an artistic make-up job because I thought it was a digital creation or painting or something other than a photograph. I highly doubt it is less frightening than a photo of you without the makeup, but I don't blame you for not using a recognizable photo of yourself as an avatar. Anyway, I apologize if I offended you with the nightmare comment - it just looks like some kind of stereotypical mythological creature like a dwarf or troll that would appear in someone's nightmare chasing them around chanting "booga booga booga."