Hard News: Three Dreams
40 Responses
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Rich Lock, in reply to
I've heard that it's quite possible to have particularly unpleasant experiences of bodily paralysis when doing this, the "night watchman syndrome". I've had something like it once, and it was really not nice. Sleeping causes some kind of muscle control suppression, and being "awake" when that happens can be quite frightening.
It's one hypothetical explanation for 'alien abduction' stories - malevolent Greys around the bed paralysing you in preparation for wisking you off to their ship to do unspeakable things with probes.
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Brent Jackson, in reply to
... had nested this two levels deep.
I too have had a dream in which I realised I was dreaming, and woke up. I then started going about my day, but weird things started happening, and I realised I was still dreaming, and then actually woke up for real.
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nzlemming, in reply to
It was a dark and stormy night… wait that’s Peanuts.
Edward Bulwer Lytton, actually. Schultz was deliberately referencing him.
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May be a good moment to mention Descartes and the Dream Argument.
Leading to the idea that anyone could be a Brain In a Vat and never know it.
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Dream bridge below… or above !
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When I was a schoolboy, I had a friend who took an interest in hypnosis. We agreed to hypnotise each other, and plant suggestions that we would have incredibly erotic dreams that night. It was an understandable goal, given that the real world was proving rather disappointing on that front. Regrettably, I have to report that it didn't work.
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Sacha, in reply to
I too have had a dream in which I realised I was dreaming, and woke up. I then started going about my day, but weird things started happening, and I realised I was still dreaming, and then actually woke up for real.
seen Existenz?
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Leading to the idea that anyone could be a Brain In a Vat and never know it.
While it doesn't appear to be online, I was intrigued by the Australian artist Bill Leak's account of his recovery from a major head injury in 2008. On waking from an induced coma he initially refused to believe that he'd spent several days in hospital, as his memories of having returned home to a totally illusory version of his regular life were so detailed and convincing. It was only when he was unable to produce the editorial cartoons that he clearly "remembered" having drawn that he was forced to concede that he'd dreamt it all.
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Lilith __, in reply to
a totally illusory version of his regular life were so detailed and convincing
Yikes!
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Yikes!
According to Leak's "memory" he discharged himself from hospital as he couldn't endure the behaviour of his fellow wardmates. The "disruptive" elderly woman in the next bed was real enough, but she was in an extended induced coma the whole time. As for the annoying guy who listened to sport on a radio that was perpetually - and excruciatingly - tuned just off the station, he turned out to be a total figment.
It seems that the mind - if that's what it is - can muster a vast amount of often mundane detail to create its own totally immersive verisimiltude.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
can muster a vast amount of often mundane detail to create its own totally immersive verisimilitude
Viva verismo!
the devil is in the detail…PS: hey Joe drop me an email,
I have a photo for you but my
computer has lost your email address -
Murray Hewitt, in reply to
Of course, many books (& some giant tomes) have been written on the subject of dream meanings. I haven't read most of them, but get the feeling that one's own interpretation of a dream is at least as valid as any “expert” opinion.
For a fascinating discourse on the past experiments, present understanding, and future potential of the human brain, I highly recommend Michio Kaku's “The Future of the Mind” Although perhaps not very helpful in the interpretation of dreams - Kaku is a theoretical physicist - there are insights as to why we dream and even how dreams can be manipulated (“Inception” is mentioned, along with many other pop culture references). Excellent and very accessible.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
I highly recommend Michio Kaku's “The Future of the Mind”
Thanks Murray, will give it a go.
While some dreams are seamlessly realistic, others have very shabby production values. I'm thinking of the kind where the action is so urgent that you don't have time to check out the dodgy stuff happening in the background. For example, you're involved in a car chase where some long-demolished location from your childhood just happens to be right round the corner from the Grafton Bridge. After a few of those the suspicion that you're dreaming becomes impossible to ignore and the dream falls to bits.
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nzlemming, in reply to
While some dreams are seamlessly realistic, others have very shabby production values.
Budgets cuts for the arts are to blame.
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What a fascinating thread. Reminded me that when I was young I was very keen on everything witchy. It was the days of TV's Bewitched but there was also a great genre of girls' witch literature with heroines who were powerful and could do magic. I often dreamed of hovering around the school playground by broomstick and it all seemed perfectly normal. This was way before Harry Potter, Hermione and Quidditch but I imagine broomstick flying dreams are quite common these days.
I occasionally dream about having conversations with dead people who have been important to me, and being so happy to see them again. Those dreams can be hard to wake from.
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