My immediate response is no, unless of course you mean fears and desires. Most of my dreams can be analysed as anxiety based, or are situated in unresolved events in the past.
When you fail to resolve something, you dream.
My immediate response is no, unless of course you mean fears and desires. Most of my dreams can be analysed as anxiety based, or are situated in unresolved events in the past.
When you fail to resolve something, you dream.
I agree with the view of Dr. Stanley. Most of my dreams often centred on what I should have done correctly in my past life and in most cases, my anxiety at present and in future life! Also, there have been cases when the anxiety of my inner thoughts appeared in my dreams.
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Al-Rawe & readers,
Yes, of course, dreams are "manifestations of our inner thoughts." In a wider sense, they are themselves "thoughts."
What stands out to me about dreams is that they are somewhat disrupted logically or less than fully coherent. Its as though images and other elements of thought, not under any conscious discipline or higher-order control or guidance (as in a lack of concentration, or in "day dreams") are drifting in and out and mixing in some fashion --often without regard to any reasonable expectation.
Most of the higher brain areas are, as it were, turned off. But something very similar to thought still goes on--often lacking for the norms of expectations of conscious experience--or lacking for much rational pattern or control.
H.G. Callaway
I don't always remember my dreams very long, but when I do, they do seem to reflect whatever I've been concentrating on, especially unresolved issues. And then there those long recurring ones, like the one of coming up to an exam, and realizing I haven't done any studying on that course for the whole semester!
I don't buy into the notion that dreams are messages from some other dimension. No reason to believe that our brain stops thinking, just because we fall asleep.
As an addition, not necessarily to do with the question:
There's no Time in dreams. They occur outside of measured Time. The experience is seconds or years. I am either very young, a child, even at times a toddler, a man, a youth. The events are not necessarily connected to genuine memories, events are often made up, sometimes the people in my dreams non-existent. I am free of my environment but strangely also controlled.
Sometimes, it is the product of inner thought. "A dream comes when there are many cares (Ecclesiastes 5:3a) " . Many cares, here, means worries or daily businesses. It is coming from God. Read, Job 33:15-18 New Living Translation (NLT)
15 He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they lie in their beds.
16 He whispers in their ears
and terrifies them with warnings.
17 He makes them turn from doing wrong;
he keeps them from pride.
18 He protects them from the grave,
from crossing over the river of death.
Mr. Stanley Wilkin, thank you for this interesting aND THOUGHTFUL answer.
Albert Manfredi, many thanks for your answer. Yours, Marwah.
Somehow I agree with your answer Mr. Callaway. dreams are actually the translation of thoughts.
Philadelphia, PA
Dear Al-Rawe & readers,
Perhaps "translations of thoughts" (which of course may include thoughts charged with fears and anxieties) "through a glass darkly," to use the Biblical phrase --akin to seeing the world, "through a glass darkly."
I imagine that dreams are often like the "thoughts" of animals--complex sequences of images lacking higher rational mediation or relation.
H.G. Callaway
---you wrote---
... dreams are actually the translation of thoughts.
H. G. would they then be thoughts and how is this to be understood? I respond when I dream (which actually isn't often) but I only think if resolving a problem (it might actually be an academic one). Largely, I inhabit a (obviously) liminal world without causation or communication-with others. Animals dream, you only have to see an old dog asleep worrying no doubt as we all do about lost powers, but is such a mental state thinking.
I am actually looking with interest for clarification as your response was not my first response. Can you go into this a bit more? I tend to see it as part of a process that tackles matters without the intercession of thought.
"Traumdeutung" by Sigmund Freud?
It's (our inner) nature telling us something.
- But what?
Dreams lie at the base of our thoughts and representation.
Dreams occur when we are in a state of stimulus deprivation.
There is a mechanism (What was it called?) that inhibits muscles to move during dreamtime - and cuts the REM period off if this becomes overruled.
Then dreaming becomes impossible.
Dreaming is a form of our natural creativity.
All our brain is hard at work when we dream - not only these parts of the brain that are the most active during the day time.
So, in a way we are more complete when we dream.
- The strange thing is that we can easy remember dreams that others tell us, even if they cannot make the least of sense.
Do we live at the surface of a dream?
As far as I know, we dream when closer to wakefulness. Freud's idea would I think have dreams as nearer to our symbolic understanding-metaphors rather than cognition per se, but was he right? The religious see them as external to themselves and as predictive. I've never predicted anything through my dreams except ablutions.
There are dreams, and interpretations of dreams.
Dreams are: We directly speaking to ourselves by the means of our own body.
Should I have said: "my dreams are me directly speaking to myself"?
I did not, because I think dreams come in a universal language.
(it would be an interesting topic to investigate if dreams can differ culturally.
Their continence (symbols) will, but what about their language?)
What are clouds?
- Vaporized water?
For het Impressionists they where not...
Dreams are useless - that's why they can be so useful.
They don't try to be something, they have no goal.
Dreams are in a simple way themselves, that's what makes them so complex. As nature is complex and becomes resistant if we try to fathom.
Willy, your point about dreams beings the person speaking to themselves is interesting, except is the floating self of our dreams simply that. I think the emphasis is on the metaphors (emotion, or whatever) not a self.
I'm not a psychologist, so I'm not even sure where to begin. I was told that dreams are random thoughts your brain is trying to make sense of. That's not scientific, but neither is the question.
Mark Cogan - Oh no! The question is perfectly legitimate. We don’t have to be entitled in any way, psychologist or not, to have the right to ponder about the nature of our mental productions and to share those concerns. In fact this is called introspection in psychology, a personal exercise which that science even recommends.
Furthermore, according to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic science, nightly dreams represent the “royal way to the unconscious” as he put it.
My answer is this: there is a duality in every thought, in terms of being a composite between a volition element and a representation element (representation being a compendium between percept, incept and emotion). You have to understand that the mind is laid down as a map of cognitive partitions or discrete thoughts. In the conscious sector of the map, we typically call these partitions thoughts or rational thoughts, in the unconscious sector we call them emotions. However every cognitive bundle in the distribution (true Gaussian distribution) is both volitive and re-presentational, with one of these tenets being predominant depending on the sector of its belonging. So our dreams which altogether belong to the unconscious sector are predominantly representational, able to reach imaginary and emotional levels that conscious thoughts cannot.
Now there are many others dimensions to our dreams, not the least of which is that our dreams are as serially episodic across nights as our conscious activity in broad daylight is. Which most people do not realize. Again, because they are probably not “introspective” enough. But yes, dreams are unconscious thoughts essentially played out in a representational language that respond to the inner (unconscious) independent personality that we all are inside as well, in terms of its nature and needs. As a proof, if by accident, the two-hormone threshold that keeps us motion-less when asleep is crossed or de-synchronized, then we would start behaving motivationally at the physical level (acting out our dreams) while dreaming, as we do when conscious. Everybody has heard of these real cases of somnambulism…
More here on the dynamics of the human mind, if any interest (starting on page 5):
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318780372_Mathematical_Foundation_of_Human_Cognitive_Categories_of_Aims_and_Intentions
Cheers.
With the remark Willy Van B in mind - i had the opportunity to view dream accounts as part of a survey which had been designed to explore how to facilitate more rapport (in a certain context). In addition to the central purpose, i took a personal phenomenological interest and carefully examined them.
Elsewhere - spiritual communities using dream interpretation as prediction oracles does not question the fidelity or negate the significance in terms of freudian or jungian research. Esoteric and recreational views of virtually all sciences are happening.
Over a large multicultural set of samples dream stereotypes & archetypes differed greatly from country to country, by demographic, status, religious or atheist and so on and distinct patterns occurred consistently.
Mr. Yuri Janshusban , you are absolutely right. There are cultural differences in dream interpretation. Thank you
Stanley Wilkin , an interesting viewpoint you have ! Thank you so much
dear Mr. Joseph_Jean-Claude, I appreciate your thoughtful answer and comment. It is nicely put, thank you.
I think that some say that our dreams are our inner thoughts, if they are a fact that sometimes reveals an important message because it shows the things in our inner thoughts
"Sometimes it reflects what it thinks our subconscious and sometimes give us solutions to the problems that confront us ...........
... Some researchers believe that dreams is a non-sensory activities without a goal or meaning conducted by the brain during sleep period, while others believe it is necessary and important for the health of the body, mind and passion, studies have shown that people who do not enter the rapid eye movement stage, suffering of anxiety, depression, tension, difficulty concentrating, weight gain, hallucinations, and suggests many researchers that dreams help solve problems, deal with emotions, and the integration of memories, Sigmund Freud believes that dreams window for the subconscious, a way to satisfy the desires is not acceptable in society .
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