I chose this Forum, although this is a broad general issue.  Brendan mentions that in a dream state, we often don't/can't use our rational minds.  It is clear that some people get messages, often symbolic in dreams.  But why do we dream?  Is it a communication medium only?  Is, as Brendan fears, there a separate, mindless part of ourselves that is attached to our rational mind?

I've often heard it said that our rational selves visit focus 27 while we sleep but may be in school and not remember it.  But what happens in a full fledge dream?  Are we, in our entirety there?  Often we our going with the flow, though not necessarily in control.  Should we focus our consciousness and practice attempting lucid control of dreams?  Or should we all just take them as it comes?

I pose these questions, because I think Brendan brought up a great point.   He wonders why we dream, and why our rational brains - zone out.  I'm not sure I have the answer yet.  One possible idea is that dreams are a universal medium, and that through symbolism and dream imagery we are given information to slowly translate for meaning into our waking lives.  

I do not believe the scarier side of Brendan's thought - that we have this nonthinking double and that our rational minds just go bye bye.

What do you think?

Matthew

I believe he is B-man or Chumley.

basically I've found feelings are a communication to self within dream or in waking consciousness, a communication only.
the interpretor part of you can attempt to understand what the communication is, but at first the interpretation is generally biased, so it is necessary to begin the study by writing it down, then more interpretation capacity enters into the mind.
if I can't get the symbol association figured out, if I go to the feeling that was present in the dream, I can find the belief system behind the feeling operating, then I can ask myself if the belief system is one which I desire to keep, or do I wish to believe something different?

yes, though, I agree with you, dreams are a universal language a lot like music is. the code can be broken, and I am working on that. love, alysia

I am going to start writing down the dreams.  Now that I give myself a suggestion to remember them as I drift off to sleep, I ALWAYS do!  Amazing.

I am also going to try to instruct my subconscious to allow my conscious self to control the dream.  I am curious to see what will happen.

Will let you all know.

Matthew

Hi Doc

One of the better books on dreaming that I have found invaluable is "Conscious Dreaming" by Robert Moss.

Irene

Thanks Irene,

it sounds perfect.  I will look for it on Amazon.com.  You should mention it to Chumley - he is terrified that after we die, we will enter some mindless dreamstate.

Thanks again,


Matthew

Hi Matthew,

What I think is, we are constantly bombarded with information coming at us and obviously not all of it can get absorbed by the conscious mind.  But I do believe subconsciously we have that information stored.  If it is information we need, our time we spend sleeping, while the conscious mind normally takes a break, is a perfect time for the subconscious to work on things and slowly integrate information to the conscious mind.  I am not sure, but I think I read Ann Faraday say that if information comes into the subconscious, by-passing the conscious mind, then in order for it to become available to us consciously, it has to be integrated slowly (specifically talking about dreams) and that is why the mind uses symbology, puns, double entendres, etc.  
It is also believed that our spirits sort of re-fuel while we sleep, i.e. go out of body. We don't always remember these trips of course.  But I do believe that oftentimes our "regular" dreams will contain bits and pieces of information that was picked up along the way.  Our minds just disguise the information, create a "movie" with that information.

By paying close attention to our dreams, we can learn to decode all those symbols and plays on words our brains do.  A lot of symbols are universal, but we do create our own personal dream symbols and dream themes according to our own knowledge and past experiences.  

Love, Vicky

I like what u said Vicky. just today I was thinking again about universal symbols versus personal symbols.

I've seen forums as shopping malls more than once. thought that was interesting. just tonite I noticed, yea, we certainly exchange goods here, can't disagree with that! and then money, is a symbol for energy also.

there is a code there..that's what facinates me and ties in all my waking thoughts to my sleeping thoughts for a larger perspective on things. love, alysia

I decided to post on this thread insights that Don and Alysia gave to help interpret my dream of a new road in front of my home connecting to a lake a quarter mile away.  In retrospect the new road does seem to represent my own spiritual growth, and the neighbors may have been people on this board or souls I am close with.  

The question that comes up is, why present myself with these symbols?  I don't find the concepts so troubling that i have to slowly absorb them.  Perhaps, there is a greater reason underpinning some dreams.

Perhaps in dreams, we connect to the universal subconscious or, for want of a better term, God.  The answer to our questions, our doubts is likely to be found in this realm; as it has been stipulated that vast amounts of knowledge are there, impressed on this "divine field."  So, when we connect with this vast knowledge how does it get transmitted?  Very few hear a defined divine voice speaking to them (Moses, Solomon, etc.).

So, to me it seems at times that divine sources and other sources (deceased loved ones, living friends) will communicate through the medium that are consciousness can accept; images and symbols.  This must be far easier to do in the dream level than direct voice communication.  

But how many of us gradually absorb the information, process it and act on it?  How many messages go unheeded?

Still, this dream of mine was very serene, despite being busy, and it gives me hope about the importance of dreams and interpreting the symbolism.  

Chumley had posted a few negative feelings on the board, stating that if we seemed dumb and not in control in most of our dreams, perhaps this is what awaits us when we died.  A dream-state without rational thought.  I dismissed the notion for my own reasons.  However, I see now that our souls, our very essence resides in our thoughts.  We can see our thoughts manifest in the real world, with simple attempts and exercises.  There is no reason that we would go from having this divine power to losing it, for the loss of the physical body.  

I think that some dreams are absolute contact with others and God - once the symobols are decoded, the message is clear.

Best to you all,

Matthew

I still think it is a natural process for our brains to put information into pictures and symbols.  It works well and fast, especially considing how fast we receive information and how short a time we dream.  I believe that a large amount of information is compressed into a symbol--like thoughts, feelings, expectations, weighing pros and cons, playing "what if"--all these patterns of thought that get repetitively rehearsed in our minds over days, weeks, years eventually get stuffed into a symbol that says it all.  

Don't you have a recurrent dream symbol that when you see it in a dream makes intense emotion come flooding back to you?  There's obviously a lot going on with that symbol.  I don't think we do this to hide things from ourselves, it's just another way of expression.  

 Hi all,

 Depends on the dreamer, i reckon.  Sometimes my dreams are pretty literal, and other times they are quite symbolic and multi-layered...

 I believe the more one developes towards the Universal, the more ones dreams become clearer and less symbolic, but like Vicky said, sometimes these are useful because they can pack such large amount of info within a small amount of "space".

Dreams come from either the conscious (physical), the subconscious (soul), the superconscious (spirit), or a blend of these...often a blend..

  Besides, some dreams are not messages from ones Total self...   There are completely "nonsense" dreams, and these are usually due to imbalanced body reactions, particularly from bad digestion...

If you eat a bunch of hard to digest crap before you go to bed (or drink, smoke up, etc.), then your chances of having completely nonsensical dreams is greatly increased...amounts to "bad" body chemistry basically...    

 We are what we dwell on in the mind force, as thoughts are things, and what we put into our body goes along with what we think on to manifest our reality.   The body forces have their own reactions independant of the mind, and spirit forces, and vice versa.

 Its not so cut and dried, black and white, though its equally true to say that all these manifestations are of One field...again there Polarity and vibrational differences to account for..

 Go ahead, do an experiment, eat some greasy cheesburgers or some candy bars a few nights before going to bed, and see if your dreams make any sense the majority of the time ;) 8)