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Moonlight meanderer
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The other day i woke up from a vivid dream. Once i was fully up i sat there and wonder what is the meaning of dreams. I dont have any explanation. I mean one minate im having a nice and pleasant dream the next think you know my dream turns into an nightmare….. why?????? Do any of ya'll have some type of a better understanding of dreams

Lonnehart
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I'd like to know myself. I keep having this recurring dream where I wake up, get out of bed, and end up falling off a cliff. I wake up before I hit the rocks. Then I get out of bed and open the door, falling off a cliff again when I step through. Again I wake up before I hit the rocks and decide to get a drink. I get up and go to the kitchen, I open the fridge door and get sucked into it and fall off a cliff again…

When I REALLY wake up, I'm afraid of getting out of bed 'til the sun comes up…

HippieVan
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I kind of think dreams are just your mind trying to make sense of all the things that were running through your head during the day.

amanda
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I think mine are mostly a creative outlet. If I haven't drawn or written or done anything even remotely right-brained for a while, that's when I dream the most vivid things.

usedbooks
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Technically, dreams are just your mind's interpretation of random synapse firing during the night. Whether it is a symbolic expression of your subconscious or just an entertaining "show" depends on your state of mind.

Also, hot temperatures can trigger nightmares. People tend to have more pleasant dreams when the room is cooler.

seventy2
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Also, hot temperatures can trigger nightmares. People tend to have more pleasant dreams when the room is cooler.

maybe that's why i sleep better with the A/C cranked and a fan on me…

mlai
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YOu know how when you turn off your PC, it doesn't shut off immediately, but the insides keep humming and click-click-clicking for like 5 minutes… and you're wondering "WTF are you doing just shut the F off already." You know?

Fenn
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YOu know how when you turn off your PC, it doesn't shut off immediately, but the insides keep humming and click-click-clicking for like 5 minutes… and you're wondering "WTF are you doing just shut the F off already." You know?
My PC is dreaming? O_O

Reminds me of HAL-9000… "Dr. Chandra, will I dream?"

Ozoneocean
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Dreams can help you solve problems that are bugging you. I don't know where the idea comes that they are entirely random or have no meaning, perhaps from the limited range of dreaming experience of those who make that observation. ;)

you can design dreams beforehand and enjoy the dream world you wish, if you're able. You can also take complete control over an ordinary dream that just comes along…

Dreams can take the form of a long, perfectly coherent narrative, in either first or 3rd person. Far more interesting and engaging than any film. You may have no influence or direct part what so ever, just watching it all as an observer; you may be stuck in a part, speaking lines and moving in ways that you can't control; or you may seem to be living completely in the part, with all lines and actions seemingly your own.

Dreams can help you work through and better understand your day time experiences and learning, by throwing up a bunch of things taken directly from you waking life, as well as feelings and worries rendered in tangible forms.

Dreams really are so amazingly varied and rich that it's impossible to simply classify them in one way, or say "they mean this", or "they don't mean anything", either position is presumptuous and ignorant. :)

They can be useful in so many ways, whether they help you work through difficult feelings and problems and help you see them from another perspective (even bad dreams), give you a fun time and an interesting experience, ideas for new inventions, or just brilliant ideas for stories. ^_^

-there have been writers, artists, inventors, and scientists who've taken away useful things from dreams.

Ozoneocean
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Dreams tell me the future.
You dream about waking up?

bravo1102
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Dreams tell me the future.

I foretold hurricane Katrina and some other events but then I also "foretold" my own wounding in Kosovo, an attack by vampires ala "I am Legend/The Omega Man" and my re-marriage on a cruise-liner (to woman who at the time I did not know but did meet several years later, but I didn't marry her on a cruise liner) ;)

As for what dreams are; pretty much as ozoneocean said. Whatever you make of them and however you process them. For myself I am a self-trained lucid dreamer and can manipulate the outcomes as I wish, which means no real nightmares but I do wake up thrashing at times. And being huge movie buff I often end my dreams with a pull-back into my living room where I am watching it on DVD and pointing out my name in the credits as they roll by.

Keep a dream journal and you'll be surprised how many story ideas will present themselves.

It is also said that if you wake up from a dream and then fall back alseep you can continue the dream which is a great way to resolve nightmares. e.g. The cliff one, you can land like Wile E. Coyote and just walk away bruised, pull the ripcord on that parachute, discover a jet pack or bungee cord on your back or miss the ground completely and fly away.

Flying is my personal favorite escape from nightmares. There's that sudden discovery that it is a dream, I'm in total control and anything can happen just because I want it to. :)

kyupol
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dreams are usually coded messages. You shouldnt take them literally.

My most recent one, I dreamt of seeing a city full of buildings with gold lights that illuminated the sky. And i remember seeing a building that was shaped like an obelisk with gold light on top.

An obelisk symbolizes the phallic symbol and sun worship. According to two dream dictionaries I consulted:

Obelisk
To see an obelisk in your dream, signifies your cold, stern nature. You need to need to warm up to others and soften your nature. A obelisk may also have phallic implications

Isolation
Limitation, restraint, inhibition, imprisonment
Arrogance
Power, perceived power, or a wish for power
Having a "high" perspective
Watching, observing, or vigilance (as in a tower lookout)

Light
Hope, goodness, or assistance—especially when it appears in the darkness
Clarity or understanding, as in "shedding some light" on a particular subject

To see light in your dream, denotes a clear mind, plain understanding, and insight. Light has been shed on a once cloudy situation or problem. You have found the truth to a situation or an answer to a problem.

To see a bright light in your dream, indicates that you need to move toward a higher level of awareness and feeling. Bright light dreams are sometimes common for those who are near death.

Building
To see a building in your dream, represents the self and the body. How high you are in the building indicates a rising level of understanding or awareness. If you are in the lower levels of the building, then it refers to more primal attitudes and/or sexuality

lba
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It is also said that if you wake up from a dream and then fall back alseep you can continue the dream which is a great way to resolve nightmares.

I've gotten exceptionally good at that. Mostly because I'm too lazy to get out of bed when I wake up and the dream just continues when I fall asleep again very quickly.

But I still have a hard time believing that most dreams have a tangible sort of "moral" type meaning. The most I've ever known them to reflect was simply moods, or personal tastes like whether or not you like someone you met during the day. As far as I've always known they were more of a reflection and reaction to your day, because your mind was still running and there were ideas and thoughts still fresh in your mind. I've never really heard of them actively doing anything to solve problems in one's life except in instances where people decided the dream must have meant something and actively change things while awake, in which case it wasn't really the dream that affected things, just the person's decision. Although, there are some dreams that just have a different sort of quality to them from normal dreams. They don't necessarily feel more real, but they do strike something deeper inside of you for some reason.

crazyninny
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I dreamt of strippers once…

I hope that is a sign. >=3

Ozoneocean
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I've never really heard of them actively doing anything to solve problems in one's life except in instances where people decided the dream must have meant something and actively change things while awake, in which case it wasn't really the dream that affected things, just the person's decision.
That's like saying a book can't change your life and help you see things a new way, or a film or any experience, 1st rnd or 3rd hand; because that's what a dream is, no mater that it's entirely internal, it's still an experience like any other as far your experience of the sensation is concerned :)

Oh, and there are a lot of artists, philosophers, inventors and scientists who've come away from dreams with something new, just because the experience helped their mind work through the ideas that'd been troubling them and gave them a new perspective on it. the solutions come even within the dream itself, not just afterwards when they wake up.

———————
The results can certainly be miraculous in cases, but not mystical. That feeling/idea is probably an artefact of the experience itself.

lba
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I was trying to make the distinction between the dream affecting what happened, the person doing something as a result of the dream and the dream itself getting up inside a person's brain, moving a few synapses and saying "done, you're never going to have to deal with your ex-girlfriend again because you no longer remember her." I know dreams can change your outlook or give you new ideas, they just can't pop out of your head go to work and punch your boss in the face for you, is what I was trying to get at. Unfortunately, my English skills don't seem to be up to the task today.

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They're likely just things to entertain you while you sleep. I can't really see why they'd mean anything…

lefarce
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As stated a million times in this hivemind, it's the brain sorting out data. You also cannot see any image your brain hasn't already processed, BUT these images can construct things that appear new, but are familiar. Ergo predicting things is fundamentally flawed. It's all based on luck.

Your subconscious though can be trying to tell you something as part of it "making sense".

Glarg
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Dreams are just fusions of your thoughts, enough said.

That being said, last night I drept Bill Murray went to an empty public pool and killed an Orca(killer whale), Dolphin, and freakish calico colored hybrid of the two with his bare hands…spreading blood and entrails all throughout the walls of the pool.

What the hell does this mean? Did my daddy not love me enough as a child? Is Bill Murray going to commit some horrible crime later on in life? No, it's just a dream, made only because I've seen too many movies in my childhood. Stop with all of this "dream translation", its just become ridiculous over the years.

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Dreams are just fusions of your thoughts, enough said.

That being said, last night I drept Bill Murray went to an empty public pool and killed an Orca(killer whale), Dolphin, and freakish calico colored hybrid of the two with his bare hands…spreading blood and entrails all throughout the walls of the pool.

What the hell does this mean?

That you shouldn't be admitted into Sea World?

bravo1102
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A dream is your mind expressing itself in images while the mind/body is resting as it processes the input it received while the mind was awake.

Considering that according to some theoretical models of physics that all time is simultaneous in the universe and that we are only living sequentially because of how our brain evolved, it may be theoretically possible that the future and the past can be seen vividly in a dream and that things the conscious mind is not free to view while conscious can be viewed when alseep.

If anything it's a great fountain full of idea, imagination and revalation. As ozonecoean has said many scientists (among others) have seen their ideas come together in their dreams as the subconscious mind puts together pieces that the conscious mind missed.

Then there's Lovecraft and Poe…

Ozoneocean
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What the hell does this mean?
You saw "the Life Aquatic" and you have the typical teen fascination with blood and guts.
You also cannot see any image your brain hasn't already processed, BUT these images can construct things that appear new…
I don't know if this is how you mean that, but I occasionally dream of new kinds of weaponry… Once I dreamt of this large crossbow with extra sleeve-like arms that the spring arms spring forward into… it was call the "butterfly". I've never seen one like that before and I couldn't really think what advantage it'd have after the dream, but I've since worked out a few possible ways that it'd be good.
Apart from hat, various very large calibre rifles with interesting manual loading methods. Nothing very advanced, but pretty novel.

My fave dreams are the ones that give me new experiences though, like the one where I drive a massive manual 4x4 all around the place (never driven in my life), or the one where I was fighting with a government army (as a teen conscript) against revolutionaries for months and months in the jungles and main city of some nameless South American country in the 30's. That one was harrowing, but so very interesting when it was over.

-Prolly from a mixture of things: I once read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, seen the occasional war film, read the biography of a British captain and his trails in Malaya in WW2, and other things. Although those books were horribly boring, I can't think where else I constructed those experiences from.

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Moonlight meanderer

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