Thread: Free Association - The Key

Makes a lot of sense really! It fits in with the reasonable amount of knowledge I gleaned from memory techniques and artifical intelligence design theory.

Never really thought of it quite like that though

So if I focus on my wife in my dream, it should get pretty 'deep'....

I'm think it would be good to be able to interperate my dreams because i've had some pretty wild ones. I didn't really understand your article but i'll give it a shot. Basicly dreams are formed from your memory or thoughts from either before or then that you may have forgotten but your subconcious has not? I'd like to keep this furom going becuase this is a good topic so get back to me on this. Thanks.

O'nus has that effect sometimes (Too academic for some to understand without pulling out a dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia... and getting a big cup of coffee first)
Of course, thats a good thing sometimes
I'll try simplify it, someone correct me if they dont like it

Basically he's saying that your associative links to all other thoughts and memories regarding an object will surface, regardless how silly they seem. This is your minds way of revitalising memories in danger of being 'lost' (difficult to find), in my opinion.

Eg. I might see a stop sign, and the end of the world, red fiery sky, and blood, and twisted metal, etcetc. all together. Why? Because they all have very vague associations with each other.

Sorry but I still just don't get the over all concept. Thyanks for trying anyway. I'm sure a few searchs on google wouldn' t hurt, if I find anything worthwhile i'll post it here.

think of it this way...whenever you think of an object or idea, you mind continues to move onto other ideas/objects that you relate to that idea/object right? for example, when you think of school, what thoughts come to your mind? maybe your friends, your teacher, homework etc. ...this sort of linear thinking is free association...sometimes in dreams, our subconcious will show us something that deos not make sense...something random...well, say in your dream you go to the kitchen to get some food, and find a ball...think about a ball, whats the next thing thats comes to your mind? and the next? and so forth...in this way, strange symbols that dont seem to make sense become clear...like i think ball, then red, then apple...see now it makes more sense...

So therefore the ball in your dream represents an apple.

ya...but thats a pretty bad example , but the point is, you're beginning to understand...not everything in a dream should be taken for what it necessarily is...often our subconcious will use things connected in some way with an idea or object instead of that idea or object itself...the only way we can figure out what our subconcious really meant by having that strange object there is to think about it and see what else comes to our mind, like the ball for me...try doing this with parts of your dreams that dont seem to fit logically...

I will try to elucidate what free association is by using an example:

In that dream of mine, I had seen my drawers in my room full of baseball uniforms. Ignoring the rest of the dream, these baseball uniforms represented something to me. Often in dreams we see very pecuilar things such as this, although they are always the manifestation of a series of associations..... I guess that is not eluciating it well. I'll try this as simple as I can, lol..

Everything in dreams come from the thoughts that produced it. Lot's of symbols are made from a series of mixed thoughts. In order to figure out what these odd symbols mean, free association is the key. With my baseball uniform, I thought about it and wrote down the first things that came to mind which were: baseball-watching it-player numbers-77-my gf. Thus, the baseball uniform represented watching my gf play basbeall (essentially..).

Basically, take an odd sign in a dream, think about it and make sure to note everything that comes to mind when you think about it; no matter how irrelevant it may seem. Eventually by doing this, it will reveal what the pecuilar sign represents.

Hope I have been elucidating.

...isnt that what i said?
or did i get your idea wrong somewhere?

So say that in my dream it was focused alot on the moon. NOw ithink about the moon, and the first thing that comes to mind is space, then stars, and then i remember that i used to call my ex my star. So the moon therefore is representing my ex. Is that about right?

Originally posted by Football86+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Football86)</div>

So say that in my dream it was focused alot on the moon. NOw ithink about the moon, and the first thing that comes to mind is space, then stars, and then i remember that i used to call my ex my star. So the moon therefore is representing my ex. Is that about right?[/b]

Yes.. depending on how you saw the moon, it also most likely represents a certain memory you have about your ex, though.

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...isnt that what i said? * *
or did i get your idea wrong somewhere?

Yeah, you were right about it all.. some others didn't understand though and asked me to explain better, so I decided to do so in the thread here.

kk, just checking