Dream Content Tutorial

Written by ninja9578

Dream Content

In order to control dreams and recognize dreams, you have to have some understanding of how dreams are created and where all the surreal elements and plots come from. The human brain is amazingly complex and the process of making dreams is far more advanced than most people realize. This tutorial covers some of the major attributers to the creation of your dream world.

It is important to realize that no one actually knows why we dream, this tutorial is based on the current scientific consensus.

Day Residue.

One of the most common theories of why people dream is that dreaming sorts out recent memories for permanent storage. Because of this, elements from your day tend to seep into your dreams in one form or another. Your dreaming mind may disguise the element, or change it to something related to it's schema (which is explained next.) Because day residue is prevalent in dreams, doing reality checks often during the day is highly suggested for those wishing to have a lucid dream. A reality check may seep its way into your day residue.

Schemas.

The content of our dreams is largely created by the relationships that our brains creates between objects, scenes, and other elements. We call these relationships schemas. Some of these schemas may seem strange to the conscious mind, but to the dreaming mind, they make perfect sense. Our dreaming brain constantly changes things around us based on schemas, this is how dreams can seem to have completely random circumstances, but still seem to have a continuous flow.

Schemas also have varying levels of relationships. Some things are strongly associated with each other, others are loosely associated. The things that are strongly associated are the ones that will usually show up in your dreams. However, say you have two elements in your dreams, both are loosely associated with another element, their relationship level adds up, so it may show up.
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Example

Say your dream with schema of the beach. What kinds of things are associated with the beach? The obvious ones would be things like: water, sun, sand, bathing suit. But there are other associations that are less obvious. If you've ever seen 'Jaws' you probably have a slight association between it and the beach. If you've ever had a sunburn, you may associate skin inflammation with the beach. If you've ever had a summer romance, then love may be associated. All these things are probably very loosely associated with the beach. Finally, lets say you have a cousin who lives at the beach.

Dreams are also made up of thoughts from throughout the day. If you spent any time with your family, they may show up in your dream. Again, you have strong associations to family such as: mother, father, brother, your house, the dog. You also have looser associations. One of your weaker associations will probably be that cousin who lives at the beach.

So if you are having a dream at the beach with your family, the chances of running into your cousin who lives there is increased.
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Schema Flow

When looking at dreams from a waking state, often we realize that they change very rapidly, yet somehow all seamlessly merge. This is because your brain does the schema associations so quickly and immediately starts it's next association. Schemas can go from one thing to something completely unrelated and seemingly random very quickly.

Say your dream involves playing foursquare. The ball is round and red, apples are round and red, apples are good in pie, pie is very traditional for thanksgiving dinner, thanksgiving dinner usually has turkey, turkey is a bird, birds fly, planes fly, planes take you on vacation, suddenly in your dream you are on vacation.

Your dreaming mind went through all of these associations so quickly that you didn't even notice then, so it may seem like your dream is creating random elements. These elements are not random at all, but somehow related to the way that you associate different things.

Faulty Logic.

Ironically, one of the most active times for the brain is while you are asleep and dreaming. There is nearly as much activity as when you are wide awake. However, through EEG mapping, researchers have discovered that one of the parts of the brains that nearly completely shuts down, is the part that controls your logic. This is why, in dreams, you accept everything at face value, and accept it as normal. Your dream is making it's logic in terms of your schemas, not conscious logic. This is why it is important to do reality checks even when you think everything is normal.

This faulty logic is also often the culprit of failed dream control. Many times oneironauts report becoming lucid because of a super power that they realized that they shouldn't have. Immediately after becoming lucid, this power is often lost, it is because the logical part of the brain suddenly kicked on.

Id.

The godfather of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud separated the human psyche into three parts: The id, the ego, and the superego. The ego creates conscious awareness, it analyses what is going on and mediates between the superego and the id. The superego creates mental boundaries, keeping you from doing things that are socially unacceptable and taboo. The id is purely instinctual and runs off of emotion and primal needs. The ego and the superego tend to dominate your waking life, but they are logical, and are focused around the logical centre of the brain, which is shut off. Ergo, the id dominates your dreams.
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Emotions

Because the id is the overpowering psychic factor in dreams, emotions tend to be unnaturally powerful in your dreams. This is especially true for emotions like anger and lust, which even in waking life can take temporary control of you. We've all heard the term temporarily insane, this is much more common in dreams. Most people can recall doing terrible things in dreams when they get angry.
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Lust

Because lust and the primal urge to mate is strong in dreams, sexual temptations may arise very frequently. Many lucid dreams are transformed into lucid sex dreams because of the overwhelming desire to have sex. This is also due to the unrestrained id.
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Fear

One of the most powerful emotions is fear and like the other emotions, it is amplified in dreams. That's why nightmares can be so frightening. Not only is the fear amplified in nightmares, but many schemas are all linked by fear so things that frighten you will constantly show up.

Fear doesn't have to be a nightmare, it can also come from real life anxiety. Some believe that dreams are used for rehearsal of events that we are nervous about such as a presentation in front of lots of people or a job interview.

Attention.

Your dream is composed of things entirely created by your brain, therefore without paying attention to them, they can not exist. Ignoring something entirely will make it disappear, there is no reason for the brain to go through the process of keeping something alive, if it has no link to it. This is a common mistake in sex dreams. Focusing on what you are doing in the act of having sex, causes everything else in the dream to fade away, causing your dream to destabilized.

Likewise, the more attention you give to something, the more your brain will do with it. Focusing on something gives it greater detail. Most elements in your dreams are just concepts of the full element, that's because your brain doesn't need to see every detail of it, it just needs to know that it's there. Because of faulty logic, it accepts it as complete, even if it's not.

This is why closely examining your surroundings is a good way to stabilize your dream, your world gets more detailed and therefore, more stable.

Other Useful Links.

The Nature of Dream Control - The Cusp