Need interview for my research about dreaming and introspection.

Hello everyone!

One of the reasons i joined this forum was to gather information for a school project i'm working on. I started working on a project for my Psychology class about dreaming and introspection. I do have almost all the information i need and am trying to find out what the best way is to use dreaming for self reflection and introspection etc. Because dreaming is that but how do you think people can get the most potential out of it?

So that's about it, and i hope you would like to take some time to answer a few questions:

1. You could say dreaming is the embodiment of introspection. What do you think about this premise.
2. I think dreaming really helps in understanding ourselves. What do you think about this and why do you think that?
3. How useful is dreaming for you (as a person)? could you explain why?
4. Research shows stress and an unbalanced psyche has a lot of influence on dreaming. Like the intensity of dreams or remembering them. Does this mean this a good thing for dreaming?
5. How would or do you use dreaming and lucid dreaming for self development?
6. Hopefully you would like to add something about this subject.

Anyway. Thank you for your time!

Hey i'll try answer them as well as I can :)

1. I truly believe that dreaming is the embodiment of introspection. A dream is essentially composed of 100% of your memory and character, it is at the center of our individuality. Dreams seem to evoke very honest emotional responses and can often bring up thoughts that you would not have had in waking life since the dreams are often quite unique and allow for a more un-biased form of self-reflection. Since they have such a private nature I find that I am less likely to dismiss a feeling and make up an excuse. I do think that similar results can be obtained through meditation and clear rational thought processes however.
Lucid dreaming however can be considered a form of meditation and therefore I consider it the strongest form of introspection because in a lucid dream you can directly reflect upon your emotions without any external stimuli like expectation from strangers etc, you can vividly relive through situations and make up a more accurate conclusion than when just remembering a memory.

2. I agree with this because dreaming allows us to let our selves go free, there is nothing which can express your wants and desires more than a dream.

3. It has been one of the most useful tools for me as a person during the last year or so. Not only has it improved my general outlook on life, as in enjoying work, it has also taught me to take an optimistic and rational approach to life, I don't try fit into large groups, or try to gain social recognition, I only follow what I want and I what I enjoy even if others find that boring. I feel like my life is not just mediocre but actually extremely intresting because I know that I can do almost whatever I want almoost every night, which gives me something to look forward to.

4. Thats a hard question but I would say that the postive side-effects of stress do not balance the negative side effects of stress. There is a higher probability that your quality of sleep is less than that of someone with a balanced psyche, problems like sleep walking, waking up through the night, night sweat, nightmares etc are all usually related to stress or depression in some way. While the stress does allow for an excellent medium for lucid dreaming, since it can shock you into awareness due to the feelings of fright or sadness, which doesn't happen as often in normal dreams (at least for me). It can unfortunately also pose problems like lucid nightmares and irrational fears in dreams, and being stressed is never a good thing to begin with.

5. I get to experience things that most people would never even be able to comprehend, the joy of having ultimate possibilities at your fingertips is probably the largest factor as to why I lucid dream. Just like a game or movie it is essentially a form of escapism and for me it is effective enough to give a serene bliss for almost an entire day which certainly beats any other type of game, movie or book I've gone through.

6. I think lucid dreaming really has alot of potential for people to use, it is possible to relieve stress, have fun, find out new things, give ambition to your life. It really is a tool which can make people less materialistic and more content with what they have which I think some people in this world desperately need.

Thank you very much! Thats exactly the kind of answer i was hoping for!

I hope someone else would be so kind as to answer some of the questions. thanks!

1. You could say dreaming is the embodiment of introspection. What do you think about this premise?

I'd be inclined to disagree for two reasons. First, introspection is the examination of thoughts and feelings. My dreams are not conscious, so I don't actively pick apart what I'm thinking. I just do it. Everything is instinctual. The material in them also tends to relate to things that I try not to think about. To me, you can have introspection after you wake up, but not before. Second, I believe that introspection does not come from the material with which you are presented, but how you relate to and think about such material. In other words, meaning is not found in an event or an object, but rather in how you choose to interpret it.

2. I think dreaming really helps in understanding ourselves. What do you think about this and why do you think that?

I agree because dreams provide us with situations we don't normally encounter, and we must deal with those situations. The way we handle things tells us a lot about ourselves, and our potential reaction if something similar happened in waking life. Dreaming can also show us a different side of ourselves that we may not be ready to consciously accept. That can prompt us to think about it more and come to terms if need be.

3. How useful is dreaming for you (as a person)? could you explain why?

Dreaming is highly useful for me, I enjoy being introspective and picking out every thought and motive :) It is also a great stress-reliever, it's just plain fun, particularly when I get lucid.

4. Research shows stress and an unbalanced psyche has a lot of influence on dreaming. Like the intensity of dreams or remembering them. Does this mean this a good thing for dreaming?

Well if you are trying to remember them it does. For me, lots of stress=stressful dreams. That is not fun and not a great way to start the day or get rest. Assuming you learn something or solve a problem in the end though, I guess it could be good.

5. How would or do you use dreaming and lucid dreaming for self development?

Introspection and stress-relief. I'd also explore a lot more in lucids, and probably have a higher self-confidence if I'm always kicking ass and being awesome in my dreams.

6. Hopefully you would like to add something about this subject.

Dreaming is a really fun and interesting way to get to know yourself, and lucid dreaming should not be considered a "New Age" thing. It is real and it has no attachment to any belief systems. It is just being aware that you are dreaming. That's it. It should also not be considered unattainable, you can learn how to do it. And it's some of the most fun you can ever have :)

The questions sound interesting.

1. You could say dreaming is the embodiment of introspection. What do you think about this premise.

I believe dreaming is a vault that gives us the fastest access to our problems. So yes I agree that it is the embodiment of introspection. However, introspection means you're consciously aware of your mental thought processes. Therefore, the dreaming mind and the conscious mind needs to work hand in hand in other to maximise the introspection process. Dreaming tackles the root problems we face that we sometimes fail to detect when we are awake and our logical minds help to unveil and understand what the symbolic dream icons mean.

2. I think dreaming really helps in understanding ourselves. What do you think about this and why do you think that?

Yes, I agree. However, the dream analysis process is pretty tedious and long. At the end of the day, you can't be 100% certain what your dream is trying to tell you, especially if there are more underlying symbols than it seems on the surface. I feel that the best way to make use of our dreams in understanding ourselves is to take note of prominent dreams, disturbing dreams and recurrent dreams. The fact that a dream is repeating itself goes to show that something is bothering you so much, your dreams are yelling at you to take note of it. The moment you found out what the dreams meant and solved it, it'll no longer repeats itself.

Of course there are other kind of dreams other than dreams that tells you of your problems. The other kind of dreams that I noticed are wish fulfilment dreams, dreams that make you happy when you wake up in the morning. Although it's fulfilling a wish that you long for, it doesn't make you the least upset about it.

3. How useful is dreaming for you (as a person)? could you explain why?

Dreaming gives me the feeling that there's an alternative world that I can live in, that I belong in. In my dreams, nothing that turns out bad is too bad. Eventually the dream will resolve by itself or I'll just hop into the next dream. I don't suffer from OCD in my dreams too and that's what I really like about them. I get to live in the moment in my dreams, something that I fail to do in waking life. Perhaps the shutting of logical mind in sleep helps me to achieve that.

I may sound like I'm escaping into my world of dreams. But truth be told, I'm enjoying the best of both worlds. Why live only when you can live and dream? Reality and dreams enrich each other, without reality my dreams would have nothing to work on other than my creativity. And there are still irreplaceable things in reality that cannot be substituted.

My dream often reminds me that there is more to life than it seems.

4. Research shows stress and an unbalanced psyche has a lot of influence on dreaming. Like the intensity of dreams or remembering them. Does this mean this a good thing for dreaming?

The thing about stress and the way modern people are living their lives is they no longer pay attention to their dreams. When they no longer pay attention to their dreams, they are no longer paying attention to their inner selves too. Lack of sleep, stress and worries ruins one's dream recall so my guess is more people are forgetting about their dreams than remembering them. Although I think if you're mentally disturbed, the disturbing dreams are hard to forget so that may be the time when you'll actually remember more dreams.

Anything that helps people to take note of their dreams is a good start. I started out that way too and it eventually led me to a whole new universe of dreams and new friends who are interested in the same topic. It would be even better if they attempt to resolve the thing that's bothering them in their dreams.

5. How would or do you use dreaming and lucid dreaming for self development?

For dreaming, I'll take note if there's anything that makes me feel unpleasant or upset about it when I wake up. If there is, I'll record my dream down and think through what it means. Dreaming is a check for me to make sure that I'm still mentally sound. Haha.

As for lucid dreaming, I don't usually set goals for myself. You've probably heard about it that some people get excited when they have lucids and they forgot what they want to do. I just do what I felt like doing at the moment of lucidity. When the dream ends, again I record them down and notice certain interesting differences between normal dreams and lucid dreams. I've come to notice that dream characters in lucid dreams are like particles of myself, they'll protect me and they will let things go my way if I want to. It's so great to have minions in my dreams. Hahaha!

6. Hopefully you would like to add something about this subject.

Don't ever ignore what your dreams are trying to tell you. In your dream world, you'll find out it understands you more than you understand yourselves.

Um... what does introspection mean? :shock:

Want somebody to google that for you? :shadewink:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billyboy1999

Um... what does introspection mean? :shock:

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Let me google that for you

Nice sharing friends. Thanks for this informative post it's great!

Dreams as introspection definitely. I have been having a whole bunch of dreams which I call "lessons in being proper", but which essentially are my mind reviewing my moral values with me. I have observed that those very often happen for me early in the night in dream fragments which are sort of a question response format. I have also observed that the more I focus on my desire to do lucid dreaming, the more of my dreams are about dreaming, even though these dreams are not lucid, but have dreaming as a subject/theme. In many of those dreams even though I am not aware consciously that it is a dream, but I start dream analysis already, and have at times recognized metaphors in dreams what they actually stand for before I woke up. Often I only "get" what a dream is really about after hours or even days, after the fact after mulling it over, and then I reach a revelation about myself which is surprising, and at times every detail of the dream falls into place and "makes sense" why I would dream that at this time in my life. My goals for why I wish to go back to lucid dreaming at this time have a lot to do with self-improvement: doing what is right for me, working on self-esteem issues. Remember years ago when I was into lucid dreaming, I actually learned to enjoy nightmares because they were easy to recognize as dreams being so different from waking life, and I found it very empowering to be able to transform them into an experience that was not scary and terrifying but which made me stronger and proved to myself that I could do it. I also found that I became much more easily amused, and started seeing the entertainment value in both my waking life and my dreams, enjoying the weird and accepting it.