Imagining Original Places

**Arra** · 02-06-2011 12:55 PM

I've noticed that often, when I try to imagine an original, new place, after thinking harder, it turns out the place actually does resemble somewhere I've been to or seen in real life.

For example, I'm imagining a room right now. It seems original, but upon closer inspection, I realize my mind is using the room of my childhood friend's parents' room. I try to imagine an original hallway, but realize I've seen this hallway in a movie before, it's the hallway of some hospital. The places might not appear exactly the same, but my general sense of the places location-wise, the identity my mind gives room (it's difficult to explain) is the same.

Furthermore, I often notice that in reality when I enter a new place I've never been before, my mind sort of relates it to a place I have been to before, so the sense of spatial identity of the room is the same. It also seems to happen often in dreams, although in dreams I do occasionally seem to come up with completely original places.

There are certain rooms in my mind which, when I think about it, I realize I've linked to many actual rooms. It's like my mind takes the 'sense' of a particular room, and keeps it. If a room comes up in real life or on TV which shares similar features to it, I'll mentally shift the furniture around in that mental room and consider it to be this room.

I don't know if this has made sense or not. If no one else experiences it, it will probably sound incoherent. I've had this thought for a long time, and would like to know if this is how everyone's minds work while thinking about new places.

**Xei** · 02-06-2011 01:46 PM

Well the way the mind works is that it can only operate on what it's experienced before, so creating an entirely new place requires quite a bit of work because it involves drawing from lots of different rooms and combining various qualities they have. If you try to do it without putting much thought into it your brain will have to take large chunks of a small number of rooms.

**Drokens** · 02-06-2011 10:15 PM

Pretty much what Xei said.

Lots of more discussion about this sort of thing can be found here: http://www.dreamviews.com/f22/no-suc...hought-106165/

I'm not trying to turn down your thread. I just thought that that link may be helpful.

**Arra** · 02-07-2011 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by Drokens

Lots of more discussion about this sort of thing can be found here: http://www.dreamviews.com/f22/no-suc...hought-106165/

I'm not trying to turn down your thread. I just thought that that link may be helpful.

There was a thread that prompted me to make this one, and I think it might have been that one, so the topics are related on some level. I made a separate thread because this is more of a specific, psychological issue rather than a philosophical one, and I've been wondering about it for a long time. I really want to know if everyone mentally forms rooms as I've found I do. I'll post a reply on that thread explaining how I'd answer that question.

**Zhaylin** · 02-07-2011 03:58 AM

I dreamed of a street since I was a kid. A decade or so after wondering about it I realized I HAD been on that street before. I was a little kid of about 4 years and I was visiting a cousin in Atlanta. After I realized that, the dreams stopped.
A lot of times, if I have recurring dreams, it's because my subconscious wants me to remember something for whatever reason.

If I just sit down and try to "create" a room, my brain automatically tries to create it using what it already has stored.
It's annoying sometimes.
I've been wanting to write a story on an alien planet. I tried to imagine it as different from earth as possible, but I just couldn't. Even if something looks like a mushroom but is as large as a tree- it's still a tree. Pink grass is still grass. Intelligent life may come in many shapes and sizes but it's still based off of what I have already seen (cat people, reptilian creatures, elves etc)

So, I've given up lol.

**eowdaoc** · 02-08-2011 04:53 PM

We can only describe stuff using adjectives and nouns we already know. Sucks.

**Lseadragon** · 02-16-2011 12:09 PM

We are unfortunately confined by our own experience. You can't imagine something you don't know, after all.

I consider that this might also be a result of the way our brain fills in gaps. If you're not concentrating in a detailed fashion on the room, and know what each part is made of, then your brain will fill in these gaps with pieces that seem most similar to the room that it can dredge up from your subconscious.