The Freudian theory is the one that least describes my dream experience. |
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I recently read an article on the function of dreams which mentioned a few well known theories as to why dreams may occur. It got me thinking about it and I’m curious to know what others think. I have listed the theories mentioned below. I would be interested to know which (if any) people agree with and why. Also if there are any other theories or ideas not mentioned then I’d love to hear them too. Thanks in advance for any contribution. |
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The Freudian theory is the one that least describes my dream experience. |
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I’m not sure about the threat simulation theory either. Dreams about fear and anxiety are by far the most common for me and there must be a significant reason why they occur every night but I don’t feel like I really work anything out in these dreams and they just feel like a continuation of negative thoughts and emotions I carry in my daily life. Maybe then these dreams are more inline with the emotion regulation theory as you suggest? |
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Last edited by Tiktaalik; 05-26-2021 at 06:25 PM.
Although not as much for the Freudian one (it's slightly flawed in my view) I think I see some truth in all of these theories, especially since it is known that sleep is connected to learning in general in some way. Funnily enough the threat simulation theory makes enough sense to me. And more often than not if I am doing new activities I'm more likely to see them repeated in an internal visualisation as I'm falling asleep and while this isn't technically dreaming, it makes sense to me from the memory consolidation point of view and is connected enough to the process of dreaming for me because it is largely involuntary and visual, usually. I've actually read about this somewhere before but I don't recall where, sadly. |
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Singled out from some of my favourite quotes from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: "Risks of [Planet] flowering: considerable. But rewards of godhood: who can measure? - Usurper Judaa'Maar: Courage: to question."
What if there is no (direct) function? What if dreams are just a byproduct of REM sleep? |
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I don't think any of the above options are the main function of dreams, although they may still be true. I'm going to go with a more spiritual view here. Dreams are a path to increased self-realization - a path to wholeness. However, without deliberate intent of dream study, their usefulness is not obvious. Still, I think that dreams have an effect on us on the subconscious level. Like nudges in the right direction. We may not be aware of the reasons why we make decisions sometimes, we just do. Or why we feel one way or another, we just do. Dreams may be influencing us beyond our own understanding, and certainly beyond our scientific knowledge at this time. |
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Last edited by Hilary; 05-29-2021 at 03:28 AM.
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Yes, I feel this way at this point in time as well. Some dreams feel like they fit into one or more of the listed theories but I haven’t yet seen consistency in my dreams to hint any of the theories are truly on the money. They do just feel like a jumble of emotions, thoughts and anxieties strung together into an abstract narrative. It’s probably why there hasn’t been a scientific consensus yet. That said, no function doesn’t mean no meaning and I still think they provide valuable insight into the inner workings of the mind. |
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Last edited by Lang; 06-16-2021 at 02:55 PM. Reason: Merge post~ Please use the edit button if you need to add something to your posts.
Personally I think that dreams always show us something about our ourselves that we don't yet understand consciously. So it's not so much that dreams are causing us to feel a certain way about people or things, but, they bring to our consciousness the feelings we already have, buried in our unconscious mind. |
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Last edited by Hilary; 05-31-2021 at 12:55 AM.
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I was pondering my dreams the other night and began to wonder whether the dream world is naturally quite hostile? Quite often dreams throw at you dramatic or perilous situations and being attacked, chased or in grave danger are very common dream themes. Even when we’re lucid and able to have more control over what happens you see the dream world fighting back against this. When lucid the greatest threat becomes something stopping us from achieving our goal and quite often the dream or dream characters will try to stop me or hinder me from my goals in some way. I think we’ve all experienced this. It could be the dream police or a vanishing door. It made me think again about threat simulation theory and is this a dreams way of adapting and throwing obstacles at us whilst we’re in a lucid state? |
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Perhaps internally, all of me is too authoritarian for "dream police" to come after "me". |
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Singled out from some of my favourite quotes from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: "Risks of [Planet] flowering: considerable. But rewards of godhood: who can measure? - Usurper Judaa'Maar: Courage: to question."
I would say dreams are often based on anxieties but I don't see it as a hostility of the dreamworld towards the dreamer. I think it comes naturally from how dreams are put together - through associations and our schemata. |
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What if the dreamworld is an actual place, in the spiritual realms. We leave our physical body and enter another world in our dream body. In this realm whatever you think will become reality. What if our dreams are a way to practice how to live in a world where thoughts become reality? It's all about learning to control our selves. If we can't control our thoughts we end up accidentally killing each other. The violence we see is a direct consequence of you or another person not being in control of themselves. Life on earth is temporary but after our body dies, we go to another world in which our thoughts become reality, thus creating our own hell or heaven. |
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Last edited by kneejo; 07-04-2021 at 10:40 AM.
Nicely put. |
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