How does your sub-conscious do it?

[mylucidworld]

Something i have always wondered is how does your sub-conscious create people (dream characters) that you have never seen before? Your sub-conscious is like a memory bank so how can it create something you have never witnessed with the minds eye?

[ExoByte]

It doesn't. It uses things that you do know, and things and people you have seen to create. Technically, nothing is "new," its all using knowledge you already have. You may see a face that you absolutely know you've never seen before, but your mind is still using the same knowledge in "designing" that face in that, theres a nose, eyes, ears, a mouth, hair, ect. Think of it like in a computer game where you customize your character and add traits and such as well as manipulate the size and shape of the character. The computer is still only using what it knows, what its programmed to know, but its using that knowledge and tweaking it to make it seem like it knows so much more. You may never of seen in the flesh a person with a really pointy nose, ears like an elf, demon horns, a X scar across the eye, 3 warts below the chin, eyes red pupils and black iris, the person with angel wings and legs of a lion, but you can imagine it because you know of these things that your brain is now cramming together to make it seem like a whole new image.

[mylucidworld]

It doesn't. It uses things that you do know, and things and people you have seen to create. Technically, nothing is "new," its all using knowledge you already have. You may see a face that you absolutely know you've never seen before, but your mind is still using the same knowledge in "designing" that face in that, theres a nose, eyes, ears, a mouth, hair, ect. Think of it like in a computer game where you customize your character and add traits and such as well as manipulate the size and shape of the character. The computer is still only using what it knows, what its programmed to know, but its using that knowledge and tweaking it to make it seem like it knows so much more. You may never of seen in the flesh a person with a really pointy nose, ears like an elf, demon horns, a X scar across the eye, 3 warts below the chin, eyes red pupils and black iris, the person with angel wings and legs of a lion, but you can imagine it because you know of these things that your brain is now cramming together to make it seem like a whole new image. Thats what i think aswell.

[wizkid]

The mind works on the basis of the First in first out principle. However that first in first out principle is based on emotion. Not actual people. While dreaming your mind is releasing pictures in the form of ideas. In the case of people, we see people all the time, however it is the emotional context that grabs us about how they look, dress and act etc. These ideas have a fundamental grounding of emotion behind them. So if there are certain features on the person that you are noticing, there is something in your mind that has an emotional attachment to that feature. And hence you build it from your emotional base creating that person in your dream. Its not the content that you should be paying attention too for the mind is just cleaning out ideas to streamline and maximize your thinking process for the next day. Basically cleaning out the clutter. You really should be paying attention to what grabs your emotion and why, start asking yourself questions to what is grabbing your attention and you quickly begin to uncover aspects about yourself and the unconscious that you never even knew existed. Basically if you reverse engineer the unconscious based on how it operates, then you will have much more success in deciphering it.

[Oneironaught]

Dream images are often compilations of elements we've been exposed, whether they be images or ideas. However, keep in mind that we see far more faces than we could ever hope to consciously recall. You've probably seen millions of faces in your life, while you may only be able to recognise a few thousand.

[wizkid]

Its not being able to recognize even a few thousand. Its the few thousand that you have emotional attachment too. Ether you were attracted too, didnt like, or just something so unique or symmetrical that it stuck in your mind for whatever reason. But yeah you are right. Dream images are often compilations of elements we've been exposed, whether they be images or ideas. However, keep in mind that we see far more faces than we could ever hope to consciously recall. You've probably seen millions of faces in your life, while you may only be able to recognise a few thousand.

[Oneironaught]

Its not being able to recognize even a few thousand. Its the few thousand that you have emotional attachment too. Ether you were attracted too, didnt like, or just something so unique or symmetrical that it stuck in your mind for whatever reason. I agree completely. I was only pointing out that we see far more faces than we think we do, so it's not accurate to say "a face we've never seen before". Because - for all we know - we have seen a given face before but just don't recall when or where.

[Moonbeam]

Nobody knows.