figment of our imagination? or more than that?

[DvDGuY]

I have been wondering this for a while now, and reading so many posts, and replies; i've come to notice that there are a lot of people that interpret dreams differently, but its not even the way we interperet them is the way we take them at face value before we analyze them. Freud said that most dreams are wish-fulfillments and that an important part of these wishes are the result of repressed sexual desires. Carl Jung believed a dreams content uses symbolic language. lebarge studied lucid dreaming and the possibilities that we are in fact able to control dreams with practice. are our dreams wish-fulfillments or do they have symbolic meaning....BUT if you're lucid and are in fact controlling your dream. theres no more "wish" cause you're in control and your wish can come true. and also if we are controlling our dreams then any symbolism are the ones we want to see so is it really symbolic.? there are some people that belive that when you're dreaming you enter a spiritual world and we're in an astral body...some other just believe is the brain crating these images. where do you put yourself? are dreams all in our heads or is there more to dreams than meets the eye. do we enter a different relm? spiritual? OBE is it real or is it in our heads? i've had 'OBE's' and it does feel like you actually have an experience that you leave your body BUT the brain is powerful enough to create these images and feeling too.

[KuRoSaKi]

Wow that is quite a good thing to ponder on. I do indeed think it is our brain creating these images. And not an astral body or spiritual world. True once you began having lucid dreams constantly the wish fullfillment is lost and the symblic meaning is also lost with it. Seeind as how there can be no meaning to a dream that you are controlling and you can make anything you want happen so there is no more wish fullfillment going on.

[Lucky27]

I think it is rather pointless to interpret dreams and try to find "symbolism" or "meaning." My mind wanders when I try to fall asleep, and my dreams usually consist of one of the last things that I was things that I was thinking about before I crash. So I'm going to have to say my dreams are all in my head. But I don't know... Some people say they can see the future, and whatnot in their dreams. And I'm sure they can; I mean, it's not like people would lie to try to get attention.

[Oneironaut Zero]

I believe that it is our brains that create the dreams. The subconscious does offer evidence toward Freud's Wish-Fulfillment (sp) theory, as the things you wish-for (even secretely) are buzzing around in the back of your head more than many other things in life. Same goes with nightmares, for that matter, which Contrasts Freud's wishfulfillment. If something is on your mind 24/7 because you are afraid of it, your subconscious is bound to incorporate it into your dreams, just as easily as any positive thing you may be Wishing for. As far as astral travel, the only guess I can put to this, trying to stay as open-minded as I can, is this: If astral travel Does Exist, I think dreams are the perfect doorway to them. Trying to astral project directly from the waking world, requires a conscious knowledge of "I'm not bound to my flesh, and all of these physical laws I was taught all my life." Now, while that is not Impossible to convince yourself of, it's sure as hell not easy. While dreaming, you are bound by no laws whatsoever. The universe is yours to explore. So, I think it would be easier to transcend from one plane to another through dreaming, as you don't have to "tear yourself spiritually away from the earth in which you're trapped." You're simply "Stepping from the dream world to the astral world," which I think would be a lot less difficult to do. But the main question that remains behind this is: "Is the astral realm you're travelling to via the dream state REALLY an astral realm? Or is it an astral realm fabricated by your own mind." (Which of course is the question that was asked.) While I'd like to hope it is the true astral realm, having never been there myself, but taking an interest in it, I sure as hell don't Know. Good question, DvDGuY. 8)

[DvDGuY]

i agree that dreams are all in our brains but i still to hear from someone who belives that dreams are a gate way to an astral realm. I want to stay as open minded as possible about astral projection because i have experienced it. yet i still believbe it was all in my head. but that brings other belifes about dreams. like telling the future in dreams, or even shared dreaming. anyone that belives that dreams are more than our own brain creating images please give your POV.

[nesgirl119]

Originally posted by DvDGuY i agree that dreams are all in our brains but i still to hear from someone who belives that dreams are a gate way to an astral realm. I want to stay as open minded as possible about astral projection because i have experienced it. yet i still believbe it was all in my head. but that brings other belifes about dreams. like telling the future in dreams, *or even shared dreaming. anyone that belives that dreams are more than our own brain creating images please give your POV. I would say so, b/c if you are a true LDer, you have complete control over them....& if it was all in my head, I wouldn't have been able to DS w/my niece, Splash, or my B.friend. I wouldn't have been able to LD about the LD task 1 day ahead of time.... Also, I am not sure about what to say about the others....except maybe my own experiences w/ ___-___..... & again, I would say they are inside my own head (but then again, I sometimes think that in real time)....except for the fact of watching current events!!