Crowds

I can't remember any dream with a crowd of people in it. Do you think the stress on my brain would be too great if a crowd was present? I usually only see a couple of people in my dream at once, yet I sometimes see none. I don't remember seeing many automobiles on the road either... What's the cause of this?

My theory would be the same as yours; your brain has to generate all that scenery, and large detailed scenes such as crowds might be more than it usually does. Also, the brain focuses on processing faces--we're wired for face recognition--so that people would be harder than, say, trees. Moving people are also probably harder to generate than people sitting still.

I've had moving crowds in my dreams; but usually in a battle scene. Generally the entire dream is focused on me, and I'm defending myself against all comers. That seems to be simpler because only the feeling of a crowd really has to be there, and the immediate opponent(s). (Stationary crowds--audiences, for the most part--are slightly more common.)

In a dream, things that aren't in your field of perception don't truly exist. Could you focus on all members of a crowd at once? Probably not... If there were a crowd, I'd be willing to bet you'd be oriented on one or a few members of it, with no clear image of the others--only the "feeling" of a crowd.

Your high-level lucid dreams may vary. :P

I dont have crowds of people in my dreams either. All i seem to have is heards of goats and sheep everywhere. Is this because I sleep with a goat?

You can't say if the stress on your brain is too great, since the brain is VERY powerful and not much is known about it. :F

I think it's just something that you have in your dreams. No crowds. A recurring dreamsign: RC when you hardly see anybody in real life.

I've seen a mob running on the freeway. At least 100 people.

I actually had a whole classroom full of people in my dream last night. So I guess I do have crowds in my dreams...

I'm the same. I've had a few dreams with crowds (dreams about birthday parties or school), but not many.

Hehe, after reading this post yesterday I had 2 dreams with hundreds of people in them...

I guess it's possible to process large crowds, but faces arent important in either dreams or real life. Once in high school I've performed an experiment - there was one class and I always got there before the class got out. So for weeks I would look at peoples faces and 95% of them remained strangers after few weeks... Pretty much they looked as if I've never seen them before.

That's an interesting point. I, personally, always have crowds around me. I love just watching them. They're interesting. :)

That's weird, being in crowds of people is one of my most common DS's. They all look like inidividuals just like any crowd. And a lot of times there seem to be too many people for the situation, like hundreds in a small restaurant, or thousands in a movie theater. I have myself programmed to do RC's whenever I am in a group of people but I hardly ever am in a huge crowds like there are in my dreams somtimes.

Last night I had a dream with a lot of people in it. I was on a beach and it was extremely crowded. Also there were tornadoes about ten feet away from me.

I can't say I remember any crowds in my dreams, but I expect I have had some. I can remember one dream with at least 12 people chasing me (one of said 'crowd' was some Caesar impressionist, let's not go into that), that's as many I can remember. I expect it's very possible to have more though. It's not like you have to make up a personality for each person. In a dream, all a crowd needs to do to exist is be known as "there", if you get what I mean.