Instant Gratification Theory

[tommo]

I am not sure if this should go here but me and sj have just been discussing our theory in Some "truths" About Lding which is in this part of the forum. Read the third page of that thread, or all if you want. If you cbf at all, basically our theory is that when you do something in a dream, possibly only non-lucid, your brain doesn't actually create it all but instead makes you think you have done it all. sj explained this much more clearly. I still think expectation has something to do with it, at least for some dreams. Perhaps there's some desire for instant gratification? Like, we want to see what happens next quickly, so it does, but we also realize that it must have taken a long time, because it makes logical sense. So our brains deliver both: a quick proceeding to the next event, and we're given the sense that it took a long time.[/b] and hence the name I gave it 'Instant Gratification Theory'. So I made this thread for all of you who have a very vivid dream or a vivid lucid dream and remember it clearly. Think back to a part of it where you were walking along a long path or street or beach etc. or anything which takes a fair amount of time. For example, the dream I posted up in the other thread. I actually just woke up from my closest Lucid ever, I seriously missed about 10 dreams sign all together and 5 of them were in very close succession, I questioned every one of them. Anyway. One part invloved walking down a long path, and then later on back up it. I woke up and took the - newly named by me - Instant Gratification Theory into account. I actually think there is alot of truth to this now, but I hadn't actually analysed my dreams earlier to see if this was right. But since you also thought this, I decided to. All I remember from the path was starting to walk from where my dream sign white car was parked I took a few steps and the car was out of my vision. Then all I remember was being at the beautiful lake. But every other part of my dream I had remembered precisely, even down to little things on the sand, approx. height of rocks, The feeling of the line tugging etc. It was really vivid. But I don't remember the path.[/b] So if something happens in your dreams like this, try and remember if you recall every single part of your dream besides this part. If you do, please post it here. Thanx guys!

[Lactating Billhonkey]

One night i had multiple non lucid dreams under the same theme. I was reading a story on the internet which at the time seemed like the best book i had ever read. In my second dream, i became the main character of this story without realizing it. I then had a few more dreams under the same theme of the story. When i woke up from the dreams, i felt like i had just completed an amazing story. I realized that it was just a dream but i thought to myself, "Is this how amazing authors get ideas for their books?" and "Could i use this dream as an idea for my own story?" After i awoke i was so dumbfounded that I even searched on the internet for the story. But when i wrote down the entire storyline for my dream, I realized that i would not be as impressed if i were to read a similar story in conscious reality. It seems that my mind merely gave me feelings or instant gratification that i was reading a spectacular novel. After the experience, i continue to think cautiously about what my mind is telling me in my dreams. I have yet to have a lucid dream, but this personal phenomenon seems to happen in every dream. I believe this is my dream sign.

[tommo]

Hmmm.... not exactly what I was talking about, bout it sounds interesting. Could you actually remember the storyline? And do you remember reading every part of the book?

[Merlock]

There's no need for any theory. The reason things don't take the same amount of time in dreams as they would in the waking state is because dreams are comprised utterly of conceptual though - the ultimate form of thought used by the subconscious, allowing to relay/present information in the most optimal form imaginable to us in our current state of life and mind.

[tommo]

Yes, simple to say this. Wheres your proof???? You can't just say something and totally reject mine and sj's theory without giving any proof. No one so far knows why dreams can seem like forever but be really short IRL. However alot of studies on dreaming and lucid dreaming show that time seems to be the same in and out of dreams. To say that there is no need for a theory and that you have the right answer is simply ignorant.

[Merlock]

...the proof is in your own mind, it's not my fault or mistake that you haven't realised it yet. This isn't something debatable, conceptual thought is the ultimate form of thought utilised by your subconscious mind. Whenever you really think about something, you do not use words, your mind takes over and automates the thought process in conceptual thought and you contemplate something far faster than if you were to use speech-based thought - the form often resorted to when thinking over something completely conscious of it.

[tommo]

Soooo, do you jsut like spitting out random "philisophical" things or....???? The point is there is something to debate, there have been a few threads regarding this topic, of why dreams can seem to take forever. There has to be some sort of logical explanation, not just that its our mind and it can do watever it wants. Which is what you seem to be saying.

[Merlock]

This isn't a debate and I'm not stating a theory, I'm telling you what you don't know of and apparently don't understand. Read once again what I've posted above and perhaps then you'll move on from "the mind can do whatever it wants" to the concept of conceptual thought as a whole. Try to understand what I've already said: conceptual thought is the form of thought used by our mind, naturally and most optimally in all aspects while in this form and mind. You must have felt it at one point in time or another, think about how you think naturally. This isn't a theory, this isn't an idea, it's a fact that I'm stating simply because it exists.

[Oneiro]

Dreaming is suggestible. Old news.