Thread: Dream emotions, states of mind, drugs? This is confusing

Originally Posted by BohmaN

In your dream, your normal feelings are like the "background feelings", like a thick synth pad or something, and the "ghost-feelings" are more like short attack/release high pitched synths. Does this make any sense?

What an amazing illustration. I work with music DAWs and can relate to that simile. I have 'taken' hallucinogens in my dreams several times, and usually it precludes my becoming lucid.

I have often wondered about 'ghost' feelings myself, but I think if you look at this universe as a manifestation of consciousness or light, it becomes a little more understandable.

In my opinion, our physical brains are made of the same amalgamate matter as any other object in the universe, and therefore the unique element is our mind. What we perceive is entirely up to us in the waking world, as well as in dreams, so it may not be that the chemical dictates the 'trip', but the perception/acceptance of the drug that allows the chemical state to occur.

Hope this helps,
~L

I have often wondered about 'ghost' feelings myself, but I think if you look at this universe as a manifestation of consciousness or light, it becomes a little more understandable.

It does and it's actually the closest at hand at the moment, even though it's quite mysterious.

so it may not be that the chemical dictates the 'trip', but the perception/acceptance of the drug that allows the chemical state to occur.

Yeah but still this is weird. Your brain cannot just turn into a certain state without the chemical, or can it? Isn't it the chemical itself that IS the state?

Or could it be that our expectations BECOMES the chemical, energetically, and alone shaping a state of mind. Could be...

There's not a lot of traction to be gained talking about imagination in mechanistic/chemical terms, just because so little is known. Are you in any way simulating the chemical effects of LSD in the brain? No, almost certainly not. Are you experiencing a state far beyond what could be induced in or carried over to the waking mind? Oh yeah.

The difference, however, may not be in your brain at all; you may produce the same or roughly the same brain state while awake, but experience it far differently because of the mitigating effects of perceiving and being in contact with a more robust reality. It's like the sound of water dripping onto a hard surface; in a closed and darkened room, it can take over your whole consciousness, but amid the crowd on a subway platform you wouldn't hear it, or wouldn't know you hear it, at all. In your waking life, perhaps whatever serotonin vibrato produces your dream "trips" would be experienced as a momentary tightening of the chest, a passing sense of beauty quickly buried in the rush of sense and contact all around you.

The difference, however, may not be in your brain at all; you may produce the same or roughly the same brain state while awake, but experience it far differently because of the mitigating effects of perceiving and being in contact with a more robust reality. It's like the sound of water dripping onto a hard surface; in a closed and darkened room, it can take over your whole consciousness, but amid the crowd on a subway platform you wouldn't hear it, or wouldn't know you hear it, at all. In your waking life, perhaps whatever serotonin vibrato produces your dream "trips" would be experienced as a momentary tightening of the chest, a passing sense of beauty quickly buried in the rush of sense and contact all around you.

That's interesting. You're saying that when I imagine the effects of LSD in real life, the feeling is there, but I cannot sense it due to the sensation being completely drowned in the "noise" of your senses, thoughts, feelings and state of mind. While dreaming, this noise is greatly reduced. Taking this into account with the fact that you're more imaginative and creative in your dreams, would explain the effect on one level. It doesn't, as you say, really adress the core issue (which is, what is really happening in your brain in this state of high imagination, and how?). I'm not suprised little is known... My theories seem to be the only possibilities as I see it though (call me humble xD).