The Random People in your dreams.

[RetroReality]

I guess this doesnt really relate to lucid dreaming to much(well it can). I just find it funny that when you dream there are always these random people you have never seen before, even in lucids there is always that random guy, and your like god who is he? I am guessing they might be the people you see just walking in a store or at school that you just take a quick look at. Any thoughts?

[KingYoshi]

Oh yeah, I've seen loads of people I don't recognize. I expect they could be one of the many random people we see around town/actors from commercials or small roles that we see on t.v./or possibly the mind creating people from mixtures of others!

[Keitorin]

I've been curious about that too! I rarely ever go out and even when I do, I don't look at people in the face, so I'm not sure where the people in my dreams come from. I do watch TV on the occasion, so maybe from there. Maybe a mash-up of people. *shrug* I think I'll try to pay more attention when I do see someone in my dreams from now on, just to see if I recognize anyone's features.

[Robot_Butler]

Sometimes, when I'm falling asleep, I will hallucinate a stream of random faces. They morph into each other, constantly changing. Sometimes, I'll see hundreds of them in a row. They are all strangers, and I can influence the facial features if I try. I think our brain has the ability to randomly generate faces and people, like this.

[Hidden]

I guess they're just... there. When you're walking around you normally aren't all alone. It would be more strange if your dreams were either empty or filled with only people you knew than having random strangers around.

[Andywarski]

A lot of times when my mind makes random people in the background I dont see theres mouths or noses. The eyes are intense though. Then when I focus on people the actual face appears.

[Conkt]

I saw a random old woman giving birth the other night. I realized that people usually don't give birth outside of bagel shops, and became lucid. I tried to spawn a random hot girl, and ended up in a dark real filled with hot women who I couldn't see because my afro was clouding my vision. Then I woke up.

[sol]

Sometimes, when I'm falling asleep, I will hallucinate a stream of random faces. They morph into each other, constantly changing. Sometimes, I'll see hundreds of them in a row. They are all strangers, and I can influence the facial features if I try. I think our brain has the ability to randomly generate faces and people, like this. Wow, I'm new to LDing but I've read a fair bit of this forum and you're the first person I've seen mention this. Its exactly what I do! Can you tell me anything more about it?

[Naiya]

Yeah, a lot of my DCs are what I call "extras" because they're kind of like extras in a movie. Even when I try to interact with them, it's like they have no brains or personality. It's pretty weird.

[Kordan]

The other night I had a dream with probably twenty to thirty people in it. I recognized NO-ONE. However, they each had distinct, realistic faces, and I accepted them as real. I had never met any of them, yet they were all as real as life. An old Peruvian woman had her hair pulled up in a bun at the nape of her neck, with wisps of hair falling out around her face. She had wrinkles, and many lines around her eyes and mouth. She looked like one of those people who has lines both from smiling all of the time, but other lines from stress. The realism of these characters was amazing, and the old woman was only one. So yes, I do think that the mind can and does randomly generate people in our minds. In my dream, I was coming to conclusions about many of the people, based on their features/ clothing/ expressions etc. The old woman, for example; I assumed that she smiled a lot, yet she had stress in her life, all from the lines on her face.

[ScornedVixen]

I'm the same with Kordan, each people in my dreams have their own features, and even conversations. Sometimes I wonder if I've been transported into a realm where people are real and I exist there, as I am here. I don't recognise anyone in my dream in real life, I'm good with faces and names and would know. The names don't awaken me to anything, I've googled the names up and don't know the people behind the name. I'm beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, the dreams are not just a dream, but a door to another dimension, to another world, where we exist there and people there have their own lives etc. Oh my, everyone will now think I'm batty!

[Robot_Butler]

Wow, I'm new to LDing but I've read a fair bit of this forum and you're the first person I've seen mention this. Its exactly what I do! Can you tell me anything more about it? It just happens on its own, as a form of hypnagogia. I've always assumed it was similar to the random, changing geometric patterns or colors people sometimes hallucinate as they fall asleep. Do you do it on purpose? Or does it come on it's own?

[beachgirl]

i wonder if they are random. doesn't REM sort out memories. maybe it's cobbling stuff together from tv, magazines, our childhood, mythology, biology, etc. i remember recently making out with these three triplets... blondes. young women in their 20's. i certainly don't know 3 blonde triplets but somehow i keep feeling afterwards i was interfacing with my own DNA... making love to myself on some level. like that... strangers... that part of ourself we don't really know. etc... anyway... just a theory... not everyone.. but a lot of people in my dreams feel very iconic to me. bg...

[ChaybaChayba]

Hey thats a genius idea beachgirl, maybe in dreams we interface with our DNA! How did you come up with that idea?

[beachgirl]

it kind of followed... i had had some "twin dreams" before that. and since i was going through an awakening i was really into double helixes at the time. very DNA - so i was really into twinning... a very intersting biological/spiritual phenomeonon. when i saw the triplets i just had to imagine this was another variant on the twinning, double helix thing. a triple "something"... biological. i do believe we see our insides manifested outside. that may seem anthropomorphic but i've seen lots of my interior parts... in all sorts of visions. and they're really pretty when i see them, so it's definitely real as far as I'm concerned...

[Novise]

That is an extremely interesting idea about the "interfacing with our DNA in dreams." As far as the OP, yeah it seems to be mind generated. Remember also, even sometimes people you know can be depicted as looking a little different than they really do at this point in time.