Dreaming improves logic and reasoning

[TransientOcclusion]

Hello. I have learned this for a considerable period of time now. Dreaming can serve as a boon to intelligience. An example would be the dream I last experienced. When awoken from the dream, I hypothesized this philosophical principal: It does not matter if you are "evil" or "good", if you make another consciousness unhappy, you are inherently "evil." Since you are wondering of the contents of the dream which brought me to this conclusion, I am happy to oblidge. I am an atheist. I used to attend church. I no longer do. I have dreams where I attend church and attempt to evade the religious lecture. I have dreams like this quite frequent. In each dream, I am afraid I will be found and viewed as a "heretic", though the era in which the dreams occur is quite modern. In this dream, I was finally captured. I assumed the wrath of all the people of the church I had "betrayed." It was then I realized something. It does not matter if I was following good or evil protocols. The simple act of incurring rage, the sense of betrayal, and hatred in others was an act of malicious consequence. We must realize something. Our common notions of "good" and "evil" are all relative to the human race (and to the individual.) If we encountered a species through which murder enabled it to survive, to that species, "murder" would be a "good." If we attempted to force our laws unto that species, not only would that species die, but it would become unhappy as well. We would be commiting the ultimate transgression. I hope that you have learned something from this discussion, or already keep this philosophy. A further discussion, we will save for later, is "Dreaming may simulate higher intellectual response..."

[skysaw]

I'll avoid the good vs. evil and religious aspects of your post, but I do completely agree with the title and underlying premise. Dreams happen when the brain starts sifting through its memories, trying to make the best use of them in terms of connecting concepts, pattern impression, etc. The main thing that is happening here is the brain working to better organize itself -- dreams are a happy by-product of that work.

[TransientOcclusion]

My thoughts exactly-in my opinion, daily consciousness is only useful for survival purposes.

[bluefinger]

Like with Skysaw, I don't want to delve into the religious bit of your dream, however, the premise that is highlighted by the title is something I also agree with. Also, I think lucid dreams are even more conducive for logic and reasoning, or at least when recognising whether you are dreaming or not. Whilst I wouldn't say this is a happy or sad by-product (as anybody who experiences nightmares can tell you), I do think it is a by-product that one can profit from. That and a lot of dreams can be very fun... which is always good with me.

[Serkat]

BTW, testosterone also improves reasoning, clarity of language and thought, and logical and argumentative structure.

[eyeofgames]

There was this one dream I had recently, and I remember working through a philosophical problem, and I was talking in a very "high level" (or pretentious and obscure) way. The thing is I don't remember what actually said but at the time I understood all of it. I need to find some way to remember that.

[TransientOcclusion]

Happens all the time. Offtopic: Excess testosterone has been known to damage neural cells.

[Sandform]

There was this one dream I had recently, and I remember working through a philosophical problem, and I was talking in a very "high level" (or pretentious and obscure) way. The thing is I don't remember what actually said but at the time I understood all of it. I need to find some way to remember that. You didn't necessarily have to use words at all...Dreams are this great place where we stop needing "words" and we start having just concepts that when you wake up you may think were words but were in reality concepts without definitions in the human language at the moment, or at least without your current vocabulary. (that isn't to say it is indescribable in the human language just that it hasn't been.)

[skysaw]

The latest issue of Scientific American: The Mind has this topic as its cover story. Just got it and will let you guys know if there is anything interesting to post.