Do you think dreams mean anything?

[Chris_]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9187382

Tobin S.  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 12:01 AM
Original message
 
Do you think dreams mean anything?
 I alternate between thinking they do and don't. Or maybe some do and some don't. I just woke up from a vivid one.

I'm standing on a little ledge on the face of a cliff. I'm attached to one of those rock climber ropes that's attached to the cliff and I have a parachute on. But I'm still very afraid and I'm clinging to the cliff as if there is nothing to keep me from falling. In my waking world I have a terrible fear of heights as well.

There is a man standing next to me. He has no rope and no parachute. He tells me that we are 16,000 feet up in the air. I take a glance down and then back up and cling even tighter to the cliff face. The man appears to be my father's age and he starts telling me about how he lost his son. I can't remember how. I only have a vague memory that he told me about it. He is very mournful and I know he is going to jump.

After making some kind of shrine to his son with pictures on the face of the cliff, the man jumps. But he doesn't plunge directly down. He hovers in the air for a few seconds and then asks for my permission to continue. I can stop him, but I see that something has already died inside this man and sorrowfully I tell him to go on. And he does.

I stand there for a few minutes and realize that the only way I can get down to the ground is to jump. I undo the rope, muster all the courage I can, and jump.

Then I woke up with my heart beating so hard in my chest that I could hear it.
 

Pizza does that to me.  Makes me have terrible dreams.  It's the tomato sauce.

CaliforniaPeggy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 12:18 AM
Response to Original message

1. My dear Tobin... 
 Sounds to me as though you're working on something pretty significant here, in your dream...

I think this because the imagery means so much to you.

I generally don't think my dreams mean much. I rarely see anyone I know in them, and what happens in them is obscure.

But....once in a while, I will dream of something that I'm preoccupied by. It has to be really important because I so rarely do it.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that it depends on the context.

How was your Christmas?
 

No Peggy, what you dream rarely means what you're thinking.  He needs to get the hell off the DUmp and save himself.  He's young, he may still have a chance for a normal life away from the crazy depressed monkeys.

Lucian  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 12:21 AM
Response to Original message

2. I used to think they meant something, but now I don't.

Odin2005  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 12:48 AM
Response to Original message
 
4. Not really. They are just hallucinations from your brain consolidating new memories.

 Edited on Mon Dec-28-09 12:48 AM by Odin2005

Your brain is essentially trying to make a coherent narrative out of random noise mixed in with information from memory traces in the hippocampus and amygdala. The memory aspect is why survivors of traumatic experiences tend to have nightmares of the traumatic experience as part of the PTSD. My friend with cerebral palsy still has trouble sleeping sometimes because of nightmares involving her rape.

Now why did you go and tell him that ? 

Tobin S.  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 12:53 AM
Response to Reply #4

5. So the dream I just had
 could have it's roots in a frightening memory I have of being terrified when I was 4 years old on an amusement park ride that involved heights. Or something like that.

See ?  You happy now Odin ?  He's all upset. Probably forgot all about that ride until you brought it back up.  Thanks a lot.

Odin2005  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 12:56 AM
Response to Reply #5

6. Maybe, who knows?
 IMO trying to exact meaning out of your dreams is like finding a needle in a haystack, it's futile exercise.

Strangely, my dreams are mostly very realistic simulations of daily life, nit much of the crazy fanciful stuff the seem to fill most people's dreams. Apparently many experts on the subject say that is very common among people on the autism spectrum.
 

You're just plain crazy if you ask me.

Tobin S.  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 01:03 AM
Response to Reply #6

7. I usually don't remember mine at all
 and if I do it's only for a few minutes after I wake up. The ones I do remember are never mundane, but I take head meds for psychosis and that might have something to do with that.

Yep. Getting off the DUmp would help also.

Odin2005  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 01:08 AM
Response to Reply #7

10. It's perfectly normal to forget most of your dreams.
 The balance of brain chemicals during REM sleep is significantly different then in wakefulness and NREM sleep in a way that discourages remembering the dreams.

Is that so Dr. Odin ?  I remember nearly every dream I have.  Ask my husband.

denbot  (824 posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 01:03 AM
Response to Original message

8. Dreams were the only thing that kept me from being atheistic.
 I had dreams that clearly represented impending occurrences, and were so powerful I knew that they signified something that I only understood later..

Some dreams are just that, dreams. Some will come to you that tap in to the mystery, and are for your benefit.

Learn if you can, don't make too many assumptions. Like they say, more will be revealed. 

Didn't you go up to a mountain top for a week without food or water and nearly die ? Did you maybe smoke a little dream pipe up there ?

Quantess  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 01:07 AM
Response to Original message

9. Wow. That's a heavy dream. 
 Maybe...you are afraid of a loss, and see someone else's loss or suffering, but deep down you know you have a support system and you won't crash. You know that the other person, however, is in a worse situation, and he will fall to the bottom.

Obviously I don't know you, but you posted it here, and I'm just offering an interpretation. 

And you're wrong. Do not hang your shingle out for business.
I'll bet he either ate something that made him dream that or those pills he takes did it.

Tobin S.  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 01:17 AM
Response to Reply #9

11. Interpretations are welcome
 I am dealing with some heavy personal issues right now. You can read the latest on that in the mental health support group over in Health and Disability if you are inclined to do so. 

Take your medicine, get off the DUmp. Try to find happiness.  You will not find it in the mental health group. 

Quantess  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 01:27 AM
Response to Reply #11

12. Thanks, I didn't even know about that forum.
 I actually do think dreams are often meaningful, but I don't always know what they mean, and I think some of our subconsciousness is so deeply buried, we can never know what our dreams mean.

For a few years after I got my Masters Degree, I had recurrent dreams about having to finish High School, even though in those dreams, I knew I was 30 something and I had a Masters Degree.
Maybe that's why I love the show "Strangers With Candy" so much, LOL. 

 

   For real.

Sanity Claws  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 08:19 AM
Response to Original message

13. Yes

 Edited on Mon Dec-28-09 09:05 AM by Sanity Claws

Its language is symbolic and it's your unconscious at work.
With that heavy dream, I'm not surprised that you are working through some heavy issues right now.

The guy who jumped is a part of you that no longer exists. You mentioned that you lost weight; I imagine your own self-image has changed quite a bit as a result.

As for yourself jumping, it looks like you see even more drastic changes going on in yourself. Are you thinking of taking a big step? Like moving? Changing jobs?
And are you fearful of that big step?

Those are my thoughts on your dream
 

You're an idiot.  I'm sorry but it's true.

raccoon  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 10:54 AM
Response to Original message

14. Definitely yes! I've posted about dreams in the Lounge lots of times.
 
Some cultures, such as some Native Americans, place a lot of importance on dreams.

Most Americans think they're no more important than yesterday's papers.

I think our dreams can tell us things sometimes our conscious minds don't pick up. And what a dream means is specific to the individual. For instance, I think in my dreams big cats represent the disease of alcoholism. In someone else's dreams big cats could mean something else entirely.

Figure out what this dream means TO YOU. and thanks for sharing that.

 

I dream of cats.  I dream I'm being suffocated by them.  I wake up with 3 cats in my bed taking up all my space. I think my cat dream is telling me to find another bed.   

la_chupa (298 posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 11:07 AM
Response to Original message

15. sometimes yes and sometimes no
 I think it's your subconscious brain working things out. The downside is that I really think you are the only one who can figure out what your dream means because imagery is personal.

Case in point. I once had a dream that I was with all of my friends from work eating lunch at one of those big food courts in an airport. We were talking and having a good time then we all got up and headed to different gates. I waved everyone else off and got on a small plane and woke up right when it was taking off.

I knew exactly what it meant. This was during a big layoff at a public accounting firm. I ended up going into industry. Others went to other firms, into industry like I did, or totally changed careers.

Everyone knows how that goes. You spend just about every waking minute with a group of people and no matter how close you are when things like that happen you end up drifting apart. Oh maybe you send each other Christmas cards or get together once in a while, but it is never the same as it was when you all had lunch together and worked on the same projects every day.

My dream wasn't even very subtle. We were all going different directions and it would never be the same again.

I'm off on a tangent, your dream is more interesting than this one.

I never remember my dreams either though or if I do they don't make enough sense to even verbalize. Then as the day goes on they become more and more faded - strange that. 

32 years ago for 8 months I had dreams of giving birth to a baby with no head. When my son was born he screamed bloody murder for 3 weeks straight. I was a zombie. The dream meant nothing.

nuxvomica  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-28-09 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
 
16. I think they do

 I always try to analyze the vivid ones like the kind you experienced. There are certain assumptions I usually begin the analysis with: every person in a dream is actually an aspect of the dreamer's personality; dreams about driving a vehicle have to do with the direction your life is taking; dreams about your home have to do with your physical body. But the symbolism isn't hard and fast and only the dreamer can judge whether it has any significance.

Here's my offhand analysis of your dream: the man is you and the son he mourns is you when you were younger. It is a dream about abandoning some aspect of your past, maybe even just a perspective or worldview you once held. You are loath to do it because it seems so dangerous and reckless but you feel you have no choice. The most interesting part is that he asks your permission to continue falling.

Tobin, get off the DUmp.  If you ain't crazy now you will be by the time they finish with you.

[The Village Idiot]

When I was a kid I dreamt everyone was in the girls room taking things out of the attic and they found a green plastic car and handed it to me. SO I woke up and went into the girls room and they were taking things out of the attic and handed me a green plastic car.

That was a bit strange.

Probably meaningless.

[sofa king]

dreams are amazing entertainment.

God's gift to all creatures.  my dogs dream.  my kitty dreams. (i watch them twitch about and bark/purr in their sleep.)

i dream.

my dreams are better than any movie hollywood has ever made.  i look forward to sleep and dreams. 

do they mean anything?  i doubt it.  some mornings, most mornings, i wake up all happy and satisfied.  some mornings i am totally creeped out.   yikes.

but like i said, dreams are amazing entertainment.

God's gift to all creatures.




 

[The Village Idiot]

Thats how I see it. My dreams are like movies or TV series. Better than any that exist outside of my head.

I wish I could record them because I would love to try to traanscribe some of them.

[sofa king]

i know.

i'm just a working schlub.  but if i were a scientist or someone with a big brain, i would study why all creatures have to shut down for hours every day.  just have to shut off and snooze.  and dream. 

that to me is the most fascinating aspect of our existence. 

if i were the creator, i'd just have everyone and everything go 24/7.  doing what they do.  but God decided that all creatures should turn it off for a few hours each day and dream.  that to me is the most amazing part of life.  why?  not that dreams are important.  but why did God want all of us to sleep and dream?

if i only had a big brain...

[The Village Idiot]

  but why did God want all of us to sleep and dream?

To clear our cache? reboot?

[sofa king]

heh.

this is why God never made me God.

i wouldn't understand the concepts,  and i would totally screw up the job.



that.  and y'all would never get any sleep...

[Randy]

Tobins dream is easy to translate.

All the scared and extra equipment with the giving up at the end all mean one thing. Your subconscious mind knows and is ashamed you are a screaming ***** girly man and thinks you should jump off a cliff and end it all.

Remember, follow your dreams.

[franksolich]

Remember, follow your dreams.

I've told this before, although it was a long time ago.

One of my most frequent dreams--and I do have some re-runs--is of myself standing outdoors.  I jump slightly into the air, and suddenly am flying, soaring, coasting; ascending and descending.  No terrifying events; I just float around, including even tumbling (as in gymnastics), twisting and turning at will.  When I want to land, I land; when I want to go back up, I go back up.

Sometimes there's an added element, a disturbing one; sometimes there's an audience on the ground.  They see me, but act unimpressed, as if it's no big deal, even though they can't fly.

[Carl]

If you are sane you wake up,see the world outside and continue to live in it.
Trying to garner insight from a random dream is about the same as poking through the entrails of a road killed opossum.

I didn`t wander over to read all the gibberish on that thread but these are times I wish I had a mole so I could suggest that dreams were actually God talking to them.

Bet that would kill it fast.

[kenth]

To clear our cache? reboot?

Yeah. It's an information dump. Entertainment of course too, but so many of our dreams have bits and pieces of information of things we experience through out the day that really don't need to be kept. It seems to be an experience as our brains dump that information.

As for the Dump, they're all insane. The "mental health" sub-forum more so, if that's possible. There's nothing healthy about their mental health forum. It also seems to be a place for them to gather and compare drugs.

[thundley4]

But he doesn't plunge directly down. He hovers in the air for a few seconds and then asks for my permission to continue.

[vesta111]

I've told this before, although it was a long time ago.

One of my most frequent dreams--and I do have some re-runs--is of myself standing outdoors.  I jump slightly into the air, and suddenly am flying, soaring, coasting; ascending and descending.  No terrifying events; I just float around, including even tumbling (as in gymnastics), twisting and turning at will.  When I want to land, I land; when I want to go back up, I go back up.

Sometimes there's an added element, a disturbing one; sometimes there's an audience on the ground.  They see me, but act unimpressed, as if it's no big deal, even though they can't fly.

You do know who and what you are Frank.  

You seem to know your strong points and also want to reach out to possibilities.

Seems like you feel you can do more or learn more and as this becomes true you exalt in the achievements you have made so far.  A mental form of achievement and the thrill of the capture.

As for the dark side, that is your fear that regardless what you do, how far you come in the life of your own or others you will become------Did you see the movie Chicago.?    A Cellophane man,?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Well, based on my personal experience, I'd have to say no, they basically don't mean a damned thng except that you are asleep and that you have an active imagination.  As for predictive value, for me there is basically a negative correlation.

[delilahmused]

I think the Gods are telling him to jump.

Cindie

[Chris_]

This explains what's wrong with Tobin.

Tobin S.  (1000+ posts)      Fri Dec-11-09 10:12 AM
Response to Original message

1. I'm 37 and I've never been in a long term relationship.

I thought he was a kid. 

[The Village Idiot]

This explains what's wrong with Tobin.

I thought he was a kid. 

um... that describes me too... but then I am otherwise normal. more or less. 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Sometimes I dream I'm chasing dogs.

[franksolich]

This explains what's wrong with Tobin.

I thought he was a kid. 

Tobin S., formerly the droopy drawers primitive, is the primitive who embarked on a massive weight-loss program, and made it.

In what are allegedly photographs of himself, he looks pretty salt-of-the-earth.

HOWEVER, the droopy drawers primitive is addicted to far too many mood-altering pharmaceuticals, and needs to cut that out.  We, and not chemicals, are supposed to make our moods.

[GOBUCKS]

Tobin S., formerly the droopy drawers primitive, is the primitive who embarked on a massive weight-loss program, and made it.

Which reminds me. The Las Vegas Lardass has promised a detailed update today. In his most recent messages, aside from warning us that he's keeping an eye on coach, he had disheartening news. He's temporarily given up on his exercise program due to some severe chafing, which he describes with details graphic enough to induce vomiting in any normal person. Jeanette is back in the boiler room today, peddling ripoff cellphone contracts to addled senior citizens. Apparently the leviathan has abandoned his brief effort to post here as Jeanette, discouraged by his ability to deceive only a few of the more gullible.

[PatriotGame]

Tobin S.  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-28-09 12:01 AM
Original message
 
Do you think dreams mean anything?
 I alternate between thinking they do and don't. Or maybe some do and some don't. I just woke up from a vivid one.

Drop acid, go to bed, have strange dreams - the DUmmy is then perplexed.
Go figure...

[AllosaursRus]

I would have liked it better if the other guy standing their, stole his parachute and kicked him/her/it, off the rock, the whole time yelling, "You're too stupid to live!".