The Dreams Thread

[Night Herald]

I thought we could use a thread like this for the oneironauts among us, or for anyone interested in their dreaming life who wants to share. It could be debating the nature of dreams, from either a neuroscientific or more mystical standpoint, sharing dream reports, or whatever else.

I'll start by saying I have always taken a particular interest in my dreams, and they are, on average, as important to me as anything that happens in waking life. As I've eased into the spiritual path, it becomes increasingly apparent to me that dreams often have a lessened sense of Ego or Self, and that might be why they feel more "real". Dreaming often feels like connecting with who I am at my core, beyond the life story and all those individual quirks. There are as many levels of dreams as there are stages of waking consciousness, probably more.

I'll leave aside that whole class of dreams that are so clearly just regurgitations of our daily lives, those aren't very interesting. I think a majority of dreams are purely that, organizing the events of our days and broader lives. I also think there is something much deeper at play here.

For one thing, I think dreams can be an expression of our deepest, most unbound creativity—no Ego, just unfettered creativity. If any of you subscribe to the idea of a Causal Plane, I think the highest dreams are visits there. I think others, the ones that are more real than real, might occur on the Astral Plane. These are the ones that still retain a trace of Ego but transcend it, showing a reality more textured and complex than what we see in waking.

Lucid dreams are a whole other kettle, and I won't touch on that much. I think lucidity can happen in dreams at any stage, resulting in different results.

I think dreams are such an important part of who we are, it both shows us the hidden parts of the Self and lets us experience who we are behind it. If nothing else, they are a great and gratis way to have insane adventures while we sleep.

How do you figure dreams play into the psyche? Do you think it's connected to a transcendent mode of being? What role do you think dreams play in the life of the individual and society? And what is your personal relationship with dreams?

 

[Madman Starryteller]

I usually have adventurous dreams. Where I travel and fight great battles in epic circumstances, such as standing on a flying ship and jumping across the sky to board another flying ship.

I have a suspicion that dreams are connected to a sort of multiverse, where our mind travels and get glimpses of other universes.

Then there's the dark side of the dreaming world, nightmares. The moment you have them, they feel so real and difficult. I have a sickness, and sometimes I dream psychotic nightmares that are just awful and scary as hell, when I wake up I feel blessed to have survived such nightmares. I remember the feeling of one such nightmare, where I was shown a very horrid truth. But as I woke up, I forgot about it, just the feeling of having been shown something very disturbing, remained.

Dreams are an interesting subject for sure. There are dreams out of this world, where you see things you have difficulty imagining in the real world. I saw the inside of a castle once, which had small pyramids inside, but whose tops were cut away. It was an interesting sight.

 

[Luxuria]

My dreams are usually themed. Like, I'll be in Star Wars one night and Oz the next. It just depends on the day. Always kinda fun though?

 

[Night Herald]

I usually have adventurous dreams. Where I travel and fight great battles in epic circumstances, such as standing on a flying ship and jumping across the sky to board another flying ship.

I have a lot of these ones too, where I'm presented with a more or less coherent storyline of some epic nature.

I have a suspicion that dreams are connected to a sort of multiverse, where our mind travels and get glimpses of other universes.

I think much the same thing, that some at least are this. I see dreams not as one singular phenomenon, but as an umbrella term for a bunch of different ones that happen while we sleep. Some are very clearly and directly tied to our waking lives, really just remixes of recent (or sometimes older) memory, but some feel like so much more.

Just as when we're awake, I'm convinced that we experience different levels of consciousness when we sleep. Some dreams are so strange, so expansive, that they transcend ordinary ideas about identity. I'm not talking about lucid dreaming here; awesome as they are, you're still dealing with a concrete, separate self there, at least that's been the case for me in my experiences. In some dreams I get the sense of being all that is present, a different kind of lucidity, and surely a taste of what unity consciousness must be like.

Being a long-time gamer, my dreams are often presented as video games, often some kind of grand strategy, and for some reason those are some of the most out-there ones. There's one from earlier this year that I still remember vividly. If only gaming was that fun and interesting when awake...

Then there's the dark side of the dreaming world, nightmares.

Strangely enough, I don't usually have nightmares. I can call to mind one proper nightmare from the last, I don't know, fifteen year. It's a rarity for me. That being said, I think maybe I classify nightmares differently. I certainly have dark and disturbing dreams every so often, some really nasty and unpleasant imagery, but in my book it isn't a nightmare unless you fully embody it and get invested in the show being presented. Usually when something horrid happens in a dream there's a degree of detachment, an understanding that it isn't actually real. Not true lucidity, but a kind of knowing all that same. I can, for instance, be fighting a horde of zombies, being fully invested in it but at the same time having the time of my life, knowing on some deeper level that I'm not in any real danger.

Dreams are an interesting subject for sure. There are dreams out of this world, where you see things you have difficulty imagining in the real world.

Damn fascinating stuff, isn't it? Like I mentioned in my original post, dreams seem to me primarily like a playground of the imagination. I subscribe to the Hindu school of thinking, more or less, or anyways to a spiritual model where what we are is, ultimately, the creator. I think that when we sleep and take a break from being the person that we ostensibly are, we are more truly ourselves, with all the unbound creative powers that entails. I think dreams are such an important way to embody the depths of who we truly are, and I think they're not dissimilar from things like shamanic trances, psychedelic trips, deep meditation, or mystical experiences. I certainly have had dreams that I would class as mystical experiences, and other ones that fully qualify as psychedelic.

 

[Pik]

I was really interested in lucid dreams and astral projection at some point in my life, probably because I wanted to work on my spirituality and creative skills and felt a bit lost. I listened to a lot of guided meditations with clear instructions for astral projection, guess I was hoping to encounter some of my favorite characters or authors or historical figures and have imaginary chat with them. Can't say I succeeded in projecting myself astrally or fully waking up in a dream but I liked some of the online stories and experiences I read about this.