Visions and Dreams of Jesus Christ Stir Muslims to Christ
Visions and Dreams of Jesus Christ Stir Muslims to Christ by kadosh777
Visions and Dreams of Jesus Christ Stir Muslims to Christ
Visions and Dreams of Jesus Christ Stir Muslims to Christ
Cultural meaning
Ancient history
The Dreaming is an common term within the
animist creation narrative of
indigenous Australians for a personal, or group,
creation and for what may be understood as the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating.
[9]
The
Sumerians
in Mesopotamia left evidence of dreams dating back to 3100 BC.
According to these early recorded stories, gods and kings, like the 7th
century BC scholar-king
Assurbanipal, paid close attention to dreams. In his archive of clay tablets, some amounts of the story of the legendary king
Gilgamesh were found.
[10]
The Mesopotamians believed that the soul, or some part of it, moves
out from the body of the sleeping person and actually visits the places
and persons the dreamer sees in their sleep. Sometimes the god of dreams
is said to carry the dreamer.
[11]
Babylonians and Assyrians divided dreams into "good," which were sent
by the gods, and "bad," sent by demons - They also believed that their
dreams were
omens and prophecies.
[12]
In
ancient Egypt, as far back as 2000 BC, the Egyptians wrote down their dreams on
papyrus. People with vivid and significant dreams were thought blessed and were considered special.
[13] Ancient Egyptians believed that dreams were like
oracles,
bringing messages from the gods. They thought that the best way to
receive divine revelation was through dreaming and thus they would
induce (or "incubate") dreams. Egyptians would go to sanctuaries and
sleep on special "dream beds" in hope of receiving advice, comfort, or
healing from the gods.
[14]
Classical history
In Chinese history, people wrote of two vital aspects of the soul of
which one is freed from the body during slumber to journey a dream
realm, while the other remained in the body,
[15] although this belief and dream interpretation had been questioned since early times, such as by the philosopher
Wang Chong (27-97).
[15] The Indian text
Upanishads,
written between 900 and 500 BC, emphasize two meanings on dreams. The
first says that dreams are merely expressions of inner desires. The
second is the belief of the soul leaving the body and being guided until
awakened.
The Greeks shared their beliefs with the Egyptians on how to interpret good and bad dreams, and the idea of incubating dreams.
Morpheus,
the Greek god of dreams also sent warnings and prophecies to those who
slept at shrines and temples. The earliest Greek beliefs of dreams were
that their gods physically visited the dreamers, where they entered
through a keyhole, and exiting the same way after the divine message was
given.
Antiphon
wrote the first known Greek book on dreams in the 5th century BC. In
that century, other cultures influenced Greeks to develop the belief
that souls left the sleeping body.
[16] Hippocrates
(469-399 BC) had a simple dream theory: during the day, the soul
receives images; during the night, it produces images. Greek philosopher
Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed dreams caused
physiological activity. He thought dreams could analyze illness and predict diseases.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, for his part, believed that all dreams are produced by thoughts and conversations a dreamer had during the preceding days.
[17] Cicero's
Somnium Scipionis described a lengthy dream vision, which in turn was commented on by
Macrobius in his
Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis.
In Abrahamic religions
In Judaism, dreams are considered part of the experience of the world
that can be interpreted and from which lessons can be garnered. It is
discussed in the Talmud, Tractate Berachot 55-60.
The ancient
Hebrews connected their dreams heavily with their religion, though the Hebrews were
monotheistic
and believed that dreams were the voice of one god alone. Hebrews also
differentiated between good dreams (from God) and bad dreams (from evil
spirits). The Hebrews, like many other ancient cultures, incubated
dreams in order to receive divine revelation. For example, the Hebrew
prophet Samuel, would "lie down and sleep in the temple at Shiloh before
the Ark and receive the word of the Lord." Most of the dreams in the
Bible are in the
Book of Genesis.
[18]
Christians mostly shared their beliefs with the Hebrews and thought that dreams were of the supernatural element because the
Old Testament had frequent stories of dreams with divine inspiration. The most famous of these dream stories was
Jacob's dream of a ladder that stretched from
Earth to
Heaven. Many
Christians preach that God can speak to his people through their dreams.
Iain R. Edgar has researched the role of dreams in Islam.
[19]
He has argued that dreams play an important role in the history of
Islam and the lives of Muslims. Dream interpretation, is the only way
that Muslims can receive revelations from God after the death of the
last Prophet
Mohammed.
[20]
Dreams and philosophical realism
Main article:
Dream argument
Some philosophers have concluded that what we think of as the "real world" could be or is an illusion (an idea known as the
skeptical hypothesis about
ontology).
The first recorded mention of the idea was by
Zhuangzi, and it is also discussed in
Hinduism, which makes extensive use of the argument in its writings.
[21] It was formally introduced to Western philosophy by
Descartes in the 17th century in his
Meditations on First Philosophy. Stimulus, usually an auditory one, becomes a part of a dream, eventually then awakening the dreamer.
Postclassical and medieval history
Some
Indigenous American tribes and
Mexican civilizations believe that dreams are a way of visiting and having contact with their
ancestors.
[22] Some
Native American tribes used
vision quests
as a rite of passage, fasting and praying until an anticipated guiding
dream was received, to be shared with the rest of the tribe upon their
return.
[23][24]
The
Middle Ages brought a harsh interpretation of dreams. They were seen as
evil, and the images as
temptations from the
devil. Many believed that during sleep, the devil could fill the human mind with corrupting and harmful thoughts.
Martin Luther, founder of
Protestantism, believed dreams were the work of the Devil. However,
Catholics such as
St. Augustine and
St. Jerome claimed that the direction of their life were heavily influenced by their dreams.
In art
Dreams and dark imaginings are the theme of
Goya's etching
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. There is a painting by
Salvador Dalí that depicts this concept, titled
Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944).
Henri Rousseau's last painting was
The Dream.
Le Rêve ("The Dream") is a 1932 painting by
Pablo Picasso.
In literature
Dream frames were frequently used in medieval allegory to justify the narrative;
The Book of the Duchess[25] and
The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman[26] are two such
dream visions. Even before them, in antiquity, the same device had been used by
Cicero and
Lucian of Samosata.
The Cheshire Cat vanishes in Wonderland.
They have also featured in
fantasy and
speculative fiction since the 19th century. One of the best-known dream worlds is
Wonderland from
Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as well as
Looking-Glass Land from its sequel,
Through the Looking-Glass. Unlike many dream worlds, Carroll's logic is like that of actual dreams, with transitions and flexible causality.
Other fictional dream worlds include the
Dreamlands of
H. P. Lovecraft's
Dream Cycle[27] and
The Neverending Story's
[28]
world of Fantasia, which includes places like the Desert of Lost
Dreams, the Sea of Possibilities and the Swamps of Sadness. Dreamworlds,
shared hallucinations and other alternate realities feature in a number
of works by
Phillip K. Dick, such as
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and
Ubik. Similar themes were explored by
Jorge Luis Borges, for instance in
The Circular Ruins.
In popular culture
Modern
popular culture often conceives of dreams, like Freud, as expressions of the dreamer's deepest fears and desires.
[29] In films such as
Spellbound (1945),
The Manchurian Candidate (1962),
Field of Dreams (1989), and
Inception (2010), the protagonists must extract vital clues from surreal dreams.
[30]
Most dreams in popular culture are, however, not symbolic, but
straightforward and realistic depictions of their dreamer's fears and
desires.
[30]
Dream scenes may be indistinguishable from those set in the dreamer's
real world, a narrative device that undermines the dreamer's and the
audience's sense of security
[30] and allows
horror film protagonists, such as those of
Carrie (1976),
Friday the 13th (1980 film) (1980) or
An American Werewolf in London (1981) to be suddenly attacked by dark forces while resting in seemingly safe places.
[30]
In
speculative fiction, the line between dreams and reality may be blurred even more in the service of the story.
[30] Dreams may be psychically invaded or manipulated (
Dreamscape, 1984; the
Nightmare on Elm Street films, 1984–2010;
Inception, 2010) or even come literally true (as in
The Lathe of Heaven, 1971). In Ursula K. Le Guin's book,
The Lathe of Heaven (1971), the protagonist finds that his "effective" dreams can retroactively change reality. Peter Weir's 1977 Australian film
The Last Wave
makes a simple and straightforward postulate about the premonitory
nature of dreams (from one of his Aboriginal characters) that
"... dreams are the shadow of something real". Such stories play to
audiences' experiences with their own dreams, which feel as real to
them.
[30]
Dynamic psychiatry
Freudian view of dreams
In the late 19th century, psychotherapist
Sigmund Freud developed a theory that the content of dreams is driven by unconscious
wish fulfillment. Freud called dreams the "
royal road to the unconscious."
[31]
He theorized that the content of dreams reflects the dreamer's
unconscious mind and specifically that dream content is shaped by
unconscious wish fulfillment. He argued that important unconscious
desires often relate to early childhood memories and experiences.
Freud's theory describes dreams as having both
manifest and
latent
content. Latent content relates to deep unconscious wishes or fantasies
while manifest content is superficial and meaningless. Manifest content
often masks or obscures latent content.
In his early work, Freud argued that the vast majority of latent
dream content is sexual in nature, but he later moved away from this
categorical position. In
Beyond the Pleasure Principle he considered how trauma or aggression could influence dream content. He also discussed supernatural origins in
Dreams and Occultism, a lecture published in
New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.
[32]
Jungian and other views of dreams
Carl Jung
rejected many of Freud's theories. Jung expanded on Freud's idea that
dream content relates to the dreamer's unconscious desires. He described
dreams as
messages
to the dreamer and argued that dreamers should pay attention for their
own good. He came to believe that dreams present the dreamer with
revelations that can uncover and help to resolve
emotional or religious problems and fears.
[33]
Jung wrote that recurring dreams show up repeatedly to demand
attention, suggesting that the dreamer is neglecting an issue related to
the dream. He believed that many of the symbols or images from these
dreams return with each dream. Jung believed that memories formed
throughout the day also play a role in dreaming. These memories leave
impressions for the unconscious to deal with when the ego is at rest.
The unconscious mind re-enacts these glimpses of the past in the form of
a dream. Jung called this a
day residue.
[34]
Jung also argued that dreaming is not a purely individual concern, that
all dreams are part of "one great web of psychological factors."
Fritz Perls presented his theory of dreams as part of the holistic nature of
Gestalt therapy. Dreams are seen as projections of parts of the self that have been ignored, rejected, or
suppressed.
[35]
Jung argued that one could consider every person in the dream to
represent an aspect of the dreamer, which he called the subjective
approach to dreams.
Perls
expanded this point of view to say that even inanimate objects in the
dream may represent aspects of the dreamer. The dreamer may, therefore,
be asked to imagine being an object in the dream and to describe it, in
order to bring into awareness the characteristics of the object that
correspond with the dreamer's personality.
The neurobiology of dreaming
EEG showing brainwaves during REM sleep
Accumulated observation has shown that dreams are strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep, during which an
electroencephalogram (EEG) shows brain activity that, among sleep states, is most like wakefulness. Participant-remembered dreams during
NREM sleep are normally more mundane in comparison.
[36] During a typical lifespan, a person spends a total of about six years dreaming
[37] (which is about two hours each night).
[38] Most dreams only last 5 to 20 minutes.
[37]
It is unknown where in the brain dreams originate, if there is a single
origin for dreams or if multiple portions of the brain are involved, or
what the purpose of dreaming is for the body or mind.
During REM sleep, the release of the
neurotransmitters norepinephrine,
serotonin and
histamine is completely suppressed.
[39][40][41]
During most dreams, the person dreaming is not aware that they are
dreaming, no matter how absurd or eccentric the dream is. The reason for
this is the
prefrontal cortex,
the region of the brain responsible for logic and planning, exhibits
decreased activity during dreams. This allows the dreamer to more
actively interact with the dream without thinking about what might
happen, as things that would normally stand out in reality blend in with
the dream scenery.
[42]
When REM sleep episodes were timed for their duration and subjects
woken to make reports before major editing or forgetting could take
place, subjects accurately reported the length of time they had been
dreaming in an REM sleep state. Some researchers have speculated that "
time dilation" effects only seem to be taking place upon reflection and do not truly occur within dreams.
[43]
This close correlation of REM sleep and dream experience was the basis
of the first series of reports describing the nature of dreaming: that
it is a regular nightly, rather than occasional, phenomenon, and a
high-frequency activity within each sleep period occurring at
predictable intervals of approximately every 60–90 minutes in all humans
throughout the life span.
REM sleep episodes and the dreams that accompany them lengthen
progressively across the night, with the first episode being shortest,
of approximately 10–12 minutes duration, and the second and third
episodes increasing to 15–20 minutes. Dreams at the end of the night may
last as long as 15 minutes, although these may be experienced as
several distinct stories due to momentary arousals interrupting sleep as
the night ends. Dream reports can be reported from normal subjects on
50% of the occasion when an awakening is made prior to the end of the
first REM period. This rate of retrieval is increased to about 99% when
awakenings are made from the last REM period of the night. This increase
in the ability to recall appears related to intensification across the
night in the vividness of dream imagery, colors, and emotions.
[44]
Dreams in animals
REM sleep and the ability to dream seem to be embedded in the biology
of many animals that live on Earth. Scientific research suggests that
all mammals experience REM.
[45] The range of REM can be seen across species: dolphins experience minimum REM, while humans remain in the middle and the
opossum and the
armadillo are among the most prolific dreamers.
[46]
Studies have observed dreaming in mammals such as monkeys, dogs,
cats, rats, elephants and shrews. There have also been signs of dreaming
in birds and reptiles.
[47]
Sleeping and dreaming are intertwined. Scientific research results
regarding the function of dreaming in animals remain disputable;
however, the function of sleeping in living organisms is increasingly
clear. For example, recent sleep deprivation experiments conducted on
rats and other animals have resulted in the deterioration of
physiological functioning and actual tissue damage of the animals.
[48]
Some scientists argue that humans dream for the same reason other
amniotes
do. From a Darwinian perspective dreams would have to fulfill some kind
of biological requirement, provide some benefit for natural selection
to take place, or at least of have no negative impact on fitness. In
2000 Antti Revonsuo, a professor at the University of Turku in Finland,
claimed that centuries ago dreams would prepare humans for recognizing
and avoiding danger by presenting a simulation of threatening events.
The theory has therefore been called the threat-simulation theory.
[49]
According to Tsoukalas (2012) dreaming is related to the reactive
patterns elicited by predatorial encounters, a fact that is still
evident in the control mechanisms of REM sleep (see below).
[50][51]
Neurological theories of dreams
Activation synthesis theory
In 1976
J. Allan Hobson and
Robert McCarley proposed a new theory that changed dream research, challenging the previously held
Freudian
view of dreams as unconscious wishes to be interpreted. They assume
that the same structures that induce REM sleep also generate sensory
information. Hobson's 1976 research suggested that the signals
interpreted as dreams originated in the brain stem during REM sleep.
According to Hobson and other researchers, circuits in the brain stem
are activated during REM sleep. Once these circuits are activated, areas
of the limbic system involved in emotions, sensations, and memories,
including the amygdala and hippocampus, become active. The brain
synthesizes and interprets these activities, for example changes on the
physical environment such as temperature and humidity, or physical
stimuli such as ejaculation, and attempts to create meaning from these
signals, which results in dreaming.
However, research by
Mark Solms suggests that dreams are generated in the
forebrain, and that REM sleep and dreaming are not directly related.
[52] While working in the neurosurgery department at hospitals in
Johannesburg and
London,
Solms had access to patients with various brain injuries. He began to
question patients about their dreams and confirmed that patients with
damage to the
parietal lobe
stopped dreaming; this finding was in line with Hobson's 1977 theory.
However, Solms did not encounter cases of loss of dreaming with patients
having brain stem damage. This observation forced him to question
Hobson's prevailing theory, which marked the brain stem as the source of
the signals interpreted as dreams.
Continual-activation theory
Combining Hobson's activation synthesis hypothesis with Solms'
findings, the continual-activation theory of dreaming presented by
Jie Zhang
proposes that dreaming is a result of brain activation and synthesis;
at the same time, dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different
brain mechanisms. Zhang hypothesizes that the function of sleep is to
process, encode and transfer the data from the temporary memory store to
the
long-term memory store.
NREM
sleep processes the conscious-related memory (declarative memory), and
REM sleep processes the unconscious related memory (procedural memory).
Zhang assumes that during REM sleep the unconscious part of a brain
is busy processing the procedural memory; meanwhile, the level of
activation in the conscious part of the brain descends to a very low
level as the inputs from the sensory are basically disconnected. This
triggers the "continual-activation" mechanism to generate a data stream
from the memory stores to flow through the conscious part of the brain.
Zhang suggests that this pulse-like brain activation is the inducer of
each dream. He proposes that, with the involvement of the brain
associative thinking system, dreaming is, thereafter, self-maintained
with the dreamer's own thinking until the next pulse of memory
insertion. This explains why dreams have both characteristics of
continuity (within a dream) and sudden changes (between two dreams).
[53][54]
Defensive immobilization: the precursor of dreams
According to Tsoukalas (2012) REM sleep is an evolutionary transformation of a well-known defensive mechanism, the
tonic immobility
reflex. This reflex, also known as animal hypnosis or death feigning,
functions as the last line of defense against an attacking predator and
consists of the total immobilization of the animal: the animal appears
dead (cf. "playing possum"). Tsoukalas claims the neurophysiology and
phenomenology of this reaction shows striking similarities to REM sleep,
a fact which betrays a deep evolutionary kinship. For example, both
reactions exhibit brainstem control, paralysis, sympathetic activation,
and thermoregulatory changes. The author claims this theory integrates
many earlier findings into a unified framework.
[50][51]
Dreams as excitations of long-term memory
Eugen Tarnow suggests that dreams are ever-present excitations of
long-term memory, even during waking life. The strangeness of dreams is due to the format of long-term memory, reminiscent of
Penfield & Rasmussen's findings that electrical excitations of the
cortex
give rise to experiences similar to dreams. During waking life an
executive function interprets long-term memory consistent with reality
checking. Tarnow's theory is a reworking of Freud's theory of dreams in
which Freud's unconscious is replaced with the long-term memory system
and Freud's "Dream Work" describes the structure of long-term memory.
[55]
Dreams for strengthening of semantic memories
A 2001 study showed evidence that illogical locations, characters,
and dream flow may help the brain strengthen the linking and
consolidation of
semantic memories.
[56] These conditions may occur because, during REM sleep, the flow of information between the
hippocampus and
neocortex is reduced.
[57]
Increasing levels of the
stress hormone
cortisol late in sleep (often during REM sleep) cause this decreased communication. One stage of
memory consolidation
is the linking of distant but related memories. Payne and Nadal
hypothesize these memories are then consolidated into a smooth
narrative, similar to a process that happens when memories are created
under stress.
[58]
Dreams for removing excess sensory information
Robert (1886),
[59]
a physician from Hamburg, was the first who suggested that dreams are a
need and that they have the function to erase (a) sensory impressions
that were not fully worked up, and (b) ideas that were not fully
developed during the day. By the dream work, incomplete material is
either removed (suppressed) or deepened and included into memory.
Robert's ideas were cited repeatedly by Freud in his
Die Traumdeutung.
Hughlings Jackson (1911) viewed that sleep serves to sweep away unnecessary memories and connections from the day.
This was revised in 1983 by Crick and Mitchison's "
reverse learning"
theory, which states that dreams are like the cleaning-up operations of
computers when they are off-line, removing (suppressing) parasitic
nodes and other "junk" from the mind during sleep.
[60][61]
However, the opposite view that dreaming has an information handling,
memory-consolidating function (Hennevin and Leconte, 1971) is also
common.
Psychological theories of dreams
Dreams for testing and selecting mental schemas
Coutts
[62]
describes dreams as playing a central role in a two-phase sleep process
that improves the mind's ability to meet human needs during
wakefulness. During the accommodation phase, mental schemas self-modify
by incorporating dream themes. During the
emotional selection
phase, dreams test prior schema accommodations. Those that appear
adaptive are retained, while those that appear maladaptive are culled.
The cycle maps to the sleep cycle, repeating several times during a
typical night's sleep.
Alfred Adler
suggested that dreams are often emotional preparations for solving
problems, intoxicating an individual away from common sense toward
private logic. The residual dream feelings may either reinforce or
inhibit contemplated action.
Evolutionary psychology theories of dreams
Numerous theories state that dreaming is a random by-product of REM
sleep physiology and that it does not serve any natural purpose.
[63] Flanagan claims that "dreams are evolutionary
epiphenomena" and they have no adaptive function. "Dreaming came along as a free ride on a system designed to think and to sleep.
[64]
" Hobson, for different reasons, also considers dreams epiphenomena. He
believes that the substance of dreams have no significant influence on
waking actions, and most people go about their daily lives perfectly
well without remembering their dreams.
[65]
Hobson proposed the activation-synthesis theory, which states that
"there is a randomness of dream imagery and the randomness synthesizes
dream-generated images to fit the patterns of internally generated
stimulations".
[66]
This theory is based on the physiology of REM sleep, and Hobson
believes dreams are the outcome of the forebrain reacting to random
activity beginning at the brainstem. The activation-synthesis theory
hypothesizes that the peculiar nature of dreams is attributed to certain
parts of the brain trying to piece together a story out of what is
essentially bizarre information.
[67]
However, evolutionary psychologists believe dreams serve some adaptive function for survival.
Deirdre Barrett
describes dreaming as simply "thinking in different biochemical state"
and believes people continue to work on all the same problems—personal
and objective—in that state.
[68] Her research finds that anything—math, musical composition, business dilemmas—may get solved during dreaming.
[69][70] In a related theory, which
Mark Blechner
terms "Oneiric Darwinism," dreams are seen as creating new ideas
through the generation of random thought mutations. Some of these may be
rejected by the mind as useless, while others may be seen as valuable
and retained.
[71]
Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo posits that dreams have evolved
for "threat simulation" exclusively. According to the Threat Simulation
Theory he proposes, during much of human evolution physical and
interpersonal threats were serious, giving reproductive advantage to
those who survived them. Therefore dreaming evolved to replicate these
threats and continually practice dealing with them. In support of this
theory, Revonsuo shows that contemporary dreams comprise much more
threatening events than people meet in daily non-dream life, and the
dreamer usually engages appropriately with them.
[72]
It is suggested by this theory that dreams serve the purpose of
allowing for the rehearsal of threatening scenarios in order to better
prepare an individual for real-life threats.
According to Tsoukalas (2012) the biology of dreaming is related to
the reactive patterns elicited by predatorial encounters (especially the
tonic immobility reflex), a fact that lends support to evolutionary
theories claiming that dreams specialize in threat avoidance and/or
emotional processing.
[50]
Psychosomatic theory of dreams
Y.D. Tsai developed in 1995 a 3-hypothesis theory
[73] that is claimed to provide a mechanism for mind-body interaction and explain many dream-related phenomena, including
hypnosis, meridians in Chinese medicine, the increase in heart rate and breathing rate during
REM sleep, that babies have longer REM sleep, lucid dreams, etc.
Dreams are a product of "dissociated imagination," which is
dissociated
from the conscious self and draws material from sensory memory for
simulation, with feedback resulting in hallucination. By simulating the
sensory signals to drive the autonomous nerves, dreams can affect
mind-body interaction. In the brain and spine, the autonomous "repair
nerves," which can expand the blood vessels, connect with compression
and pain nerves. Repair nerves are grouped into many chains called
meridians
in Chinese medicine. When some repair nerves are prodded by compression
or pain to send out their repair signals, a chain reaction spreads out
to set other repair nerves in the same meridian into action. While
dreaming, the body also employs the meridians to repair the body and
help it grow and develop by simulating very intensive
movement-compression signals to expand the blood vessels when the level
of growth enzymes increase.
Other hypotheses on dreaming
There are many other hypotheses about the function of dreams, including:
[74]
- Dreams allow the repressed parts of the mind to be satisfied through fantasy while keeping the conscious mind from thoughts that would suddenly cause one to awaken from shock.[75]
- Ferenczi[76] proposed that the dream, when told, may communicate something that is not being said outright.
- Dreams regulate mood.[77]
- Hartmann[78]
says dreams may function like psychotherapy, by "making connections in a
safe place" and allowing the dreamer to integrate thoughts that may be
dissociated during waking life.
- LaBerge and DeGracia[79]
have suggested that dreams may function, in part, to recombine
unconscious elements within consciousness on a temporary basis by a
process they termm “mental recombination”, in analogy with genetic
recombination of DNA. From a bio-computational viewpoint, mental
recombination may contribute to maintaining an optimal information
processing flexibility in brain information networks.
Dream content
From the 1940s to 1985,
Calvin S. Hall collected more than 50,000 dream reports at
Western Reserve University. In 1966 Hall and Van De Castle published
The Content Analysis of Dreams, in which they outlined a coding system to study 1,000 dream reports from college students.
[80]
Results indicated that participants from varying parts of the world
demonstrated similarity in their dream content. Hall's complete dream
reports became publicly available in the mid-1990s by Hall's protégé
William Domhoff, allowing further different analysis.
Visuals
The visual nature of dreams is generally highly phantasmagoric; that
is, different locations and objects continuously blend into each other.
The visuals (including locations, characters/people, objects/artifacts)
are generally reflective of a person's memories and experiences, but can
take on highly exaggerated and bizarre forms.
People who are blind from birth do not have visual dreams. Their dream contents are related to other senses like
auditory,
touch,
smell and
taste, whichever are present since birth.
[81]
Emotions
In the Hall study, the most common emotion experienced in dreams was
anxiety. Other emotions included
abandonment,
anger,
fear,
joy, and
happiness. Negative emotions were much more common than positive ones.
[80]
Sexual themes
The Hall data analysis shows that sexual dreams occur no more than 10% of the time and are more prevalent in young to mid-teens.
[80] Another study showed that 8% of men's and women's dreams have sexual content.
[82] In some cases, sexual dreams may result in
orgasms or
nocturnal emissions. These are colloquially known as
wet dreams.
[83]
Color vs. black and white
A small minority of people say that they dream only in black and white.
[84] A 2008 study by a researcher at the
University of Dundee
found that people who were only exposed to black and white television
and film in childhood reported dreaming in black and white about 25% of
the time.
[85]
Relationship with medical conditions
There is evidence that certain medical conditions (normally only
neurological conditions) can impact dreams. For instance, some people
with
synesthesia
have never reported entirely black-and-white dreaming, and often have a
difficult time imagining the idea of dreaming in only black and white.
[86]
Dream interpretations
Dream interpretation can be a result of subjective ideas and
experiences. A recent study conducted by the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology concluded that most people believe that "their dreams
reveal meaningful hidden truths". The study was conducted in the United
States, South Korea and India. 74% Indians, 65% South Koreans and 56%
Americans believe in Freud's dream theories.
[87]
Therapy for recurring
nightmares (often associated with
posttraumatic stress disorder) can include imagining alternative scenarios that could begin at each step of the dream.
[88]
Other associated phenomena
Incorporation of reality
During the night, many external stimuli may bombard the senses, but
the brain often interprets the stimulus and makes it a part of a dream
to ensure continued sleep.
[89]
Dream incorporation is a phenomenon whereby an actual sensation, such
as environmental sounds, is incorporated into dreams, such as hearing a
phone ringing in a dream while it is ringing in reality or dreaming of
urination while
wetting
the bed. The mind can, however, awaken an individual if they are in
danger or if trained to respond to certain sounds, such as a baby
crying.
The term "dream incorporation" is also used in research examining the
degree to which preceding daytime events become elements of dreams.
Recent studies suggest that events in the day immediately preceding, and
those about a week before, have the most influence.
[90]
Apparent precognition of real events
Main article:
Precognition
According to surveys, it is common for people to feel their dreams are predicting subsequent life events.
[91] Psychologists have explained these experiences in terms of
memory biases,
namely a selective memory for accurate predictions and distorted memory
so that dreams are retrospectively fitted onto life experiences.
[91] The multi-faceted nature of dreams makes it easy to find connections between dream content and real events.
[92]
In one experiment, subjects were asked to write down their dreams in a
diary. This prevented the selective memory effect, and the dreams no
longer seemed accurate about the future.
[93]
Another experiment gave subjects a fake diary of a student with
apparently precognitive dreams. This diary described events from the
person's life, as well as some predictive dreams and some non-predictive
dreams. When subjects were asked to recall the dreams they had read,
they remembered more of the successful predictions than unsuccessful
ones.
[94]
Lucid dreaming
Main article:
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming is the conscious perception of one's state while
dreaming. In this state the dreamer may often (but not always) have some
degree of control over their own actions within the dream or even the
characters and the environment of the dream. Dream control has been
reported to improve with practiced deliberate lucid dreaming, but the
ability to control aspects of the dream is not necessary for a dream to
qualify as "lucid" — a lucid dream is any dream during which the dreamer
knows they are dreaming.
[95] The occurrence of lucid dreaming has been scientifically verified.
[96]
Oneironaut is a term sometimes used for those who lucidly dream.
Communication through lucid dreaming
In 1975, parapsychologist Keith Hearne successfully communicated to a
patient experiencing a lucid dream. On April 12, 1975, after being
instructed to move the eyes left and right upon becoming lucid, the
subject had a lucid dream and the first recorded signals from a lucid
dream were recorded.
[97]
Years later, psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge conducted similar work including:
- Using eye signals to map the subjective sense of time in dreams
- Comparing the electrical activity of the brain while singing awake and while dreaming.
- Studies comparing in-dream sex, arousal, and orgasm[98]
Dreams of absent-minded transgression
Dreams of absent-minded transgression (DAMT) are dreams wherein the
dreamer absentmindedly performs an action that he or she has been trying
to stop (one classic example is of a quitting smoker having dreams of
lighting a cigarette). Subjects who have had DAMT have reported waking
with intense feelings of
guilt. One study found a positive association between having these dreams and successfully stopping the behavior.
[99]
Recalling dreams
The recall of dreams is extremely unreliable, though it is a skill
that can be trained. Dreams can usually be recalled if a person is
awakened while dreaming.
[88] Women tend to have more frequent dream recall than men.
[88] Dreams that are difficult to recall may be characterized by relatively little
affect, and factors such as
salience,
arousal,
and interference play a role in dream recall. Often, a dream may be
recalled upon viewing or hearing a random trigger or stimulus. The
salience hypothesis
proposes that dream content that is salient, that is, novel, intense,
or unusual, is more easily remembered. There is considerable evidence
that vivid, intense, or unusual dream content is more frequently
recalled.
[100] A
dream journal can be used to assist dream recall, for personal interest or
psychotherapy purposes.
For some people, sensations from the previous night's dreams are
sometimes spontaneously experienced in falling asleep. However they are
usually too slight and fleeting to allow dream recall. At least 95% of
all dreams are not remembered. Certain brain chemicals necessary for
converting short-term memories into long-term ones are suppressed during
REM sleep. Unless a dream is particularly vivid and if one wakes during
or immediately after it, the content of the dream is not remembered.
[101]
Individual differences
In line with the salience hypothesis, there is considerable evidence
that people who have more vivid, intense or unusual dreams show better
recall. There is evidence that continuity of consciousness is related to
recall. Specifically, people who have vivid and unusual experiences
during the day tend to have more memorable dream content and hence
better dream recall. People who score high on measures of personality
traits associated with creativity, imagination, and fantasy, such as
openness to experience,
daydreaming,
fantasy proneness,
absorption, and
hypnotic susceptibility, tend to show more frequent dream recall.
[100]
There is also evidence for continuity between the bizarre aspects of
dreaming and waking experience. That is, people who report more bizarre
experiences during the day, such as people high in
schizotypy (psychosis proneness) have more frequent dream recall and also report more frequent
nightmares.
[100]
Déjà vu
One theory of déjà vu attributes the feeling of having previously
seen or experienced something to having dreamt about a similar situation
or place, and forgetting about it until one seems to be mysteriously
reminded of the situation or the place while awake.
[102]
Daydreaming
A
daydream is a visionary
fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake.
[103] There are many different types of daydreams, and there is no consistent definition amongst
psychologists.
[103] The general public also uses the term for a broad variety of experiences. Research by Harvard psychologist
Deirdre Barrett has found that people who experience vivid dream-like
mental images
reserve the word for these, whereas many other people refer to milder
imagery, realistic future planning, review of past memories or just
"spacing out"—i.e. one's mind going relatively blank—when they talk
about "daydreaming."
[104]
While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive
pastime, it is now commonly acknowledged that daydreaming can be
constructive in some contexts.
[105] There are numerous examples of people in
creative or artistic careers, such as
composers,
novelists and
filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research
scientists,
mathematicians and
physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.[1]
The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood,
though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a
subject of philosophical and religious interest, throughout recorded history. The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology.[2]
Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep—when brain activity
is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is revealed by
continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. At times, dreams may
occur during other stages of sleep. However, these dreams tend to be much less vivid or memorable.[3]
The length of a dream can vary; they may last for a few seconds, or approximately 20–30 minutes.[3]
People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened
during the REM phase. The average person has three to five dreams per
night, but some may have up to seven dreams in one night.[4]
The dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. During a full
eight-hour night sleep, most dreams occur in the typical two hours of
REM.[5]
In modern times, dreams have been seen as a connection to the unconscious mind. They range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre. Dreams can have varying natures, such as frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. The events in dreams are generally outside the control of the dreamer, with the exception of lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is self-aware. Dreams can at times make a creative thought occur to the person or give a sense of inspiration.[6]
Opinions about the meaning of dreams have varied and shifted through
time and culture. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from
materials dating back approximately 5000 years, in Mesopotamia, where they were documented on clay tablets. In the Greek and Roman periods, the people believed that dreams were direct messages from one and/or multiple deities, from deceased persons, and that they predicted the future. Some cultures practiced dream incubation with the intention of cultivating dreams that are of prophecy.[7]
Sigmund Freud, who developed the discipline of psychoanalysis, wrote extensively about dream theories and their interpretations in the early 1900s.[8] He explained dreams as manifestations of our deepest desires and anxieties, often relating to repressed childhood memories or obsessions. In The Interpretation of Dreams
(1899), Freud developed a psychological technique to interpret dreams
and devised a series of guidelines to understand the symbols and motifs
that appear in our dreams.
