Do Dreams Have Meaning?

[Splat]

http://i40.tinypic.com/15ea6id.jpg

[tjsunstein]

One could say that it's your subconscious projecting your thoughts to your 'conscious.' So in that sense, sure they have meaning.

[vikes_28]

I've heard that dreams are your true desires.

[diabsoule]

I think they do. Most of my dreams come true, which I find to be really strange.

[tjsunstein]

Weird that this thread came up today. Last night I had a quite common dream. My teeth falling out one by one and there's no preventing it. It's been translated to having anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you.

[villagewarrior]

Most of the time dreams are just regurgitated memory, the brain trying to sort itself out. However, I voted yes because I believe in a higher being who provides clues in such ways.

[prock]

I believe in the Hobson-McCarley Activation-synthesis theory when it comes to dreams. I think they are just random thoughts, simply because I imagine that we will ever be able to figure our exactly what they mean, those Freudian dream sheets and stuff are just ********.

[tjsunstein]

I think they do. Most of my dreams come true, which I find to be really strange.

I've had little dreams come true. I had a dream that I would get a speeding ticket and the next day I did (30mph in a 25mph zone, no lie). No one puts thought into their dreams and discount them as nothing more times than not. In high school, we had to log our dreams for a week when we first woke up so they were fresh. Now, a lot of kids made theirs up to be funny but some were common.

[Whistler6]

Robert Jordan has me believing yes.

[vikes_28]

Weird that this thread came up today. Last night I had a quite common dream. My teeth falling out one by one and there's no preventing it. It's been translated to having anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you.

I've heard that it means that there is going to be change soon in your life.

[Splat]

My teeth falling out one by one and there's no preventing it.

I have had this same dream...

[OSUGiants17]

only recurring dreams have meaning

[tjsunstein]

I've heard that it means that there is going to be change soon in your life.
Quite possibly. I've applied to a couple schools, possibly transferring.

I have had this same dream...
It's common.

only recurring dreams have meaning
Makes sense.

[b316]

why don't I have dreams? I used to but not no mo..well i just can't remember them.

[prock]

I've heard that it means that there is going to be change soon in your life.

How the **** can people determine what a dream means? They say they just analyze it, but honestly, I think that is 100% garbage.

[tjsunstein]

How the **** can people determine what a dream means? They say they just analyze it, but honestly, I think that is 100% garbage.

I'll let you know if there really is a change in my life in the near future, haha. May just be coincidence and something that I'll be looking for now that I had the dream, kind of like a placebo theory.

[Job]

Where's the sometimes option?

[Bob Sanders Dreadlock]

I had a dream the other night Albert Pujols stayed in STL for life and Mark McGwire never showed his face again. Please be true.

[sweetness34]

why don't I have dreams? I used to but not no mo..well i just can't remember them.

Do you smoke a lot of ganja? That could be a reason why lol.

I dream every night and remember most of them.

Do you dream from a 1st person point of view or do you see yourself in your dreams? I dream in 1st person.

[gsorace]

Absolutely not, don't a lot of animals dream?

[Job]

Absolutely not, don't a lot of animals dream?

Is that supposed to support the "dreams have no meaning" argument?

[kalbears13]

How come sometimes you remember dreams and sometimes you don't? I'll go a whole week remembering all my dreams and then the next 2 months I won't remember any of them.

[Razor]

Your question isn't quite "a soup question". If you mean that our dreams are a way of processing information gathered that day or from a couple of days prior to the dream, then yes, dreams have meaning. Do dreams predict your future? No. Does good advice come from strange people in your dreams? No.

[tjsunstein]

Dreams have as much meaning as you let them.

[Addict]

I've heard that dreams are your true desires.

yeah I suppose, but I read the qeuston as being something supernatural, and I can't get behind that. Dreams are I think images that your mind brings up without the filter of decency and whatever else we use to water down what we want.

[Shane P. Hallam]

Your question isn't quite "a soup question". If you mean that our dreams are a way of processen information gathered that day or from a coupe of days prior to the dream, then yes, dreams have meaning. Do dreams predict your future? No. Does good advice come from strange people in your dreams? No.

Well now, if dreams are your sub conscious, there definitely could be some advice that comes out of it that your conscious simply doesn't know.

[Addict]

Well now, if dreams are your sub conscious, there definitely could be some advice that comes out of it that your conscious simply doesn't know.

like I said, dreams is your brains running without the limits of conciousness. Sometimes it can be quite enlightening.

[StripedWalrus]

The only dreams I believe in are wet ones ;)

[Razor]

Well now, if dreams are your sub conscious, there definitely could be some advice that comes out of it that your conscious simply doesn't know.

Well, maybe. I only have my own experiences, and from that I know, that most of my dreams (nearly all) have the same theme. I don't get advice in dreams, never have. My future has never been predicted in any way, not even close. Most of my dreams are about my strongest desire in life, and how not to do it. Is that advice? Not in my world, since the scenarios in my dreams are usually f****** up, and has no connection to my life what so ever. There's always some kind of trouble that seems so far from reality that I can't think of it as something that has a higher meaning. To me day dreaming and dreaming are the same thing.

[Addict]

The only dreams I believe in are wet ones ;)

maybe you are a pervert in your subconscience, too?

[Paranoidmoonduck]

All meaning is abstracted from reality by the sheer will of the human mind anyway. If it drags some meaning out of purely mentally contained experiences, it doesn't lessen that meaning. It's just from a different source.

[Philliez01]

I'm not sure if I do or not. Most of my dreams recently have involved me running, but I run cross country/track in college so it's probably because of that. Or I'm running away from some type of odd issue.

[Brent]

I am seemingly always wondering around a some random building in my dreams.

[RaiderNation]

I seem to always have dreams that come true probably once a month or so. It feels so wierd when it happens. I remember it was like like a few monthes ago and I remember right before I woke up that I would be in class and this kid would ask a question and probably like a week or 2 after it happened. I sat there freaking out lol

[WinslowBodden]

Depends on the dream... I have alot of dreams that are just the things I think of/see during the day.

[Splat]

The only dreams I believe in are wet ones ;)

Swimming dreams?

The best dreams are flying.

[CJSchneider]

Swimming dreams?

The best dreams are flying.

In your dreams when you fly, do you fly high into the air, or are you just like 2-3 feet off the ground?

[Splat]

In your dreams when you fly, do you fly high into the air, or are you just like 2-3 feet off the ground?

I have done both but it always seems like I can start off fast and go all over the place and then I start going slow and can't really go that high and I always get mad.

[MetSox17]

I've never paid too much attention to my dreams. Sometimes i wake up frightened, and sometimes i feel like i go through stages of deja vu, possibly from things i've dreamed before, but i've never woken up from sleep pondering what my dream could have meant.

[Splat]

Has any one ever dreamed that they woke up and started going about their day but they were really still dreaming?

I have only done it once it is was really crazy, I didn't like it at all it was so real kinda freaked me out a little.

[LTgiants]

Yes Splat. Today I could have swore I got up and ate breakfast and was driving my car but I was dreaming the whole time.

[The Unseen]

Yeah that's happened to me.

A lot of my dreams are about missing classes.

[Paul]

A few months ago I had a dream that I was sent back to 1999. I tried to warn and tell everyone about 9/11, but no one listened. :(

[TitanHope]

A few months ago I had a dream that I was sent back to 1999. I tried to warn and tell everyone about 9/11, but no one listened. :(

In their defense, Y2K was a much more serious and looming threat...

[LizardState]

Dreams are all about the power of suggestion, no matter how subtle they are or how much you tuned out the msgs. you see & hear from your waking day. I read somewhere that we are bombarded with ~1,000 msgs. from TV, radio, etc. on average in a given day & we can't avoid them all.

Those msgs. reappear in dreams, sometimes in puns & sometimes on 100-ft. billboards.

Freud said that Dreams are wishes, that's probably right too. If you follow the lucid dreaming theory (you realize while still asleep that you are dreaming) you can orchestrate your dream to fulfill those wishes. Rent the Waking Life DVD -- it's a great film by Linklater in rotoscope for that dreamy atmosphere, it elaborates on lucid dreaming in it with great detail.

[killxswitch]

The only dream that I have regularly is one in which I'm a bit younger (like high school I think) and am in a group of peers (no one I know in real life, but I know them in-dream) and we're in a large building of some sort that is always similar and school-like but not actually a school. I have had this dream multiple times and I don't know what it means.

Beyond those I rarely remember dreams. I go months without remembering having had a dream.

I wish dreams were more controllable because that would be awesome. I read a little about Lucid Dreamers who can supposedly do this.

[Mr. Goosemahn]

I once went to a talk about dreams, given by a guy with credentials and stuff but I can't remember what they were, some kind of psychologist or something.

Anyways, he said some interesting things that day.

He started off by saying that when you sleep, your brain undergoes a process where it organizes, categorizes, and (in a sense) archives, most of the things that you DON'T process or really focus on. Can manifest in different ways. It might be repressed and/or ignored emotions, deep desires, fears, or simply normal things that you might not have paid any specific attention to. For example, recall what you did this morning, and try and remember the little details. Remember the people you passed by, and what they were wearing, and what they were doing. In most cases, you won't be able to remember those things, but your brain did process them and believe it or not, that information could very well be stored somewhere. That's why you remember things with accuracy even when you didn't focus on those things. You'll remember the color of someone's shirt, and where you were, and what you were doing, but not because you focused on remembering those things; the brain automatically retains all that.

When you fall asleep, your brain starts re-structuring all these thoughts and makes some sense of them. That's supposedly also why you'll remember things better the next day. For example, when you've got a nagging question (like "what was the name of that movie?") and you just can't seem to remember, if you go to sleep and sleep an appropriate amount of time, it's very likely you'll remember the movie's name in the morning.

He also said that some dreams happen simply because of the connections between the mind and the body. Dreams where you move slowly and can't do anything about it supposedly happen because when you sleep, your brain "detaches" from your body so you don't act out everything you do (be it run, jump, or dry hump something). In dreams where you're paralyzed or move with a lot of limitations, that "detachment" is not at the level it should be; it's not fully detached. The mind then recognizes the fact that you're laying there motionless, and kind of incorporates it into the dream. Wet dreams are also a result of a connection between the body and the mind, although in a very different way.

And finally, some dreams happen because of direct stimulus when you're asleep. When dreaming, most of the time you're not conscious of what you're doing (unless it's a lucid dream, but that's another story). You still, however, take in everything that happens around you. You hear things, in some cases see things (eyes slightly open), you feel things, and all of these are also incorporated into your dreams. One example he gave was about a person who constantly dreamed he was flying. They studied him for a while, and it turns out that his bed was located under an air-conditioner vent in the ceiling, so when it turned on, he felt a little breeze of air and the change in temperature, and his dreams reacted accordingly.

Overall it was a pretty interesting lecture.

[TitanHope]

Do you guys mostly dream in black and white, mostly dream in color, or do you have an equal amount of both?

I've heard that certain colors mean something, so dreams that have a prevailing color or have a certain person/item/place can mean something - whether it's a subconcious thing that's been noticed to a religious sign. I only dream in color, while my parents have told me they usually dream in black and white. I've talked with my girlfriend at the time, and she told me she usually dreamt in color as well, so I'm curious to know what you guys do.

[tjsunstein]

Weird that this thread came up today. Last night I had a quite common dream. My teeth falling out one by one and there's no preventing it. It's been translated to having anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you.

I've heard that it means that there is going to be change soon in your life.

Quite possibly. I've applied to a couple schools, possibly transferring.
I got in and plan on going there in the fall. Coincidence?

[Splat]

Do you guys mostly dream in black and white, mostly dream in color, or do you have an equal amount of both?

Never.....

[TitanHope]

I got in and plan on going there in the fall. Coincidence?

I think it's more of the Placebo Theory. Anything could have been seen as a change - a new romance, a new living arrangement, new job, or a number of other things. You probably could've found something that would've confirmed the interpretation. Maybe if we knew the exact analysis of it, or you could have it personally interpreted by someone who has experience in the field to possibly narrow it down because right now it's too vague. I'd have to side with coincidence, but maybe you could have a relevation later on? Maybe it means something entirely different?

Personally, I think dreams have a deeper meaning than just your brain reacting to and sorting stored information. I dream all the time. Every one is extremely vivid, often times nonsensical, and I frequently have deja vu for no apparent reason (to the point I've actually started wondering if I had some kind of extrasensory ability or prophetic gift because it hits me that often and that deeply, if you believe those kinds of things). So yeah, I personally don't think they're just random thoughts. I think sometimes they can reflect our inner wants, goals, or aspirations, and if I'm thinking about something intently before I go to bed, it'll be in my dreams that night. But, like VW said earlier, I believe in a higher power and I too believe our dreams can be a way for Him to reveal something to me, which is why the deja vu effects are so impactful on me.

[Malaka]

I just had a weird ass dream, I don't know if anyone wants to help me translate it out... google just gives to many varying answers.

So anyway, I was minding my own business in what looked like an amusement park waiting with a friend of mine whose also a teammate on the football team. Why him? I usually never hang out with this guy though I do like him, probably my better friends on the team and my workout buddy, but I hang with my guido friends and he is with his girlfriend mostly.

However that's not the whole dream, we are waiting and waiting in line when a guy 50-60 years old with grey hair walks up and starts talking to us, I find out he also is from NYC, he's from Brooklyn, I am from Queens. He turns out to be a nice guy with a funny Italian? accent, and he also tells us that he has never ever been on a ride this is his first time.

So we continue waiting with our new friend when the ride conductor finally comes. He had a buzz cut and a very smooth bear covering the bottom half of his face, he was black and around 5'11/6'0, he looked to be about 19-25 years old and looked extremely similar to one of the football team's running backs older brother. He tells us we won something and takes us away. Next thing I know I am flying on a small plane, being driven by the ride conductor with my 2 friends, though this is strange everything feels normal. Then we hear an explosion and for some reason I thought it was fireworks, no one panicked but then another explosion came and then the plane just took a nose dive. After the crash my dream self woke up to a burning plane and forest, but then I blacked out. Then my dream self woke up again but this time in my room, and I for some reason I had animosity or blamed the driver, but I then go check on Facebook to see wtf is happening, and it turns out my football friend survived the crash, and as for me I saw posts about my funeral when people should go and all that, but I am like wtf I am alive. I am not worried I thought it was just people reacting too soon. I never find out about what happened to the other two guys in the plane. When I walk out of my room I see my mom screaming on the phone, I had a sense she noticed me but was ignoring or too busy for a response, thats when I woke up. This dream was half in 1st person and half in 3rd person. The 1st person part coming in right after the plane crashed.

Does anyone know what this means?

[Cicero]

I voted no. They're just random thoughts. Dream interpretation is also ********.

[jayceheathman]

I had a dream that the hand from The Adams Family was after me. It choked out one other person and was trying to do it to me. I hid in a closet and it somehow squeezed underneathe the door.

[Bob Sanders Dreadlock]

A few nights ago i had a dream Tim Tebow got me a job at nike, if this holds true i might start to like the guy.

[TitanHope]

Last night, I had a dream that I was at an air show, but that was only half the plot. The other half was me and a group of people that seemed to include a mix of my family and friends were on trip walking along this landscape that kind've reminded me of a world from the video game Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. I think I flew a plane at the air show. Either that, or I was an aeronautics expert or something, and at least knew how to play an airplane. Anyway, at some points some planes crashed I think. It was pretty anxious ridden, and throughout it I felt like something bad could happen at any moment.

So, does this mean I have a fear of performing in the sack?

[StickSkills]

FWIW, last night i had a dream that Purdue was ranked 20th in football this next year, mid season...

Also, I've had a dream in which I was killed for every house that I have lived in since I was 4. One was a car bomb outside my house, another a sniper, another was a guy pushing me off the second story... And a few more. These are the dreams that I've ever had a repeat of too.

[LizardState]

Originally Posted by tjsunstein
Weird that this thread came up today. Last night I had a quite common dream. My teeth falling out one by one and there's no preventing it. It's been translated to having anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you.

Tooth removal or teeth hurting is very common in dreams. My allergist told me that if it's only your upper teeth it's usually b/c you're having pain or trouble with your maxillary sinuses, those sinus cavities are directly above your upper teeth.

[tjsunstein]

My dream last night was where I had a dream inside of a dream. Crazy. Did not like it at all.

[eaglesalltheway]

Weird that this thread came up today. Last night I had a quite common dream. My teeth falling out one by one and there's no preventing it. It's been translated to having anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you.

I have this dream too, seems like a lot of us have this dream...

I seem to always have dreams that come true probably once a month or so. It feels so wierd when it happens. I remember it was like like a few monthes ago and I remember right before I woke up that I would be in class and this kid would ask a question and probably like a week or 2 after it happened. I sat there freaking out lol

I've had dreams that come true since I was about 7 or 8. Some of them are as detailed as an entire conversation, others are just something stupid, but I have one or two dreams per month that come true.

I answered yes, but only some dreams have meaning, others are probably jsut random thoughts, or you mind perceiving outside facotrs differently in your subconscious.

I've had a lot of really really dumb dreams, so dumb that I really have no clue if any meaning could be brought out of them, so the perfect answer woudl probably be sometimes.

[eaglesalltheway]

Swimming dreams?

The best dreams are flying.
I read somewhere that males who dream about flying are more likely to be rudy cool than males who don't dream about flying. I've had dreams about flying too, but I'm definitely not ***. Some of the dreams I have a jetpack on, so does that count?

. Every one is extremely vivid, often times nonsensical, and I frequently have deja vu for no apparent reason (to the point I've actually started wondering if I had some kind of extrasensory ability or prophetic gift because it hits me that often and that deeply, if you believe those kinds of things). So yeah, I personally don't think they're just random thoughts. I think sometimes they can reflect our inner wants, goals, or aspirations, and if I'm thinking about something intently before I go to bed, it'll be in my dreams that night. But, like VW said earlier, I believe in a higher power and I too believe our dreams can be a way for Him to reveal something to me, which is why the deja vu effects are so impactful on me.

I'm the same way with some of my dreams, I wonder how and why it was I'm able to dream these things. I love it when I experience that deja vu.

But then I have absolutely idiotic and moronic dreams... I had a dream two weeks ago that Ryan Howard and "Big Mike" on American Idon were playing in a backyard baseball game in my town, and they walked up to eachother, and as they pounded fists, said, "Wondertwins...activate!" in conjunction. Now WTF is that supposed to mean?!?!

Also, I've never had a dream that is in black and white, they are all in color. Does anyone ever have dreams, and it seems like you skip forward in time in your dream? It really only happens to me when I have long dreams, but it seems like my mind just skips from one important part of the dream to the other, and so on...

[eaglesalltheway]

My dream last night was where I had a dream inside of a dream. Crazy. Did not like it at all.

The best sleep I ever got was a dream where I was with my family in the woods looking for a cabin to sleep the night in. We found some random cabin, and I fell asleep (in my dream) woke up and then left the cabin. I've only ever had a dream like that this one time. But when I woke up in the morning I felt like I had slept for days...

Another wierd dream I had recently. (I've had a lot of them the last few weeks)

Pete Carrol was coaching Florida, and for whatever reason, I was in the locker room after a game where they had lost. I was talking to Carrol and there was a TV in the locker room, and their QB (who looked a little like Jacory Harris) was next to Carrol and they were watching this one play where one of their WRs was wide open on a streak on the left side of the field, and this QB threw an interception intended for their TE in the middle of the field, and Carrol was asking him why he made that decision, and the QB couldn't come up with an answer, so I kind of interrupted Carrol and explained that since the safety (for Alabama) had picked up the middle of the field and this WR had burned the CB, it should have been to him, obviously. But the QB was under a lot of pressure and moving around, towards the left actually, and may not have seen him. He asked if he should have been able to make the read, and I said he probably should have, though it was close. Then I added that it would have been an easier throw to the WR than the throw away from his body to the TE. Carrol just looked at me and said, "I think I might need a coache's assistant." Then I woke up.

WTF...

['cuse-213]

Anyone ever have dreams that you can control? Best dreams ever.

[yourfavestoner]

Anyone ever have dreams that you can control? Best dreams ever.

It's called lucid dreaming, and it's actually fairly common.

For you people who have recurring dreams, you can do it fairly easily. Once you recognize that you're dreaming, you can do almost anything in your dreams.

Everyone needs to check out the movie Waking Life by Richard Linklatter. It explores everything you're looking for in this thread.

http://sisterrose.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/waking.jpg

And to answer the OP, yes I do believe dreams have meaning. The more I read, the more I believe that we're all connected subconsciously and are constantly passing messages and images to each other through this subconscious medium.

[ATLDirtyBirds]

My dream last night was where I had a dream inside of a dream. Crazy. Did not like it at all.



I love crazy **** like that. Only dreams I typically remember.

[steelersfan43]

Just had this crazy dream and wrote it down cause i dont want to forget

I found myself in some sort of classroom, with a professor explaining that we would be watching a film, and showed a picture of the main character on the screen. It was ME. He told us that the main character would die at the end. He then moved to a picture showing an African soldier with a long needle put diagonally through his nose.

BOOM all of a sudden I am in some sort of African country, on a wooded mountain road. There is a sandy baseball field where many children are playing baseball. I watch and enjoy the games for what seems like a few days. One day out of no where a bunch of African troops, led by a cocky white man with sunglasses, shows up and seizes everyone and moves us into a camp.

A mid the confusion I am left behind and they don’t put me in with the others. Out of fear that it will be safer inside the camp I ask around for help but am ignored until a white man and black man in a green sedan tell me they will help if I go up a hill and fill there water bottle up with the clean water. I look at the water bottle and It is beat up dirty and the cap and safety seal are orange and bent. They instruct me that if I get into trouble just hold up the bottle and safety seal which had been removed, I will be safe.

As I approach the top of the hill I see a large green and white tent like structure with water coming from it with a flap connecting to it that extends onto the ground where the Africans are filling up waterbottles. They all stop and turn to look at me when the white leader looks at me and starts yelling that this area needs to be more secure and hes going to start shooting people. At this time I Realize that many of them are armed with guns and I turn to run and hear gunfire behind me. I run past the green car and continue down the mountain only to see all of the children from before armed with guns being instructed to shoot at me.

I sprint as fast as I can down the heavily forested mountain and I come to a slight clearing and leap to escape the gunfire. I soar out over the Cliffside and realize oh **** ive gone way to far. I am 500 feet in the air falling looking down at what seams to be a military base with barbed wire fencing all around it. A unit of soldiers wearing green uniforms is seen down below and I try to “aim” for them to maybe break my fall. As I plummet I realize I am most likely going to die. I smash into the middle of the tightly packed troops and everything goes black. Boom Im back in the class room with the slide up of the African with the need through his nose and the professor is explaining that the needle is what killed me.

this was all in like a 1 hour nap too wttff

[The Unseen]

child soldiers in Africa is srs bzness

www.invisiblechildren.com

[JFLO]

I always find it weird to have dreams that involve people that you haven't seen in such a long time nor have you thought of them

last night, I had a dream that involved this girl that I used to have a crush on in high school. she looked beautiful as ever, but I still have no idea as to why she was even involved.

we also worked together while in high school and we were at work (in the dream) but what makes it even more cloudy was the fact that I didn't see anyone else from that job