When we dream , we often "time-jump" (for want of a better word). Things that were, blend in with things that are, and in our dream mind, it is perfectly fine. As an example, last night I was dreaming about a time when my oldest son (now 51) was still a teenager; but in that dream, I had a cell phone, and it was perfectly fine in my dream mind. After I woke up, I was thinking about this, and that our dreams come from our subconscious mind. Therefore, it would seem that time ONLY exists in the conscious mind, because the sub-conscious can happily mix up events from the present and the past, and not give it a moment of confusion about doing that. This caused me to ask myself whether time itself is real, or just an illusion that helps us to understand our world better. Thoughts ?
Another interesting thing about dreams is the possibility of going back to the same dream, and continuing on with the dream. I think that several of us have talked about being able to do this sometimes. I think that I might do this; but since I do not write down my dreams, I am never sure if I am actually dreaming about the same thing, or if I just think that I am doing that in the dream. For example, last night I was dreaming that I was talking with my son's high school counselor. I had been in to see him before and forgotten some important papers when I left the office. So, in my dream, I understood that the first time that I was there to see the counselor was from an earlier dream. Now, I am not sure whether I actually had the first dream a while back, and then remembered it in the dream last night, or whether that was all part of the dream, too. I do know that there are what I call "dream places" that will show up from time to time in my dreams. They are not any place that I have ever been in real life, but I am there in my dreams every now and then. One such place is a beautiful hidden lake that starts out with a creek and bubbling springs, and then I walk along a path beside the creek until I get to the lake. Sometimes, I only get to the part where the springs bubble up, and it is a place that I catch fish in my dreams. Actually, most of my dreams are not at any place that is real , or was real at one time. About the only place that I still dream about that was real, is when I dream that I am still living at the house in Idaho where I grew up. Does anyone keep track of their dreams and see if they continue over to places from earlier dreams ?
I don't think I could ever keep track of my dreams, for one thing, they fade to quickly and the details are lost. I wonder though, do we try to find a meaning in dreams where no meaning exists. Are dreams more that a mishmash of collected thoughts from our everyday experiences and our individual character, that is, our fears, loves, hates, insecurities etc. During sleep, does our subconscious tap into things we would otherwise have no way of reaching. Things that may well be important and useful to us, but are unable to be realised because we dismiss it as nothing more than a dream. I doubt we will ever know for sure.
I believe that are dreams are triggered by something that caught our attention for only a fraction of a second and even of events that have occurred in our lifetime. Coupled with all of our other five senses, hearing, tasting, touching, smell, and of course the sixth sense. Sharing a dream I had just last night. I was with my grandson and he had what looked like a sandwich and was in the process of biting down on it when I noticed it was made of stinkbugs . No lie and the dream ended. When I woke up this morning to attend to my daily hygiene rituals I heard a tapping sound of the glass lampshade and I thought another stinkbug and no sooner than the word stinkbug was completely out of my mouth I remembered the dream and very vividly. Now I would surmise that because I love my grandson who has an insatiable appetite which we had been talking about for a few days and along with deposing of these stinkbugs almost on a daily basis, that these events triggered my dream. LOL
Your dream makes sense Von, as you suggest, triggered by recent events. But some dreams seem to have no connection to anything, at least, not anything that may be thought of at the time. So your reference to the sixth sense is interesting, in line with the idea of our subconscious tapping into things we're unable to reach when awake. Perhaps this is why many believe in premonition dreams, and who can prove otherwise. This is where a dream recorder would be a good idea (I think), replay the dream on TV and try to figure it out..
During my working years I seldom dreamed or if I did I never remembered. Only after I retired did dreams enter into my memory. I have two types of dreams, over and over. I am either lost, usually on foot in some strange city and don't know Texas where I lived so long and a lady name Helen called me and asked me to ship a number of products for their small manufacturing plant. She said this is Helen as though I would know immediately who she was or should. I wanted to say to her over the phone, Are you in Lamesa, Helen, but didn't? A no-no for a sales rep. Then didn't know where to ship the product. Another dream, I took down an order for product and left it laying on the Purchasing Manager's desk and was forty minutes down the high way before I realized what I had done. Dreams like those intersperse my sleep. I don't suppose they have a meaning unless they're trying to tell me I was a lousy salesman.
I don't know about time in dreams, but there are dreams with people who have passed on and it's as if they were still alive in the dream it seems so real. It is interesting that in dreams time makes no difference and in life time makes all the difference.
"This caused me to ask myself whether time itself is real, or just an illusion that helps us to understand our world better. Thoughts ?" "Time" is a concept that, as far as I'm concerned, is not yet clearly defined. Just a concept used to keep track of the progress of life. Time is nowadays viewed by the Science of Physics as a "warp", a contradiction, defying the logical interpretation of the passing of life. Travel in Time? I think never, MHO. Still, today, new theories place the simultaneous occurrence of a given event, say, pouring a glass of wine, in two places at once, maybe billions of miles apart, the result of some B.S. they call "Worm-hole Theory". Aptly named, anyhow. Frank
Dreams is one mystery that man is trying to uncover. But I believe that dreams is a merry mix of so many things - memories, imaginations, hangup, predictions, etc. With that dream of the cellphone and the young son, that is one example that dreams can be anything. I sometimes dream that I am hearing something and when I wake up I am really hearing something. The other night when I was already asleep, my husband was watching a mixed martial arts fight on tv. In my dream I was hearing an American talking to me and when I woke up it was the announcer of the fight. As the poets would say, dream on if it cannot be a reality.
I'm now reading my second book of Anthony Peak's. According to him, and many others, time doesn't exist except here to us. Some believe our life is on a loop with the past, future and present, all existing at the same time. I'm not sure but I'm continuing to investigate. As I told my husband, even if this isn't true at lest I'm exercising my brain. Thankfully he is very open minded and not only listens to me but reads parts of the books I'm into and gives me his opinion. As far as time in dreams, I find time jumps forwards and backwards a lot. Sometimes I'm with my mom and we are doing something very normal in currant time and it doesn't seem strange to me that she died back in the 80s.
I studied this a lot in the past, and came to the conclusion that because mankind can only experience consciousness in linear time, we will never be able to really understand any other concept. I do believe in the possibility that all of time exists at once in infinity, we simply travel through it in a linear fashion, but at that stage my mind gives up
At some time or another, i have also experienced dreams, some of them had extraordinary coincidences so startling that i was compelled to reflect upon their possible meaning afterwards. I recall one dream which struct as having the quality of an omen. One week before one of the worst storms and flood struct our place, I dreamed i was running down a mountain slope together with a lot of people, and a body of water running and cascading down upon our paths, i was breathless and a sense of falling down down...woke me up.
One thing I've never done in my dream is die, always wake before it happens....thank goodness. The reason is probably because it's not a memory stored in our brains.
Most of my dreams seem to be influenced by movies, since I watch so many of them. Sometimes I'm in the old west, usually being pursued. Once, it was WW2 and I got separated from my unit and was left behind in a European town as it was being overrun by Nazis. Lately, I dream about wandering strange streets lined with abandoned houses. I like to dream. It's like watching a movie while you sleep.
Recently I joined a forum for widows/widowers, and some members are new like me, and some have been there for more than ten years. They were talking of dreams too. I mentioned that I would love to be able to dream of my husband or my two son. Just so I might be able to hear their voices again. Most of the members I talked to said they too were never able to dream of those they lost. I wonder why I can't dream of my family?