Dreams

[tears_of_ashes]

What do dreams mean to you?

[Djinn]

My opinion isn't in the poll...

I believe we humans are smarter than we give ourselves credit for. We have our waking intelligence, which we all know, and we have a secondary intelligence that makes patterns of the world around us. You can call it the subconsious, or the collective unconcious, or the Id, or whatever. It's the deeper mind that we tap into to do magic. It's the source of our gods and our monsters. It's the mind we travel in dreams.

Joseph Campbell said:
The symbols of mythology are not manufactured. They cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are the spontaneous productions of the psyche and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source. In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his own private, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The lastest incarnation of Oedipus, the continuing romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change.


That about sums it up for me.

[StarCraftLia]

a

[OpenHands]

I guess I need an "other" option in the poll. :)

I believe that the majority of dreams are simply the accumulation of pointless "stuff"- no major significance attached to them. Some of my dreams are useful in that they reflect anxiety or other internal feelings that I might not be consciously aware of until then- nothing mystical about this though. A very small minority could be...different. In terms of potentially having a divinatory purpose or contact with something, but I remain skeptical.

From a religious standpoint, dreams are supposed to potentially contain omens and a way that the gods can communicate with people.

[LyraDragonStar]

I put 1-4. Dreams are awesome. Sometimes, they are irrelavent, and sometimes, they mean a LOT. Just depends on your situation and what's going on IRL or Online for that matter. Dreams can be VERY powerful!

[Nova]

What Djinn said.

Only two different Campbell quotes:



...a dream is a personal experience of that deep, dark ground that is the support of our conscious lives, and a myth is the society's dream. The myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth.


and



Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.


Thank you.

[RainDance]

i believe dreams are all of the above.
even more.

[Silver Water]

My dreams are a mix of all those options, and a bit more. I have had what I termed 'real dreams' since I was five years old, and that's also when I gave them that name. Now I know that most people refer to them as prophetic dreams or some other such, but it's easier for me to call them real dreams since I have for so long. Luckily for me I don't usually have them very often. Why that's a good thing is because only twice in my life have they been good. Although now and again my dreams will have flashes of something that I'll forget; until it happens.

And then, quite often, my dreams are completely random creations of my overactive imagination that leave me thinking about them off and on for a day. Sometimes they inspire me for writings.

Dreams can also be answers to a problem I can't solve when I'm awake. I think I like those a lot more than any of the others, too bad I can't have them everytime I have an issue I can't solve.

[LadyCelt]

what does "lost ones" mean?

[tears_of_ashes]

what does "lost ones" mean?

Relatives, good friends or your nextdoor neighbour

[Karma Chameleon]

What do dreams mean to you?


To me they are entertainment, like a movie in my head. I often have dreams where I am not even in the dream, all the characters are people I've never seen. I get great ideas for novels from my dreams.

The dreams where I am actually in the dream as myself, are most often wish fulfillment dreams...and they also tend to be automotive dreams. :bigredgri

[Kalandriel]

Dreams can be anything, they can be premonitions of upcoming events... your mind working through stress or playing out your deepest desires... or just plain weird stuff too.

If the TV is on while I'm sleeping, my dreams will turn into what I'm hearing from the shows/movies playing!