Can you dream what you haven't seen?

[Rusty Nails]

Lucid dreaming. I can do it, takes practice though.

Just read up on it.

That explains a lot about some of my dreams where it is as if I am aware that I am dreaming and can stop them when I am in danger of not being in control.

When I was younger I used to dream a lot that I was flying and in control of it, and can still remember it as if I actually was able to fly once.

 

[AndyRM]

and the LSD

It's been a while... One of the last times my exes cat decided to pee all over the laminate floor right as we were coming up. Trying to clear it up was very tricky indeed and I'm still not entirely sure how we managed it.

 

[AndyRM]

Just read up on it.

That explains a lot about some of my dreams where it is as if I am aware that I am dreaming and can stop them when I am in danger of not being in control.

When I was younger I used to dream a lot that I was flying and in control of it, and can still remember it as if I actually was able to fly once.

Yep, flying is a pretty common one, good fun too!

 

[AndyRM]

While I’m actually dreaming I don’t know what direction the dream will take or how it will end, so who or what is directing my dream?

Ghosts.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Dreams are often just your mind sorting out the issues that are running in the conscious or sub-conscious. The sub-conscious mind uses symbolism and imagery, so it can take some unraveling for your conscious mind to make sense of things. The mind will also try to interpret the changes in light and dark that comes through the eyelids, often enhanced by sounds through pareidolia.

To add to the confusion, there's the question of where the 'mind' is located, and some scientists argue we have more than one brain, as for example, the stomach area has many neurons that react independent of the brain, but in a similar fashion. Add to that the number of non-human cells that we carry, which means we are arguably just a vehicle to carry other organisms around which also change how we behave, and the whole thing becomes even more bizarre.

 

[presta]

I had some surreal dreams when I was on metronidazole. In one, I was in a tall stone tower a bit like a lighthouse. Inside it had a ramp like a spiral stair case without the steps, and my feet were able to glide over it like they were on roller skates, but without the skates. I went racing down the ramp, shot out of the door at the bottom, and raced down a big hill. In another, I was flying. Great fun.

Some mornings I get strange visual images when I'm wide awake after I first wake up. Sometimes, jet black images of the blood vessels in the retina flash each time I blink, other times I see a constellation of red and green pin dots as if the cones in the macula are firing. If I wake in the night, I sometimes see what looks a bit like a spider the size of a saucer on the bedroom wall. The opticians have no idea what they are. For the last 20 years I've also been getting ocular migraines, which are something else entirely different again.

 

[HMS_Dave]

This is a decent guide - https://www.tuck.com/sleep/how-to-lucid-dream/

I wouldn't necessarily recommend the sleep paralysis, I've done it a few times and it can be scary.

I get sleep paralysis on a regular basis... Nothing quite like the terror of waking but not actually being able to move, control your breath, open your eyes or talk (scream in terror).

 

[MichaelW2]

Oh, and yes, you can dream about what you have never seen, otherwise no-one would be able to dream of a dragon or a wizard.

The semi-humoids that feature in peoples dreams seem culturally programmed. They used to be fairies, sprites or leprachauns, now they are aliens.

 

[postman]

Yes I have seen places in dreams then visited them in real life,this summer we visited Pickering on our way back from Whitby,I had seen a cafe in a dream and there it was in Pickering..Had other experiences.

 

[AndyRM]

I get sleep paralysis on a regular basis... Nothing quite like the terror of waking but not actually being able to move, control your breath, open your eyes or talk (scream in terror).

Yeah, it's really not a fun feeling. For me it feels like my arms and legs are incredibly heavy, I've never had the breath thing though I have had the others.

 

[AndyRM]

Yes I have seen places in dreams then visited them in real life,this summer we visited Pickering on our way back from Whitby,I had seen a cafe in a dream and there it was in Pickering..Had other experiences.

Actually, that's a good point, had similar, including full conversations with people which then happened, watching/reading things I'd never even heard of and then seeing them.

I used to get ones about work which was always crushing as I'd be back in the office the next day feeling l hadn't left.

 

[postman]

Another one ,in my dream I am stood in front of a Victorian red brick high wall,a green painted wooden door is set in the brick.My dad died after a massive heart attack brought on by stress and hard work that is another story.So while I am stood outside this door and wall,my younger dad comes walking towards me.A 1940's style brown striped suit,black hair greased down slim looking super fit.He stops looks at me with a smile and says stop worrying about me I am ok and happy,,I have to go now and he opened the green door and walked through it.So years later we are on holiday in a former private house with the most amazing gardens designed by Capability Brown,they have a walled garden I went to see it,red brick green wooden door,same as my dream.Spooky or what.The property is called Ashburnham Place just outside of Battle Sussex.

 

[Blue Hills]

Yes I have seen places in dreams then visited them in real life,this summer we visited Pickering on our way back from Whitby,I had seen a cafe in a dream and there it was in Pickering..Had other experiences.

mm - is this a plot to ramp up Pickering as a supernatural tourist spot?
I dream a hell of a lot, welcome dreams (it's usually better than the telly) so not poo-pooing them.
But can't help feel that you'd seen that cafe somewhere before in the past, even if only on a postcard, a travelogue etc etc and that it had lodged in your subconscious. The mind is incredible in how it can file stuff away from years and years ago - stuff you have consciously forgotten, never even knew you knew, stuff that seems so inconsequential that you are amazed why it was even stored, let alone dredged back up. Apart from feeding interesting dreams this can help you post-process various traumas and move on.
Even to Pickering.

(am assuming that this "cafe" wasn't some sort of chain like MaccyD)

 

[oldwheels]

I dream a lot and often about people both alive and dead which is understandable as coming from my memories of these people. Also I dream about places which I do not recognise so cannot come from memory and often the same place crops up in dreams for no particular reason I can think of.

 

[Chief Broom]

Waking up within the dream has freaked me out a few times...Once i woke after one like that and didnt know what was real...I went into my living room where my brother was crashing at the time and shaking him awake i asked him if this was reality
ps i never did find out...