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Hello everyone. I know that I post rather erratically and I fear I may being posting this in the wrong area. If so I apologize.

I have a personal issue that I would like some feedback on. I would like to know if any of you have advice on dreaming.

When I was young, my dreams seemed more complete and fantastic. I very rarely dreamed about anything in my everyday life. In addition, images and sensations were clearer and I could recall them for long periods of time.

Now my dreams, when I dream, are clogged with familiar images and people. I remember less of the dreams and what I do remember fades within hours.

I was wondering if anyone could offer me advice that would help me get back to dreaming the way I used to? I know this may sound strange to some of you, believe me it is strange to me that I am writing this request. I would just like to know if I can get back a very rich and full part of my life that I seemed to have lost.

Thanks to all of you who read this request.

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The video is excellent by looking at dreams from strictly a mental perspective. There is however other influences for dreams, whether it is what we hear, see, experience, ate, etc., that day. Then there's the emotional realm that can be a very big influence in a dream. Finally, there's the spiritual realm, where there is a lot of controversy. The Bible talks about dreams, and God speaking to us through a dream, but at the same time it must line up and be in agreement with the Word.

Native American Indians for example, believe in a Great Spirit, animal totems, and that in a dream everything has a symbolic meaning, with a spiritual message in it. They believe in the Medicine Wheel, that it is a living, which is hard for some to perceive, and the Powers of the North, South, East, and West. They also believe there are Stone People, and Plant People, and within the 13 moons (cycles), separated by seasons and dates, we can find out our influences, totems, and the people we are most compatible with, etc. Giving an example would take a lot more typing right now and I'm trying to be as condensed as possible. For reading, I recommend finding a copy of Grey Wolf's, Earth Signs, which explains all of the above, and is written to help us connect with the natural spirits of the Earth.

So basically, there's the mind, the day's physical experiences, the emotions, and the spirit, that can influence a dream, and why dream interpretation can be so very difficult.
Obviously, eating less, quiet times, meditation, etc., in preparing for the night's sleep, will help a lot with dreaming more. I personally only want a dream that comes from the spirit, otherwise I can't trust what I see, hear, or even do. Sleepwalking can be a very dangerous thing, and most of the time the person doesn't remember it.
In closing, I was having a dream that I had been captured by aliens and on another planet. I and others had managed to escape confinement and were running to their spaceship to go home, but we were being pursued, and at one time an alien caught up to me. At that moment I woke up hearing a blood-curdling scream from my husband. Thinking I was biting an alien to be free of its clutches, I had bit my husband instead. It was a deep wound too, but after all, I was running for my life.
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Thank you both for your replies.

When I was a kid, I used to see the night sky from a beach on a distant world. I think the planet was in Andromeda and I was looking at the Milky Way. I would wake to the sunlight streaming into my room. I really want those experiences to happen again. I know its all in my mind, but I really felt better in the waking world with a good dream life.

Thanks again.

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Typed before I saw your response, TranshumanOwl, but I'll post it anyway:

That was an interesting video. I’ve never experienced lucid dreaming, but I do sometimes have dreams that I wake from because a kind of logic circuit in my brain tells that what I’m dreaming isn’t logical. That’s a pity, because it would be interesting to explore what the imaginative part of my mind could actually do if it wasn’t stopped in its tracks.

I do occasionally have vivid dreams. I remember one that I had, at the time I was seeing a counsellor. I’ve never recalled the “plot” of the dream, just that I was in a sunny, Mediterranean-type town, with loads of brilliantly-coloured flowers in hanging baskets, and adobe-type walls painted white. I could see colours and the textures so clearly – more than I would in real life. It was as though the visual part of my brain (not often exercised in waking life) took over my logical part, just for those few moments. I found the experience quite exhilarating. Maybe the “soul” part of me broke through on that occasion.

I’ve never liked the analogy of dreams being just the sorting out of what goes into long-term memory. That’s too much like the brain being a computer. And doesn’t explain why a human mind would put painful experiences into long-term memory, resulting in conditions such as PTSD and depression.

Yesterday I was talking with my husband about getting a steam mop for our kitchen and bathroom. Last night, I had a dream about cleaning my kitchen floor with a steam mop. I have no idea what that was about, as the conversation about getting a steam mop was in the context of hiring a cleaner so I wouldn’t actually be using a steam mop myself. But maybe that’s the part of my brain telling me I “ought” to be doing the cleaning myself, even though that wouldn’t be beneficial to my back and my knees as I get older.

TranshumanOwl: I wonder if the cessation of the dream-type you’d like to get back is because of real-life considerations that have become dominant in your mind even while you’re asleep. I don’t know that much about meditation, but maybe that could you help you get into the frame of mind before you go to sleep to revive your previous dreaming ability. Although I’ve never experienced that, I can nevertheless imagine how much you would like it back.

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Thank you both for your replies.

When I was a kid, I used to see the night sky from a beach on a distant world. I think the planet was in Andromeda and I was looking at the Milky Way. I would wake to the sunlight streaming into my room. I really want those experiences to happen again. I know its all in my mind, but I really felt better in the waking world with a good dream life.

Thanks again.

I'm the one at the opposite end of the spectrum. I believe the experience you've described above is from your spirit. Spirits move at the speed of thought, so there is no reason by your spirit couldn't have traveled when your body was sleeping.

There have been multiple instances where people have describe their travels in the spirit, most asleep, and some half-awake (Lucid-aware that you are dreaming). For example, John stated he was in the spirit and wrote what he saw and heard in Revelation, which is symbolism from a literal point of view.

for those of you who want to study further, here's Wikipedia's pages on sleep and dreaming ~

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreaming

Here's another page you might find interesting to read ~ Out-of-Body Experiences and Lucid Dreams

https://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html

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I have garbage in and garbage out dreams. Those are the frustrating ones that make no sense The journey where you are getting nowhere, the conversation that involves people who can't or won't listen, . It's the brain working out frustrations or longings, processing minor experiences. Those are the bulk of my dreams.

Then I have the WTF???? dreams. Those are ones where you wake up and wonder what was THAT all about? End of the world, crashing black helicopters, or you're in a war chasing or running from teh enemy, those bigger fears and worries that the world has.

Once in a blue moon, I have the flying dream. Even in that dream I'm scared of heights, I won't float too far up.

I don't know how to control dreaming, and even though I promise I will know it's a dream when it is, so I can control it, I never realize it's a dream.

I was told the key is to realize you're in a dream. Then you can change teh rules, control the game as it were. If you can realize you're dreaming while in the dream, you can take complete control of it.

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In my dreams, if I dream about people, they don't look like they do in real life. They look nothing like the real life people. But I know who they are. After I wake up I go what the heck? I'll dream about a brown eyed brunette persona and they will be blonde, or vice versa. They won't look at all or sound like the person they are supposed to be. While in the dream, It's all normal to me, but when I wake, I'm weirded out. Our brains are weird.

Sorry , I might have attempted a thread hijack? Didn't mean to.

Transhuman Owl: your dreams are symptomatic of life. As we get older our lives are cluttered with the everyday people and the everyday things like work, family, work. Also, when we are young, our brains are developing and our emotions are more intense. over the whole spectrum. As we age, they level out in some areas as we put away the dreams of youth literally and take on the robes of responsibility and maturity. On other words, we forget HOW to fantasize in real life, how to daydream intensely. we get dulled by life. we watch too much TV, listen to too many other folks all day long, dull our imaginations watching and reading other folks fantasies. When we are kids we play act fantasy lives as heroes, villains, animals, machines, super heroes, etc... As adults we are silly if we do that every day. It's only acceptable at sci fi conventions and halloween parties.

Maybe to dream more vividly, you have to practice imagining more vividly again. Sure you can't run around in your underwear with a towel tied around your neck pretending to fly ( in public) but you can write about how it felt. You can play with your kids on their level, or your grandkids, or nieces and nephews... If they are running around silly you do it too. learn from them how to play again...

I don't know. Maybe I"m talking silly here. But when we grow up, we do things we didn't do as kids, like drink lots of coffee, smoke, or drink alcohol. Then as we get we get stuck on meds for this condition or that one... we get so stuck in some regimented life. We don't get enough time off to play, because even when we aren't at work, we are doing work at home, or thinking about work, or thinking about bills or worrying about kids, the job, or whatever. We lose the freedom for many that is childhood. Homework and a chore or two, then you can play.

Learn to be free of the cares of the world, and to believe that there are magic carpets and dragons and giants. Maybe the dreams will come back. I do know what you mean though. I used to once in a while, have the most amazing dreams. I do miss those. Hmm maybe I"ll try and get them back too!


Walkabout did you get the REM back?

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