jhnbrbr
New member
I would be interested to know what opinions/experiences you have regarding dreams. I think dreams are utterly fascinating, and it surprises me we don't talk about them more, since we all probably spend as much time dreaming as we do working (maybe considerably more in some cases!). Does anyone really understand the mechanism of dreaming? For example, does the brain improvise the dream narrative as it goes along, or is the dream created in advance like a DVD, and stored ready to be played later? Does time in a dream proceed at the same rate as real time, or is it speeded up or slowed down? I'm sure i've sometime woken after quite a complicated dream, to find the clock has only moved 10 minutes since the last time I looked at it.
Probably the most interesting question of all is whether dreams can predict the future. I am a sceptical agnostic, and all my instincts say no they can't, but I recently experienced a couple of strange coincidences which made me not quite so sure. About ten years ago I bought an interesting old book called "An experiment with time" at a fete. The author claimed that dreams contain past and future events, all mixed up together, rather like people and places can get mixed together in dreams. He claimed that anyone who kept a journal of dreams would sooner or later find evidence that supported this view. I didn't really believe him, but I decided to put it to the test, and I kept a dream journal for a few weeks during January and February 2000. Nothing particularly remarkable cropped up, and I soon lost interest and forgot all about it.
Then, at the end of last year three things happened which related to two things I had dreamed, both on the night of 28th January, 2000. The first was when I was searching Ebay for organ-related items and I came across a CD of organ music recorded by Martin Kemp, an organist I'm sure I hadn't heard of before. This reminded me of one of my recorded dreams which featured another Martin Kemp, the famous actor and former pop singer. I dug out my dream notebook where I had written
Later I was watching television and there was something on in London - a dutch exhibition. The centre-piece was a three manual organ which was being played (not expertly but with enthusiasm) by the actor Martin Kemp...
Not particularly impressive, but two days later, I found myself watching a TV drama based on the true story of the "Brides in the Bath" murders. The murderer was played by (you've guessed it) Martin Kemp, and after drowning one of his victims, he sat down at a pedal harmonium and played "Nearer my God to Thee."
A week or two later, I was meeting a friend from a bus at the nearby town of Shirley when I noticed that there were branches of the "Floors to Go" store on both sides of the road (one was opening, and the other closing). This reminded me of another dream from earlier the same night:
I was talking to someone at Shirley and we were discussing how some shops had opened branches on both sides of the main road, for fear that they would lose customers to other shops, because customers were unwilling to cross the road.....
I still can't decide whether this was really a case of dreams predicting the future, or not. Neither of the dreams came true in every detail, and I suppose you could argue that if you wait nine years you're sure to find a match with something or other. On the other hand, it was rather a lot of coincidences in a short space of time. Anyway, if any else has had interesting dream experiences I would love to hear about them .... now I'm off to bed, perchance to ...
Probably the most interesting question of all is whether dreams can predict the future. I am a sceptical agnostic, and all my instincts say no they can't, but I recently experienced a couple of strange coincidences which made me not quite so sure. About ten years ago I bought an interesting old book called "An experiment with time" at a fete. The author claimed that dreams contain past and future events, all mixed up together, rather like people and places can get mixed together in dreams. He claimed that anyone who kept a journal of dreams would sooner or later find evidence that supported this view. I didn't really believe him, but I decided to put it to the test, and I kept a dream journal for a few weeks during January and February 2000. Nothing particularly remarkable cropped up, and I soon lost interest and forgot all about it.
Then, at the end of last year three things happened which related to two things I had dreamed, both on the night of 28th January, 2000. The first was when I was searching Ebay for organ-related items and I came across a CD of organ music recorded by Martin Kemp, an organist I'm sure I hadn't heard of before. This reminded me of one of my recorded dreams which featured another Martin Kemp, the famous actor and former pop singer. I dug out my dream notebook where I had written
Later I was watching television and there was something on in London - a dutch exhibition. The centre-piece was a three manual organ which was being played (not expertly but with enthusiasm) by the actor Martin Kemp...
Not particularly impressive, but two days later, I found myself watching a TV drama based on the true story of the "Brides in the Bath" murders. The murderer was played by (you've guessed it) Martin Kemp, and after drowning one of his victims, he sat down at a pedal harmonium and played "Nearer my God to Thee."
A week or two later, I was meeting a friend from a bus at the nearby town of Shirley when I noticed that there were branches of the "Floors to Go" store on both sides of the road (one was opening, and the other closing). This reminded me of another dream from earlier the same night:
I was talking to someone at Shirley and we were discussing how some shops had opened branches on both sides of the main road, for fear that they would lose customers to other shops, because customers were unwilling to cross the road.....
I still can't decide whether this was really a case of dreams predicting the future, or not. Neither of the dreams came true in every detail, and I suppose you could argue that if you wait nine years you're sure to find a match with something or other. On the other hand, it was rather a lot of coincidences in a short space of time. Anyway, if any else has had interesting dream experiences I would love to hear about them .... now I'm off to bed, perchance to ...