I don't see the need to mystify something as simple and mundane as dreaming. About as meaningful as attributing great spiritual power to a table and set of chairs, or wondering about the divinity of rising bread.

The broad consensus is that it's fragmented, imperfect, and altered consciousness operating during a state of rest and being imperfectly remembered and/or integrated. Your senses, reasoning, reality-checking, and self-awareness are all offline or degraded to one extent or another but your brain decides to make a narrative of the jumble of residual memories and emotions. The resulting output doesn't map well to reality and often isn't properly stored in memory. The result is a poorly remembered hallucinatory state that has little to no bearing on reality. That's why most dreams involve stuff that was weighing on your mind and places that you've been, rather than things you've never done, languages that you've never spoken, or places that you've never been.

So yes, I have a better explanation.

(July 9, 2025 at 1:54 pm)Paleophyte Wrote:

(July 9, 2025 at 1:40 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Do you have a better explanation?

Pretty much anything given that your "explanation" has no explanatory power.

My guess is that Ahriman is not as poorly-informed as he pretends to be, though of course I could be mistaken.  He strikes me as a contrarian.

(July 9, 2025 at 2:21 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: I don't see the need to mystify something as simple and mundane as dreaming. About as meaningful as attributing great spiritual power to a table and set of chairs, or wondering about the divinity of rising bread.

The broad consensus is that it's fragmented, imperfect, and altered consciousness operating during a state of rest and being imperfectly remembered and/or integrated. Your senses, reasoning, reality-checking, and self-awareness are all offline or degraded to one extent or another but your brain decides to make a narrative of the jumble of residual memories and emotions. The resulting output doesn't map well to reality and often isn't properly stored in memory. The result is a poorly remembered hallucinatory state that has little to no bearing on reality. That's why most dreams involve stuff that was weighing on your mind and places that you've been, rather than things you've never done, languages that you've never spoken, or places that you've never been.

So yes, I have a better explanation.

I had a dream that I was in North Korea, I'm definitely never going to North Korea in my life.

(July 9, 2025 at 2:28 pm)Alan V Wrote:

(July 9, 2025 at 1:54 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: Pretty much anything given that your "explanation" has no explanatory power.

My guess is that Ahriman is not as poorly-informed as he pretends to be, though of course I could be mistaken.  He strikes me as a contrarian.

You’re very generous. He strikes me as an idiot studying to be a moron, but can’t pass the exams.

Boru

I'm going with troll.

(July 9, 2025 at 2:28 pm)Ahriman Wrote:

(July 9, 2025 at 2:21 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: I don't see the need to mystify something as simple and mundane as dreaming. About as meaningful as attributing great spiritual power to a table and set of chairs, or wondering about the divinity of rising bread.

The broad consensus is that it's fragmented, imperfect, and altered consciousness operating during a state of rest and being imperfectly remembered and/or integrated. Your senses, reasoning, reality-checking, and self-awareness are all offline or degraded to one extent or another but your brain decides to make a narrative of the jumble of residual memories and emotions. The resulting output doesn't map well to reality and often isn't properly stored in memory. The result is a poorly remembered hallucinatory state that has little to no bearing on reality. That's why most dreams involve stuff that was weighing on your mind and places that you've been, rather than things you've never done, languages that you've never spoken, or places that you've never been.

So yes, I have a better explanation.

I had a dream that I was in North Korea, I'm definitely never going to North Korea in my life.

Were they speaking Korean? Was it actually North Korea or something that your brain concocted from splinched geography, stuff you saw on TV, and unchecked emotions?

(July 9, 2025 at 11:38 pm)Paleophyte Wrote:

(July 9, 2025 at 2:28 pm)Ahriman Wrote: I had a dream that I was in North Korea, I'm definitely never going to North Korea in my life.

Were they speaking Korean? Was it actually North Korea or something that your brain concocted from splinched geography, stuff you saw on TV, and unchecked emotions?

It was like a "Deadman Wonderland" type scenario, if you know what that anime/manga is.

(July 10, 2025 at 12:29 am)Ahriman Wrote:

(July 9, 2025 at 11:38 pm)Paleophyte Wrote: Were they speaking Korean? Was it actually North Korea or something that your brain concocted from splinched geography, stuff you saw on TV, and unchecked emotions?

It was like a "Deadman Wonderland" type scenario, if you know what that anime/manga is.

So something from your experience. Not so much speaking a language that you couldn't comprehend.

(July 10, 2025 at 1:32 am)Paleophyte Wrote:

(July 10, 2025 at 12:29 am)Ahriman Wrote: It was like a "Deadman Wonderland" type scenario, if you know what that anime/manga is.

So something from your experience. Not so much speaking a language that you couldn't comprehend.

Right....it was a very subjective dream. Kind of enjoyable too. Dreams are so interesting.

Yeah, I dreamt I slept with Sharon Stone once. Unfortunately, I woke up. I was SO disappointed.