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Subjectively, phenomenologically, dreaming mostly seems like another world.
To drop-into a dream is to drop into an on-going' narrative - something which was already-going before I began to dream it, and which continues after I waken.
Also, dreams usually feel like another time, another place, and without connection with my waking life except for it being 'me'.
(A few dreams are connected with waking life, but these are rarer and seem to be shorter and less complex - the kind of dreams I get when frequently dozing and waking.)
In commonsense terms, dreams feel like the mind goes somewhere else - moves in space and time, in dreams I am both a time traveler and a place traveler; in other words that experiences of 'shamans' are the normal experiences of dreams.
(This sounds much more exciting than it really is. My major experience of dreams is boredom and futility - just b&f in other times and places.)
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5 comments:
Boredom and futility, eh?
In my dreams the very strongest emotions leak through, like terror and joy, but mostly the dream is so absorbing that there is very little room left for me in it, let alone my emotions. The dream is the thing.
@Adam - I'm afraid it's true. It is probably one of the reasons I get up so early in the mornings - I am so bored and irritated by the dreams.
Not me! My dreams are sometimes the most interesting and exciting part of the day.
@p - I should clarify that I am talking only of dreams that are explicitly remembered. I think it likely that the important functions of dreaming are not intended to be remembered (otherwise we would remember a lot more of our dreaming - some people remember nothing). Most dreams presumably have an implicit effect.
When I was younger and a bit depressed, I remember thinking my dreams were very interesting and exciting and hated to wake - I'd try to fall back asleep and resume/remember the strand (to no success).
Now that I'm older, have a family, and am generally happier about life and its progress I really can't remember any of my dreams anymore (a recent nightmare of my son being hurt the only thing in a year or more).
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