DREAMS

1. WHAT IS A DREAM?
2. DO DREAMS HAVE SPIRITUAL MEANINGS?
3. HOW ARE DREAMS FORMED IN OUR SLEEP?
4. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF DREAMS
5. THE COMPONENTS OF DREAMS
6. THE STAGES OF DREAMING

Dreams are the imaginations of the mind that manifest in your sleep (or when you’re asleep). Dreams are performed by the mind not the soul or spirit. Which part of the body can recall your memory? Can your soul/spirit recall your memory? When your soul/spirit is out of your body in your dream and it’s doing something (like fighting, running, eating, having sex, being raped, crying, dying etc) can you recall what you were doing in your dreams (or what your soul/spirit was doing in your dream)? Did your soul or spirit or mind remember the actions (events) in your dreams? Was it your soul or spirit or mind which recalled information in your memory?

Before we delve into the concept of Dream, we have to briefly understand certain fundamental concepts like the “human mind”, the “human brain” and the “human memory”. The human mind or the mind is the abstract component of the brain. In other words, the mind is the virtual or abstract component of the brain when it is in the state of processing information. When the brain is stimulated it works in the state of abstractness called the mind, and the processing of information in the abstract is called thinking.  It is the mental faculty of the brain responsible for all our cognition, reasoning, thinking, perceiving, learning, feelings, emotions, memory, imaginations, and all our behaviours, activities, actions and inactions — both mental and non-mental processes. This means the mind can also be called The-Brain-in-Action (or The Abstract Brain [TAB]). In the mechanism of thinking, we use abstract characters and symbols, images and imagery to representing a phenomenon, situation, information, concept, subject, data, idea or the thing we are thinking of in the mind.

The brain is a physical organ of our body system. It is considered as the Central Processing Organ (CPO) of body. The CPO, as the name suggests, controls and processes the entire activity of thinking, and any form of behaviour animals (such as humans) exhibit for survival in life. Even though animals (or non-human animals) have brain, the Human brain is the most sophisticatedly complex and unparalleled organic machine on earth capable of doing anything and everything. When this organ (the brain) is stimulated and it is in the state of consideration, it is called the mind. As we have already identified, the brain is the central processing organ of the central nervous system which coordinates and controls all the activities of the body functions, as well as any form of overt and covert behaviours. However, the intangible form (non-physical state) of the brain when it is in realm of perception, reasoning, cognition, processing or manipulation of symbols, ideas, information, objects, data, images and imaginary things is called the mind. But the processes or the process of such activities is called thinking.  “The brain is the part of the body which lets animals make sense of things. It gets input from sense organs, and changes behaviour in response to this information. In humans, the brain also controls our use of language, and is capable of abstract thought. The brain is the main control centre of the whole body.” According to Wikipedia (2018). Thinking is a mental process of processing/considering information, data, anything in our mind using our brain.

We all know that the brain is part of our body (is an organ of our body system, specifically for thinking purpose) not our soul or spirit. In our dreams when our soul and/or spirit gets out of us, do they (the soul and spirit) go out with the brain (or the mind)? Or maybe because the brain is a fixed organ in the body and cannot be removed from the body the soul and the spirit leave it in the body, and rather rely any information to the brain when they (soul/spirit) are on a tour in our dreams. If our brain organ is a fixed organ in our body then our spirit and soul cannot remove it with them when they (soul/spirit) get out of the body in dreams, neither can they rely (communicate) any information to the brain as long as they leave the body in dreams. This raises the question again: how does the brain (the mind) recall the events in your dreams? Normally, in most cases when you’re stressed at any point in time (or you’re bothered by problems and issues) you dream on that when you sleep. And when you’re not stressed and overthink and bothered by problems you hardly dream in your sleep. So where do dreams come from — your soul/spirit in the spiritual world or your mind (in your memories)?

The human memory is the mental faculty of the brain that stores (saves or retains) and recalls (retrieves) information, facts, data, events, impressions, and past experiences. In other words, the human memory is the abstract faculty of the human brain responsible for encoding and retention of information, facts, events, impressions and experiences. There can be no retention without storing and retrieving or saving and recalling. Retention means storing (saving) and retrieving (recalling). It the ability to store and retrieve. Since the human memory is a mental faculty or an abstract faculty it is also part of our mind, though it performs especial functions. Our memory is a component (mental faculty) of our mind that encodes, stores and retrieves data, information, thoughts, impressions and experiences. The brain and the mind move in tandem in our everyday life. And they are inseparable in their operations. A damage to the brain directly affects the functions of the mind and our memory. Our memory performs basically three main functions/processes namely encoding process, storage process, and retrieval process.

HOW ARE DREAMS FORMED IN OUR SLEEP?

We can better still define dreams as the manifestations of our imaginations when we’re asleep (sleeping). Imaginations (imagined things and events, issues, ideas, emotions, thoughts, images) are processed by our mind and in our mind, therefore dreams also occur in our mind. When we’re sleeping (asleep) or during sleeping our mind recalls (remembers) things, ideas, information, emotions, issues and events that we thought of (confront) in the day (time); it recalls and ponders over things we wish for, things  we want to have, things we worried about always and most often, our problems and predicaments and hardship of life, and even things that we’re afraid of (or  things that get us tired and stressful). Dreams only occur when our mind is in the state of stress-free and unagitated during sleeping.

When the mind is unagitated, stress-free or in the most calmest, quietest state, it has the ability to recall (or remember) and ponder over our imaginations, and massage the pressing issues in our life or pressing issues of the day (or weeks) before or after. The most calmest and quietest and stress-free moment in our life happens when we’re sleeping (or asleep). So when we sleep and the mind is unagitated and stress-free (not doing hard thoughts, racking and cracking issues and ideas or not processing information of visuals from our sight, or audios from our auditory or not reacting to sensations and emotions from our feelings and senses), the mind scans through our memories both STM (Short-Term Memory) and LTM (Long-Term Memory) for issues, incidents, impressions we had in the day or we’re facing in our life. As the mind scans or combs through our memory for issues, it is always the most pressing, demanding and stressful issues, events and experiences that are picked first and pondered over (processed).

The most pressing and demanding memories are not necessarily always problem but sometimes they can be the most funniest, happiest or wishful thoughts and experiences. The most funniest and happiest and wishful issues, events, incidents, thoughts and experiences in life are also most dreamt of. In life, most of the most funniest and happiest and wishful issues, thoughts and experiences are related to sex (romance), riches (good life) and love (help). In our sleep, as soon as the mind gets the appropriate, most pressing and demanding issues in our memory, it massages (or processes) them, and finds, formulate or devises ways to deal with them. So the unconscious or subconscious ways of dealing with pressing and demanding issues, events, ideas, information, data, emotions, sensations, thoughts and experiences from our memory in our sleep forms dreams (dream).

If the pressing and demanding issues are problems, in our dreams, we find ways of dealing with them by massaging and pondering over them, confronting the problems, and try to solve/remedy them. If we’re able to deal with the problems in our dreams or if the solution works on the problems in the dream, as soon as we wake up we are likely to follow up those solutions/plans we had in the dream in real time (real life) if and only if the problems exist in real life (or there’s similar issue in real life). As long as those problems and issue are not resolved in your dreams and/or in real life, there’s always probability that you’ll have these same dreams (or dream about them) over and over in your entire life. However, if the contents of your dreams are the funniest and happiest experiences, again you will dream them over and over throughout your entire life.

When you’re asleep, you move to sub-conscious state of mind, and it’s in your sub-conscious state (subconscious mind) where dreams occur. Subconscious mind here means the mind is unagitated and not fully processing any data because you’re partially unaware of your thinking capabilities or you’re partially unaware of yourself and your situation, and the things around you. This also means our entire thinking processes (cognition) are/is not fully conscious (aware) of the things that are going on in our mind and around us (our surroundings). It’s simply our psychic activities just below the level of our awareness. Sub-conscious state of mind is concerned about the part of the mind of which one is not fully aware but which influences one’s actions and feelings. But our unconscious mind is concerned about the total lack of awareness of our cognitive processes and activities and our surroundings. In other words, according to WordWeb Dictionary, unconscious mind is that part of the mind wherein psychic activity takes place of which the person is unaware. It is the lack of awareness and the capacity for sensory perception as if asleep or dead. Though our unconscious mind is a complete lack of awareness of the mind (or part of the mind), it can sometimes affect our behaviours and emotions.

The words sub-conscious and unconscious are used interchangeably in this article in relation to dreams because dreams can be subconscious or unconscious (subconscious activity or unconscious activity). Dreams are unconscious activity because in our sleep we’re unaware of how and when we begin dreaming, and also unaware that we’re dreaming and how they are formed when we sleep. Sometimes we do not and can not recall the contents of some of the dreams we have after waking up from our sleep. We completely forget about everything in the dreams (or some of the dreams). This is due to the unconscious nature of the mind (or the unconscious nature of part of the mind) when we’re asleep. On the other hand, dreams are subconscious activity because sometimes when we wake up from our sleep we’re able to recall/retrieve vividly the contents of our dreams, and everything/some of the things that took place (happened) in the dreams. When dreams become conscious to our senses (and the mind) then they are called (turned into) vision or meditation.

Whenever you wake up from your sleep and you’re able to recall that you had a dream and everything (some of the things) in the dream, it means dreams are produced and processed in the mind, and by the mind but not by your soul and/or spirit. And everything in our dreams are from/based on data, information, thoughts, issues, events, impressions, experiences, conditions, situations, emotions and feelings stored in our memory (STM & LTM). Information and experiences in our memory can only be produced or processed by our mind. Dreams occur in our mind and they’re related to/based on our memory. This is because it is only the mind that processes information in an abstract form and encodes and stores them in our memory. And it is only the mind that can decode and retrieve stored data (information) from our memory, and reprocess and restore them again in our memory.

Sometimes we dream of things which do not have relations to our memory or things in real life. And it is so complex how the mind comes out with such dreams when we sleep. In our subconscious mind when we’re asleep, (in our dreams) we make (or the mind) makes wild imaginations about anything, even things and creatures which do not exist in this world (or any part of this universe). The mind imagines: forms mental images and concepts of things and events; imagery or it makes wide and wild imaginations and conjurations about things, ideas, objects, concepts and notions that do not exist (or they are impossible to happen) in real life, and manipulates them in our dream(s). This is the reason why some people claim they make their inventions, discoveries, creations, vision, company, business and organisation first from their dreams. They first dream or have a dream on them (on what they want to do, bring, make or create), and then they work hard to establish that dream and its contents in reality. You and I are not exception to that.

It is in our dreams that all these great things, inventions, creations and discoveries we see around us begin from. Since in our sleep, our mind is unagitated and in the most quietest state, it is able to imagine wide and wild, and think (process information) great about great things in our dreams before they’re materialized (or physically created) in the real world. When the mind is unagitated it thinks (processes information) agitatedly. In other words, when we sleep and the mind is unagitated, it imagines wide and wild and strange things. Unimaginable things (unimagined concepts and events), inconceivable ideas can be imagined and conceived by our mind in our dream when we sleep. Even things that are impossible to happen in real life are possible to happen in our dreams. In dreams, anything and everything are possible to happen. How impossible and strange it is when you see yourself flying in the air like a bird in your dream? How it is like when you’re fighting tigers (or lions) with your bare hands in your dream?

In your dreams, at times you’re shot in the head multiple times, yet you get up and start walking; you don’t even know, see or remember the person (the shooter), somebody with no head or a creature like a human but with no head and/or legs. You have a dream, in your dream you’re driving in your wishful sport car; you’re living in your desired most expensive gold coated mansion (skyscrapers); you’re married to your perfect (desired) husband/wife; you’re the most richest person in the wold; you’re travelling abroad to a country you dearly wish to live there. You may dream when your loved one is dead and you’re bitterly crying; when you’re having sex and you really enjoy it; when you’re fighting with animals like dogs, cows, cats or creatures which are half human and half animal; when you meet creatures with wings, tails, horns and snake hairs or dragons, dinosaurs, aliens, spirits or dwarfs in your house (or forest) chasing you up and down, here and there.

You have had dreams when you were playing with your friends; when you were running strangely and seriously for no reason or from something scary and terrifying; when you were eating your fave meal; when you went to a party with people you know (or you don’t know in your life); when you were talking to your dead father (mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, grandma, grandpa, uncle, niece, cousin, nephew or friend); when you were in a war zone or your house was on fire and you were shouting for help; when you were jubilating (or celebrating) cause you’ve passed your all examination (or test) with distinction (good grades). All these are manifestations of the imaginations in your mind when you’re asleep. So if you dream of having sex with a man or woman (gentleman or lady/boy or girl) or having sex with animals (or creatures) like a dog, snake, dwarf, horse, fish (or whatever), there’s nothing wrong/evil about that, and no Satan, demons or spirituality associated with that. Having sex in your dreams has nothing ….