Can you dream about things you have never experienced?

I had a bit of a debate on this a few days ago the other person reckons not, I think you can.

yes I believe you can. As ameliorate says many people dream of personally flying and it is so real. We dream of places that we have never visited too.

Violet wrote:I had a bit of a debate on this a few days ago the other person reckons not, I think you can.

Considering how little is understood about dreams (apart from their necessity is anything actually known?) I don't see how anyone can successfully argue that you can't.

Admittedly it's a little like saying that you can't miss what you never been had. By everyday usage we mean 'missing' to be an emotion we associate with having once had but then lost. We can long for what we never had but strictly we can't miss it...

Using that argument, we may not be able to dream about something in exactly the same way we dream of an experience (involving memory of the event) but we may dream what our mind constructs instead. Not necessarily a remembered, actual experience.

Largely it's semantics but as no-one knows what dreams actually are there's no way of knowing how much, or how little, of them is built on memory and experience or how much may be created from the odds and ends of data that enters our psyches at any time and then get combined as a dream by our unfathomable brain - or mind.

Using that argument, we may not be able to dream about something in exactly the same way we dream of an experience (involving memory of the event) but we may dream what our mind constructs instead. Not necessarily a remembered, actual experience.

Hi Mac, yes you're right there as a few years ago I was dreaming very frequently that I was driving a car, which I can't do in my waking life, but in my dreams I was in the driving seat my hands on the wheel and the car was moving but I couldn't tell you what pedals etc to push and I wasn't aware of doing anything like that in the dream.

Ameliorate raises a good point about flying in dreams I think many have dreamed of flying.

If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

Yes, you absolutely can do things in dreams that you normally can not. I have seen myself speaking other languages in other completely different lives.
In my path that is the main reason for dreaming. They say that the position of awareness of most people is fixated in the daily world, but when one sleeps that position moves far away from its normal fixation. They say that this shift moves one deep inside the realm of the unknown.
Now the real question is why can't one do the things we do in dreaming while awake?

I've dreaming of swimming under sea. No life belt,no scuba tank, just me floating around the coral way down below.

I love the sea.

Joan

Last night I was on a space ship, part of a crew. It was pretty cool.

Mr.Whitmore wrote:If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

Mr.Whitmore wrote:If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

There is much belief and thought evident in these theories rather than evidence of what's suggested.

In my limited experience I haven't heard a spiritually-scientific explanation of our physical dreaming process, why we humans apparently need to do it and what the actual dream mechanism is. Even sleep is a puzzle - sure there are many scientific observations of what's going on in our bodies during sleep but other than that what do we know?

Of course it's possible that something spiritual is occurring but until we know that, it's simply conjecture.

somnium wrote:Yes, you absolutely can do things in dreams that you normally can not. I have seen myself speaking other languages in other completely different lives.
In my path that is the main reason for dreaming. They say that the position of awareness of most people is fixated in the daily world, but when one sleeps that position moves far away from its normal fixation. They say that this shift moves one deep inside the realm of the unknown.
Now the real question is why can't one do the things we do in dreaming while awake?

You've seen yourself but did you hear yourself; which language(s) did you speak; were you fluent and if so how do you know you were; what did you say and to whom?

The reason you can't do the things in 'real-life' that apparently you can do in dreams is that ours is a world of constraint - we can do only what we know or have learned - whereas the dream world may be nothing more than a sophisticated construct. If it isn't, how do you know it isn't?

We consider our waking lives as 'real' in the sense that we also register unconnected, impersonal, objective events with outcomes recorded and documented by others - it's not a wholly personal, subjective world. Dreams, however, produce no tangible, objective outcomes. They are personal, subjective events which others don't register, record or document.

Violet wrote:

Mr.Whitmore wrote:If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

But believing, or disbelieving, doesn't change what actually occurs - no more than those who declare they don't (or do) believe in an afterlife can change what actually happens.

mac wrote:

Violet wrote:

Mr.Whitmore wrote:If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

But believing, or disbelieving, doesn't change what actually occurs - no more than those who declare they don't (or do) believe in an afterlife can change what actually happens.

No, some people believe you have a choice.

It's surprising where our subconscious can take us. On the other side,dreams can become fantasy.

Fantasy can become real in dreams.
Joanie

somnium wrote:

mac wrote:

Violet wrote:

Mr.Whitmore wrote:If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

But believing, or disbelieving, doesn't change what actually occurs - no more than those who declare they don't (or do) believe in an afterlife can change what actually happens.

No, some people believe you have a choice.

People believe all manner of things but it doesn't change the reality of a situation..... You can believe the moon is made of green cheese but that doesn't make the moon become green cheese, no matter how strongly one may hold that belief.

Of course one may say, and may carry it out, that one will never return to this world - once and once only but that can't change the situation for others who don't adopt that stance. The possibility of previous lives isn't affected by belief - it can either happen or it doesn't happen.

The only choice is either to undertake more than one life or not to - if multiple lives are possible at all.

Hi mac
for once you make sense!
I agree with your last post totally!
PPLLnL
Peter

mac wrote:

somnium wrote:

mac wrote:

Violet wrote:

Mr.Whitmore wrote:If your soul has had many lives....then dreaming of events that you have not encountered should be expected.

Since your soul communicates with the physical via dreams and signs.......its perfectly logical if one believes in past lives.

Some even think your present life is a mirror image to past lives with modern themes instead of olden times themes.

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

But believing, or disbelieving, doesn't change what actually occurs - no more than those who declare they don't (or do) believe in an afterlife can change what actually happens.

No, some people believe you have a choice.

People believe all manner of things but it doesn't change the reality of a situation..... You can believe the moon is made of green cheese but that doesn't make the moon become green cheese, no matter how strongly one may hold that belief.

Of course one may say, and may carry it out, that one will never return to this world - once and once only but that can't change the situation for others who don't adopt that stance. The possibility of previous lives isn't affected by belief - it can either happen or it doesn't happen.

The only choice is either to undertake more than one life or not to - if multiple lives are possible at all.

So your belief holds no power, whereas for another it does.

And in my opinion Life can be anything.

somnium wrote:

mac wrote:

somnium wrote:

mac wrote:

Violet wrote:

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

But believing, or disbelieving, doesn't change what actually occurs - no more than those who declare they don't (or do) believe in an afterlife can change what actually happens.

No, some people believe you have a choice.

People believe all manner of things but it doesn't change the reality of a situation..... You can believe the moon is made of green cheese but that doesn't make the moon become green cheese, no matter how strongly one may hold that belief.

Of course one may say, and may carry it out, that one will never return to this world - once and once only but that can't change the situation for others who don't adopt that stance. The possibility of previous lives isn't affected by belief - it can either happen or it doesn't happen.

The only choice is either to undertake more than one life or not to - if multiple lives are possible at all.

So your belief holds no power, whereas for another it does.

And in my opinion Life can be anything.

Life is what you make it! We have one chance unless there is truly other lives we do live.

Joanie

somnium wrote:

mac wrote:

somnium wrote:

mac wrote:

Violet wrote:

I'm one of those awkward people who doesn't believe in past lives.

But believing, or disbelieving, doesn't change what actually occurs - no more than those who declare they don't (or do) believe in an afterlife can change what actually happens.

No, some people believe you have a choice.

People believe all manner of things but it doesn't change the reality of a situation..... You can believe the moon is made of green cheese but that doesn't make the moon become green cheese, no matter how strongly one may hold that belief.

Of course one may say, and may carry it out, that one will never return to this world - once and once only but that can't change the situation for others who don't adopt that stance. The possibility of previous lives isn't affected by belief - it can either happen or it doesn't happen.

The only choice is either to undertake more than one life or not to - if multiple lives are possible at all.

So your belief holds no power, whereas for another it does.

And in my opinion Life can be anything.

I hold no belief. Your personal belief may empower you but can not impact me. Your opinion is noted but not agreed with.

I dream of people I've never seen and places I've never been. I do it all the time. I've even called out the name of people I don't know or have never known.

Dreams can be as vivid as your imagination. I dream in color while other say they only dream in black and white.

Now this was creepy; for me to acknowledge a previous dream in the dream I was currently having.

I dream every time I close my eyes, been doing it since a child. Most dreams I remember when I wake up.

I believe imagination, spirituality, and our awake experiences all three of these has the biggest influence on our dreams.

Now this was creepy; for me to acknowledge a previous dream in the dream I was currently having.

Yeah i've had that too and dream inside a dream, have you ever done that, please don't let these things creep you out btw

CW wrote:

I believe imagination, spirituality, and our awake experiences all three of these has the biggest influence on our dreams.

I agree, but I would add in knowledge too. When I was first researching about dreams I came across a lot of knowledge about them, and every time I came across new ideas about what dreams could be I dreamt them in action. Like the idea that some people have premonitions in dreams, as soon I heard this I started to have them. I think the right kind of knowledge is a powerful tool.

somnium wrote:

CW wrote:

I believe imagination, spirituality, and our awake experiences all three of these has the biggest influence on our dreams.

I agree, but I would add in knowledge too. When I was first researching about dreams I came across a lot of knowledge about them, and every time I came across new ideas about what dreams could be I dreamt them in action. Like the idea that some people have premonitions in dreams, as soon I heard this I started to have them. I think the right kind of knowledge is a powerful tool.

What does the knowledge of them tell us about their origin and their purpose?

CW wrote:I dream of people I've never seen and places I've never been. I do it all the time. I've even called out the name of people I don't know or have never known.

Dreams can be as vivid as your imagination. I dream in color while other say they only dream in black and white.

Now this was creepy; for me to acknowledge a previous dream in the dream I was currently having.

I dream every time I close my eyes, been doing it since a child. Most dreams I remember when I wake up.

I believe imagination, spirituality, and our awake experiences all three of these has the biggest influence on our dreams.

If dreams are only dreams why did I dream of seeing a man who passed in old age, as a young man again?
I never knew this man in life. He was an old army mate of my husband's. I never knew what he looked like as a youth.
But I saw him clearly in this dream,dressed back in uniform.
Later I found an old photo of him among some of the stuff belonging to hubby,never seen this photo before.

Joanie