mad30: (Default)
2010-02-26 02:31 am

15 Interesting Facts about Dreams

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9F9_RUESS2E/Sy7GnBzTGJI/AAAAAAAAB7E/J2gPyBF-Ulg/s800/13-Interesting-Facts-about-Dreams-cornfields.jpg

Dreaming is one of the most mysterious and interesting experiences in our lives.

During the Roman Era, some dreams were even submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation. They were thought to be messages from the gods. Dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battles and campaigns!

In addition to this, it is also known, that many artists have received their creative ideas from their dreams.

But what do we actually know about dreams?

mad30: (uncleandy)
2010-02-26 02:26 am
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The Sleep Suit

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6B8tPuW7TwQ/S0wRPeBIDSI/AAAAAAAAPBg/8aiHUqeUlak/s400/slesui.jpg
Forrest Jessee designed the sleep suit.

The project attempts to challenge the idea of personal space in relationship to the human body and its surrounding environment. It is inspired by Buckminster Fuller's practice of Dymaxion Sleeping, which involves four 30-minute naps over a period of 24 hours, and the material requirements for such conditions.

Architecturally, the very close relationship between the human body and the suit acts as the generator of form as well as tool to negotiate between the occupant and his or her surroundings. The structure of the material, a structural pleat, is used as a means to create feelings of connected and disconnectedness as well as provide varying levels of support for different parts of the body.
mad30: (phoenix)
2010-02-26 02:17 am
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Everyone in Dream Smells like Smoke....

Sleeping
DAYTON, OH—Every single person, historical figure, and anthropomorphic talking object inhabiting Brian Jensen's dream Friday night was suddenly struck by the unusually strong smell of smoke, subconscious sources reported.
mad30: (psyche)
2009-12-22 01:32 am

Another dream, thought I'd share...

I've had plenty of weird, vivid dreams worth sharing in recent weeks, but thought I'd post this one for the "journal". It's basically a continuation of a dream that I've had at least a half dozen times now, a very lucid dream where I realize that I'm sleeping. I'm in a night club type of setting, up high, like the 20th floor of a building, and there is bizarre music playing. It's not techno but very electronic and tone oriented melodies, soothing yet dark and brooding. Whale songs come to mind and frequencies from deep under-water.

Upon talking to various people at this "club", I begin to realize that everyone here knows they are a "dreamer" too, having a mutually shared dream experience in this building. It's a shared understanding that, in the waking world, we are "scouting" people to come with us to this dream dimension so we can plan and party, away from the peering eyes and ears of the "real world". We will knowingly TRY to get more people back to this dream facility when they go to sleep, so we can all have a central meeting point in the reality of the dream-scape.

The different levels of the building lead to different dimensional planes, different realities of dreamers and sleep states. Perhaps other planets and universes as well. We are thinking up new ways, in the WAKING WORLD, to try and promote our club and get people to join us in the shared dream. In other words, we're trying to recruit new members.

It might sound mundane or boring, but could be a good upcoming experiment. A "viral marketing campaign" to try and influence people to focus in on a particular dream facility where we all might share a mutual ESP type experience. I've always been fascinated by the possibility that the people you meet in your dreams, are actually other dreamers, suffering a partial amnesia, and perhaps wearing different masks than the faces and flesh of their real lives. I'll definitely keep giving it some further thought and consideration as I think there are some strange and potentially ground-breaking possibilities with this "research".



mad30: (Default)
2009-11-24 01:21 am

Why We Dream And How To Rewrite Nightmares

It has been a big month for dreams in the news, with the New York Times and the New Yorker both weighing in on the subject. First up, the Times reports on a new theory advanced by Dr. Allan Hobson, who says that dreaming exists as a "warm-up" state for waking.

According to Dr. Hobson, dreaming is "a parallel state of consciousness that is continually running but normally suppressed during waking." But during sleep, dreaming comes to the forefront of the brain's activity, exercising it and "tuning the mind for conscious awareness."

Hobson has long been controversial for his insistence that dreams are the result of physiological process and have no inherent meaning. His new theory draws in part on studies of the brain activity of lucid dreamers--people who are aware that they are dreaming while still in the dream.

Brain wave patterns during lucid dreaming show a typical REM sleep pattern associated with dreaming, mixed in with patterns associated with waking awareness. The discovery of these "mixed states" give validity to the notion that we can hold two (or more?) different states of awareness simultaneously, and should give rise to some interesting research on altered states of consciousness.

Margaret Talbot also has a great recent article on nightmares in the New Yorker. The article focuses on imagery-rehearsal therapy, a technique where nightmare sufferers imagine how they would re-script a frightening dream, then "rehearse" it several times during the day and just before going to sleep at night.

Imagery-rehearsal therapy is surprisingly successful in many instances. Talbot speaks to a wide range of experts on dreams and nightmares, and the article gives a thorough, well-rounded picture of current thinking on why we have nightmares, and what to do about them.

These are exciting times to be a dream researcher, and an active dreamer! For nightmare sufferers, there have never been so many good options for coping with bad dreams. And for those of us who have occasional nightmares but aren't debilitated by them, we can extend our understanding of why these dreams come to us and what wisdom they might hold, like never before.

-SOURCE OF ORIGINAL ARTICLE-
mad30: (psyche)
2009-11-24 01:16 am

A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/11/09/science/10mind/articleInline.jpg
It’s snowing heavily, and everyone in the backyard is in a swimsuit, at some kind of party: Mom, Dad, the high school principal, there’s even an ex-girlfriend. And is that Elvis, over by the piñata?

Uh-oh.

Dreams are so rich and have such an authentic feeling that scientists have long assumed they must have a crucial psychological purpose. To Freud, dreaming provided a playground for the unconscious mind; to Jung, it was a stage where the psyche’s archetypes acted out primal themes. Newer theories hold that dreams help the brain to consolidate emotional memories or to work though current problems, like divorce and work frustrations.

Yet what if the primary purpose of dreaming isn’t psychological at all?

mad30: (psyche)
2009-11-16 02:16 am

Dreams may have an important physiological function

According to Dr J. Allan Hobson, the major function of the (REM) sleep associated with dreams is physiological rather than psychological. During REM sleep the brain is activated and "warming its circuits" and is anticipating the sights, sounds and emotions of the waking state.

Dr Hobson said the idea explains a lot, and likened it to jogging. The body does not remember every step of a jog, but it knows it has exercised, and in the same way we do not remember many of our dreams, but our minds have been tuned for conscious awareness.

mad30: (Default)
2009-11-12 05:39 am

Very weird dream last night...

Vivid. Extreme flooding in the residential area that I live. Tidal waves crashing down the streets, cars being swept away, houses destroyed. Heavy rain and thunder. Elderly, bearded man comes to the porch and says something about Noah and the Bible and all things must come to pass.

Major waves, the rain stops, floods subside, I walk the street surveying the damage of a wrecked, gray sky. The street is demolished, trees broken, rubble, bodies, destruction. At the end of the street I come upon a school bus. The rap singer Eminem is leading little children on to the bus by rapping to them in a lyrical beat. At least 15 or 20 children herd themselves into the bus.

I walk in as well. Eminem gets back on the bus and holds a knife to me with a crazed look in his eye. I notice that the bus driver is very gorilla like and seems angry. Eminem seems a little nervous and worried, but threatens to cut me. We're driving, some kind of commotion rings out on the bus, and we flip over in a ditch, behind a parking lot.

I escape, and fly away. The children on the bus are being terrorized, underneath gloomy skies, and I try to find help for them...

Ha, just a strange dream worth mentioning....
mad30: (phoenix)
2009-11-07 03:58 am

40+ Lurid, Bizarre Science Fiction Dream Sequences

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Science fiction takes place in a world beyond our own reality, but sometimes you need to go just a bit further — into the realm of the crazy, surreal dream sequence. Here are 40 or so of our absolute favorites.
mad30: (love)
2009-10-28 08:47 pm

20 cute animals taking a nap...

http://208.106.250.72/_media/imgs/articles2/a96852_a12.jpg

Awwww, click image for more!
mad30: (aliencross)
2009-10-17 02:32 am

The Makura-gaeshi is a soul-stealing prankster

Makuragaeshi anatomical illustration from Shigeru Mizuki's Yokai Daizukai --
The Makura-gaeshi (”pillow-mover”) is a soul-stealing prankster known for moving pillows around while people sleep. The creature is invisible to adults and can only be seen by children. Anatomical features include an organ for storing souls stolen from children, another for converting the souls to energy and supplying it to the rest of the body, and a pouch containing magical sand that puts people to sleep when it gets in the eyes. In addition, the monster has two brains — one for devising pranks, and one for creating rainbow-colored light that it emits through its eyes.

More 'Anatomy of Japanese Monsters' at above link!

mad30: (Default)
2009-10-13 09:36 pm

Have you seen this man?

Fortunately, I don't believe I've ever seen this guy in my dreams, but I'm sure he'll be visiting my nightmares soon. Yeep!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6B8tPuW7TwQ/StQRUJrOSXI/AAAAAAAAN84/e4P7w0d7co0/s400/evdrtman.gif
In January 2006 in New York, the patient of a well-known psychiatrist draws the face of a man that has been repeatedly appearing in her dreams. That portrait lies forgotten on the psychiatrist's desk for a few days until one day another patient recognizes that face and says that the man has often visited him in his dreams.

The psychiatrist decides to send the portrait to some of his colleagues that have patients with recurrent dreams. Within a few months, four patients recognize the man as a frequent presence in their own dreams. All the patients refer to him as This Man.

VIA: 
THE PRESURFER

mad30: (Default)
2009-10-08 08:36 pm

Are you asleep? Exploring the mind's twilight zone

EARLIER this year, a puzzling report appeared in the journal Sleep Medicine. It described two Italian people who never truly slept. They might lie down and close their eyes, but read-outs of brain activity showed none of the normal patterns associated with sleep. Their behaviour was pretty odd, too. Though largely unaware of their surroundings during these rest periods, they would walk around, yell, tremble violently and their hearts would race. The remainder of the time they were conscious and aware but prone to powerful, dream-like hallucinations.
mad30: (Default)
2009-09-08 01:29 am
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mad30: (psyche)
2009-08-27 11:55 pm

If a House was Dreaming....

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Urbanscreen's field of activity is to put large-scale projections on urban surfaces. Founded in 2008, the company Urbanscreen from Germany develops these concepts and transfers them into a dialog between art and marketing.

One of their projects is called 'How it would be, if a house was dreaming,' and it's without a doubt one of the most amazing spectacles you've ever seen.
mad30: (psyche)
2009-08-27 11:50 pm
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Why sleep? Scientist delves into one of science's great mysteries

According to the journal Science, the function of sleep is one of the 125 greatest unsolved mysteries in science. Theories range from brain "maintenance" — including consolidation and pruning — to reversing damage from oxidative stress suffered while awake, to promoting longevity. None of these theories are well established, and many are mutually exclusive.

Now, a new analysis by Jerome Siegel, UCLA professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Sleep Research at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the Sepulveda Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has concluded that sleep's primary function is to increase animals' efficiency and minimize their risk by regulating the duration and timing of their behavior.

mad30: (love)
2009-08-02 10:44 pm
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Spirituality and Dreams 101

Do you remember what you dreamt last night? Had a recent doozy of a dream? Those memorable ones hold so many clues into our lives and the situations at hand. Dreams are like little analysts cloaked in symbolic language- sometimes more easily recognized, sometimes subliminal. Keeping a dream log for 3 years+ has been a wonderful journey. Some folks swear by a chocolate goodie, others by banana, still others by spicy foods, figs-either mission or calimyra to help bring on dreams. Dreams are the subjects of songs, poetry and scripture alike. Read the apocalyptic book of Revelations and you wonder what the heck the author ingested to have a dream/vision like that, or prophet Ezekiel and his vision of the dry bones? God communicates directly through dreams in many of the world’s religions. Of course, under the duress of persecution, torture and death one just might also have nightmares, and legend says a person’s hair can even go white.

-FULL REPORT-