What does a dream mean as reality? Dream as objective reality

Dreams are one of the last phenomena not fully studied by our civilization. We've spent millennia trying to understand why our minds create such strange images in our dreams. On this moment Science seems to be on the verge of understanding what happens when we dream, why we dream, and what it all ultimately means. As it turns out, there are truly strange connections between reality and surreal pictures of the dream world.

10. Loneliness makes dreams more frequent

Each of us dreams, but not in the same way. This fact was discovered by Patrick McNamara in 2001 when he was studying the idea that social relationships influence dreams. His team surveyed 300 university students who were rated according to their attachment status - how comfortable they felt in intimate relationships and how often they tried to avoid relationships. According to their attachment, they were divided into two groups - “self-confident” and “unconfident”.

McNamara found that unconfident students dreamed almost every day, and they remembered their dreams in greater detail than confident students. Interestingly, the dreams of the insecure group were also more painful and intense.

Because the temporal lobe (part of the cortex) cerebral hemispheres brain) is important for both the development of attachment and the phase REM sleep, increasing the frequency and intensity of dreams may serve to “fill the void” for people not in a relationship. In any case, you are provided with night activity.

9. Video games cause lucid dreaming


Lucid dreams are dreams during which a person realizes that he is in a dream. When a person realizes this, he can control what happens in a dream - he can fly, have sex, have sex while flying - anything can be done in a dream. Unsurprisingly, this is what many people want to achieve at night. Many books have been written on this topic, the authors of which claim that they can teach anyone how to induce lucid dreams. As it turned out, everything is simpler - all you need to do is play video games.

Jayne Gackenbach from Grant MacEwan University believes that the feeling of control environment and spatial orientations that a person experiences while playing are related to how a person perceives the dream. This makes it easier for gamers (compared to non-gamers) to take control of their sleep patterns.

She also found that gamers had far fewer nightmares - when they were threatened by something in their dreams, they attacked the threat and, instead of running away, turned the encounter into a competition.

8. Animals remember their dreams


The oldest question about why we sleep has finally been answered thanks to rats. Matthew Wilson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that when rats were trained to run in circles, their brain activity followed a strict pattern. Wilson later examined the brains of rats while they slept and found that half of the rats repeated the same brain activity during REM sleep - the rats ran in circles in their dreams.

The two images of brain activity were so close that the researchers were able to compare them and confirm that the rats were running in circles during their sleep. This indicates that the rats' brains remembered information by replaying actions. It should be noted that the actions were scrolling through their heads at the same speed as in reality. Wilson believes that one of the main purposes of dreams is to consolidate memories. For the same reason, people are better at remembering something they learn right before they go to bed.

Perhaps for the same reason the following happens...

7. The dreams of people with amnesia are very strange.


If dreams help memory, then what happens to people with amnesia? Answer: a person has no idea what he is dreaming, but he still dreams about something. There are several various types Memory: Amnesics typically cannot remember new declarative or episodic memories—facts or temporary information (such as when and where the person learned the fact). However, when amnesiacs were asked to play Tetris, they dreamed about it - despite the fact that they had no memory of the game by the time they went to bed.

The moment amnesiacs fell asleep, they were awakened and questioned about what they had seen. Three out of five said they saw “falling, turning blocks” but did not understand the context of their memory. Considering that one of the main purposes of dreams is to preserve memories, amnesiacs must constantly see such strange images. Even in the strangest dreams healthy people may notice several familiar objects, but for those suffering from amnesia, it seems that dreams appear out of nowhere.

6. Strange dreams are sorting


Research on amnesia sufferers and Tetris prompted Dr. Robert Stickgold, the study's author, to come up with another hypothesis about dreams: why they are so strange. He learned that people with amnesia remember events, and although they cannot consciously recall them, the brain still replays the experienced events during sleep.

According to his theory, weird dreams (like when you were in a restaurant with your fifth-grade gym teacher and sat on jelly chairs and your dog was the waiter) are caused by the brain trying to make some connections between different stimuli. The brain finds the memory "file" associated with your dog and compares it with what you know about the exerciser to see if they are worth keeping together. Dr. Stickgold says your brain is “looking for cross-references – does this relate to this. Sometimes it’s connected and sometimes it’s not.”

Another study found that the degree of dream strangeness increased with increasing activity of the right amygdala- an area of ​​the brain associated with the formation of memories. This supports the idea that the stranger the dream, the harder the brain tries to find a connection.

5. Dreams can predict the future


As a disclaimer, we will look at both sides of this statement.

In the 1960s in medical center Maimonides Medical Center, located in New York, has conducted several paranormal studies. One study tested the ability to see the future. The subjects were divided into two groups: participants in the first group were awake and concentrated on a specific image. The second group was sleeping at that time. The researchers then woke up members of the second group during REM sleep and asked them to describe their dream. Strangely, most people in the second group described the images that were “sent” to them.

Another example also comes from the 60s - after heavy rain, a rock dump collapsed, resulting in several thousand cubic meters of rock and mud covering a school in the village of Aberfan, Wales. More than a hundred people died as a result of the tragedy. Psychiatrist John Barker went to Aberfan and asked local residents if they had dreamed of something like this before it happened. More than 30 residents claimed that they foresaw a disaster in their dreams. There are many similar studies, some of which are even published in peer-reviewed medical journals. How could so many people see tragedies in their dreams before they happened? It is believed that even Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his assassination.

On the other hand, there may be a simple explanation for this: Law large numbers. Richard Wiseman describes it perfectly:

"First, let's choose random person from the UK, let's call him Brian. Next, let's assume a few facts about Brian. Let's say Brian dreams about something every night from the age of 15 until he is 75. There are 365 days in each year, so during those 60 years of dreaming, Brian will have 21,900 dreams. Let's also assume that a tragedy like Aberfan only happens once in a generation and assign a date to it. Now, let's assume that Brian will only remember one dream about such a tragedy in his entire life. The odds of Brian having a tragic dream the night before something like this happens are 22,000 to one. However, there is a catch. In the 1960s, there were 45 million people living in Britain, meaning that one in 22,000 people, or about 2,000 people on that night, could be expected to have a dream related to a tragedy. This principle is known as the Law of Large Numbers and is that when large quantities repetitions (possibilities), even unlikely events can occur.”

In other words, when many factors come together, there is a chance that something not expected will happen. This is one of those hypotheses that is difficult to prove, but perhaps someday in the future we will receive irrefutable evidence that predictions about the future can be found in dreams. Who knows?

4. You dream more often than you think


Contrary to popular belief, we don't only dream during REM sleep - we dream about something during all five stages of sleep, but REM dreams are the most vivid. So, even though REM sleep occurs every 90 minutes, we can have more than a dozen dreams per night.

Why don't we remember them? Those dreams are just boring. People are more likely to remember dreams if they are strange or unusual in some way. Other dreams often consist of realistic activities, such as ironing clothes or checking mailbox. Our brains, like the rat brains in point 8, spend a lot of time repeating previous actions in order to store them in memory and extract something useful from them.

However, crazy dreams - especially those during which you wake up - are no worse remembered than if you saw something truly strange in life, for example, a naked man running down the street. You don't remember hundreds of other people you pass on the street, but a nudist is memorable because of his shocking weirdness.

3. Dreams can be changed with the help of smells


It is well known that external stimuli such as light, smell or the sound of an alarm clock can intrude into a dream, but certain factors can actually completely change the quality of the dream and turn pleasant dream into a nightmare or vice versa. Smells, for example, greatly influence what a person dreams.

During the study, researchers let participants fall asleep and then blew different smells into their noses through a tube - the smell of rotten eggs, roses, or nothing (as a control group). Study participants were then woken up and asked what they were dreaming about. Participants who were exposed to the smell of rotten eggs reported that the emotional background of their dreams was greatly impaired, even if the dream had nothing to do with the smell. For example, one of the participants said that he dreamed of a Chinese woman who suddenly began to feel strong disgust towards him - the theme of the dream changed almost immediately.

2. Nightmares can affect your mood


Excited? Are you suffering from depression? You may be having nightmares. By at least, this conclusion was reached after a study in which 147 students were asked to fill out a questionnaire every morning for two weeks to measure the frequency of their nightmares. At the end of two weeks, students took the EPQ-RS and POMS-BI - tests that assess a person's psychological state.

Researchers have found a strong connection between the number of nightmares a person has and their psychological state while awake. The more nightmares you had, the worse they got. psychological tests. Naturally, the problem with this research is that Feedback It's even more likely that people who suffer from depression for other reasons are more likely to have nightmares. In truth, in any case, it turns out that nightmares can cross the boundaries of sleep and wakefulness. Creepy.

1. Dreams are a dose of schizophrenia


While we're talking about creepy things, dreams are believed to be very similar to the state of delirium experienced by schizophrenics, right down to the areas of the brain that become activated. In other words, the schizophrenic’s brain simply forgets to turn off the sleep state during the day. From another perspective, this means that every night we dream, we are actually entering a state of schizophrenia - nightly madness.

Fantastic (illusory) dreams can be caused by weak connections in the brain - the brain tries to extract something specific, but in response it receives a mash of incoherent memories, which give rise to a strange dream. They happen to everyone. However, in the case of schizophrenia or similar diseases, weak connections can be activated at any moment, which is why patients, even while awake, experience the same sensations as healthy people during illusory dreams.

Basically, don't go to bed.

In my opinion, one of the main tricks of psychological counseling is to see the client's problem as a type of dream- caused by confusion, which a third-party specialist helps to dispel. In this sense, the work of an intelligent psychologist is such an activity that “enlightens” the mind. It, by reducing the dope of illusions, sobers up, or in another sense, awakens from psychic sleep. I already started talking about what kind of dream this is in, and today I continue to reveal the topic from a slightly different angle. If your mind is confused by doubts about the real, you can perceive everything described below as an allegory.

Have you ever thought about the criteria of the real? What exactly distinguishes reality from illusion? How does reality become real in our eyes?

We can say that the reality of a dream is illusory because it is not what it seems. Unsteady and unstable, it seems to fool us, pretending to be the solid reality of the day, encouraging us to take a serious attitude with the entire arsenal of “adult” emotions, as long as we believe in it. In sleep, we confuse the reality of the physical world with the fragile picture of a dream.

And yet, while we sleep, the reality of the dream does not arouse suspicion; its image absorbs as all-encompassingly as the images of everyday life. And only upon awakening, the darkness dissipates - and all the problems that arose in the dream go away with it. But as long as the dream lasts, it seems real and is taken seriously.

The point that I want to emphasize here is the dreamer’s deep confidence in what is happening. Being in a dream, he seems to “know” that he is in real world. And here we have to admit that all his solid knowledge is nothing more than strong faith.

At night we believe in the reality of dreams, during the day - in the reality of everyday life. And this faith is essentially identical. We simply take what is happening for granted, as if everything is a priori clear with this world. Neither at night nor during the day do we have any questions about reality. Right up to awakening there is a similar drama and intensity of passions. One remains uncritically and selflessly absorbed in dreams.

That is, we “know” that the reality of the day is real in exactly the same way as we “know” that the reality of a dream is real while it is being dreamed. We have no objective criteria for what is “real.” We simply believe in this world. Deeply, unconsciously, with conviction. And we call our strong faith knowledge.

About ropes and snakes

In fact, sleep differs from everyday life only in its instability. Dreams are temporary. But our life in the context of cosmic time frames is no more stable. Everything we know will pass. And if the stability of the world speaks of its authenticity, then our world is real to the same relative extent as the world of dreams.

I already voiced this idea on the site in an article about: “You can confidently “know” anything. But this belief itself has a mental structure. We really don’t know anything, because our confidence in anything is only a strong, unconditional faith.”

I often give my clients a well-known analogy, where a person sees a rope, mistakes it for a snake and experiences genuine fear. He “knows” as firmly as he can what is in front of him deadly danger. She is real to him.

The role of the psychologist is precisely to remove the client from his restless dreams awaken. This task is not easy because most dreams are shown to us in the “cinema” of the unconscious, from where only a certain background mood, some vague pain for oneself and one’s life, “echoes” to the surface of consciousness.

And here almost everything comes down to being able to see the root of the problem. If you have experience in exploring personal mental depths and are sensitive enough to listen to your own gut, you can be your own psychologist. In a sense, this is tantamount to becoming the object of your own research.

To focus attention on the source of experiences, questions such as “What am I feeling now?”, “What am I thinking about?”, “What do I now “know” about my life) may be appropriate? Projections dissipate with their direct awareness, and reality is freed from the drama with which it was covered by dreams inspired by the mind.

Where are all these “real” events?

Examples of dispersion psychic dreams there is plenty in everyone's life. In such a dream-inspired “reality,” separations become the end of the world, or an empty, meaningless future. Someone else's death is mistaken for one's own. Behind someone's uninvolved calm one dreams of cold, treacherous indifference. Small victories bring dreams of your own greatness. The fleeting encourages one to believe in hallucinations of personal inferiority. Etc.

In this vein, our entire everyday life is still the same illusion, because, like a dream, it is not what it seems. We mistake the chimeras of our mind for real events. We can make a reservation and say that only our attitude towards life is illusory, and life itself is real. But the fact is that we do not know life beyond our own relationship to it.

Upon awakening, we realize that the dream is an illusion, because we brought it to ourselves. What is different about everyday life? Where are all these “real” events? Here and now in this currently all our confidence in the events of current reality is still the same dreams. We sleep in reality and we dream about our lives - we dream about events, relationships, we dream about ourselves.

No one is obliged to expose life, as Buddhist monks and yogi hermits do, up to the stage of enlightenment. Everyone is free to choose the intensity of practice independently. Some people are destined to rush ahead of the locomotive, while others find it easier to “not bother” at all. But, as I see it, the current stage of elaboration for everyone is those very everyday events and experiences that are perceived as problematic.

And even a thousand sobering reliefs from hacked illusions are not enough for most of us to feel this glaring instability of personal conviction about what is real and what is not. We just change one dream for another - in best case scenario more or less realistic. Somehow this is how the “local” earthly path of spiritual maturation apparently runs. From childhood illusions we move to sophisticated ones, and then to “lucid dreams.”

In one of the earliest experiments our research group conducted, we tested the traditional idea that the perception of time in dreams is different from the perception of time in reality. According to the technique we developed, we asked subjects to make an eye movement during a lucid dream, then after a 10-second pause (counting: one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.) to make a second eye movement. We found that in all cases the estimate of the time interval in the lucid dream coincided within a few seconds with its estimate in the waking state and was thus quite close to the real time between signals. From this it was concluded that the estimate of time in lucid dreams is very close to real ones, that is, it takes almost the same amount of time to perform any action in them as in the waking state.

This conclusion may come as a surprise, since many of you may have lived years and even lifetimes in a dream. I believe that this effect is achieved in dreams by the same stage trick that creates the illusion of the passage of time in the cinema or theater. If the lights go out on a screen, on a stage, or in a dream, and the clock strikes midnight, and a few moments later the bright morning sun shines through the window and the alarm clock rings, we assume (we pretend without realizing that we are pretending) that many hours have passed, even if "we know" that it only took a few seconds.

The method of using the eyes to signal a person in a state of lucid dreaming has demonstrated a strict correspondence between the change in direction of gaze during sleep and the actual movement of the eyes under closed eyelids. Researchers who did not use lucid dreamers in their experiments had to rely on the likelihood of a correspondence between the subjects' eye movements and their reported sleep actions. As a result, they tended to obtain only weak correlations between eye movements during sleep and during waking hours. The reason for the strong connection between eye movements in sleep and in the waking state is that we use the same visual system our body. One of the most bright examples The connection between physiology and sleep activities is sexual activity during sleep. In 1983, we undertook a study to determine the extent to which sexual activity during lucid REM dreaming was reflected in physiological parameters.

A woman was chosen for the experiment because women were more likely to report orgasm in their dreams. She observed various physiological indicators that are usually affected by sexual arousal: breathing, heart rate, vaginal muscle tone and amplitude of vaginal pulsations. In the experiment, she was required to give a special signal with her eyes following situations: when she realizes that she is dreaming, when sexual activity begins (in her sleep), and when she has an orgasm.

According to her, she fulfilled the conditions of the task exactly. Analysis of the recordings revealed a significant correlation between what she did in the dream and all but one physiological indicator. During the 15 seconds that she defined as orgasm, her vaginal muscle activity, vaginal pulsation amplitude, and respiratory rate reached their highest levels of the entire night, and were significantly higher than during the rest of the REM period. The heart rate, contrary to expectations, increased very slightly.

After this, we conducted similar experiments with two men. In both cases there was a sharp increase in breathing, but again no significant changes heart rate. It is noteworthy that although both dreamers reported intense orgasm in their lucid dreams, neither experienced ejaculation, unlike the common adolescent wet dreams that are often not accompanied by erotic dreams.

Activities during sleep directly affect the brain and body

From the experiments described above, it follows that the events in which you become a participant in a dream have an effect on your brain (and, to a lesser extent, on your body) that is in many ways similar to that of similar events in reality. Additional Research confirm this conclusion. When lucid dreamers hold their breath or breathe faster during sleep, this is directly reflected in their real breathing. Moreover, changes in brain activity caused by the transition from singing to counting (singing involves more right hemisphere, and when counting - left) in the waking state, are almost exactly reproduced in lucid dreams. That is, for our brain it makes no difference whether this or that action is performed in a dream or in reality. This finding explains why dreams seem so real. To the brain they are indeed real.

We continue to study the relationship between human activity in dreams and his physiology in order to obtain detailed diagram interactions between mind and body during dreams, for everyone physiological systems, measurable. Such a scheme could provide great support to experimental sleep psychology and psychosomatic medicine. Indeed, the direct influence of dream activity on physiology makes it possible to use lucid dreaming to improve performance. immune system. Anyway, physiological effects, caused by dreams, show that we cannot distance ourselves from them, as from the illegitimate children of our imagination. And although our culture tries to ignore dreams, the events experienced in them are as real as in real life. And if we want to improve our lives, it would be right to do this with our dreams.

Social values ​​and lucid dreams

You often hear people interested in lucid dreaming complain about being isolated because, as one writes, “I can’t talk to anyone about it: everyone thinks I’m crazy and looks at me like I’m crazy when I try to talk about it.” what I do in my sleep." Our culture does not provide for any social support for those who study various states consciousness. This aversion is probably rooted in the behaviorist approach to psychology, which views all animals, including humans, as “black boxes” whose actions depend entirely on external influences. The contents of an animal’s “consciousness” are considered immeasurable, and thus not subject to scientific research.

When you are in a dream, it is difficult to understand that what is happening is illusory, the world created by the imagination looks so real. However, if you take a closer look, the signs of fantasy reveal a dream. To understand how to distinguish a dream from reality, you need to use numerous recommendations from experts. Over time, the fictional and real worlds will no longer confuse you.

The first thing that allows us to distinguish the fictional world from the real one is self-awareness. If a person realizes that he is dreaming, he can modify his own dreams. Recognizing a dream is not easy. As soon as you are overwhelmed by the feeling of the illusory nature of what is happening, ask yourself the question: are you dreaming? Remember what happened a few minutes, seconds ago. During dreams, there are no memories; a person is only in the present.

Don't try to pinch yourself. On an intuitive level, you remember the feelings associated with it. The brain will send signals that can deceive the senses of touch, smell, etc. Therefore, trying to take off will not help you understand your dreams. The person knows that this is impossible in the real world. The subconscious will not allow flying in a dream.

The problem with lucid dreaming is a decrease in concentration. The senses that allow us to analyze the situation become dull. A person does not think about whether he is sleeping or not, even if he dreams of something impossible. Therefore, it is difficult to carry out dream tests.

The method of unique beacons is popular. Think in advance about which objects should evoke a clear association with sleep. It could be a thing, a color or a person. As soon as you see this, your brain will send a signal to analyze what is happening. Then try to use one of the ways to understand the real and fictional world.

How to distinguish a dream from reality

Numerous experiments with dreams have discovered general laws, acting while the body is resting. Night fantasies cannot go beyond certain physical laws. Remember them if you want to understand how to distinguish a dream from reality:

• Perform a breath test by pinching your nose and closing your mouth. If there are no problems and air enters the lungs, you are sleeping;
• find a mirror and look at the reflection. In reality, it remains clear, without changing. In a dream, the reflection is blurred, blurred, and constantly deformed;
• remember how you remember the place you are in. In a dream, furnishings and the arrangement of rooms will differ from the present;
• pay attention to your hands. In the illusory world, they will float like an image in a mirror, or pass through each other. You won't be able to count your fingers either;
• An easy way is to look at the nose while closing one eye. In reality this is simple, but in a dream it is impossible;
• find the clock, look at the hands. They will behave incorrectly - they will either start spinning wildly or stop;
• It will not be possible to read one inscription more than once. The next time you try to look at it, the letters will change, the meaning of the phrase or word will be distorted.

Reality Check Practice

The practice of checking in the real world will help to separate fiction and reality. Start working by being awake. For example, from checking inscriptions. Read any phrases or words that come your way. Do this several times in a row, bringing the habit to automaticity. If you see an inscription in a dream, you will read it a couple of times without thinking. When you realize that the letters have changed, you will think about the unreality of what is happening.

Another way to train is to try to take off. Stand on the floor and jump, setting yourself up for the possibility of flight. The more often you carry out such tests, the greater your chances of taking off in your dreams.

Determine what reality you are in using several tests simultaneously. Combine reading the inscriptions with viewing a mirror image, trying to remember the previous scene. It will be impossible to distinguish fiction from reality the first time. Frequent and regular training is required. Also in a dream, pay attention to the following points:

• distant objects cannot be seen, they begin to elude the eye;
• try to run fast. In dreams, two scenarios are possible. Either you will not budge, or you will instantly move to any, even distant, point;
• in a dream it is easy to walk through walls, breathe under water, look at the bright daytime sun without pain in the eyes;
• flip the light switch. Most likely it won't work.

Although other people are most often present in dreams, the dreamer notes the asymmetry of their faces.

Lucid dreaming, scientific research

Scientists have been developing a method for immersion for several centuries lucid dream. People have tried to control the imagination since the 18th century. Then the Italian Luigi Galvani conducted an experiment that discovered “animal electricity” to the world. The scientist found that the body of a living creature produces electricity, and its source is nerve endings.

In the 19th century, the development of technology allowed us to take a step forward. Scientists were able to measure the electrical activity of neurons in any area nervous system. Already in the 50s of the 20th century, developments were used in the discovery of sleep phases. After this, attempts to find out what controls dreams were made repeatedly.

The real breakthrough in lucid dreaming occurred only in the mid-70s. English university scientist Ket Hearn conducted an experiment in which he studied pre-planned eye movements while in a state of sleep. Subsequently, the experiment was repeated by another English experimenter.

Trying to understand the origin lucid dreams, researchers have repeatedly conducted various experiments involving sleeping people. In Frankfurt, experiments demonstrated that the states of wakefulness and sleep are recorded in the range of 40 Hz in frontal lobes brain At this time the subject was in borderline state between wakefulness and sleep. During moments of lucid vision, areas of the brain responsible for consciousness show greater activity.

Parapsychologists were interested in the practice of lucid dreams. Several authors have published books describing own experience immersion in controlled visions. Big influence provided works by Celia Green, Anne Faraday, Patricia Garfield and even Carlos Castaneda.

The American mystic claimed to have presented in his books an account of the field of mysticism and occultism. He published his work on lucid dreaming in 1993. It describes in detail the practices that should be performed in sleep. Castaneda considers his method a way to go beyond the perception of familiar reality in order to understand how things work true peace. In this, his opinion differs from the opinions of parapsychologists who consider lucid dreaming as a closed area of ​​mental activity.

The practice of lucid dreaming has much to do with countless attempts by scientists to combine the conscious and subconscious. Many researchers are making ambitious plans according to which a person will sooner or later be able to live simultaneously in two worlds - fictional and real. Conscious visions are the first step towards realizing this vision.