my view is that dreams always have 'significance'. it's just that they occur
with respect to extremely-abstract information-processing that's, in the main,
pertaining to internally-relevant information-processing contexts.
so, when such is carried through, the notion of 'psychosis' is dispelled
because there's relatively-little necessary external ('waking consciousness')
relevance inherent... why should an extraordinarily-powerful,
streamlined-to-the-gills, internal, abstract information-processing dynamic
have mundane correlation with respect to dynamics which occur when the nervous
system is configured into an almost entirely-different information-processing
'state'?
such doesn't compute.
this leaves the question of why there's any 'dream imagery' at all?
why expend energy 'seeing' stuff that's correlated more-strongly with
internally-abstract information-processing dynamics than it is with
externally-relevant experience?
since 'creativity' hinges upon stochastic (having a random component)
activation 'states' (AoK, Ap5), and since 'sleep consciousness' has huge
stochastic dynamics within it, why waste such when it must occur in such
abundance, anyway?
so my view is that what 'dreaming' is is an efficiency which taps into the
extraordinary stochastic activation that occurs during 'sleep consciousness',
because the extraordinary stochastic activation is there, anyway, so that which
would be, otherwise, wasted, is 'sifted' for possible usefulness. when an
internally-abstract 'sleep consciousness' information-processing dynamic yields
sufficient TD E/I-minimization, transition to 'waking consciousness' is
initiated, and the lingering 'imagery' provides something to 'ponder' with
respect to externally-relevant, 'waking consciousness' information-processing
dynamics.
so, how could it be possible for 'dream' content to convey information that's
specifically with respect to externally-relevant stuff? it's derived in an
internally-abstract information-processing 'state', having an
extraordinarily-important information-processing purpose, upon which survival
depends, after all.
so when folks 'interpret' dreams, they're 'just' doing an
otherwise-uncorrelated 'analysis', and attaching 'meaning' which they choose to
attach... like a Rorschach thing... says more about the 'interpreter' than it
does about the 'interpretee' :-)
this said, i have had a few 'dreams', the content of which remains vivid
decades after their occurences, and which i value.
in one, i viewed myself in perspective, astride a battleship that was in a
mighty turn... my feet were dangling in the water.
woke up, said, "Yep." enjoed the wonder of it, and went back to sleep.
doesn't seem like a 'random' image, and that's why i 'remember' it. and
'remembering it has, over the years, been a bit of a 'comfort'... so why not?
all this said, with respect to the question of the possibility that there's
something-more going on, i can reply only, "i don't know".
why i allow for such stems from another 'dream' i had. i was at a local
athletic-field type 'park' (a physically-real place, BTW). i was tossing around
a very-unruly 'Frisbee'. kept at it, despite it's 'unruliness'. then above, the
cloudy sky opened up in a huge 'circle' above me, and there was a Being,
looking over the circumference of the 'circle' and down on my efforts with the
unruly 'Frisbee'.
also a bit 'comforting', as well as a bit 'frightening'.
i recall it with Fondness, just 'letting-it-Be", and it's recollection has been
a Sustaining thing, that's greatly Nurtured Wonder over the years.
was something other than the stochastic-opportunism i discussed above going on?
i like to think so, but that's my 'interpretation'.
cheers, ken (K. P. Collins)
