Has anyone ever analysed their dreams?

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

...either as part of structured psychoanalysis or informally by themselves?

Did you find it productive/interesting?

I'm reading one of Colin Wilson's books on the paranormal at the moment, some of which is plausable, some not. I have my doubts about the relevence of dream analysis but as it's fairly easy to do i thought i'd try it before making my mind up.

Would be interested to know what you all thought of it though.

 

[sufi]

I was a teenage B6 abuser

I did a short spell of vitamin B6 abuse as a teen,
available from yr local pharmacist - it gives you the MOST vivid dreams, so much that you can hardly sleep... (& it's good fr health presumably )
interesting but tiring different area of consciousness to explore, i often wondered if there have been any explorators/sprirt guide a la castaneda for lucid dreamland, as analyse yr dream type books seem so subjective as to be useless imho

generally it's ALL about sex tho no?

 

[Omaar]

I did a short spell of vitamin B6 abuse as a teen,
available from yr local pharmacist - it gives you the MOST vivid dreams, so much that you can hardly sleep... (& it's good fr health presumably )

really? so how much would one need to take to produce this effect?

 

[Melmoth]

Dream Workshops as part of the Ilya and Emilia Kabokov Exhibition "House of Dreams"


Wednesdays in November
2 – 6pm

The Sackler Centre of Arts Education
at the Serpentine Gallery
Free, booking essential
Places limited

Participants will sleep, rest and dream in the exhibition, taking part in discussions exploring dream interpretation led by psychoanalysts Lucia Corti, Vincent Dachy, Alan Rowan, Noga Wine and Anouchka Grose.

Information: Email dreams@serpentinegallery.org

 

[Melmoth]

Sounds like a nightmare.

 

[rewch]

really? so how much would one need to take to produce this effect?

can't really od on it, so take 3 or 4... however the side effects are most unexpected... no sleep due to excessive dreaming... you don't seem to go into deep sleep, but spend all night having intense pre-waking dreams... & then you wake up... pretty tiring... but very vivid... except after what seems like 20 or 30 dreams you can't really remember what happened... definitely worth it though

 

[Lichen]

The Sackler Centre of Arts Education
/QUOTE]

Arthur Sackler "invented" Valium and Librium. I'm sure he'd be pleased with this collective dozing.

 

[Grievous Angel]

Yeah, done a lot of dream work. It's extremely productive and interesting when you get going.

You can get a lot of the same insights through wakeful meditation but dreams have a habit of... well, kinda lumping it all together in one shocking big heap.

Baby-induced sleep deprivation is devastating for remembering dreams.

Which Colin Wilson book are you reading?

 

[Omaar]

can't really od on it, so take 3 or 4... however the side effects are most unexpected... no sleep due to excessive dreaming... you don't seem to go into deep sleep, but spend all night having intense pre-waking dreams... & then you wake up... pretty tiring... but very vivid... except after what seems like 20 or 30 dreams you can't really remember what happened... definitely worth it though

had a squiz around some other sites that suggested that you can cause neurological damage by taking too large a dose .. so 3 or 4 of how many mg?

Actually I'm a bit wary about trying this now as a I had terrifyingly realistic nightmares last night, not sure if i should try and make things more intense. As well as a bizarre nightmare, I also dreamt that i was looking at a a theatre stage from which all these ancient stone cultural artefacts suddenly disappeared. I spent the next day of dreamtime trying to understand how this was physically possible and where the artefacts had gone in a metaphysical detective story type way, before I came to the realisation that they had never been there in reality, I had only ever received an email about them being there and had somehow translated the email into a memory of having seen them. Then I woke up in my dream and explained this to the friend who had sent the email, which it turned out actually wan't meant for me.

fairly off topic:

Has anyone ever experimented with that bit of software that generates noise at specific frequencies with particular qualities that are supposed to produce particular psychological states? Inlcuding one that is meant to produce descent into temporary psychosis? can't remember the name right now.

 

[rewch]

had a squiz around some other sites that suggested that you can cause neurological damage by taking too large a dose .. so 3 or 4 of how many mg?

can't really remember sadly... but i reckon probably 500 - 1000 mg... seem to remember they came in 200mg doses, but could be wrong... & suspect that 2000 mg (threshold toxicity) is a lot of pills

doesn't sound like you need any b6 though...

 

[rewch]

just been having a look myself at some other dream potentiators or whatever you call them... there are quite a few on erowid where people have been using combinations of various things, but for b6 it seems to be approx. 1000 mg...

having said that some of these people seem to have travelled quite far...

 

[martin]

I get wacked out dreams, but they're normally just deconstructions of the day's events, only with minute details amplified and blown out of all proportion / sense of reality. I'd never analyse them, but for some reason, indoor swimming pools tend to be a recurring theme.

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

Yeah, done a lot of dream work. It's extremely productive and interesting when you get going.

You can get a lot of the same insights through wakeful meditation but dreams have a habit of... well, kinda lumping it all together in one shocking big heap.

Baby-induced sleep deprivation is devastating for remembering dreams.

Which Colin Wilson book are you reading?

Mysteries. it's the first of his 'occult' books I've read. I read the outsider in my teens, it's my favorite ever non fiction book. His style is incredible.

Yeah I've experienced sleep deprivation working nightshifts before, it's pretty spacey. Baby related I'd imagine is more full on because of all the emaotions going round your head, no?

 

[henry s]

I suppose we're in the area of "lucid dreaming" now, which reminds me of an Aphex Twin feature many moons ago, where RDJ went on and on about how he could lucid dream (despite sleeping only two hours a night)...it was interesting how laddish he was about it, reasoning that lucid dreaming was great because you could "shag anybody you fancied"...he also wrote music in his sleep...talk about a multi-tasker!...so intrigued was I (if those female grad school colleagues of mine had ANY idea what was in store for them in slumberland!) that I got some books on the subject, but was dismayed at how much work it seemed (waking oneself every hour, keeping a dream journal, constantly reminding oneself during waking hours that one was indeed awake, etc.) that I bagged it...still think it sounds cool, though, and I'd really like to actually remember what I dream about...

 

[DJ PIMP]

I take note (dream diary) of particularly vivid dreams, or ones that are recurring or part of a series, and try to feel my way through them a bit. Jung said that serial or recurring dreams are quite significant.

Had a crazy medieval-Lynchian dream last week, where I woke up semi-conscious and terrified, posessed by the very intense, pitch-black feeling (demonic) figure from the dream I was having, and I couldn't move or talk until it left me (15-20 seconds) - sleep paralysis styles. Might write up the dream if anyone is interested?

Never had an experience like that before - it freaked me out.

 

[Omaar]

Had a crazy medieval-Lynchian dream last week, where I woke up semi-conscious and terrified, posessed by the very intense, pitch-black feeling (demonic) figure from the dream I was having, and I couldn't move or talk until it left me (15-20 seconds) - sleep paralysis styles. Might write up the dream if anyone is interested?

I 've had that happen once or twice -hypnagogia - i think i heard it posited as an explanation for the succubus/incubus thing - ah there's a bit on it here:

I'd like to hear more anyway ...

 

[diaspora]

Good link on sleep paralysis. I've had occasional episodes of that for the last few years, but had kind of assumed it was specific to me. The sense of malevolence is very powerful, and the first few times were frightening, but fear was outweighed by curiosity, and I began to appreciate the experience. The last time it happened was a couple of months ago, when I enjoyed it so much I think I might have broken the cycle

Someone mentioned audio software to induce altered states. There's two I know of: BrainWave Generator, which is shareware, but you can use it with limited functions and a nag dialogue indefinitely, and SBaGen, which is opensource freeware. I've had these installed for the last month or so, but haven't had time to play with them.

I have big dreams and little dreams. Mostly little dreams, spam from the subconscious, but occasionally big dreams, the ones that tell you the naked truth.

 

[DJ PIMP]

I 've had that happen once or twice -hypnagogia - i think i heard it posited as an explanation for the succubus/incubus thing - ah there's a bit on it here:

Jung wrote that the first encounter with a "demon" was the beginning of the acknowledgment of God? Something like that... Anyhow the dream was a two-parter with about 6 weeks in between the parts. Heres the transcript from the diary.

PART I [soft string section]
Middle ages. I'm riding through a village in a horse-drawn cart with my new bride/mistress who has just been given to me - a young girl dressed in white. We go home and get into bed and go to sleep. I wake up in the morning and she is lying next to me, stiff as a board. Her white gown is pulled up covering her face and torso. She is wide-eyed with terror and tells me that during the night she was raped while lying next to me - she thinks she is pregnant. She keeps repeating "he made me do it, he's making me do it" - totally freaked out - but I don't understand how its possible.

Later that day we ride into the village, cruising through the crowd at the markets. The bride points out a huge figure amongst the throng - an enormous man standing head and shoulders over everyone else. Dark, dirty matted hair and bushy beard. Grubby clothes and face. Deep black eyes that stare straight at me with an intense otherworldly force.

PART II [strings slide into discord]
Same premise as the first part, I'm back in the village with the woman in white. We ride home and get into bed and go to sleep. However this time I wake up in the middle of the night... in the dim light of the room I can see the woman is lying rigidly with her gown pulled up over her face. Above her is the spectral figure of the man raping her - a black, dense buzzing cloud.

I start to panic as I can see this terrible thing that made no sense to me before. In reality I start to wake up so as to escape, but the demon has become aware that I've seen him and he moves swiftly from the woman in the dream to my semi-waking body - paralysing me - filling me with this incredibly dark malevolent force - I'm entirely terrified. My hands are like gnarled tree roots frozen above my chest and the muscles in my arms and body are vibrating like crazy as his energy pours through me. I try several times to say to my partner "he's the one thats doing it!", but nothing comes out. By this time my partner has woken up and shes asking if I'm OK - I still can't reply. I make an attempt to calm down and after a few seconds I feel the spirit leave me - drifting toward a corner of the room like a fog. It was only then that I started to move again.

--

I won't go into my interpretation but it did remind me a lot of that (great/horrible/memorable) scene in Mulholland Drive, where the guy is talking to his therapist in the diner. He describes a dream, which then starts to occur, and they go out the back where he finds the creepy looking crusty-guy that kills him with fright. The man/demon in my dream looked similar only much larger and heavier.

Anyhoo...

 

[Omaar]

but it did remind me a lot of that (great/horrible/memorable) scene in Mulholland Drive, where the guy is talking to his therapist in the diner.

I read (or my unconscious read ; ) )the above as 'where the guy is talking to the rapist' which obv made no sense.

Did you hear the strings in your dream or is that creative license?

Do other people hear music in dreams?

Or read/hear particular words? I read somewhere that reading is meant to be theoretically impossible in dreams - actually now that i think about it it was more along the lines of "if you're dreaming and you read some text and turn away and then turn back and read it again and it says something else then you know that you're dreaming" - and from this point you can go on to dream lucidly.

 

[Gabba Flamenco Crossover]

Do other people hear music in dreams?

I hear music in my dreams. i sometimes wake up a la macca and write it down although the results havent been quite as financially rewarding yet.

In that semi sleep phase where you get hyperreal imagery i can direct myself to write nonsense songs as well as recite surreal gibberish. I'd like to write it down but that means coming out of the dream state into full consciousness so i dont see how you could.

And i suspect it might be crap.