The mystery of dreams. Let me take you where the mystery begins to clear.
Dr Donald Hoffman discovered that all life cannot see accurately. (Fact not theory.) Not seeing accurately makes us struggle for the answers which in turn feeds our intelligence. The subconscious and consciousness come from the same source; therefore they have to obey the same rules. The subconscious cannot see accurately either and this is why it is almost impossible to gauge its ability,because having the same pattern means it also possesses ability of some kind, too match the pattern. My Guess Is, Without Dreams There Would Be No Design In Nature. What do you think?
PS This is why it is hard to explain what dreams are saying; we can't see them accurately and we can't measure them accurately, but one day we will learn.
I am quite sure that dreams are very important, but I have serious doubts about this being the reason.
Thanks for your reply. Please read my response to ladyprof70, it may answer what you are looking for.
@dodin I've read it. I'll read it again, more carefully, but so far it has not dispelled my doubts. The observations about Australian jewel beetles appear to be correct. I don't quite understand what "seeing accurately" means, or why that should remove purpose. Nor do I think you can justify saying "fact not theory" when it clearly is (at best) a theory.
@Coffeo Ni Coffeo, The jewel beetle has been evolving quite comfortably over millions of years; if not seeing accurately is beneficial in advancing our knowledge; then why hasn't this happened to this beetle. If you imagine that besides us and the beetle, everything else can see accurately; then why hasn't the beetle reached our level? If you look at life as one energy and not individual pockets, things do become clearer, but this one energy can only exist if all life is connected and this if you follow it through, is the result of Dr Hoffman's work.
I think this must be the person @dodin is referring to. [en.wikipedia.org]
this is the second post of this sort and it struck me as ridiculous and wrong the first time, too.
g
Hi gennessa, I look at your reply, but you don't put a reason for your doubts. Please forward your reasons and I will try to answer them.
best wishes
Who is Dr. Donald Hoffman? What is his discipline? What do you mean by 'all life cannot see accurately'? And how on earth is that a 'fact'? One of my subdisciplines is personality theory and I've never heard of this person. and certainly not this assertion. When you say 'all life' do you include mice and elephants? Or maybe plants (aren't they alive, too)? I'm afraid I can't follow much after the assertion that it's "Fact not theory", especially the comment about intelligence. I am not trying to be snide or snarky. I can't respond to something that I can't make sense of.
Hello ladyprof70's. Dr Donald Hoffman is a cognitive scientist from the University of California. He researched the Australian jewel beetle whose population was on the decline. The female of the species is brown shiny and dimpled. The male is able to fly. The drinkers of that country would empty their bottles and throw them in the outback. The bottles were brown shiny and dimpled; the male jewel beetle couldn't tell the difference. At present it states in the Scientific journal that seeing accurately is beneficial to the species, but that is about to change.
To explain why this is beneficial, imagine two worlds and to simplify let's call them two jigsaws. On jigsaw No1 lives a species which can see accurately, It has no interest because it has no purpose. On jigsaw No2 lives a species that cannot see accurately; it struggles, but its struggle feeds its intelligence and gives it purpose. This however does present a problem - if all life cannot see accurately and has to struggle, then why hasn't all life reached the same level of intelligence?
This brings in the variety in nature and how its design was accomplished. It is not by supernatural means, because that would have put us back on jigsaw No1 with no constructive purpose. The only answer is we started evolving as one and still are; we are all connected. There is no other choice!
Because we cannot see accurately then the same scenario applies to the dreams we have and why they appear mostly a mixture of the indescribable. In our conscious world we struggle to get definitive proof before going on, but we cannot see or measure ability in the subconscious. Ability is there because it follows the same pattern displayed in our conscious world. The only way I find to research these dreams is to look for patterns that match both. (SUB and CON)
@dodin Thanks for the clarification. I don't think that this can be generalized beyond insects to human beings. For the most part, insects don't have what we can consider to be brains. Since the entire idea of the unconscious and subconscious depend on the possession of a brain, I think at best you are talking about perception. This is interesting, just not relevant in the way I believe you are claiming.
@ladyprof70 Thanks for your reply. Your idea of perception is perhaps not the right word. All life as its survival energies. The Monarch butterfly migrates from North America to central Mexico, a journey of 2,500 miles. On the way, three generations die and reproduce on their journey, this is because they are all connected. We know that the magnetic pull of the earth plays a roll in this, but the most important factor is, they are all connected. Each species like I say has its own survival method, but we don't need to migrate, we can adapt to any climate. However for an intelligent species to survive it must have purpose; purpose is for our survival, without which we would perish.
You mention that insects don't have brain power the same as us, but that doesn't matter. Don't think of life as individual species; think of life as one energy, you will then realise that individual brain power is not needed in the same way. Life started as one and is still evolving as one.
Thanks for your interest.
I'm having a difficult time getting past the, "...all life cannot see accurately," statement above. An elaboration of precisely what that means would help.
Without dreaming, whether remembered or not, our brain would suffer. I would have to look up the studies to remember the effects, but, as I remember, that are not good. Not as bad as not sleeping, which can and usually does bring on death. Science is still quantifying what our subconscious and our dream states do for us. I like what you postulate; my only question would be, since we don't appear to share dreams how do we find design in nature? Without a doubt there is a design; a mathematical design, not necessarily an intelligently made one.
Hi Beowulfsfriend's, What you describe is nature's way of making us adhere to that which makes life immune from dying and not the cause of, You say we don't share dreams, but nothing could be further from the truth. Abraham Lincoln dreamt of his death three days before it happened; was he seeing into the future? No because the future had not happened yet. What he was connecting with in his dream was the perpetrator planning the atrocity. There are too many dreams that can be interpreted following the designs that we experience in our conscious world. If you were planning an atrocity to happen in three days time then that is the only way you can see into the future and that is what was happening in Lincoln's dream. You cannot see or measure ability in the subconscious and add to this we are all on different levels of ability; I mean by that; in the conscious world we are all on different levels of ability (physical and academic ) these differences also apply to the subconscious, but by their very nature must have a different purpose. The only way we can see into the subconscious is by observing patterns like the one I described with Lincoln's dream. This also explains why we do not appear to contact each other but we must; that is the only logical explanation.
It is the only answer to the design in nature.