Explanation of Dreams in Science- A must read !!
As I love science and dreams are things that most of people thinks that it is just an unusual activity of mind but there is explanation for the dreams in science . And here it is -:
Dreams often describe events that have not yet happened but will. They can also describe events that are occurring at remote locations—such as the dream my wife had about the death of her father (which I’ll describe in more details below).
It is a fact that much of the future is determined by events that took place in the past, and if we know a lot about the past, we can say a lot about the future. If you dream that the sun will rise, then the odds are very high that your dream will in fact become a reality.
Dreams are creations of the brain, and the brain is very good at predicting the future. It makes more mistakes than it makes correct predictions, but we tend to forget those. It is plausible that in your dreams, part of your brain is at work integrating knowledge and assembling a vision of the future.
For example, you dream that you are going to meet your future spouse. And then you do! How did the brain know? Well, the brain undoubtedly was aware of the fact that you were looking, even if you weren’t consciously aware of that fact yourself. And your brain knew what kind of person would be attractive.
The ancients believed that the “gifts” from the gods included fire, agriculture, and the ability to interpret our dreams.* Freud made a huge effort in developing the latter, but despite his success as a influential philosopher, he was pretty much a failure as a scientist, and as a result few professionals today believe that his analysis of the interpretation of dreams has any value.
Generally speaking, we are not good at interpreting our dreams, and so they are not very helpful. My wife awoke one night and said, “My dad just died.” How did she know? Well, he was living by himself in the wilderness of Canada, and had recently written a letter describing how he was exploring some old gold mines. That’s pretty clearly a dangerous situation. And if he died in a mine collapse, we probably never would know. All we could say is that the last we heard of him was just before my wife’s dream.
He didn’t die; he is now age 96 and he lives with us in Berkeley. I bring up this story every time someone mentions how dreams can convey information about which we have no plausible access. When dreams come true, we talk about them; when dreams come false, we don’t generally share them. In science that is related to “confirmation bias,” a serious challenge to verifying a discovery.
There is a similar effect that I might call the “Las Vegas Effect.” Many a gambler who wins big brags about his success. It is rare that you hear anyone talking about their losses. So if you just listen to people telling about their wonderful vacation in Las Vegas, you’ll get the impression that every gambler makes money.
Dreams can become reality. So can “conscious dreams”, such as the dream that you would like to graduate from college, or the dream that you’d like to start your own business. What makes sleep dreams intriguing is that they appear to be a way that part of our brain contacts us, a part of the brain that seems to be remote from our ordinary conscious mind.
*I read a book a few years ago that pointed out, right at the beginning of the book, that there was a list of gifts from the gods, and that all on the list except one were indeed miracles that we enjoy, including fire and agriculture. But the one that grated on the modern mind was the ability to interpret our dreams, since most scientists feel that dreams are often more misleading than helpful. I had thought this was a book by Carl Sagan, but I have a collection of most of Sagan’s books (I am a great fan of his scientific writing) and it doesn’t seem to be there. Can anybody help me find the origin of this intriguing quote?