Vivid Dreams

The catch-all forum for general topics and debates. Minimal moderation. Rated PG to PG-13.
_just me
_Emeritus
Posts: 9070
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:46 pm

Vivid Dreams

Post by _just me »

I have experienced on vivid dream that I can recall. Mostly because it was not that long ago.

Anyway. My dream was so real that I actually physically responded to it. I saw and heard my mom come in my room (that was the dream). It was only a few minutes later when fully awake that I became sure that it was a dream. I even asked my mom the next day to make sure she hadn't actually come in my room.

My question is, do you think that vivid dreaming could explain some people's experiences with god, angels and extra-terrestrials?
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden
~The Goddess is not separate from the world-She is the world and all things in it.~
_Bob Loblaw
_Emeritus
Posts: 3323
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:26 am

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _Bob Loblaw »

just me wrote:I have experienced on vivid dream that I can recall. Mostly because it was not that long ago.

Anyway. My dream was so real that I actually physically responded to it. I saw and heard my mom come in my room (that was the dream). It was only a few minutes later when fully awake that I became sure that it was a dream. I even asked my mom the next day to make sure she hadn't actually come in my room.

My question is, do you think that vivid dreaming could explain some people's experiences with god, angels and extra-terrestrials?



A lot of the early church members' experiences with demons and evil spirits sound just like Night Terrors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror
"It doesn't seem fair, does it Norm--that I should have so much knowledge when there are people in the world that have to go to bed stupid every night." -- Clifford C. Clavin, USPS

"¡No contaban con mi astucia!" -- El Chapulin Colorado
_Bob Loblaw
_Emeritus
Posts: 3323
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:26 am

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _Bob Loblaw »

Night terrors usually occur when sleep has not reached REM level. Here, for example, is an account from Wilford Woodruff.

We [Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith] retired to rest in good
season and I felt well in my mind and slept until 12 at night. I awoke and
meditated upon the things of God until near 3 o’clock and while forming 
a determination to warn the people in London and overcome the powers
of Darkness by the assistance of God; A person appeared unto me which I
considered was the Prince of Darkness or the Devil. He made war with me
and attempted to take my life. He caught me by the throat and choked me
nearly to death. He wounded me in my forehead. I also wounded him in a
number of places in the head. As he was about to overcome me I prayed
to the father in the name of Jesus for help. I then had power over him and
he left me though much wounded.

Three personage dressed in white came to me and prayed with
me and I was immediately healed and [they] delivered me from all my
troubles.
"It doesn't seem fair, does it Norm--that I should have so much knowledge when there are people in the world that have to go to bed stupid every night." -- Clifford C. Clavin, USPS

"¡No contaban con mi astucia!" -- El Chapulin Colorado
_Themis
_Emeritus
Posts: 13426
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 6:43 pm

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _Themis »

just me wrote:
My question is, do you think that vivid dreaming could explain some people's experiences with god, angels and extra-terrestrials?


Sure. There is a lot the body and mind can do that gets ignored in preference for a desired belief.
42
_Stormy Waters

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _Stormy Waters »

As someone who periodically experiences Sleep Paralysis when I was younger I did mistake some experiences for reality.
I've heard others describe waking up with the devil choking them unable to move and they're convinced it's real. When realistically it is much more easily explained by sleep paralysis.
_Bret Ripley
_Emeritus
Posts: 1542
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 3:53 am

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _Bret Ripley »

just me wrote:My question is, do you think that vivid dreaming could explain some people's experiences with god, angels and extra-terrestrials?
Absolutely! Stormy Waters has already made reference to "sleep paralyis", and Carl Sagan wrote about this phenomenon in The Demon Haunted World. Sagan quotes The Harvard Mental Health Letter (September 1994):
Sleep paralysis may last for several minutes, and is sometimes accompanied by vivid dreamlike hallucinations that give rise to stories about visitations from gods, spirits, and extraterrestrial creatures.
Sagan's discussion regarding 'sleep paralysis' begin on page 104: http://snurl.com/24x736e
_just me
_Emeritus
Posts: 9070
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:46 pm

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _just me »

Oh, yes, I've experienced sleep paralysis a few times. It is very terrifying.
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden
~The Goddess is not separate from the world-She is the world and all things in it.~
_just me
_Emeritus
Posts: 9070
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:46 pm

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _just me »

Thanks for the references, guys!
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden
~The Goddess is not separate from the world-She is the world and all things in it.~
_ludwigm
_Emeritus
Posts: 10158
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:07 am

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _ludwigm »

From the page Tribute to Karinthy Frigyes:

"In my dream, I was two cats and I was playing with each other."

(+ "In humour, I know no joke.")
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco
- To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
_PrickKicker
_Emeritus
Posts: 480
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:39 pm

Re: Vivid Dreams

Post by _PrickKicker »

just me wrote:Oh, yes, I've experienced sleep paralysis a few times. It is very terrifying.


Hell yeah, I have had that, your mind is fully awake but you cannot move a muscle, like the locked in syndrome.

I had a dream when my nan died, I found myself in the spirit world and my dads mum, was there to meet me.
She looked about 35 years old, and yet I recognised who she was, she had died a member of the church in her old age, not to long before I had the dream. I remember a flood of emotion came over me and as we embraced and I cried.

I also had a dream the night of my own endowment.

It started out as a recall from going through the temple for my first time.

I went through every step of the washing and anointing, then the endowment. Recalling every little detail, at the moment I was permitted to pass through the veil.
I saw myself ascend in a conduit of light up through the single spire of the London temple, then up and up faster and faster until I found myself in the spirit world.
I found myself walking through a very bright world made completely of lights, with no distinguishable colours, there was grass, trees, rocks, a stream and people dressed in white robes, as I continued walking, I stopped and asked someone where Jesus was, they replied, he is not in this world, he is some where else, I asked where and they said they didn't know, no one knew, I then continued walking and although it looked like heaven, people were solemn and silent like I had entered a world without emotions and feeling, it was a sickly sanitised world, there was no happiness but also no sadness.

It was weird, it was like it was heaven, but no one knew each other either.

But the best dreams are the sexy ones...
I've not had many since being married, but remember the embarrassment of sharing a room with about 3 other sexually starved Mormon men on my mission and seeing another full grown male dry humping the hell out of their duvet... :eek: :surprised: :redface: :sad: :cry:

The worst 2 years of my life, mainly because I got to see how the church really gets converts, through high pressured sales techniques.

I don't believe dreams are anything other than your over active imagination... They certainly don't come from God.
PrickKicker: I used to be a Narrow minded, short sighted, Lying, Racist, Homophobic, Pious, Moron. But they were all behavioral traits that I had learnt through Mormonism.
Post Reply