Why We Dream

I am posting this to give one an idea as to the enormity of the “junk science” studies and/or articles that are now being published in the media by supposedly Degreed “experts” who are actively engaged in Scientific research and discovery. Such articles permeate most every Field of Science and/or discipline and have a profound effect on Political decisions made by our Government entities. To wit:

Why We Dream

Neuroscientist Mark Solms explains how dreams may protect and distract our brains from the outside world and allow the body to rest.

If dreams are the royal road to the unconscious, as Freud claimed, then that route may be a highway full of tortuous twists and turns—leading nowhere. But it affords some spectacular vistas along the way.

By turns, dreams have been deemed prophecies of the future, full of meaning—if only someone could figure out what it is—or the effluence of nerve cells randomly unwinding from a busy day.

Once considered a hallmark of the periodic surges of brain activity known as rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM), dreaming now seems somewhat less bundled up; at least 25 percent of dreams are scattered through other parts of the night. Dreaming has been seen as critical for learning, or at least important for solving problems—or as nice but unnecessary. It's an emblem of mental illness—or a safety shield deflecting it.

The newest switchback on dreams comes from South African neuroscientist Mark Solms. Maybe, says Solms, we've been confusing cause and effect. Dreams, he suggests, are not a by-product of sleep, as has been assumed all along. Dreaming may be what allows us to sleep in the first place.

exerted from: Psychology Today magazine
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200504/why-we-dream

My critique of the above cited article.

“In other words, dreaming does for the brain what Saturday-morning cartoons do for the kids: It keeps them sufficiently entertained so that the serious players in the household can get needed recovery time. Without such diversion, the brain would be urging us up and out into the world to keep it fully engaged.”

Now being the Devil’s Advocate that I am, me pretty sure that neuroscientist Mark Solms really needs to do considerably more thinking, reasoning, logical deducting and self study/investigating of his own mental processes so as to acquire a better understanding of the two (2) basic components of the human mind and how each functions in respect to/with each other. And those two basic components are our conscious mind and our subconscious mind.

His inference in the above that the human brain and mind are the same is totally wrong and when one is speaking or writing about mental processes it is important to delineate between the brain and the mind just as one does when speaking or writing about their PC and its processor’s “brain” chip and functioning software programs (mind). And like the human mind, the PC’s “mind” has two basic components, which are, .... function/control programs and application programs.

“Dreams trick us into thinking we're out striving in the wider world.”

Again, Mark Solms uses the word “us” in the singularity which totally negates his statement. When speaking of dreams there is no “us” unless one is referring to both our conscious and subconscious mind, ….. and we know Solms is not doing that. We know that because if dreams are tricking “us” then they are only tricking our conscious mind. And proof of that is the fact that the only way we consciously know that we have dreams is if and when we are awakened (become conscious) during the dreaming process. No wake up, no know nothing bout dreaming, no remember content of dream.

“Dreams share many qualities with hallucinations. They are the hallucinations we all experience.”

Mark Solms did a little better on that statement. But the fact is, dreams and hallucinations are the exact same things, and the only difference between the two is how one consciously interprets them. If one wakes up realizing they had been having a dream (their subconscious mind permitted them access to “view” the dream it was composing), then no problem, dreaming is a natural “thingy” that one does when asleep. But if one is awake, and their subconscious mind permits them access to consciously “view” a dream it is composing, then it scares the bejesus out of them because such weird things like that don’t and ain’t suppose to happen when one is or has been awake (conscious).

And the simple explanation as to how one can “see” their dreams/hallucinations is the fact that one can not consciously “see” anything directly, even the two channels of streaming video being transmitted via their eyes and optic nerves. Said video is transmitted to the subconscious mind which combines them, massages them, edits them, stabilizes them, adds things, inverts them and then permits the conscious mind to “see” the results.

Our subconscious mind is ..... one powerful "realtime" video editor.

One consciously “sees” what ever their subconscious mind permits them to “see”, nothing more, nothing less.

Just my personal thoughts on the subject that are based on/in learned considerations and logical reasoning.

Cheers, Sam C