Dreaming...and stuff!

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Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

Dreaming...and stuff!

There's quite a bit of off topic things going on at the moment..
So here's another...
On a recent phone call with Simon, I mentioned that these days I really love dreaming.
It's like a "trip" without drugs or anything.
It's true!
I don't really care if it's nightmarish or pleasant...each one is an adventure and always leaves me feeling amazingly refreshed.
Maybe it's a thing that happens with age or something, but I first acknowledged it in the 70's when I was working the same humdrum 12 hour day with an Oil Company.
It's like, whenever things become routine...your brain somehow steps in to fill the gaps in entertainment!
I only realized that when other members of the crew said they were experiencing the same.

I'm really disappointed when I wake up in the morning without having a strange or wonderful dream to remember.
It doesn't happen too often though.

Last night was a cracker.

For some reason (you know how dreams go in their logic) I was on an EasyJet flight to Washington DC for some kind of business reason.
The bit that worried me though, was the fact I had no passport with me and also I was on a same-day go and return flight and didn't know the time of the flight back.

Anyway..I got to DC airport and after a bit of explanation to the officials, finally got through...

Well..who did I meet on the way out of the Airport...but Ricardo and his wife!

I was totally amazed!

Anyway..we went into this cafe and started chatting and he showed me his Conde and played a few licks.

He said he was due at his dance studio and did I want to come along.

So we went down there, but when we arrived, we found that the studio had been double-booked and there was a folk group rehearsing stuff.

Ricardo introduced me to a friend of his, who said he'd show me around DC.
But when we went out it was getting dark and although it looked very exciting, I began worrying about the time of my flight home.

Anyway...we walked through the centre of downtown.
It was amazing...full of skyscrapers and lights and we wandered through a little gardened square to a little bar and stopped and had a beer.

I then looked at the clock and it was about 8.00pm and I was quite a bit away from the Airport...so I thought I better make tracks quick, since I didn't even know the time of the last flight!

I said that I better get a Taxi quick...but I only had British money...so I searched through my pockets for a credit card but could only find a Clydesdale bank card which I wondered about how it was going to get me dollars out of an American ATM.

Anyway...the next phase of the dream was arriving at the airport.. (apparently the Taxi driver accepted £10 notes).

Nobody knew the time of the flight and kept passing me on from desk to desk.

The next worry was that I had no passport...so even if they let me out...how the heck was I going to get back in?

About this time I woke up to the reassuring morning radio news voices on the radio...
I was safe... back in my bed in Scotland.

Great stuff...a great adventure!

Nice to meet you Ricardo!

So what do the Forum psychaitrists/philosophers reckon my state of mental health is?

cheers

Ron

(Don't do dope...do cheese..

)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2006 20:19:10

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

quote:

Anyway...we walked through the centre of downtown.
It was amazing...full of skyscrapers and lights

Sounds more like Alexandria than D.C. - which is near the Reagan airport so might make some sense, although EasyJet don't fly there

The worry about passport and returning flight indicates stress in your life or some worry to be resolved. A similar one is taking an exam without revising.

BTW - same bank as me - good choice, Scots and their money.

PS - I am developing a dream box to wear around one's head at night and amplify dreams - seriously. Lined with silver foil and everything. I have wonderful dreams.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 6 2006 22:31:02

ricecrackerphoto

Posts: 265
Joined: Feb. 5 2006

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Escribano)

that's funny. i had a dream last night that i finally received my new blanca and was noodling around on it trying to get a feel for my new baby. i've been traveling a lot recently which means no practice at all for me so i was rusty. but the sound was just not right so i spent the rest of the dream changing strings going through like ten brands: hannanbach, luthier, savarez, la bellas, everything.

then i woke up and realized that my guitar still hasn't arrived. sucks.

doug

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 1:42:50

Ricardo

Posts: 14822
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Wow Ron I had the SAME dream the other night!

Ha, just kidding, would be weird huh? Sorry no sky scrapers anywhere, they like em low around hear. Even Alexandria is pretty low, old buildings. Washington Monument is not really that high either. Anyway, nice meeting you in your dreams.

Steve Vai had a cool story about the "trip" he took as a youngster that was the base for his "Passion and Warfare". Dreams are in fact hallucinations caused by a chemical that is released by the brain. If you deliberately stay awake, eventually the chemical is released after it builds up, and you hallucinate while awake. I have a theory that people who have weird experiences like "alien abductions", demonic possession, and what not, have a problem where the chemical is released when they not a sleep (Steve Vai also had "alien" experiences as a result of his natural trip). Also if you watch some people sleep, they twitch because the body is paralized to prevent one from acting out the dream physically. Folks sleep walk when the body did not do it's "paralizing" job. But some folks actually go through the process of getting paralized, and the dream chemicals get released, all before they actually "fall asleep". The result is a rather horrific experience where added fear and paranoia influence the "dream", but during a semi awake state. The person can't tell what is real. Pretty crazy. No drugs needed.

I have not remembered a dream in awhile, unless it was scary, or sexy. Busted guitar is a reocurring theme, trying to hide the damage from my father who reappears after years of hiding out. (He died when I was 17). But those come rarely. I know many who say their dreams are black and white. I have always dreamt colors. Orange Conde with cracks and holes and paint peeling off.

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 5:25:47

carlos soto

Posts: 126
Joined: Oct. 22 2005

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Man reading your post scared me, I haven't sleep in days, I hope I don't get any of those while I'm not sleeping.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 6:30:21

Gummy

Posts: 495
Joined: Nov. 27 2005
From: North Carolina, USA

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ricardo)

Ricardo,
I wonder if that chemical release during sleep is what happens to some during meditation when some people experience visions or some level of "enlightenment"? I read about some drugs(Like Salvia Divinorum, no I have not taken any) that enable visions and give a feeling of enlightenment and a feeling of being related to everything else. Some of the chemicals released by the brain are supposed to be similar to very powerful drugs. I wonder if enlightenment is just a chemical experience? Sorry to get away from sleep, but I guess this is sort of related...
Rod

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 12:51:13

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

I better dont tell you what I dreamed! huuuh.. Ron you are healthy!! Dont worry.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 13:10:04

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Salvia divinorum? divine sage?

intriguing topic though. I remember chatting with a guy who was into yoga and also recreational drugs. I asked him if he thought you could increase your creativity without drugs, and he thought and said only with transcendental meditation! I have another friend who is into improvising and swears meditation helps it a lot...

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 13:36:12

Gummy

Posts: 495
Joined: Nov. 27 2005
From: North Carolina, USA

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

In the calmness just before sleep(similar to meditation?), I have noticed that sometimes I can come up with melodies in my head, which I can't really do while awake. I wonder though if I am just sort of rehashing something I heard earlier, or if the melodies suck and I am just relaxed to the point where it doesn't matter. Getting up to record them isn't an option because at that point I would no longer be completely relaxed and I would be more awake.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 15:54:59

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Gummy)

My siesta dream today was very clear. I had bought a house by a lake and very near the sea. It came with a schooner and a dock.

Anders and me were down by the old harbour when a yacht hoists all its sails at its berth, including a huge blue and yellow spinnaker. It's windy and the sea crashes into the harbour walls

"Too much sail" I comment to Anders as the yacht promptly keels over and sinks.

I rush into the surging waves to rescue anyone I can find but the undertow is too fierce. Anders follows.

Then, I am suddenly inside a stone building at the end of the harbour wall where five Spanish yachtsmen are wet and stunnned. In broken Spanish, I ask:

"Todas personas estan aquí? No hay personas en el agua?"

"No... 'sta bien", comes the reply.

Then another guy starts gesticulating at me, "Uno, dos, tres, ocho?"

In English, I ask "Do you think I am Spanish and trying to find out if anyone is missing?"

"Aye". He is Scottish.

What the hell does that all mean?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 17:34:31

duende

Posts: 3053
Joined: Dec. 15 2003
From: Sweden

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

i promise to write down what i dream if i remember it tomorrow

_____________________________

This is hard stuff!
Don't give up...
And don't make it a race.
Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.

RON

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 18:46:56

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Escribano)

quote:

What the hell does that all mean?

LOL! Simon,
To be a connoisseur of dreams you must never ponder about any hidden meanings etc.
You just enjoy the ride.
If you notice, that in the sample dream I posted, something happened, but was always frustrated by something not working out right.
This is an essential part of a great dream.
This is what maintains the tension and interest in the dream that makes it a rollercoaster ride!
Folk go to theme parks to experience a lesser thrill IMO.

It's being in the position and just trying to work it out from there that counts...

My best dreams are when I wake up in a light sweat actually!

Makes you feel invigorated for the rest of the day.

One thing I love is that you are never conscious of your age or anything...you just behave as you do.

Sometimes folk from the long past turn up.. even folk long dead..and sometimes you have no knowledge at all about folk you currently know...

The main thing is, if you rethink it or write it down as I did in that post, is, you must NEVER edit it!

That's why I left the EasyJet thing in...
Never edit anything out..no matter how crazy!

A lot of things don't make sense, but once you start playing around with the images in your conscious state to make it fit into a reasonably sane scenario..then the power of the dream is lost IMO.

One of the classics I had a couple of years ago was attending a joint PdL/Rolling Stones concert and I was showing Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood how to make a Flamenco "A".
They were really nice people, very funny actually!

In the Oil Industry, you work a 12 hour/7 day week for months on end...
When there are no emergencies or traumas happening, things tend to calm down to a boring 12 hours of just observing/eating/sleeping.
(A bit like warfare..so I've gathered....boredom intermixed with terror..LOL!)

A great phrase that one of my colleagues came out with, while Bill Gates was still experimenting in his garage was...

"Ah..Bed Time!...I wonder where I'm going to go tonight!"

cheers

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 20:24:18

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

quote:

One thing I love is that you are never conscious of your age or anything...you just behave as you do.

Umm, have you noticed that dreams always seem to be in the first person? Was that Scotsman you, but with no Spanish?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 21:05:09

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Escribano)

Yeah Simon,
Dreams always revolve around you...
That's the great thing about them.
You go to these great places and survive all these incidents etc..
And still wake up in yer cozy bed in the morning with the radio news and the promise of some tea and hot toast.
My own experience is that, you never dream when going to bed at first.
You just sleep.
After about 4 to 5 hours though, if you get up and have a pee and make yourself some sugary tea and then go back to sleep...that's when it all happens in full technicolor.

Whether it's the sugar being absorbed into the bloodstream or what...?

I dunno..?

One of the things that really gets me though..is the time distortion...

I've drifted back into sleep after hearing the 6.30am news... had an epic dream that's extended over years..and woken up again to the 7.00am news headlines!

Crazy and interesting stuff this..

cheers

Ron

(May the dream be with you...

)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 7 2006 21:27:47

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Dreams are supposedly mediated by a hormone called, I think, melanonin. You can get them in supplement form and it helps you remember them if you take it. I'm not sure why we know that or why you would do that, maybe it also has another purpose.

I like dreams a lot too. I hardly remember them, though. There is a theory that we are always dreaming, but when we are awake they are suppressed and thus we cannot perceive them. However, maybe in daydreams or meditation we can get closer to this subconscious mind.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 4:32:34

carlos soto

Posts: 126
Joined: Oct. 22 2005

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

I think that in order to remember a dream you must be in a certain stage of the sleeping cicle, I don't remember which one but it has to do with how fast the eyes are moving while sleeping, so if you awake during this stage you'll remember what was your dream or something like that...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 4:44:41

duende

Posts: 3053
Joined: Dec. 15 2003
From: Sweden

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

sorry guys. it´s 06:52 in the morning and i can´t remember ****. i only remember that there was something, but what i can´t recall at all.
Better luck tomorrow

_____________________________

This is hard stuff!
Don't give up...
And don't make it a race.
Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.

RON

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 4:52:33

carlos soto

Posts: 126
Joined: Oct. 22 2005

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

I know a good way to remember, first put the clock at 4:00am, then when you wake up set it up at 4:30 and go back to sleep, if you do this every half hour until 7:00am you might catch the dream(or several)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 6:43:59

carlos soto

Posts: 126
Joined: Oct. 22 2005

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Just be careful though, if you do this too often you could find yourself not knowing what is real or what you actually dream, a good idea is to try to pinch yourself with a needle everytime you wake up.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 6:47:59

Ricardo

Posts: 14822
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

How about when you wake up and you feel like you have just been pulled away from something really huge, really important, but you can't remember any of it. Like you were living another life completely but just got amnesia. All you know is you wished you could go back at that moment. I have actually tried to force myself back to sleep to try and remember what was happening, but it never works. The most easy dreams to remember for me, are nightmares.

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 6:57:03

Guest

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

We are all different.

I prefer to sllep 8 hours like a stone and not remember anything when I wake up. I did that last night and I feel clean.

To much dreaming makes me feel weird. Especially when people I know take part of the dream. The weirdo ones which has nothing directly to do with reality are fun sometimes.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 7:12:50

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

I have actually tried to force myself back to sleep to try and remember what was happening, but it never works.

Ricardo,
I've kinda experimented with that and found that if you go through the scenario again, remembering the pictures and what happened etc..you're right....it doesn't work.
I think this is because the analytical part of your brain is coming into play now and forcing you more and more awake.
However, if you close your eyes and just remember the feeling...don't go through the story again...just the mood and how you felt...then often you can pick up on it again.

Actually I think this has a lot of relevance to guitar playing.

How many times have you picked the guitar up and been really in the mood and played something really well, without thinking or caring at all about technique...just some abstract feeling about the sound coming out.
You just focus on some kind of abstract feeling, practically like you're the listener...not the player.

Weird stuff this!

cheers

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 8:22:10

carlos soto

Posts: 126
Joined: Oct. 22 2005

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

yeah I used to have dreams that were very pleasent to have too, dreams can tell you a lot about a person, I can talk to someone in real life and then in a dream and the answers I get are very much personality oriented.
What I like the most is that you are creating without any effort, for film writers must be very productive to have dreams... I wish I could came up with melodies though, there was only one time that I dream with the perfect melody but then forgot about it

Maybe the next great invention could be to have a plug into your brain and video tape your own dreams, It would be cool to connect the brain to a midi station and then just print out the lead sheet

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 9:31:06

duende

Posts: 3053
Joined: Dec. 15 2003
From: Sweden

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Something that happens to me a lot while im in between being awake and a sleep is that i hear melodies, chords i hear everyting from start to finnish. compositions.
It happens several times a year that i run out of bed at around 12 at night or something and grab the guitar and a papper and i try to find what i just heard, make a sketch of it and then go back to bed.

_____________________________

This is hard stuff!
Don't give up...
And don't make it a race.
Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.

RON

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 15:09:23

MarkMc

Posts: 121
Joined: Oct. 1 2005
From: Wilsonville, Oregon

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

Isn't it cool that you can really "rip" on the guitar in your dreams? (at least for me)
Then I wake up and reality hits me, hehe...

To this day I still have dreams of being back in high school (I'll be 40 this year), and the class bell has just rang, and we are all taking our seats, and I realize that I don't have the homework assignment that is due...

A lot of times my dreams are about the past. Like I'm back in my childhood neighborhood and stuff. But everything is different of course....

Sometimes I'll dream that I found a pile of silver change. Like a bunch of quarters, dimes and nickles. And I'm stuffing my pockets full; then somehow I wake up; no money and mad...

My favorite dreams are the ones that you can take off running, jump and start flying.
I haven't had one of those dreams in years though.

Have fun...

_____________________________

-MarkMc

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 15:53:14

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

One of my recurring dreams is that I am playing basketball, and I get down real low, try really HARD, jump up and dunk it! This is total fantasy because I'm short and can't jump particularly hard. But in my dream, I can do it, and it's fun!!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 16:13:52

soulstring69

Posts: 87
Joined: Jan. 26 2006

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

las night i dream i was asleep and when i woke up i was asleep.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 8 2006 20:05:27

duende

Posts: 3053
Joined: Dec. 15 2003
From: Sweden

RE: Dreaming...and stuff! (in reply to Ron.M)

damn it!! failed again. can´t remember a thing

_____________________________

This is hard stuff!
Don't give up...
And don't make it a race.
Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.

RON

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 9 2006 4:45:01