Threads about dreams and woo

[Giggorata]

I wish that people would live and let live about these threads. So many people are anxious to present the “rational” view that it simply descends into arguments and loses the point, or else the OP gets discouraged and disappears, or pulls the thread.
This isn't a TAAT, but an observation across the board.

One recent very interesting thread has gone, to which I wanted to reply, including asking the poster not to let a few people put her off from posting an interesting dream.
(Interesting that she seemed to be an observer rather than a participant, which makes me think she might possibly have tapped into something from the past, rather than it arising from her unconscious.)
Replies to woo threads bang on endlessly about earthquakes and mental illness, in the face of events that truly defy “rational” explanation.
Surely the only rational explanation is that we don't know everything and we can't explain everything?

Of course, people are entitled to their views, and to express them, but couldn't they just leave the woo people to it?

Personally, I don't believe dreams have any particular relevance to anything, and I don't believe they suggest much at all about the psyche of the person experiencing them. They are far too haphazard and random, and quite frequently are nothing more than absurdist reconstructions including partial memories. I see it kinda like if you took a photograph and a recording of everything you have ever experienced, stuck all of that in a giant box, and shook it until three things fell out, you'd get three things that were relevant to you, and would probably evoke some significant memory or suchlike, but they would say absolutely nothing at all about you because they'd be entirely random.

I know I also dream entirely differently depending on my own level of fatigue, and also the sleep environment, and therefore I also believe that dreams having any specific meaning is implausible because they are clearly influenced by factors which can be controlled and manipulated. I also lucid dream from time to time, and since in those cases I am directly influencing the narrative, to me it's clear that this is also perfectly adequate explanation for the non-lucid dreams, i.e. it is very much my brain providing the images and narrative, and not some outside factor, even though things like fatigue and room temperature influence my actual propensity to dream.

Most mornings I'll wake with no recollection of any dreaming whatsoever, but I have experienced recurring dreams from time to time, especially one about my teeth falling out and another about being unable to swing a punch. The former is supposedly a sign of insecurity, but I don't really accept that, and the latter is a simple case of restricted movement because of being bound inside the bedclothes. Frustrating as hell, but nothing remotely "woo" about it.

I think cases of nightmare and so on are distinctly different. I'm not prone to them myself, but I don't think it's any wonder that if a child is in a disturbed, concerned, anxious state about something while they are in a waking state, that will affect their sleep, and also, I have experienced fever dreams while I've been ill with influenza and suchlike. Again, I don't find that remotely surprising. Sleep paralysis three times, first time as a child was terrifying, second and third more a curious, if uncomfortable, experience, because I knew what was going on so it wasn't quite as frightening. But again, Sleep Paralysis is a physiological phenomenon and not really a "dream".

Thankyou so much for your detailed response;
I really appreciate you taking the time to think about this.

Basic comprehension skills should make it clear that it is not my beliefs in esp or anything else that I am putting forward. I have said clearly that it isn’t about beliefs, it's about accepting that some things cannot be explained.

But OK, I'll bite:
“So it is not - per se - inconsistent to have a scientist who believes in God.
But that’s a long way from your belief in ESP (which no, no repeatable results supporting its existence have been generated in scientific experiments).”
These two beliefs are similar, inasmuch as I haven't heard of any scientific experiments supporting the existence of god, either.

“…someone with, say, a better grasp of physics might well have no problem explaining.”
“I wasn’t citing physicists as masters of the universe and the ultimate arbiters of what is and isn’t possible”

Well, actually, neither was I
I merely referred to some of the things they consider worth thinking about, not dismissing out of hand.

You are so anxious to score points that you have misread what I wrote, and misquoted it: “that this would explain (as opposed to could explain) “spirit phenomena and time travel”.”

I think that you should look at comprehension skills and the tendency for hyperbole before you start making assumptions about other people's education and understanding.
You have been quite unwarrantedly rude and unpleasant, and I am not going to respond to you again.

I’ve zero interest in “scoring points”. I do have a genuine concern that people like you - who erroneously believe they understand something and then spew it everywhere - are low grade dangerous. So yes, when you’re wrong I think it should be pointed out.

You would benefit from reading Popper. And he is very readable as well as being extremely important in distinguishing between scientific and non-scientific analysis of the universe.

Anyway, @India4, my views on dreams are that the vast majority of them are not of particular significance, apart from brain systems management, memory, learning and probably defragging.
I have had what seemed like very significant dreams about some of my deceased loved ones. I put it down to wishful thinking, on the whole.

But I have had some precognitive dreams, which are not easy to explain. Often, they are about the most trivial events, too. Once about a load of conversation and stuff on a bus, which happened the next day. Most annoying, why can't they be about the lottery numbers!
Once, when I hadn't flown for a while, and was nervous, I dreamt about the flight I was taking to Canada. I boarded the plan and found two aisles, plus a fruit machine with winking lights at the front, both of which were a bit unexpected.
When I boarded on the actual journey, I found we were indeed on a wide bodied plane, a tri star, which I hadn't known about. And at the front was a drinks machine, with winking lights! Apart from these two features the dream flight was uneventful and was a kind of rehearsal for the flight, and made me less nervous for the real thing, which I thank my brain for doing.

That was an interesting read ….thankyou.