Dreams
While men are dreaming, they do not perceive that it
is a dream. Some will even have a dream in a
dream, and only when they awake do they know it
was all a dream. And so, when the Great Awakening
comes upon us, shall we know this life to be a great
dream. Fools believe themselves to be awake now.
Once upon a time, I, Chuang-tzu, dreamed I was a
butterfly, flittering hither and thither, to all intents
and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of
following my fancies as a butterfly, and was
unconscious of my individuality as a butterfly.
Suddenly I was awakened, and there I lay myself
again. Now I do not know whether I was a man
dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am a
butterfly now dreaming I am a man.
- Chuang-tzu, a Chinese philosopher
Theories of Dreams
1.
Activation-Synthesis Model
– stresses a purely physiological
reasoning
– during REM, brain sends random
electrical signals to the brain
– brain uses signals and tries to make
them meaningful
– incoherent images represent those
signals that could not be synthesized
Theories of Dreams
2.
Psychological Theory
– Freudian
– dreams allow us to act out those
things society would disapprove of
– they end up bizarre and strange in
order to protect ourselves from
those terrible things we are acting
out
Theories of Dreams
3.
Compensatory Dream Theory
– during sleep we continue to
process all the information taken in
during the day
– could also fill dreams with things
that are lacking from everyday life
– to release stress
Universal Themes
(Motifs)
Flying
 Falling
 Nakedness
 Unpreparedness

Déjà vu Theories
one brain hemisphere registers
information sooner than other
hemisphere
 unconscious gets information
before conscious mind - partial
delay mechanisms

Déjà vu Theories
Neither are proven to be an
actual part of human
physiology
Déjà vu Theories
experiences are indistinct
memories of past lifetimes
 form of psychic experience related
to familiar places may have been
visited in an out-of-body
experience
