Thread: Why don't people care about dreaming?

You are lucky that you have the internet and DreamViews. Me and Sageous both started in a time before the internet was in houses, and there were only a small handful of books. Dream Views is awesome!

I think one could ask why so few people look at the sunset, and the answer would be about the same.

Not a question I'll ever know the answer to. Considering how exciting the dream world is I always would have thought everyone would be enthusiastic about it, but I guess not. I wonder if part of it is the society we live in, most people are in too much of a hurry to even stop and remember their dreams in the first place, let alone discuss them or take the time to examine them.

Dreams have also become taboo in some way. People get nervous and think it is weird if you talk about dreams.

I know several people who I've met who are intrested in dreaming and Lucid Dreaming.

Most people don't even try to remember their dreams, so they don't even remember how great of an escape it is. Others have nightmares, and for those that don't care- just don't even really know much about their dreams. Haha.. I hypothesize that most just don't see the value in the world our mind creates, or don't have much self awareness. Who knows, it could be for a number of reasons.

It's mostly a personal choice, some people just don't want to see the value in things like this.

People have different interests and hobbies. Everybody thinks his is the best and can't understand, how come others are not as crazy about it as he is.

I think for LDing to become mainstream (which may or may not be a good thing) it would have to be very very easy to achieve. And/Or maybe if REM periods were a lot longer. An hour in a lucid dream would be cool.

Originally Posted by Bobblehat

I think for LDing to become mainstream (which may or may not be a good thing) it would have to be very very easy to achieve. And/Or maybe if REM periods were a lot longer. An hour in a lucid dream would be cool.

You can get a few rare LDs that go on upto 90 minutes. It is rare for them to get longer than 30-40 minutes, but with practice 20 minutes is reasonable for the good ones. But, it ties into your first comment, if it were 'very veryy easy to achieve.' This is why watching martial art movies and fighting video games are very popular past times, but actually learrning a martial art is very uncommon. Think of those 30 minute intense LDs as reaching a brown belt in martial arts. For everry dozen people wh start a difficult path only 1 sticks with it to that high-intermediate level. Same will hold true. 11 out of 12 new hobbiests will only stick with it for a year or so.

Only because it's the key to the inner subconscious, and some people don't want to hear that part of their minds and usually blocks it out. Because scared of their past, but once you block it you will cause more nightmares, because nightmares are also linked to your subconsciousness trying to get you to listen and get attention from you.
For me i am not getting much nightmares often because i listen and remember it and write it down. But when i do get it i just keep doing what i suppose to.

I'm suspecting because dreaming is created by our unconscious and our conscious usually treat our unconscious as a joke, most people will think that dreams are just random pieces of craps coming from their brains and they would rather have a peaceful night of sleep than be visited by some disturbing images from their dreams.

I always thought dreams are a great way to access my current situation and how I'm doing in life.

I feel lonely that no one around me takes a slight bit of seriousness when I started talking about dream. It's like how the world works matters more to them than how they work. And then they started labelling me as "mad" when I tried to talk more about dreams. Nonetheless it's not keeping me away from my dream journal, I like writing in it because it's the closest I can get to my unconscious when I'm awake.

I guess people are just too busy and stressed out with life in general that sometimes they just don't get a chance to pay attention to their dreams , i believe we can learn so much about ourselves from our dreams , in waking life we often feel the need to put on a mask and sometimes even lie to ourselves but in the dream life things that we repress comes out and there is no censorship , when LDing we get to break free and so daring things , we dont get to do that in waking life because there are boundaries so yeah dream good or bad are precious.

I love this forum! Sitting here reading all the replies to this thread and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside I grew up in the 70's and 80's, before internet too. No one to talk to everyone thought I was just a tad nuts because dreams were so important to me. If they knew the half of it, they would've thought I was certifiable.

Originally Posted by blackbirdrising

I love this forum! Sitting here reading all the replies to this thread and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside I grew up in the 70's and 80's, before internet too. No one to talk to everyone thought I was just a tad nuts because dreams were so important to me. If they knew the half of it, they would've thought I was certifiable.

"Oh great! Another conspiracy nut. Now you're going to suggest the sun doesn't exist, or we are going to be overrun by evil ladybugs, aren't you?"
That is just how I imagine someone talking about lucid dreaming 30 years ago.

I too am saddened that nobody around me cares about lucid dreaming, let alone lucid dreaming. They can always relate by saying "I remember having dreams as a child, but I'm an adult now!" Or "I don't remember my dreams anymore."
As a child, you do not have to try to dream. You learn so many new things daily, the activity goes wild during the night. As people get older, our society shuns dreaming.
My family hates me talking about dreaming, and my mom has even said that I could kill myself in real life because of lucid dreaming. She thinks it is dangerous. I think she is just ill-informed.
I have only met one person who was interested in dreaming, and I almost never see her. I am 17 now, and dreaming is NOT just for children.

Originally Posted by TehDalek

I am 17 now, and dreaming is NOT just for children.

You're still young! Hahaha!

Although it seems like I have very bad dream recall when I was young. I wonder.

It is very easy to get caught up in the day to day grind of life such that people will ignore their dreams. In doing, they miss out on the mind solving problems, creative inspirations, and perhaps revelations or spiritual experiences. I regard dreams as real, just not in the way this world is real, but real nonetheless. Dreaming is how I get a lot of my inspiration for what I write and gives me ideas frequently. Living without dreaming would be like eating without digesting.

I have a friend who refuses to even allow me to talk about my dreams anymore. She says I'm weird, and my dreams make her think I need to be locked up. My reply is ... you needed to hear my dreams to know that?!?

Sigh ... weird dreams are fun ... why can't more people see that?

As mentioned in earlier posts ... thank God for this place!

From my experience, some people just don't know about it, others think its too much work, and then there are those who are uneducated/insecure finding the idea intimidating.

I have reached the point where I refuse to share my experience with anyone other than you folks here on DV and people who are very close. You just don't know what other peoples reactions are going to be, it will likely be negative. I know its frustrating as you discovered this wonderful and amazing thing and you just want to share it with everyone, but most the reactions you get are lack luster.

I have had better results explaining lucid dreaming from a scientific point of view, for example, explaining REM cycles, brain waves, research studies, & conscious states. People can better understand it this way, if you explain it as some magical thing you will get laughed at.

I can't seem to comfortably talk about dreams to my casual friends, and I haven't been on here for a while so I haven't really had a desire to record my dreams. My family thinks I'm nuts when I say active dream control is possible, and only a few good friends of mine know I've practiced lucid dreaming before.

To the people I don't know, they look at me as if I'm some hippie who believes a hive mind conscience would be a good thing for humanity, or something silly like that.

After reading all the replies, I officially conclude that people think we can do magic.

We are doing magic, we just can't tell other people that

Or people think we think we can do magic it's SCIENCE!

No one here remembers much, and people already think I'm an oddball. Since a lot of my dreams involve fighting and death, there's no way I'd share them with people beyond this forum.

I just feel sorry for the people who have never really run, never flown, never been weightless, never been in a place made just for them.

im sure many people would have seen this already, but i think it is relevant:
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.

Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the top musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written,with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station

was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty?

Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
"
One of those stop to smell the roses situations..

I have never seen that, and I find it absolutely amazing. I'm assuming he was playing with a Stradivarius if it cost 3.5 million dollars, I have a copy of a Stradivarius violin from the 18th century, its worth $35,000 FOR A COPY my dad bought it from a flea market in Saudi Arabia for nothing.

Almost everyone I've told about lucid dreaming, or even just what we can learn from regular dreams, has seemed very interested - but I think they all assume, like with most things, that it's probably too late to start caring now.

We British are an apathetic bunch. If it doesn't wield quick results and have a noticeable effect on our wellbeing, why bother?

I, perhaps, could give some insight.

I've been on this forum for years. I believe I joined when I was 13, when you had to be 15 to join, and I pretended to be that age so I could sign up and post every day. I would post my dream journals. For a while I was having 4 or 5 lucids some nights.

Then I slowly stopped. I skipped a year of high school to graduate at 16, but that came with extra work. I started dating my girlfriend, who I've been dating for a year and a half now. I found music as my passion and started playing electric and bass guitar in rock bands, practicing hours a day. I started dealing with more problems of my own. Slowly it became less of a priority as I made room for other things.

I came back yesterday in the midst of a depressive bout (one of the "problems" I've been dealing with) because there was something I wanted to share and I wanted to relive the nostalgia. Now I am interested again. I don't know if I will spend the time to get back into it like I used to. After a while it becomes about compromise and priorities. And sometimes things just slip for you. Even more easily if it was something you never experienced the joy of in the first place.