Thread: Extremely odd Lucid ability.

Ok, I've only skimmed for the most part so I'm not sure (but i dont think) that this has already been said, but:

The brain, while mysterious, is still a physical thing with physical limitations. Most of the brain doesn't even use electricity (which is much faster than what (sodium ions?) the brain uses) (not a neurobiologist, dont quote me, but ive done some bio classes).

You have to consider that a dream is basicly a bunch of data. Think of it like a computer. Your computer can only process so many things at once, or in a certain amount of time. The brain is exceptionally efficient at processing this data and compressing it in strange ways, and so it is completely concievable that the brain could create a dream faster than it could process reality (limitations of the eyes and nose and whatnot, or simply idling until more things are needed to be done at once).

That being said, even the brain has limitations, and for it to produce (not just interpret) two entire years worth of information all in one night (probably less than one hour, because your REM cycles dont last all night in a normal human), is almost beyond belief for me. Doing the math, one hour has 60 minutes, which have 60m*60 seconds (3600s) ... two years have (2y * 365.25d * 24h * 60m * 60s) (approx) 63,115,200s, which means for every one second of the (approx) hour that the brain sleeps, it needs to process 17,532 (63,000,000s/3600s) times the data (assuming it recreates all of the information it would normally interpret while awake).

This does not seem realistic to me, so the brain is either using a significantly reduced quality of senses and thought and other things i am not qualified to even guess at during dreams, or the majority of our brain is lying dormant while we are awake (which also does not seem realistic because what purpose, evolutionarily, would it serve to have such high brain function during dreams, where no reproduction can happen? It seems to just be a massive drain on energy supplies with no benefit)

TL;DR:
Doesnt seem plausible that a dream could be 2 years in one REM cycle (or one night), likely the brain skipped a lot of parts and just interpreted it as two years being passed. Interesting regardless.

Anywho, thats my twenty minutes of drunken thought for tonight, hope yall enjoy. Correct my math (or logic) if you find an error lol, but dont be surprised if I try to argue if I think you're wrong.

Finally, I'm not here to argue evolution (macro or micro) (its been PROVEN in MANY laboratories, and I BELIEVE it, whether you do or not), if you want to learn more about it, just google evolution and read the wiki or something, there is so much information about it it would be a waste of time and completely redundant (nevermind inefficient) for me to explain it.

Originally Posted by TheShadow

Ok, I've only skimmed for the most part so I'm not sure (but i dont think) that this has already been said, but:

The brain, while mysterious, is still a physical thing with physical limitations. Most of the brain doesn't even use electricity (which is much faster than what (sodium ions?) the brain uses) (not a neurobiologist, dont quote me, but ive done some bio classes).

You have to consider that a dream is basicly a bunch of data. Think of it like a computer. Your computer can only process so many things at once, or in a certain amount of time. The brain is exceptionally efficient at processing this data and compressing it in strange ways, and so it is completely concievable that the brain could create a dream faster than it could process reality (limitations of the eyes and nose and whatnot, or simply idling until more things are needed to be done at once).

That being said, even the brain has limitations, and for it to produce (not just interpret) two entire years worth of information all in one night (probably less than one hour, because your REM cycles dont last all night in a normal human), is almost beyond belief for me. Doing the math, one hour has 60 minutes, which have 60m*60 seconds (3600s) ... two years have (2y * 365.25d * 24h * 60m * 60s) (approx) 63,115,200s, which means for every one second of the (approx) hour that the brain sleeps, it needs to process 17,532 (63,000,000s/3600s) times the data (assuming it recreates all of the information it would normally interpret while awake).

This does not seem realistic to me, so the brain is either using a significantly reduced quality of senses and thought and other things i am not qualified to even guess at during dreams, or the majority of our brain is lying dormant while we are awake (which also does not seem realistic because what purpose, evolutionarily, would it serve to have such high brain function during dreams, where no reproduction can happen? It seems to just be a massive drain on energy supplies with no benefit)

TL;DR:
Doesnt seem plausible that a dream could be 2 years in one REM cycle (or one night), likely the brain skipped a lot of parts and just interpreted it as two years being passed. Interesting regardless.

Anywho, thats my twenty minutes of drunken thought for tonight, hope yall enjoy. Correct my math (or logic) if you find an error lol, but dont be surprised if I try to argue if I think you're wrong.

Finally, I'm not here to argue evolution (macro or micro) (its been PROVEN in MANY laboratories, and I BELIEVE it, whether you do or not), if you want to learn more about it, just google evolution and read the wiki or something, there is so much information about it it would be a waste of time and completely redundant (nevermind inefficient) for me to explain it.

Yea but in a dream you can make a unicorn appear out of thin air or shoot a fire ball out of your hand. A dream is everything you believe it to be. If I believe the dream to have lasted two years it will. It will become my reality.

While it is true, you can make a unicorn or shoot fireballs, the amount of information you can actually process in any given ammount of time is still limited. The reason you can shoot a fireball is because you are creating the information. I say "the amount of information" and not "the length of the dream" because a dream could last for two years, but you would not be able to have the same level of detail or functionallity(?) that you could in a one minute dream

Originally Posted by TheShadow

While it is true, you can make a unicorn or shoot fireballs, the amount of information you can actually process in any given ammount of time is still limited. The reason you can shoot a fireball is because you are creating the information. I say "the amount of information" and not "the length of the dream" because a dream could last for two years, but you would not be able to have the same level of detail or functionallity(?) that you could in a one minute dream

Yes and the reason you are able to succeed in performing these feats is because you believe it to be possible. If I truly believe the dream was a year long then for all intents purposes it was, because after the dream is over it is a memory. If I remember the details then it would have the details, regardless of what truly happened.

Originally Posted by TheShadow

The brain, while mysterious, is still a physical thing with physical limitations. Most of the brain doesn't even use electricity (which is much faster than what (sodium ions?) the brain uses) (not a neurobiologist, dont quote me, but ive done some bio classes).

You have to consider that a dream is basicly a bunch of data. Think of it like a computer. Your computer can only process so many things at once, or in a certain amount of time. The brain is exceptionally efficient at processing this data and compressing it in strange ways, and so it is completely concievable that the brain could create a dream faster than it could process reality (limitations of the eyes and nose and whatnot, or simply idling until more things are needed to be done at once).

That being said, even the brain has limitations, and for it to produce (not just interpret) two entire years worth of information all in one night (probably less than one hour, because your REM cycles dont last all night in a normal human), is almost beyond belief for me. Doing the math, one hour has 60 minutes, which have 60m*60 seconds (3600s) ... two years have (2y * 365.25d * 24h * 60m * 60s) (approx) 63,115,200s, which means for every one second of the (approx) hour that the brain sleeps, it needs to process 17,532 (63,000,000s/3600s) times the data (assuming it recreates all of the information it would normally interpret while awake).

This does not seem realistic to me, so the brain is either using a significantly reduced quality of senses and thought and other things i am not qualified to even guess at during dreams, or the majority of our brain is lying dormant while we are awake (which also does not seem realistic because what purpose, evolutionarily, would it serve to have such high brain function during dreams, where no reproduction can happen? It seems to just be a massive drain on energy supplies with no benefit)

TL;DR:
Doesnt seem plausible that a dream could be 2 years in one REM cycle (or one night), likely the brain skipped a lot of parts and just interpreted it as two years being passed. Interesting regardless.

Anywho, thats my twenty minutes of drunken thought for tonight, hope yall enjoy. Correct my math (or logic) if you find an error lol, but dont be surprised if I try to argue if I think you're wrong.

Finally, I'm not here to argue evolution (macro or micro) (its been PROVEN in MANY laboratories, and I BELIEVE it, whether you do or not), if you want to learn more about it, just google evolution and read the wiki or something, there is so much information about it it would be a waste of time and completely redundant (nevermind inefficient) for me to explain it.

The problem with this conclusion is that it assumes that the mind and brain are one, and therefore all experience must be limited by the mechanical constraints of the brain.

We have no proof of this, only correlations, and as any scientist will tell you correlation is not causation. IMO, The materialist model that consciousness is mere brain activity is fatally flawed in many ways. It annoys me, because this fundamental assumption is the primary reason that people dismiss the time distortion phenomenon. (It can't be true, that's not possible for the brain!)

There are actually many tales of a radically altered sense of time. Aside from lucid dreaming, it's also known to be commonly experienced when using certain drugs, such as Mescaline. It's not uncommon for mescaline users to describe having experienced lifetimes, ages, or oceans of time in a mere moment. There's a good short movie clip on this subject called 'the mescaline experiment'.