Thread: People you see in a dream, are they people from real life?

This has probably been brought up before, I tried to search for keywords, but it came up with like 71 pages with 200 on each page, so I decided to just post it again just in case. Sorry.

Is it possible to fully create a person in your head that appears in your dream? Are they just people you perhaps walked past in the street and are recalling in your dream for use as background people or whatever? I ask because every person is unique, it surely can't be possible to imagine a new one. It is likely that they are people you've seen, you may not recognise but you probably have glimpsed that person, or perhaps made them up from other people, and filled in a few details yourself. What do you people think?

Zoe

Hey wow, I'm editing this now before people have replied, but look! <---- That thing under my name went from Lucid n00b to Lucid Novice, i'm so proud!

Well i have created a person i have never seen before. She was a girl and i guess she was how you say the perfect match for me. But that could be just all of the physical and mental things i like about other girls that i put together to make her.

I don't know...They say that you don't technically forget anything and that you just have a problem with the recall. It could be all those people you glance at as you walk past.
But then again with the human mind as powerfull as it is, especially being unconcious and most creative in the dream, I'm sure it is quite capable of creating new people just as easily as new scenery you've never seen in your life. Never know, if could be a combination of both.

I created a dream guy. He was so perfect, I will never forget the dream where I meet him and fell madly in love with him.

X 1,000,000,000,000,000

I actually became lucid, but woke up 2 seconds later

X 1,000,000,000,000,000

Yep I think it's definately possible for your mind to create unique characters. They may have features burrowed from real life people, but they are still unique.

I think the most you see in your dreams, are a mix of something you have seen in the real life.
I think one of the reasons we are dreaming, is that our brain work with old memories.

As far as I know, it isn't scientifically proved why we have dreams when we are asleep. But it is propably to maintain the mind.

I think it is entirely possible to make up soneone in a dream. Just look at how powerful the human imagination is while you are awake. You can daydream and makeup entire worlds full of neat stuff.
Lucid dreaming not only allows you to think of these things, but to make them reality. Reall cool!

[quote]Hey wow, I'm editing this now before people have replied, but look! <---- That thing under my name went from Lucid n00b to Lucid Novice, i'm so proud!

Congrats on your promotion!

I guess you're right people. The mind probably does have the ability to create whole new people, and not just show you people you've seen before, but not remembered. So, how does it work when you see people and places, that you then go on to actually to see or visit in real life?
There isn't a need for this emoticon, I just liked it's flashing eyes
Thankyou for the promotion congrats Seeker

from a happy Zoe

I definately know it's possible, how else would abstract art be created?

Originally posted by Lifechild
I ask because every person is unique, it surely can't be possible to imagine a new one. *

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever read. Of course it's possible, just shut your eyes and try to imagine someone. At the moment I've come up with someone I don't recognise at all.

The brain is a very powerful thing. It can create a whole world, every object in it unique and simulated just as it would act in real life, save for things that don't because the dream has chosen these things to behave oddly.

Next time you're in an LD go to a river bank and watch the reflection of a willow tree in the water. If the LD is clear, the reflection will appear realistically. Do you have any idea how many calculations a computer would have to do to generate the mostly chaotic water surface, the tree, and, finally, the reflection on the tree on every minute vertex of the water's surface? And your head performs this in an undetectable instance.

What I'm trying to say is, although memories are bound to be used in the operation of creating a dream character, the mind is more than powerful enough to create several million unique characters all looking and acting realistically. Just ask them next time.

Originally posted by Identity X
The brain is a very powerful thing. It can create a whole world, every object in it unique and simulated just as it would act in real life, save for things that don't because the dream has chosen these things to behave oddly.

Next time you're in an LD go to a river bank and watch the reflection of a willow tree in the water. If the LD is clear, the reflection will appear realistically. Do you have any idea how many calculations a computer would have to do to generate the mostly chaotic water surface, the tree, and, finally, the reflection on the tree on every minute vertex of the water's surface? And your head performs this in an undetectable instance.

What I'm trying to say is, although memories are bound to be used in the operation of creating a dream character, the mind is more than powerful enough to create several million unique characters all looking and acting realistically. Just ask them next time.

I think Identity X is right.
A dream character doesn't need to be someone you have seen before, or a character you have a shared dream with.

Though shared dreams may be possible, it happens propably rarely.

yea Identity X, Pixar does things like that, they use 1000 penrium 4 proccesors, and lets see, 60 terrabytes of RAM and 160? terrabytes of memory, and it takes them....I think it was an hour, just to make one frame and 24 frames are shown in a second.....

thats about all I gleaned from that popular mechanics magazine...

Well I see where you are comming from. You do see a lot of people you would never remeber. All it takes is mixing up 2 people you seen and you got a new person. So if you seen a 1000 people you could easily have unlimited amount of people you can make.

A few small changes to a person face and they would look way different. Now if your brain takes someones face and change it, or if they just make up a new one, I don't know. I think the end result is you can have a person looking any way you want.

you can make new people but they might be less clearer and there face might change constantly.

This whole conversation has made me think about a couple experiences I've had. I agree that your mind creates a dream person by convining the millions of people that you have seen/met. It takes a several elements from different people and Voila! You have yourself a person with a unique look and personality.

What I find intriguing is those dream situations in which you recognize someone eventhough they don't really look like the person in real life. I remember a couple dreams where I met someone and kept calling him by the name of someone I knew in the waking world. I somehow made the assumption that it was that person, even if they looked very differently.

I thought this subject would be a great way to apply what we have been talking about...

Comments, hypothesis?

Yes, it is very likely that all characters in your dreams are based off people you've seen in real life, after all dreams are all made from your imagination and past experiences.

Truthbearer, perhaps that person you saw looked like someone you knew, and because you thought he/she was, he/she became more that person, because of your assumption. Correct? Or did he/she stay the same sort of looking but not really?

This has happened to me several times. I don't even think they looked like the person I was assuming they were to start with. They stayed looking the same as they did throughtout the dream. I just assumed they were a certain person for no reason. That is why I think its weird.

Has anyone else ever had this experience? If so we could draw some real conclusions out of this...