Thread: Persistant geography in the dream world

This process of "building" a landscape (or dreamscape) seems very logical with the way our minds work in real life. If you think about it, our minds are constantly creating a map of our location as we move throught each day, week, year, etc. This becomes more apparent if you drive.

Think about going from your home, to the store. Do you actually sit there and read all the street names and memorize which roads to take and hope you make it to your destination? Not likely. You use landmarks. The end of the drive, to the end of the street. End of the street to the next block, left at the post office... etc. Even when going someplace new and following instructions, your mind will anticipate what should come up next based on the expectation of a map you're following - or even your own sense of direction. So our mind may render out a route which it has not yet experienced.

So, while you experience dream locations, your mind is simply doing it's usual routine in constructing a map (world) of these locations. What's cool is the wonder of where the decisions for these places to be mapped at come from. In waking life, you could follow a map, make a wrong turn and miss your destination. But, in a dream, is there such a thing as a wrong turn? Wouldn't your mind make something up? And if it does, where does it come from.....

I only really started to think about it because one place in particular changed in a recent dream... the road we were on was a bit overgrown, and trees had fallen blocking it. Then I noticed that someone had cleared a side area that led to a familiar highway... getting me right back on familiar territory.

Definitely some room for dream intepretation there.