When you have a very strong vivid dream about someone, do you think they have been also dreaming/thinking about you?
February 17, 2008 11:42 AM Subscribe
(spiritual connections/telepathy/wishfull thinking filter) When you have a very strong vivid dream about someone, do you think they have been also dreaming/thinking about you?
Has that ever happened to you? You have a very vivid dream about meeting or having a long talk with a dear friend (or former love interest, or ex) and later find out they've also dreamed of you?
I have been trying to figure out if these warm fuzzy dreams I sometimes have (being with a couple of great great friends I haven't talked to in a long while and we have a great time and love being with each other) mean simply I miss them, or if there could possibly be some sort of esoteric (spiritual connection, telepathy) truth to them... like they have been missing me too and we connected in some paranormal level.
Or is that plain naive wishful thinking? I feel like getting back in touch but would feel bad being all "I love you and I've missed you" and getting a "I haven't thought about you in years!" in reply.
Dear cynics/skeptics: I do realize there's no "verifiable" truth to any of this. I'm just looking for other people's experiences :)
Has that ever happened to you? You have a very vivid dream about meeting or having a long talk with a dear friend (or former love interest, or ex) and later find out they've also dreamed of you?
I have been trying to figure out if these warm fuzzy dreams I sometimes have (being with a couple of great great friends I haven't talked to in a long while and we have a great time and love being with each other) mean simply I miss them, or if there could possibly be some sort of esoteric (spiritual connection, telepathy) truth to them... like they have been missing me too and we connected in some paranormal level.
Or is that plain naive wishful thinking? I feel like getting back in touch but would feel bad being all "I love you and I've missed you" and getting a "I haven't thought about you in years!" in reply.
Dear cynics/skeptics: I do realize there's no "verifiable" truth to any of this. I'm just looking for other people's experiences :)
This post was deleted for the following reason: what is the problem to be solved here? this is a "hey has this happened to you" chatfilter question. -- jessamyn
This feels more like Chatfilter...
But my boyfriend and I did have the same dream one night about taking a road trip through middle America in a stolen Greyhound. Of course, it was a long-distance relationship at the time and were missing each other something fierce. I say it was probably coincidence, we may have been talking about travelling together the day before or something.
The brain is a convincing organ, you probably just really miss someone. Quit worrying about what your long lost friends will say, just give them a hello!
posted by idiotfactory at 11:56 AM on February 17, 2008
But my boyfriend and I did have the same dream one night about taking a road trip through middle America in a stolen Greyhound. Of course, it was a long-distance relationship at the time and were missing each other something fierce. I say it was probably coincidence, we may have been talking about travelling together the day before or something.
The brain is a convincing organ, you probably just really miss someone. Quit worrying about what your long lost friends will say, just give them a hello!
posted by idiotfactory at 11:56 AM on February 17, 2008
No, there's no "telepathic" component to dreams. If there was, John Darnielle of The Mountains Goats would probably be very confused about why he had an hours-long conversation with someone he's never met in his dreams last night. Also he would live on a farm in a castle with a river running through the basement.
Our dreams are our mind's way of working through our own emotions, and not always in obvious ways. Say you had a dream where you were in love with an ex. Does that mean you're not over them? Maybe, if you have those feelings in your waking life too. But it could just as easily mean that you're really happy with something you accomplished, and your ex is the template that your mind maps that feeling of happiness to because you had a moment with them where you felt happy in the same way.
So if you're dreaming about missing your friends, and you feel like the dreams are really about missing your friends and not something else that they're stand-ins for, why not tell them? Why do they have to miss you too for your feelings to be valid?
posted by MsMolly at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2008
Our dreams are our mind's way of working through our own emotions, and not always in obvious ways. Say you had a dream where you were in love with an ex. Does that mean you're not over them? Maybe, if you have those feelings in your waking life too. But it could just as easily mean that you're really happy with something you accomplished, and your ex is the template that your mind maps that feeling of happiness to because you had a moment with them where you felt happy in the same way.
So if you're dreaming about missing your friends, and you feel like the dreams are really about missing your friends and not something else that they're stand-ins for, why not tell them? Why do they have to miss you too for your feelings to be valid?
posted by MsMolly at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2008
Or is that plain naive wishful thinking?
Thousands of people have claimed to be telepathic, and thousands of people have used confirmation bias to convince themselves of "spiritual connections" like these. There is zero evidence for this kind of thing being real. There are million dollar prizes out there for anyone who could find solid evidence of phenomena like you describe, and no one has claimed them.
You are overthinking this.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:00 PM on February 17, 2008
Thousands of people have claimed to be telepathic, and thousands of people have used confirmation bias to convince themselves of "spiritual connections" like these. There is zero evidence for this kind of thing being real. There are million dollar prizes out there for anyone who could find solid evidence of phenomena like you describe, and no one has claimed them.
You are overthinking this.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:00 PM on February 17, 2008
Has that ever happened to you? You have a very vivid dream about meeting or having a long talk with a dear friend (or former love interest, or ex) and later find out they've also dreamed of you?
Sure. I had a dream about a girl I went to high school with and hadn't seen or thought about in years. The next day I found out that her father had died the day I'd had the dream. It was just a coincidence though.
is that plain naive wishful thinking?
Yes.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2008
Sure. I had a dream about a girl I went to high school with and hadn't seen or thought about in years. The next day I found out that her father had died the day I'd had the dream. It was just a coincidence though.
is that plain naive wishful thinking?
Yes.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2008
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posted by ncc1701d at 11:55 AM on February 17, 2008