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In class the other day we were talking about dreams, and someone said that they thought a forest in your dream was just as real as the forest not in your dream, ie the "real" forest.

And in my head I was like, (in the words of Niqui) "What a crock."

But I'm rethinking my initial judgement a little.

I still think that there is an obvious difference between the "real" forest, and the dream forest. I mean, any little kid can tell the difference between their dreams and "reality," I won't back down from that. After reading this post however, I was thinking about individual perception, and I realized that I guess dreams possess their own reality. And if that is true, I suppose that the reality that dreams possess is just as "real" as the reality we all share, only it is isolated to one person. So they are both reality. This idea is reenforced by the fact that sometimes the information gathered in dreams gets mixed together with things that happened in the "real" reality, which is why a person can walk around all day thinking that they had a conversation with the cute TA that they didn't have, and feel really awkward when they bring it up later and realize it was a dream. The two functions are essentially the same, the information is processed and stored as memories in the brain, but in the case of dreams it is completely internalized (ie predominantly interneural) and isolated to the dreamer.

I once had a conversation with a friend of mine who said he doesn't really dream. I was flabbergasted. Dreams play such a big role in my life that I couldn't understand someone NOT remembering their dreams at all. Its like haveing part of your life just... missing! I've had lots of dreams where I figure out the solution to a problem I've been having, or gain motivation, or get some closure about something. Once when I was six I had a really vivid dream that my grandmother came and said goodbye to me, and the next day I found out she had passed away in the night. (weeeeeird huh?) So I guess it was my turn to be wrong. I put stock in dreams, and it would be pretty damn hypocritical of me to turn around and say that they aren't part of reality. They are part of my brain, so they are part of MY reality. +1 point for Emily Dickinson.