Based on this post in the thread Common Held Beliefs or Ignorance About a Film That Drives You Crazy this question was asked.
I don’t recall many of my dreams for more than a few seconds after awakening and don’t remember any dreams like that so I’m asking Dopers about the subject in general. Are you present in all of your dreams? Do you dream about events you could not have seen heard, felt, or otherwise visualized?
I have dreams where I am someone else. I have dreams that are like watching scenes from movies.
I don’t have fully-realized technicolor dreams with coherent plotline, though. Or Munchkins.
All of the above is quite common. You can, for example, dream about someone or something that you know, crazy mixed-up dream versions of familiar things, and also completely original things. In a dream you may be someone else, or be completely absent (“watching scenes from movies” as Gyrate puts it). There might even be a plot or story, from simple concepts (an evil witch is chasing you…) to complex and coherent in the sense of dream-logic at least.
There is a lot of psychology to unpack here, and the field has advanced a bit since Daniel and Freud, but IMHO the fact that it is an altered state of consciousness should make it all the more plausible original ideas can emerge: Kekulé claimed the structure of benzene came to him in a dream of a snake eating its own tail, Einstein supposedly came up with the theory of relativity that way, Howe invented the sewing machine, a number of Beatles songs were composed based on dream melodies, etc.
I have very highly visual dreams that I often remember in vivid detail, at least for a while after waking. I don’t remember ever having a dream in which I was not there, although I have had dreams, as Gyrate says…
…maybe not that I’m an entirely different person, but a version of me with a different personality and/or beliefs. I had a dream not so long ago in which I sincerely believed some fundamental thing in the dream that I most definitely do not believe in real life, and I remember waking up thinking that it was odd that I could have such a different dream belief. I don’t remember what it was exactly, but it was similar to, say, my dream self believing the Earth is flat.
Maybe a slight hijack, but I think it relates to the OP question: Has anybody had a dream in which they experienced themselves not in first-person POV mode, but third-person mode (in other words, watching themselves)? I never have, and I’m guessing it’s very rare, if nonexistent. This is a pet peeve of mine when it’s used as a cheap fake-out device, often in horror movies-- something sudden and awful happens to the protagonist. Shocking! But it turns out to All Be A Bad Dream. I feel like a realistic dream sequence should be depicted in first-person mode. But that, of course, would spoil the fake-out.
Yep, that too. But not like on television.
I do recall watching myself about to do something horrific. The details faded but I was about to do someone great bodily injury and that woke me up. I count it as a nightmare which is why I remember it. No clue what led me there, it was after a long day of traveling in an anxious situation but that’s the only possible cause of it I can think of. Otherwise, of the few dreams I recall that’s the outlier in that regard.
As the OP, I don’t think it’s off topic to discuss other aspects of dreams that might relate to this question. I believe it’s part of a broad scope of possibilities in dreaming.
Oh man do I dream.
I’ve had many dreams where I’m not there. Mostly I’m my Mother as a kid. She told great stories of her childhood. I think it’s because she died when I was a young girl. It’s a way for my mind to remember her.
And I do have dreams where I’m watching myself. Usually I’m being stupid and my watching me is trying to figure out how to stop myself.
And there’s that one where I was watching doctors and nurses do a procedure on my anesthesized body (I prefer to believe it wasn’t an autopsy). That scared the crap outta me.
Do you think you had some level of consciousness during some non-autopsy surgical procedure? I always tell them to hit me hard, I don’t ever want that to happen to me.
As far as I remember, all my dreams are first person.
But they are also in color, and I can read (signs, books, the TV) no problem.
And as for coherency, I have had some reams that would make great TV episodes or movies, with a little polishing. If I were a Hollywood writer, and people asked, “where do you get your crazy ideas?”, I could truthfully say “I dream them.”
I told my surgeon about it. He suggested I talk to my analyst about it.
I told a nurse she said it happens to many patients.
I actually think I created the whole thing in my dream head because of anxiety over my procedure.
I can’t imagine they had a nurse in the operating room who’s sole occupation was to wipe my brow and watch me carefully.
I was prescribed Chantix a few years ago to help me quit smoking. I started having vivid psychedelic dreams that did not include me that I can remember. It was mostly vivid bright colored giant beetles, I was viewing them but not interacting in anyway. Outside of that i am always the key player in my dreams and the actors are seldom anyone I actually know.
I have heard that from people who tried Chantix. Two of them told me they stopped because the dreams were very unpleasant. For years after I quit smoking I would dream about smoking. Little bits like that make up most of my dream memories, no idea what was going on in the dream except I remember smoking cigarettes. Clearly after so many years of smoking thoughts of that nature would remain in my mind.
To my knowledge, I have never had a dream in which I am not present.
Yes, I’ve had dreams where I was not there. The analogy I use is that it’s like being in a room with a book on the shelf that you’ve read - you know the story in the book, but you aren’t in it. So like watching a movie, but even more removed.
I’ve also had dreams where I am someone else entirely. Generally those dreams are quite pleasant, but once the-person-whose-soul-I-was-inhabiting-for-purposes-of-the-dream (I hate to say “I” because it really wasn’t me) had murdered an entire family! “I” felt desolately, hopelessly guilty.
Eek. I have rarely ever felt so relieved as I did when I woke up from that dream and realized I never killed anyone.
Maybe you did, but repressed the memory.
It may be worth handing yourself in to the police to see if they have any
unsolved murders on file so you can establish your guilt or innocence.
I’m joking of course.
I’ve had dreams that I wasn’t in, but don’t remember any dreams where I was watching myself. In the movie-like dream that I remember best, a pair of cops were trying to make a case against a criminal who was being protected by other cops higher up the hierarchy. I was aware of the internal thoughts of both cops. In the middle, there was a commercial for a book I had read recently. So I suppose it was more TV-like than movie-like.
The episode ended well. There was an arrest.
Your dreams are interrupted by commercials? Wow. I hope they pay well for that. It would piss me off, I want my dreams to continue without interruption, my dreams are not the Super Bowl.
Now for the OP: I can’t remember any dream of mine where I was not there in the middle of it all playing the main part. But I forget most of my dreams shortly after I wake up.
PS: My dreams also never roll the credits after The End. That would be intriguing. “Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock Woody Allen”
Only one dream that I remember had a commercial. And I had enjoyed the book. Not that I can remember the title now.
Often, if I fall asleep while reading a book, I’ll continue in the dream. In such a case, I typically fluctuate between reading the book, and being one or another of the characters in the book. Though of course, in either case, the plot typically takes weird departures.