Reading in dreams?

[Amb]

I learnt the other day that it is 'impossible' to read in dreams.

example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_awakening
(see Realism and unrealism)


Many years ago, when still a teenager, I saw a cartoon of batman where batman was in a dreamworld and figured out thats where he was when he tried to read a newspaper. The words appeared all blurred and unfocusable. I remember at the time thinking they had made this 'fact' up to suit the show. I now discover that people really do think that you cannot read in dreams.

The evidence against it is me. I read in dreams a lot. I had one last night that I was on a bus heading into a place I hadn't been before, but the bus missed the stop because I could see the streetnames on the posts and they didnt match the directions I was following. But I have read much larger texts. A week ago I dreamt I had the script for a new back to the Future trilogy in my hands. It was a plot about a time traveller who was able to travel back in time as a hologram and he used the technology to try and steal the more advanced tech from the DeLorien. The thing is I was reading the script, not watching the scenes. The funny bit at the end was that it was signed Azu. (As in the GL mafia player)

SO the question is then? How rare is reading in dreams? Can anyone else do it? And why, if not that rare, is it thought impossible.

[Courk]

I rarely remember my dreams. While I can't remember a dream that even involved words, I have noticed that I just *know* things in dreams. The one dream I can remember, this one person was Cordelia, IIRC. I have no idea what Cordy looks like, but I knew that that was Cordy.

[Chuck]

I remember reading street signs in a dream. I don't remember ever having tried to read anything else so I don't know if I could. I woke up in the middle of the night after having read the words "The Iron Art" on something in a dream, so I wrote it down. In the morning I didn't remember anything else about the dream.

[Samadhi]

I read in my dreams. But I don't think I actually read/see the words. It's more like I just glean the info.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Amb]

Thats the thing. Maybe I am just 'gleaning' the info, but I conciously remember seeing and comprehending the words. My brain could actually be fooling me into thinking I read the words in the same fashion that I think I heard a particular person's voice.

Or maybe I really am reading words.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

Do numbers count?

[groza528]

I had a rather disturbing nightmare once in which some sort of serial killer had been skinning and *posing* his victims' corpses. In one instance the posed corpses very clearly spelled the word ANGER. I know that I didn't just glean that one. I can't think of any other time in which I read in a dream.

[CzarJ]

I can read very short bits in my dreams, and can do better with numbers than words, but with me they always change when I look back. I've found out that I'm dreaming many times by doing that.

[Samadhi]

Yes, now that you mention it that's what causes me to realize it too.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Amb]

[Samadhi]

Numbers are always clear and never change for me. The only thing that changes with them is what I'm supposed to do with them. Words either change or stay fuzzy, I think.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Amb]

In New Zealand a car must pass a warrant of fitness check every six months/1 year (depending on age).

I dreamt last night I was driving a new 2nd hand car. I looked at its warrant sticker, which is on the windscreen and saw "2006" written on it - in mirror image - exactly as it appears from that side of the windscreen. In the dream i was like 'oh damn, i'd better not go through a cop check point with an expired warrant'. There wasnt much more to the dream, but I dreamt the numbers in mirror image.

[Beartalon]

I know I've looked at books in dreams, and sight-read music I was performing on an instrument and also singing text from a choral book.

As for the reality/surrealism of what you're reading making you realize you're in a dream and wake up is crap, imo. My dreams are always surreal in that as I move through doorways/intersections/separations, I rarely end up where the real portal (when it is a passage point I recognize) is supposed to lead. Sometimes I know this in the dream but I don't awaken.

I've also dreamed I was sleeping. In those dreams, I'm usually looking down at myself sleeping so I don't know if I'm dreaming in a dream or not.

I wonder if it's possible to go into so many layers of the dreamer dreaming that he's dreaming that you reach a point you can't return from?

[Courk]

Dream dream dream dreamer dream? Dream.

Sorry, I'm just jealous of all of you who can remember your dreams more regularly than I can. Plus I'm tired and should be dreaming.

[Samadhi]

I can most often remember mine, but explaining them....no such luck.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[raekuul]

(Pi to Newton Scale in 5)

Uh, I don't think I've evr tried to read in a dream. I've hit the ground, but not read.

[Hitchhiker]

I have been known to: read in dreams, write in dreams, and frequently shelve books in dreams (that's what happens when you work in a library).

In specific memorable dream instances:

- posted to the GL and kept checking for responses
- "finished reading" a book I had fallen asleep reading (the dream ending was much more satisfying)
- wrote various school assignments, much to my disappointment on waking to find them unfinished
- read the ingredients on a cereal box and found things like "kryptonite" (this memory is hazy)
- wandered through an airport in which the information screens always told me my flight was at a particular terminal until I would arrive there and find that now all the screens said a different terminal (repeatedly)

[Lepton*]

[Mackay]

I learned that fact from the same Batman episode as you, amb, though I never questioned it as a child. I didn't even watch Batman that much!

I have scrawled writing while asleep before.

As for actually being able to read in dreams, I don't know either way. The thing is, I've frequently had dreams with places I didn't recognise, yet I just "knew" it was my old high school or the Grey Labyrinth or something like that, despite the fact that it looks nothing like the place/I've never seen the place/the place exists only in my imagination. I've had people appear in my dreams who I just "knew" were particular people (my ex-boyfriend, people I work with, even IS once) despite the fact that they didn't actually look like the people in question.

Therefore I don't find it hard to believe that you could be looking at text in a dream and "know" what it says, even if the text itself is unintelligible.

Of course, I haven't experienced any of your dreams, nor can I clearly recall having "read" something in a dream (though I'm sure it may well have happened), so for all I know it is entirely possible.

I believe the explanation from the Batman episode was that you dream with the opposite side of your brain to the one which processes text. I'm sure someone will pop up with some actual knowledge regarding whether this is actually true/whether it is possible in any case.

Edit: And I just read the thread properly, saw the references to "gleaning", and realised my post is pretty much obsolete. Oh well

[MTGAP]

It's possible that you didn't read it, you just knew what it said.

I find that I can remember dreams a lot better if I write it down as soon as I wake up. I can remember it with clarity.

Sometimes I forget about a dream as soon as I wake up, but then something causes me to remember it, usually within the next hour or so.

[Zag]

It is absurd for anyone to claim that no one can read in dreams. All that it (that is, the existence of this theory) means is that some psychologist discovered that, one time, HE couldn't read in a dream. So he decided that, obviously, no one can, then he pretended to come up with some evidence supporting the claim and he published it. Always remember that precious few psychologists have a clue about doing real science.

Anyway, I don't have any evidence against the theory, though right here I think we have plenty to shoot it down. I did, however, once have an extremely vivid dream in which I came across a very large book and began to turn the pages. It only had pictures (so reading wasn't an issue) and I quickly realized that it was a book showing all the important moment in my life.

I remember getting very excited as the pictures approached present day and I realized that I wasn't even half-way through the book. I quickly flipped through to get to the future part. In it, I saw myself carrying an toddler girl on my shoulders and holding the hand of a young boy, though when I had this dream my wife was pregnant with our first. I became so excited at that point that it woke me up, and I immediately told my wife about the dream.

Sure enough, we had two children, a boy and a girl.

Of course, this isn't quite as amazing as it sounds. At the time we were pretty sure from ultrasounds that the baby we were expecting was a boy, and we already knew that we planned to have two kids and then break the mold (via tubal ligation). So the only part you could claim as prediction is that the second one would be a girl, which could just as easily be wishful thinking. But it seemed pretty significant to me at the time.

[Samadhi]

I just had on where I did. I knew I was asleep though.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[MTGAP]

[Ctuchik]

taken from xkcd.com

[Samadhi]

Perfect!
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[MTGAP]

When you're dreaming, you can tell by doing some things, for example, trying to read. Can you do this same sort of test to tell if you're hallucinating?
_________________
This statement is false.

[MTGAP]

I've heard that a way to induce lucid dreaming is to do a mantra while going to sleep. Repeat to yourself, "I will be aware that I'm dreaming", or some similar sentence.

I have tried this, but I cannot both repeat that to myself and fall asleep. When I repeat it to myself, I keep myself awake. But when I drift off, I forget to say it. Does anyone know what to do about this?
_________________
This statement is false.

[extro...*]

There have been some discussions about this in the past here. I would advise against lucid dreaming. It is dangerous. If you confront a character in your lucid dream with the fact that they are not real, you will likely be dealing with a violent reaction.

Lucid wakefulness can also be problematic. I would recommend you go with the flow. Do not strive for lucidity, whether sleeping or awake. If it comes to you, fine, but otherwise, to heck with it.

[raekuul]