Understanding dreams as private, internal phenomena is a learned developmental milestone, not an innate concept. Most preschoolers believe dreams are real events that originate outside of them and can be observed by others, revealing how our core concepts of consciousness and reality are constructed.
Related Insights
A key function of dreaming is to explore weak associations between new and old memories (a process called NEXTUP). The brain weaves these connections into a narrative, and your emotional reaction within the dream serves as the evaluation mechanism to decide if the new association is valuable and worth strengthening.
Dreams are not random noise but a neurobiological tool for survival. By simulating complex behavioral strategies based on past events, dreaming allows mammals to prepare for a probable future, exploring potential dangers and opportunities without any real-world risk.
Contrary to popular belief, Sigmund Freud did not found the scientific study of dreams. In the 19th century, pioneers like Alfred Murray and Mary Witten Calkins were already conducting innovative investigations using statistical principles and analyzing brain function during sleep.
While many mammals dream, only humans share their dreams. This practice of communal interpretation provided a source of group cohesion, creativity, and strategic advice for early societies, which propelled our species' uniquely rapid cultural and technological advancement.
Babies experience a more expansive form of consciousness than adults. While adults have focused, problem-solving consciousness, babies have a 'lantern' awareness, absorbing vast, unfiltered information from their surroundings. This state is similar to an adult's experience when traveling to a new, stimulating place.
Your brain processes a vividly imagined scenario and a real-life experience through similar neural pathways. This is why visualization is a powerful tool for skill acquisition and even physical change. For instance, repeatedly thinking about exercising a muscle can lead to a measurable increase in its mass, without physical movement.
The persistence of objects and shared experiences doesn't prove an objective reality exists. Instead, it suggests a deeper system, analogous to a game server in a multiplayer game, coordinates what each individual observer renders in their personal perceptual "headset," creating a coherent, shared world.
Our sense of self isn't an innate property but an emergent phenomenon formed from the interaction between our internal consciousness and the external language of our community (the "supermind"). This implies our identity is primarily shaped not by DNA or our individual brain, but by the collective minds and ideas we are immersed in.
The brain exhibits rapid plasticity, with unused areas being repurposed within hours. As vision is useless in evolutionary nighttime darkness, dreaming may be the brain's way of sending "keep-alive" signals to the visual cortex every 90 minutes, defending that neural real estate from takeover by hearing and touch.
The persistence of childhood beliefs isn't just due to an impressionable mind, but to the primacy effect—a cognitive bias where the first information learned about a topic serves as an anchor. This makes it incredibly difficult for subsequent, corrective information to dislodge the original belief, even into adulthood.
