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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Visual Art / Life Mind Blown

Posted by Jen Graves on Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 8:45 AM

1. Those raised in the age before color television may dream in black and white.

2. The blind often dream without visual images.

From this week's as-ever-marvelous Science Times.

Comments (9) RSS

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My particular favorite area of dream research is lucid dreaming. It's fascinating what researchers like Stephen LaBerge have been able to learn about the mind and dream states by having test subjects report back from within their own dreams.

Posted by Greg on December 17, 2008 at 9:10 AM

So my kids get to dream in High Def!

Posted by T-Bone on December 17, 2008 at 9:31 AM

So did black and white dreams only come into existence with the development of black and white photography, and until the development of color TV? Pretty small sliver of history.

Posted by Nat on December 17, 2008 at 9:54 AM

My dad didn't have TV growing up, and he dreams in black and white. He did used to go to the movies all the time, and those were black and white.

Posted by Paul Constant on December 17, 2008 at 10:05 AM

I dream in 8-bit pixels.

Posted by JC on December 17, 2008 at 10:33 AM

Seriously, I dream in both b&w and color, and once, I swear to God, I dreamt in 2.35:1 wide screen in THX surround.

Posted by elswinger on December 17, 2008 at 12:00 PM

I wondered about dreaming in color. I also wondered about dreaming noises. Sometimes I have incorporated real sounds into my dreams and sometimes I have dreamed sounds. I also dream about flying, not in a plane, but with my arms outstretched. And if I drink an old cup of reheated coffee right before bed, my dreams are totally psychedelic. I'm talking colors are wild and all sorts of stories and monsters and flying around.

Posted by Vince on December 17, 2008 at 12:09 PM

I actually remember as a kid (I was born in 1974, so this was coming from books and older kids) all the stupid, stupid Analise Your Dreams types books and articles that seemed popular at the time - many would talk up the "do you dream in B&W or color?" angle.

Of course we can never prove it, but "dream interpretation" seems like the biggest crock to me, and probably the easiest way to sell a book to the hopeless.

Posted by Dougsf on December 17, 2008 at 12:58 PM

@8: I dunno. Dream interpretation can be useful to the extent that it gets you reflecting about yourself, your feelings and motivations, your goals and your fears.

Dreams are a combination of leftover thoughts from the daytime, habits, expectations, anxieties, and musings, with a big dose of random noise. Some dream content can help you learn more about your mind, while most of it is probably useless (but free) nighttime entertainment.

Posted by Greg on December 17, 2008 at 3:56 PM