The most logical of the theories is that we are just seeing the things that our brain is precessing while we are sleeping. Every theory agrees that sleep is restorative and very important for our brain health as well as our body. The brain is such a complex organ. We are never going to really understand everything about it, no matter how advanced our technology gets. We have the conscious part of our brain that we have some control over. Then we have the part that is constantly working and processing without our awareness. I'm mostly of the theory that dreaming is just these two aspects of our brain weaving together. This is why some people can lucid dream. People who teach themselves to get control over the part of the brain we can control while it is working with the other part. Lucid dreaming is fascinating to me. Like I said before, it allowed me to stop nightmares. So it can be a very useful tool. Although another of the reasons I try to let my dreams happen naturally, besides being entertaining, is because I feel like that natural processing that is happening is an important part of the working of our brains. You are right that we don't actually know why it happens. We likely never will. But this theory makes the most sense to me.
One of my favorite quotes is "If the brain were simpler to understand, we would be so simple that we could not understand it."
I'm loathe to bump this, but I've had images from another one haunting me for the past week or so now. Hopefully the process of putting it down in writing will drain the imagery from my head. It's late evening and I'm with my family, at a place that resembles a department store. Racks of clothing and other items, bright fluorescent lights overhead, and paths of white tile flooring between carpeted areas. Someone has abandoned another group of cats here, and we're trying to collect them and take them home. One is sick - diseased, with some kind of parasite. There are bare patches of skin on her back. We're concerned it might spread to the other cats, so we focus on catching her first and getting her to a vet as quickly as possible. Each time I catch sight of her, it gets worse. The patches grow larger, and bloody welts appear where the flesh is eaten away. Then holes - perfectly circular, as if something had taken a drill press to her. Whatever afflicts this cat is boring its way down inside. Hollowing her out. By the time we finally catch her in an aisle, I cannot understand how the thing is even alive - it is a cat-shaped bowl on legs, her back gone and only a few traces of vital organs still remain. Even the bone is consumed. Whatever parasitic affliction this cat has is now the only thing giving it some semblance of life, a zombified shell of an animal. We coax the thing into a large cardboard box and take it to the car, but our car won't start. Dad calls a tow truck, and I ride in the cab, wondering how to explain about the infected cat in the box. "Memories" of the other cats flash back, and I worry I've seen the same patches appearing on another of them too.
??? That last one... Just remember that dreams are produced by our own minds, so whatever that was that you dreamt up, it was your brain doing the dirty work. Meaning: It was your subconscious that came up with that story.
Well yeah, given. I don't think anyone else is crazy enough to step inside my brain and start conjuring images of their own.
