dreams into reality essay

Dream Vs Reality Analytical Essay

Dream vs. reality: essay introduction, dreams: a historical perspective, dreams vs reality, sleeping and dreaming, psychology dreaming, accessing physical experiences, dreams and reality: essay conclusion, works cited.

The concept of dreams has eluded even the most renowned philosophers and psychologists, including Aristotle, Plato, and Sigmund Freud. Plato likened dreams to a presentation that we experience while sleeping (Hamilton, Cairns and Cooper 571). Modern psychology seems to have borrowed the definition of a dream from Plato’s, in that they have defined dreams as sequences of experiences borne of imagination during sleep (Dennett 129).

The aim of this statement of intent is to provide a more holistic definition of dreams from both a historical as well as a modern perspective. There is often a very thin line between “dreams” and “reality”. As such, it is indispensable to examine such a link.

Sigmund Freud commenced his psychoanalytical study on dreams in 1900 with a complaint that philosophers viewed his idea of dreams as second-rate and intellectually unworthy (Freud 5). In his article, ‘Dreams’, Manser opines that Freud had “littler to say about the nature of dreams which is of interest to the philosopher” (415). There appears to be little attention devoted to the concept of dream by philosophers, even as the topic puzzled such renowned philosophers as Aristotle and Plato.

There is a need to define what dreaming is, and how one may distinguish between reality and dreams. From a historical point of view, dreams are a frightening and puzzling phenomenon. Prehistorically, ancestors also viewed dreams as messages sent to them by demons and gods. To the fatalist, dreams are portents or omens of future events.

Ancient Greek philosophers adopted a rather rational naturalist approach to dreams. Aristotle provided the definition of dreams as that experience one has in his/her sleep (Ross 56). On the other hand, Plato defined dreams as the visions that we always recall in our waking hours (Hamilton et al 571). Modern psychology appears to have adopted the Aristotelian stance: dreams are sequences of experiences borne of imagination during sleep (Dennett 129).

Nietzsche’s argument blaming the belief in ghosts, gods, resurrection and life after death on the doorstep of the dream was sensible (LaBerge 231). Supposing that, the idea of soul-body arose from subjective experiences in the dream world, whether or not the soul was an objective reality depended on reality insight placed on the dream.

If, in ancient times, human believed that they had discovered a second real world in a dream, what did that mean? Was it a mere intuitively verifiable existence? Few possibilities exist in an attempt to solve the mystery of these questions. Whether dreams are real and if they are, how do they compare to physical reality in terms of the mental truths (LaBerge 231).

Two issues emerged – one was the extent to which an experience appears to be subjectively real. The second was the extent the experience appears to be objectively real (this was independent of the first). Simple logic affirms that something exists only if it can cause an effect on another thing (LaBerge 233). Therefore, since it is extraordinarily difficult to interact with a dream physically, proving that it existed in reality was exceedingly difficult.

The line between dream and reality is often frightfully thin. Although one can hardly control the contents of their sleep compared with those of waken imagination and daydreams, on the other hand, dreams appear to have a stronger false impression of reality. Baudrillard opines that our cultural products do not distort or reflect a basic existing reality anymore; instead, the absence of reality seems to have been concealed (262).

The emergence of novel computer and media technologies presents yet another challenge to the reality vs. dream issue, because, through this interaction, we can immerse in virtual reality. Consequently, we cease being external observers per se and partake in a synthesis of “cyberspace” borne of our association with computer technology. Virtual reality has effectively ended the conventional technological dream of establishing an ideal illusion of reality.

From the historical perspective, it was understood that dream were mystifying, as human awoke to self-consciousness to consciousness of mortality. Many people came up with religious and magical explanations to explain the strange visions they experienced during sleep (Dennett 130). This introduced thoughts like the ability of the soul to depart the body and travel to other places. The possibility of the dead and the living interacting were a possibility. Some even believed that, dreams in sleep were messages from gods or destiny.

Philosophers like Plato emerged with rational naturalist approaches, characterizing dreams as visions in people (Plato 571), remembered in reality.

Aristotle, on the other hand, put it that dreams were some presentation or imagination, specifically those that occurred during sleep (Dennett 130). Aristotle affirms that dream were not God-sent neither did they present any future predictions (Ross 46). Yet, sometimes, dream could be an inspiration for future happenings.

Plato, being more imaginative, compared mad people with sleepers and found that, their thought were false, for instance, feeling of flying. Plato realized that, however much decent man appeared, there was always a low and licentious point of experiences during dreams (Plato 571). This thought anticipated that Freud’s idea of many-layered organization of human consciousness (Freud, “Introductory Lectures” 21).

Freud’s theory purports rest as a function of sleep, which could be well experienced in dreamless sleep. However, when control of the daytime consciousness was resting in sleep, the subconscious mental process continues to work on an immature level (Freud “Introductory Lectures” 21).

Therefore, dreams were regressive. They go back to visual images, more so the primary sexual desires (Freud, “Interpretation of Dreams” 67). An idea that Freud added to Plato’s theory of dream-work: dreams guaranteed sleep, blocked censorship, by revisiting the original latent dream idea, and then disguising its manifestation (Plato 571).

As people argue, we spend about one third of our lives in sleep, it is crucial to conduct extensive research to understand dream and sleep. Study of sleep and dream shows proof of principal experiences in sleep, for instance, the sleep-wake cycle, sleep disorders, sleep regulations and snoring among others (LaBerge 233).

Based on the nature of scientific studies, the studies of sleep often look at physical signs like body temperatures, eye movement, and blood pressure. philosophers cannot hence be able to use these data to draw conclusions. Philosophy is more interested in a dream while psychology deals with the sleeping process. Therefore, studying dreaming and sleeping will require the use of internal mental processes and reactions to interpret what happens in sleep in external viewpoint (Ross 49).

Connecting the internal and external features becomes intricate. Having no characteristics and stable variables to use for studying dreams, little research is available on the topic compared to other topics like reasoning, memory, Imagination and beliefs. Dreams still puzzle people since the times of Plato, and Aristotle. Concerns of how to identify dreams, individual and social function of dreams, and the logic behind dreaming, lead to metaphysics, mind philosophy, culture and epistemology. Dreaming hence remains fascinating.

Dreaming is a fascinating experience and rather under-researched. Dreams also challenge the real life experiences and the fact that human think they understand consciousness and conscious (Freud, “Introductory Lectures” 21). There are numerous theories of the mind that do not dream and reality.

Hence, they are incomplete. Scholars can be motivated to be more imaginative about dreaming, and to include it in a number of philosophical topics because of they will draw defined pedagogical utilities. The study of sleep and dreaming by use of inventive experiments developed by psychologist form an exceptional way of studying physiology and phenomenology, and experiential and conceptual approaches in the study of mind.

Despite the discovery of the fascinating rapid eye movement (REM) sleep relationship with dreams, there has not been much thoughtful derivative of the mind philosophy. Epistemologists still use dream concepts to address skepticism, has barely influenced the active self-image of mainstream philosophy of mind.

It is often difficult to measure dream for study especially when comparing dream and reality because, one has to do comparison against real-life events (Metzinger 528). However, the better way to study dream and reality is to compare dream metal event against wake mental events. A number of experiences can e improbable in physical reality but intensely easily to imagine in a dream. Only a broad perceptual (Hallucinatory) model of dreaming has compared dream and reality.

There is a new focus on lucid dreaming and lucid. Some evidence has indicated that, people experiencing lucid dream were also likely to fluctuate between viewpoints dream and mental life. A lucid dreamer always knows that the existing world of the dream was not real (Metzinger 530).

Metzinger suggested that a lucid dreamer understood the phenomenon they experienced did not vary with external physical reality in content. To the farthest, lucid dreamer can recollect full memory and remember at least some characteristics of phenomenology of agency (Metzinger 530).

In his study on children’s dream, Foulkes recommended research on the connection between dreaming and skills of imagination and manipulation of patterns (Foulkes 9). Probably, visual-spatial capacities somehow assisted in generation of continuous kinematic imagery typical of happier dreams.

Too young children had rather static dreams. Foulkes connects the continued production of spontaneous kinematics imagery. In a study lab of young adults, participants were to respond on whether they saw themselves the way another person would do, or whether they saw the dream in their own eyes (Foulkes 9). A remarkably small percentage saw themselves in the dream. They did not experience kinematic imagery.

However, seeing the dream in their own eyes saw the dreamers experienced much kinematic imagery. Research that explicitly question subjects to specify a certain perspective of their dream and memory experience is not a vital choice in this fascinating domain. Most people impulsively flip between perspectives and confidence retrospective judgment of the dream is not always high.

Our mental health depends on dreams. Through science, one can understand nature better is by first achieving harmony. However, perhaps we need not be so concerned with turning dreams into reality; instead, we should just let them remain dreams. Are Dreams Functional? Currently, there are many logical reasons of functional and the way dreams appeared different from sense of function.

Even though there are incredible adaptationist accounts for sleep and phases of the sleep-cycle itself, there is reason to perceive that mental activity that took place in sleep was an authentic example of byproduct of what was designed during sleep-wake cycle. If this was right, there would be a situation where dreaming was mysteriously an uncontrolled sequeale, a spandrel and exaptation.

Baudrillard, Jean. The Precession of Simulacra . New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984. Print.

Dennett, Dan. Are Dreams Experiences ? In Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology . Brighton: Harvester Press, 1981. Print.

Foulkes, David. Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1999. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams . London: Allen & Unwin, 1951. Print.

Hamilton, Edith, Huntington Cairns, and Lane Cooper. The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters . Princeton: Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2005. Print.

LaBerge, Stephen. Dreaming, Illusion, And Reality in Lucid Dreaming . New York: Ballantine, 1985. Print.

Manser, Paul. Dreams, in P. Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy . London: Collier and Macmillan, 1967. Print.

Metzinger, Thomas. Being No-one: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Print.

Plato, Aristocles. The Collected Dialogues . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961. Print.

Ross, William. Aristotle . London: Routledge, 1995. Print.

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Essays About Dreams In Life: 14 Examples And Topic Ideas

Dreams in life are necessary; if you are writing essays about dreams in life, you can read these essay examples and topic ideas to get started.

Everyone has a dream – a big one or even a small one. Even the most successful people had dreams before becoming who they are today. Having a dream is like having a purpose in life; you will start working hard to reach your dream and never lose interest in life.

Without hard work, you can never turn a dream into a reality; it will only remain a desire. Level up your essay writing skills by reading our essays about dreams in life examples and prompts and start writing an inspiring essay today!

Writing About Dreams: A Guide

Essays about dreams in life: example essays, 1. chase your dreams: the best advice i ever got by michelle colon-johnson, 2. my dream, my future by deborah massey, 3. the pursuit of dreams by christine nishiyama, 4. my dreams and ambitions by kathy benson, 5. turning big dreams into reality by shyam gokarn, 6. my hopes and dreams by celia robinson, 7. always pursue your dreams – no matter what happens by steve bloom, 8. why do we dream by james roland, 9. bad dreams by eli goldstone, 10. why your brain needs to dream by matthew walker, 11. dreams by hedy marks, 12. do dreams really mean anything by david b. feldman, 13. how to control your dreams by serena alagappan, 14. the sunday essay: my dreams on antidepressants by ashleigh young, essays about dreams in life essay topics, 1. what is a dream, 2. what are your dreams in life, 3. why are dreams important in life, 4. what are the reasons for a person to dream big, 5. what do you think about dreams in life vs. short-term sacrifice, 6. what is the purpose of dreaming, 7. why are dreams so strange and vivid, 8. why do dreams feel so real, 9. why are dreams so hard to remember, 10. do dreams mean anything, what is a dream short essay, how can i write my dream in life.

Writing about dreams is an excellent topic for essays, brainstorming new topic ideas for fiction stories, or just as a creative outlet. We all have dreams, whether in our sleep, during the day, or even while walking on a sunny day. Some of the best ways to begin writing about a topic are by reading examples and using a helpful prompt to get started. Check out our guide to writing about dreams and begin mastering the art of writing today!

“Everyone has the ability to dream, but not everyone has the willingness to truly chase their dreams. When people aren’t living their dreams they often have limited belief systems. They believe that their current circumstances and/or surroundings are keeping them from achieving the things they want to do in life.”

In her essay, author Michelle Colon-Johnson encourages her readers to develop a mindset that will let them chase their dreams. So, you have to visualize your dream, manifest it, and start your journey towards it! Check out these essays about dreams and sleep .

“At the time when I have my job and something to make them feel so proud of me, I would like to give them the best life. I would like to make them feel comfortable and see sweet smiles on their faces. This is really the one I like to achieve in my life; mountains of words can’t explain how much I love and appreciate them.”

Author Deborah Massey’s essay talks about her dreams and everything she wanted to achieve and accomplish in her life. She also tells us that we must live our values, pursue our dreams, and follow our passions for the best future.

“Fast-forward 5+ years, and my first published book is coming out this May with Scholastic. And now, let me tell you the truth: I don’t feel any different. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity, proud of the work I’ve done, and excited for the book’s release. But on a fundamental level, I feel the same.”

In her essay, author Christine Nishiyama shares what she felt when she first achieved one of her goals in life. She says that with this mindset, you will never feel the satisfaction of achieving your goal or the fulfillment of reaching your dream. Instead, she believes that what fulfills people is the pursuit of their dreams in life.

“My dream is to become a good plastic surgeon and day after day it has transformed into an ambition which I want to move towards. I do not want to be famous, but just good enough to have my own clinic and work for a very successful hospital. Many people think that becoming a doctor is difficult, and I know that takes many years of preparation, but anyone can achieve it if they have determination.”

Author Kathy Benson’s essay narrates her life – all the things and struggles she has been through in pursuing her dreams in life. Yet, no matter how hard the situation gets, she always convinces herself not to give up, hoping her dreams will come true one day. She believes that with determination and commitment, anyone can achieve their dreams and goals in life. 

“I have always been a big dreamer and involved in acting upon it. Though, many times I failed, I continued to dream big and act. As long as I recollect, I always had such wild visions and fantasies of thinking, planning, and acting to achieve great things in life. But, as anyone can observe, there are many people, who think and work in that aspect.”

In his essay, author Shyam Gokarn explains why having a big dream is very important in a person’s life. However, he believes that the problem with some people is that they never hold tight to their dreams, even if they can turn them into reality. As a result, they tend to easily give up on their dreams and even stop trying instead of persevering through the pain and anguish of another failure.

“When I was younger, I’ve always had a fairytale-like dream about my future. To marry my prince, have a Fairy Godmother, be a princess… But now, all of that has changed. I’ve realized how hard life is now; that life cannot be like a fairy tale. What you want can’t happen just like that.”

Celia Robinson’s essay talks about her dream since she was a child. Unfortunately, as we grow old, there’s no “Fairy Godmother” that would help us when things get tough. Everyone wants to succeed in the future, but we have to work hard to achieve our dreams and goals.

“Take writing for example. I’ve wanted to be a professional writer since I was a little boy, but I was too scared that I wouldn’t be any good at it. But several years ago I started pursuing this dream despite knowing how difficult it might be. I fully realize I may not make it, but I’m completely fine with that. At least I tried which is more than most people can say.”

In his essay, author Steve Bloom encourages his readers always to pursue their dreams no matter what happens. He asks, “Would you rather pursue them and fail or never try?”. He believes that it’s always better to try and fail than look back and wonder what might have been. Stop thinking that failure or success is the only end goal for pursuing your dreams. Instead, think of it as a long journey where all the experiences you get along the way are just as important as reaching the end goal.

“Dreams are hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep. They’re strongest during REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement stage, when you may be less likely to recall your dream. Much is known about the role of sleep in regulating our metabolism, blood pressure, brain function, and other aspects of health. But it’s been harder for researchers to explain the role of dreams. When you’re awake, your thoughts have a certain logic to them. When you sleep, your brain is still active, but your thoughts or dreams often make little or no sense.”

Author James Roland’s essay explains the purpose of having dreams and the factors that can influence our dreams. He also mentioned some of the reasons that cause nightmares. Debra Sullivan, a nurse educator, medically reviews his essay. Sullivan’s expertise includes cardiology, psoriasis/dermatology, pediatrics, and alternative medicine. For more, you can also see these articles about sleep .

“The first time I experienced sleep paralysis and recognised it for what it was I was a student. I had been taking MDMA and listening to Django Reinhardt. My memories of that time are mainly of taking drugs and listening to Django Reinhardt. When I woke up I was in my paralysed body. I was there, inside it. I was inside my leaden wrists, my ribcage, the thick dead roots of my hair, the bandages of skin. This time the hallucinations were auditory. I could hear someone being beaten outside my door. They were screaming for help. And I could do nothing but lie there, locked inside my body . . . whatever bit of me is not my body. That is the bit that exists, by itself, at night.”

In her essay, Author Eli Goldstone talks about her suffering from bad dreams ever since childhood. She also talks about what she feels every time she has sleep paralysis – a feeling of being conscious but unable to move.

“We often hear stories of people who’ve learned from their dreams or been inspired by them. Think of Paul McCartney’s story of how his hit song “Yesterday” came to him in a dream or of Mendeleev’s dream-inspired construction of the periodic table of elements. But, while many of us may feel that our dreams have special meaning or a useful purpose, science has been more skeptical of that claim. Instead of being harbingers of creativity or some kind of message from our unconscious, some scientists have considered dreaming to being an unintended consequence of sleep—a byproduct of evolution without benefit.”

Author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, shares some interesting facts about dreams in his essay. According to research, dreaming is more than just a byproduct of sleep; it also serves essential functions in our well-being. 

“Dreams are basically stories and images that our mind creates while we sleep. They can be vivid. They can make you feel happy, sad, or scared. And they may seem confusing or perfectly rational. Dreams can happen at any time during sleep. But you have your most vivid dreams during a phase called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when your brain is most active. Some experts say we dream at least four to six times a night.”

In his essay, Author Hedy Marks discusses everything we need to know about dreams in detail – from defining a dream to tips that may help us remember our dreams. Hedy Marks is an Assistant Managing Editor at WebMD , and Carol DerSarkissian, a board-certified emergency physician, medically reviews his essay.

“Regardless of whether dreams foretell the future, allow us to commune with the divine, or simply provide a better understanding of ourselves, the process of analyzing them has always been highly symbolic. To understand the meaning of dreams, we must interpret them as if they were written in a secret code. A quick search of an online dream dictionary will tell you that haunted houses symbolize “unfinished emotional business,” dimly lit lamps mean you’re “feeling overwhelmed by emotional issues,” a feast indicates “a lack of balance in your life,” and garages symbolize a feeling of “lacking direction or guidance in achieving your goals.” 

Author David B. Feldman, an author, speaker, and professor of counseling psychology, believes that dreams may not mean anything, but they tell us something about our emotions. In other words, if you’ve been suffering from a series of bad dreams, it could be worth checking in with yourself to see how you’ve been feeling and perhaps consider whether there’s anything you can do to improve your mood.

“Ever wish you could ice skate across a winter sky, catching crumbs of gingerbread, like flakes of snow, on your tongue? How about conquering a monster in a nightmare, bouncing between mountain peaks, walking through walls, or reading minds? Have you ever longed to hold the hand of someone you loved and lost? If you want to fulfill your fantasies, or even face your fears, you might want to try taking some control of your dreams (try being the operative). People practiced in lucid dreaming—the phenomenon of being aware that you are dreaming while you are asleep—claim that the experience allows adventure, self-discovery, and euphoric joy.”

In her essay, Author Serena Alagappan talks about lucid dreams – a type of dream where a person becomes conscious during a dream. She also talked about ways to control our dreams, such as keeping a journal, reciting mantras before bed, and believing we can. However, not everyone will be able to control their dreams because the levels of lucidity and control differ significantly between individuals.

“There was a period of six months when I tried to go off my medication – a slowly unfolding disaster – and I’d thought my dreams might settle down. Instead, they grew more deranged. Even now I think of the dream in which I was using a cigarette lighter to melt my own father, who had assumed the form of a large candle. I’ve since learned that, apart from more research being needed, this was probably a case of “REM rebound”. When you stop taking the medication, you’ll likely get a lot more REM sleep than you were getting before. In simple terms, your brain goes on a dreaming frenzy, amping up the detail.”

Author Ashleigh Young’s essay informs us how some medications, such as antidepressants, affect our dreams based on her own life experience. She said, “I’ve tried not to dwell too much on my dreams. Yes, they are vivid and sometimes truly gruesome, full of chaotic, unfathomable violence, but weird nights seemed a reasonable price to pay for the bearable days that SSRIs have helped me to have.” 

In simple terms, a dream is a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal; is it the same as your goal in life? In your essay, explore this topic and state your opinion about what the word “dream” means to you.

This is an excellent topic for your statement or “about me” essay. Where do you see yourself in the next ten years? Do you have a career plan? If you still haven’t thought about it, maybe it’s time to start thinking about your future.

Having dreams is very important in a person’s life; it motivates, inspires, and helps you achieve any goal that you have in mind. Without dreams, we would feel lost – having no purpose in life. Therefore, in your essay, you should be able to explain to your readers how important it is to have a dream or ambition in life. 

Dreaming big sounds great; however, it’s easier said than done. First, you’ve got to have reasons to dream big, which will motivate you to achieve your goals in life. If you’re writing an essay about dreams in life, mention why most people dare to dream big and achieve more in life. Is it about freedom, money, praise from other people, satisfaction, or something else entirely?

For example, you could watch movies, play video games, relax every night, or give up all of them to learn a complex skill – what would you choose, and why? In your essay about dreams in life, answer the question and include other examples about this topic so your readers can relate.

There are many answers to this question – one is that dreams may have an evolutionary function, testing us in scenarios crucial to our survival. Dreams may also reduce the severity of emotional trauma. On the other hand, some researchers say dreams have no purpose or meaning, while some say we need dreams for physical and mental health. Take a closer look at this topic, and include what you find in your essay.

Weird dreams could result from anxiety, stress, or sleep deprivation. So, manage your stress levels, and stick to a sleep routine to stop having weird dreams. If you wake up from a weird dream, you can fall back asleep using deep breaths or any relaxing activity. You can research other causes of weird dreams and ways to stop yourself from having them for your essay about dreams and sleep.

The same areas of the brain that are active when we learn and process information in the actual world are active when we dream, and they replay the information as we sleep. Many things we see, hear, and feel in our everyday lives appear in our dreams. If you want to write an informative essay about dreams and sleep, look into more details about this topic.

Tip: When editing for grammar, we also recommend taking the time to improve the readability score of a piece of writing before publishing or submitting it.

People may not remember what happened in their dreams. Studies show that people tend to forget their dreams due to the changing levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine during sleep. This will be quite an exciting topic for your readers because many people can relate. That being said, research more information about this topic, and discuss it in detail in your essay. 

Although some people believe that dreams don’t mean anything, many psychologists and other experts have theorized about the deeper meaning of dreams. Therefore, your essay about dreams and sleep should delve deeper into this topic. If you’re stuck picking your next essay topic, check out our round-up of essay topics about education .

FAQS on Essays About Dreams in Life

There are many great short essays about dreams; you can write your own too! Some great examples include Do Dreams Really Mean Anything? by David B. Feldman and  Dreams by Hedy Marks.

Writing about your dreams in life is a fantastic creative outlet and can even help you plan your future. Use a prompt to get started, like “What are your dreams in life?” or “What do you aspire to be in ten years?” and begin writing without thinking too much about it. See where the pen takes you and start mapping out your future with this writing exercise.

Meet Rachael, the editor at Become a Writer Today. With years of experience in the field, she is passionate about language and dedicated to producing high-quality content that engages and informs readers. When she's not editing or writing, you can find her exploring the great outdoors, finding inspiration for her next project.

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Turning Dreams Into Reality: Setting Goals, Identifying Skills, Creating Plans and Taking Action

• August 12, 2023
• Belief , Doubt , Knowledge , Skill , Time management

Do you ever feel like your dreams are out of reach? Well, you’re not alone. In fact, studies show that only 8% of people actually achieve their goals. But don’t let that discourage you. The key to turning dreams into reality lies in setting goals, identifying the skills you need, creating a plan, and taking action. By breaking down your goals into manageable steps and committing to completing them within a week, you can build confidence and overcome any obstacles in your way. It’s time to make your dreams a reality.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Start with the end in mind and determine your goals
• Assess the skills or knowledge needed for your goals and prioritize the most important ones
• Create a written learning plan with a timeline for acquiring skills and knowledge
• Take action by executing your action plan, overcoming limiting beliefs, and building confidence

The Importance of Setting Goals

Start by determining your goals and creating a learning agenda, as this is the first step in turning your dreams into reality. Developing a growth mindset is essential in setting goals that will propel you forward. By adopting a growth mindset, you believe that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset allows you to embrace challenges and view setbacks as opportunities for growth. To effectively set goals, use the SMART framework. Ensure that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This approach helps you clarify your objectives and provides a clear roadmap for success. By setting SMART goals, you can stay focused, track your progress, and make necessary adjustments along the way. Remember, setting goals is not just about dreaming big, but also about taking actionable steps to make those dreams a reality.

Identifying the Necessary Skills and Knowledge

Assess the skills or knowledge you need for your goals and determine which skills need improvement. To identify the necessary skills and knowledge, follow these steps:

• Assess the requirements for your goals: Take a close look at what skills and knowledge are necessary to achieve your goals.
• Determine which skills need improvement: Evaluate your current skill set and identify areas where you need to improve.
• Find resources for learning: Explore the best sources available to acquire the skills and knowledge you need.
• Create a learning agenda: Develop a plan to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge, prioritizing the most important ones.
• Prioritize the most important skills to learn: Focus on acquiring the skills that will have the greatest impact on achieving your goals.

Creating a Strategic Learning Plan

Once you have determined the necessary skills and knowledge, create a strategic learning plan to guide your journey. Start by creating a written plan that includes a timeline for acquiring the skills and knowledge you need. Prioritize the skills based on their importance and relevance to your goals. This will help you stay focused and make efficient use of your time. Consider breaking down your learning plan into smaller, manageable steps that you can tackle one at a time. Regularly review and update your plan as you progress and gain new insights. By creating a timeline and prioritizing skills, you can ensure that you are staying on track and making steady progress towards achieving your goals.

Taking Action Towards Your Dreams

Begin by committing to the most important task and executing your action plan towards achieving your dreams. Overcoming procrastination is crucial in taking action. Develop a growth mindset that allows you to push past your doubts and fears. When you encounter obstacles, remind yourself of your ultimate goal and stay focused on the steps needed to get there. Take small steps consistently to build momentum and confidence. Break down your action plan into manageable tasks and commit to completing them within a specific timeframe. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. By developing a growth mindset, you will be able to adapt and persevere in the face of setbacks. Remember, taking action is the key to turning your dreams into reality.

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

You can overcome limiting beliefs by challenging and replacing them with empowering beliefs that will help you shift your mindset and claim the life you want. Challenging beliefs is a crucial step in breaking free from the limitations that hold you back. Start by identifying the limiting beliefs that are holding you back and recognize their impact on your mindset. Then, consciously choose empowering beliefs that counteract those limitations. For example, if you believe you are not capable of success, replace that belief with the empowering belief that you have the skills and abilities to achieve your goals. By consistently challenging and replacing limiting beliefs with empowering ones, you can create an empowering mindset that will propel you towards your dreams.

Building Confidence for Success

Build confidence by consistently taking action and developing your skills and self-regard. Building self-esteem and overcoming self-doubt are crucial in achieving success. Here are two key ways to evoke emotion and boost your confidence:

Celebrate Your Achievements:

• Acknowledge and appreciate your accomplishments, no matter how small.
• Reflect on your progress and the effort you put in to achieve your goals.
• Embrace a positive mindset and reinforce your belief in your abilities.

Surround Yourself with Supportive People:

• Seek out individuals who believe in you and encourage your growth.
• Engage in meaningful conversations and share your aspirations with them.
• Surrounding yourself with positive influences will uplift and motivate you.

Implementing a Doubt-Removal System

Implementing a doubt-removal system involves developing strategies to challenge limiting beliefs and regularly updating your system to overcome obstacles. By implementing doubt removal techniques, you can effectively overcome self-doubt and build confidence in achieving your goals. Start by identifying your limiting beliefs and recognizing their impact on your mindset. Then, shift your mindset by choosing empowering beliefs that support your aspirations. Put a stake in the ground and claim your life by taking action towards your goals. Build confidence by challenging and conquering doubts through consistent effort. Regularly review and update your doubt-removal system to ensure its effectiveness in addressing new challenges. Remember, confidence requires both positive self-regard and competence, so focus on developing both aspects. Believe in your ability to turn your dreams into reality by implementing a doubt-removal system and overcoming self-doubt.

Transforming Dreams Into Reality

Now that you have implemented a doubt-removal system, it’s time to focus on transforming your dreams into reality. Achieving your aspirations requires more than just setting goals and creating plans; it requires taking action. It’s about turning your dreams into actions that propel you towards success.

To start, you need to identify the skills and knowledge necessary for your goals. Determine which areas need improvement and find the best sources for learning those skills. Create a learning agenda that outlines the steps you need to take to acquire the necessary knowledge.

With a clear plan in place, it’s time to take action. Start with the most important task and execute your action plan. Commit to completing a step within one week, pushing yourself to overcome any limiting beliefs or doubts that may arise.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can i stay motivated and committed to my goals.

To stay motivated and committed to your goals, focus on staying consistent in your actions. Find support from others who share your goals or can hold you accountable. Remember why you started and keep pushing forward.

What Are Some Effective Strategies for Breaking Down Goals Into Manageable Steps?

To break down goals into manageable steps, start by identifying milestones and creating timelines. This helps you stay organized and focused on the tasks at hand, making it easier to track your progress and take action towards achieving your goals.

How Can I Overcome Obstacles and Setbacks Along the Way?

To overcome obstacles and setbacks, you must build resilience. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. Stay focused on your goals and adapt your plans as needed. Take action and learn from setbacks to keep moving forward.

What Are Some Techniques for Building Self-Confidence and Belief in My Abilities?

To build self-confidence and belief in your abilities, focus on building resilience and developing a growth mindset. Embrace challenges, learn from setbacks, and believe in your potential for growth and improvement.

How Can I Stay Focused and Disciplined in Working Towards My Goals?

To stay focused and disciplined in working towards your goals, build a support system and implement time management techniques. Surround yourself with people who encourage and motivate you, and prioritize your tasks based on importance and deadlines.

From Dreams to Reality

How it works

We have all felt and tasted the unpleasantness of failure. Most people commonly in life have failed at some point but it is how we learn from our failures that classify success. When looking at the event leading up to any significant success, we will often discover failure to be the biggest motivator in life. Through my journey to my dream career, I found out that failure can be the biggest tool to being successful and fulfilling your dream.

At the early age of 12, I fondly remember hearing the sound of the Q siren coming from a passing fire truck on the way to an emergency call, and, from that point, my desire to pursue the Fire Department had begun.

I just didn’t realize how much disappointment was going to be involved along the way. In December of 2002, I heard about an opportunity to volunteer at my local Fire Department where I could become a member. After attending three meetings, I was evaluated and voted on by all the current members of the fire department. I served for two years as an active volunteer and shortly after was hired as a full time firefighter at a small town department. This department only had two stations; however, I ultimately wanted to work for a major city fire department with multiple stations. I knew this was going to be tough but I was willing to do whatever it took to achieve and attain my dream job.

After attaining full time employment as a firefighter with the small town fire department, this accomplishment opened my eyes even more to the possibilities and opportunities of being hired by a major city fire department. Even though I had gone through the ranks and was very successful at the small town fire department, I knew my accomplishments weren’t going to come as easy as they have had in the small department, however, I knew there would be more of the same as I continued my ultimate pursuit to work for the big city fire departments. Throughout the next several years, I persistently applied to multiple big city fire departments such as the Raleigh Fire Department, Durham City Fire Department, Charlotte Fire Department, and even some in different states. Regardless of how well prepared I thought I was or how well I believed I did, I was denied employment. Often, I would get through one phase or two during the recruitment, just to be turned away in another part of the process for reasons that often times were undisclosed to me. My setbacks and mistakes eventually became motivational instead of disappointing, and provided me with the fuel needed to propel me to improve in all aspects of the recruitment process. The hiring processes proved to be very competitive and far more complex in the bigger cities than small town departments, so in order to make yourself stand out from the others, you had to perform very well in the physical agility test, the written test and several interviews. With hard work, dedication, and perseverance, I strived to perfect my craft in all aspects of the hiring process, and before long I had become an elite candidate in multiple fire department recruitment processes.

Finally, the day had come. On May 25th of 2012 at 2:30pm, I received an official offer of employment via email from the City of Durham Fire Department to become one of its elite firefighters, and at this moment I realized, that my dream had become my reality. Currently, I still continue to bring the same intensity and attitude to my career in the fire department where I am presently holding the rank of Driver. Success in life is a concept that we as human beings desire and sometimes expect to occur immediately, however without failures, mistakes, or a struggle, attaining this success can prove to be difficult. The failure that I have encountered along the pursuit of my ultimate dream job has taught me so much along the way. I have learned throughout my career and also with life, without failure, you will never experience the great taste of success. 

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Dreams and Dreaming

Dreams and dreaming have been discussed in diverse areas of philosophy ranging from epistemology to ethics, ontology, and more recently philosophy of mind and cognitive science. This entry provides an overview of major themes in the philosophy of sleep and dreaming, with a focus on Western analytic philosophy, and discusses relevant scientific findings.

1.1 Cartesian dream skepticism

1.2 earlier discussions of dream skepticism and why descartes’ version is special, 1.3 dreaming and other skeptical scenarios, 1.4 descartes’ solution to the dream problem and real-world dreams, 2.1 are dreams experiences, 2.2 dreams as instantaneous memory insertions, 2.3 empirical evidence on the question of dream experience, 2.4 dreams and hallucinations, 2.5 dreams and illusions, 2.6 dreams as imaginative experiences, 2.7 dreaming and waking mind wandering, 2.8 the problem of dream belief, 3.1 dreaming as a model system and test case for consciousness research, 3.2 dreams, psychosis, and delusions, 3.3 beyond dreams: dreamless sleep experience and the concepts of sleep, waking, and consciousness, 4. dreaming and the self, 5. immorality and moral responsibility in dreams, 6.1 the meaning of dreams, 6.2 the functions of dreaming, 7. conclusions, other internet resources, related entries, 1. dreams and epistemology.

Dream skepticism has traditionally been the most famous and widely discussed philosophical problem raised by dreaming (see Williams 1978; Stroud 1984). In the Meditations , Descartes uses dreams to motivate skepticism about sensory-based beliefs about the external world and his own bodily existence. He notes that sensory experience can also lead us astray in commonplace sensory illusions such as seeing things as too big or small. But he does not think such cases justify general doubts about the reliability of sensory perception: by taking a closer look at an object seen under suboptimal conditions, we can easily avoid deception. By contrast, dreams suggest that even in a seemingly best-case scenario of sensory perception (Stroud 1984), deception is possible. Even the realistic experience of sitting dressed by the fire and looking at a piece of paper in one’s hands (Descartes 1641: I.5) is something that can, and according to Descartes often does, occur in a dream.

There are different ways of construing the dream argument. A strong reading is that Descartes is trapped in a lifelong dream and none of his experiences have ever been caused by external objects (the Always Dreaming Doubt ; see Newman 2019). A weaker reading is that he is just sometimes dreaming but cannot rule out at any given moment that he is dreaming right now (the Now Dreaming Doubt ; see Newman 2019). This is still epistemologically worrisome: even though some of his sensory-based beliefs might be true, he cannot determine which these are unless he can rule out that he is dreaming. Doubt is thus cast on all of his beliefs, making sensory-based knowledge slip out of reach.

Cartesian-style skeptical arguments have the following form (quoted from Klein 2015):

• If I know that p , then there are no genuine grounds for doubting that p .
• U is a genuine ground for doubting that p .
• Therefore, I do not know that p .

If we apply this to the case of dreaming, we get:

• If I know that I am sitting dressed by the fire, then there are no genuine grounds for doubting that I am really sitting dressed by the fire.
• If I were now dreaming, this would be a genuine ground for doubting that I am sitting dressed by the fire: in dreams, I have often had the realistic experience of sitting dressed by the fire when I was actually lying undressed in bed!
• Therefore, I do not know that I am now sitting dressed by the fire.

Importantly, both strong and weak versions of the dream argument cast doubt only on sensory-based beliefs, but leave other beliefs unscathed. According to Descartes, that 2+3=5 or that a square has no more than 4 sides is knowable even if he is now dreaming:

although, in truth, I should be dreaming, the rule still holds that all which is clearly presented to my intellect is indisputably true. (Descartes 1641: V.15)

By Descartes’ lights, dreams do not undermine our ability to engage in the project of pure, rational enquiry (Frankfurt 1970; but see Broughton 2002).

Dream arguments have been a staple of philosophical skepticism since antiquity and were so well known that in his objections to the Meditations , Hobbes (1641) criticized Descartes for not having come up with a more original argument. Yet, Descartes’ version of the problem, more than any other, has left its mark on the philosophical discussion.

Earlier versions tended to touch upon dreams just briefly and discuss them alongside other examples of sensory deception. For example, in the Theaetetus (157e), Plato has Socrates discuss a defect in perception that is common to

dreams and diseases, including insanity, and everything else that is said to cause illusions of sight and hearing and the other senses.

This leads to the conclusion that knowledge cannot be defined through perception.

Dreams also appear in the canon of standard skeptical arguments used by the Pyrrhonists. Again, dreams and sleep are just one of several conditions (including illness, joy, and sorrow) that cast doubt on the trusthworthiness of sensory perception (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers; Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism) .

Augustine ( Against the Academics ; Confessions) thought the dream problem could be contained, arguing that in retrospect, we can distinguish both dreams and illusions from actual perception (Matthew 2005: chapter 8). And Montaigne ( The Apology for Raymond Sebond ) noted that wakefulness itself teems with reveries and illusions, which he thought were even more epistemologically worrisome than nocturnal dreams.

Descartes devoted much more space to the discussion of dreaming and cast it as a unique epistemological threat distinct from both waking illusions and evil genius or brain-in-a-vat-style arguments. His claim that he has often been deceived by his dreams implies he also saw dreaming as a real-world (rather than merely hypothetical) threat.

This is further highlighted by the intimate, first-person style of the Meditations . Their narrator is supposed to exemplify everyone’s epistemic situation, illustrating the typical defects of the human mind. Readers are further drawn in by Descartes’ strategy of moving from commonsense examples towards more sophisticated philosophical claims (Frankfurt 1970). For example, Descartes builds up towards dream skepticism by first considering familiar cases of sensory illusions and then deceptively realistic dreams.

Finally, much attention has been devoted to several dreams Descartes reportedly had as a young man. Some believe these dreams embodied theoretical doubts he developed in the Discourse and Meditations (Baillet 1691; Leibniz 1880: IV; Cole 1992; Keefer 1996). Hacking (2001:252) suggests that for Descartes, dream skepticism was not just a philosophical conundrum but a source of genuine doubt. There is also some discussion about the dream reports’ authenticity (Freud 1940; Cole 1992; Clarke 2006; Browne 1977).

In the Meditations , after discussing the dream argument, Descartes raises the possibility of an omnipotent evil genius determined to deceive us even in our most basic beliefs. Contrary to dream deception, Descartes emphasizes that the evil genius hypothesis is a mere fiction. Still, it radicalizes the dream doubt in two respects. One, where the dream argument left the knowability of certain general truths intact, these are cast in doubt by the evil genius hypothesis . Two, where the dream argument, at least on the weaker reading, involves just temporary deception, the evil genius has us permanently deceived.

One modernized version, the brain-in-a-vat thought experiment, says that if evil scientists placed your brain in a vat and stimulated it just right, your conscious experience would be exactly the same as if you were still an ordinary, embodied human being (Putnam 1981). In the Matrix -trilogy (Chalmers 2005), Matrixers live unbeknownst to themselves in a computer simulation. Unlike the brain-in-a-vat , they have bodies that are kept alive in pods, and flaws in the simulation allow some of them to bend its rules to their advantage.

Unlike dream deception, which is often cast as a regularly recurring actuality (cf. Windt 2011), brain-in-a-vat-style arguments are often thought to be merely logically or nomologically possible. However, there might be good reasons for thinking that we actually live in a computer simulation (Bostrom 2003), and if we lend some credence to radical skeptical scenarios, this may have consequences for how we act (Schwitzgebel 2017).

Even purely hypothetical skeptical scenarios may enhance their psychological force by capitalizing on the analogy with dreams. Clark (2005) argues that the Matrix contains elements of “industrial-strength deception” in which both sensory experience and intellectual functioning are exactly the same as in standard wake-states, whereas other aspects are more similar to the compromised reasoning and bizarre shifts that are the hallmark of dreams.

At the end of the Sixth Meditation , Descartes suggests a solution to the dream problem that is tied to a reassessment of what it is like to dream. Contrary to his remarks in the First Meditation , he notes that dreams are only rarely connected to waking memories and are often discontinuous, as when dream characters suddenly appear or disappear. He then introduces the coherence test:

But when I perceive objects with regard to which I can distinctly determine both the place whence they come, and that in which they are, and the time at which they appear to me, and when, without interruption, I can connect the perception I have of them with the whole of the other parts of my life, I am perfectly sure that what I thus perceive occurs while I am awake and not during sleep. (Meditation VI. 24)

For all practical purposes, he has now found a mark by which dreaming and waking can be distinguished (cf. Meditation I.7), and even if the coherence test is not fail-safe, the threat of dream deception has been averted.

Descartes’ remarks about the discontinuous and ad hoc nature of many dreams are backed up by empirical work on dream bizarreness (see Hobson 1988; Revonsuo & Salmivalli 1995). Still, many of his critics were not convinced this helped his case against the skeptic. Even if Descartes’ revised phenomenological description characterizes most dreams, one might occasionally merely dream of successfully performing the test (Hobbes 1641), and in some dreams, one might seem to have a clear and distinct idea but this impression is false (Bourdin 1641). Both the coherence test and the criterion of clarity and distinctness would then be unreliable.

How considerations of empirical plausibility impact the dream argument continues to be a matter of debate. Grundmann (2002) appeals to scientific dream research to introduce an introspective criterion: when we introspectively notice that we are able to engage in critical reflection, we have good reason to think that we are awake and not dreaming. However, this assumes critical reasoning to be uniformly absent in dreams. If attempts at critical reasoning do occur in dreams and if they generally tend to be corrupted, the introspective criterion might again be problematic (Windt 2011, 2015a). There are also cases in which even after awakening, people mistake what was in fact a dream for reality (Wamsley et al. 2014). At least in certain situations and for some people, dream deception might be a genuine cause of concern (Windt 2015a).

2. The ontology of dreams

In what follows, the term “conscious experience” is used as an umbrella term for the occurrence of sensations, thoughts, impressions, emotions etc. in dreams (cf. Dennett 1976). These are all phenomenal states: there is something it is like to be in these states for the subject of experience (cf. Nagel 1974). To ask about dream experience is to ask whether it is like something to dream while dreaming, and whether what it is like is similar to (or relevantly different from) corresponding waking experiences.

Cartesian dream skepticism depends on a seemingly innocent background assumption: that dreams are conscious experiences. If this is false, then dreams are not deceptive experiences during sleep and we cannot be deceived, while dreaming, about anything at all. Whether dreams are experiences is a major question for the ontology of dreams and closely bound up with dream skepticism.

The most famous argument denying that dreams are experiences was formulated by Norman Malcolm (1956, 1959). Today, his position is commonly rejected as implausible. Still, it set the tone for the analysis of dreaming as a target phenomenon for philosophy of mind.

For Malcolm, the denial of dream experience followed from the conceptual analysis of sleep: “if a person is in any state of consciousness it logically follows that he is not sound asleep” (Malcolm 1956: 21). Following some remarks of Wittgenstein’s (1953: 184; see Chihara 1965 for discussion), Malcolm claimed

the concept of dreaming is derived, not from dreaming, but from descriptions of dreams, i.e., from the familiar phenomenon that we call “telling a dream”. (Malcolm 1959:55)

Malcolm argued that retrospective dream reports are the sole criterion for determining whether a dream occurred and there is no independent way of verifying dream reports. While first-person, past-tense psychological statements (such as “I felt afraid”) can at least in principle be verified by independent observations (but see Canfield 1961; Siegler 1967; Schröder 1997), he argued dream reports (such as “in my dream, I felt afraid”) are governed by different grammars and merely superficially resemble waking reports. In particular, he denied dream reports imply the occurrence of experiences (such as thoughts, feelings, or judgements) in sleep:

If a man had certain thoughts and feelings in a dream it no more follows that he had those thoughts and feelings while asleep, than it follows from his having climbed a mountain in a dream that he climbed a mountain while asleep. (Malcolm 1959/1962: 51–52)

What exactly Malcolm means by “conscious experience” is unclear. Sometimes he seems to be saying that conscious experience is conceptually tied to wakefulness (Malcolm 1956); other times he claims that terms such as mental activity or conscious experience are vague and it is senseless to apply them to sleep and dreams (Malcolm 1959: 52).

Malcolm’s analysis of dreaming has been criticized as assuming an overly strict form of verificationism and a naïve view of language and conceptual change. A particularly counterintuitive consequence of his view is that there can be no observational evidence for the occurrence of dreams in sleep aside from dream reports. This includes behavioral evidence such as sleepwalking or sleeptalking, which he thought showed the person was partially awake; as he also thought dreams occur in sound sleep, such sleep behaviors were largely irrelevant to the investigation of dreaming proper. He also claimed adopting a physiological criterion of dreaming (such as EEG measures of brain activity during sleep) would change the concept of dreaming, which he argued was tied exclusively to dream reporting. This claim was particularly radical as it explicitly targeted the discovery of REM sleep and its association with dreaming (Dement & Kleitman 1957), which is commonly regarded as the beginning of the science of sleep and dreaming. Malcolm’s position was that the very project of a science of dreaming was misguided.

Contra Malcolm, most assume that justification does not depend on strict criteria with the help of which the truth of a statement can be determined with absolute certainty, but “on appeals to the simplicity, plausibility, and predictive adequacy of an explanatory system as a whole” (Chihara & Fodor 1965: 197). In this view, behavioral and/or physiological evidence can be used to verify dream reports (Ayer 1960) and the alleged principled difference between dream reports and other first-person, past-tense psychological sentences (Siegler 1967; Schröder 1997) disappears.

Putnam noted that Malcolm’s analysis of the concept of dreaming relies on the dubious idea that philosophers have access to deep conceptual truths that are hidden to laypeople:

the lexicographer would undoubtedly perceive the logical (or semantical) connection between being a pediatrician and being a doctor, but he would miss the allegedly “logical” character of the connection between dreams and waking impressions. […] this “depth grammar” kind of analyticity (or “logical dependence”) does not exist. (Putnam 1962 [1986]: 306)

Nagel argued that even if one accepts Malcolm’s analysis of the concept of dreaming,

it is a mistake to invest the demonstration that it is impossible to have experiences while asleep with more import than it has. It is an observation about our use of the word “experience”, and no more. It does not imply that nothing goes on in our minds while we dream. (Nagel 1959: 114)

Whether dream thoughts, feelings or beliefs should count as real instances of their kind now becomes an open question, and in any case there is no conceptual contradiction involved in saying one has experiences while asleep and dreaming.

To ask about dream experience is also to ask whether there is something it is like to dream during sleep as opposed to there just being something it is like to remember dreaming after awakening. Dennett’s (1976, 1979) cassette theory says dreams are the product of instantaneous memory insertion at the moment of the awakening, as if a cassette with pre-scripted dreams had been inserted into memory, ready for replay. Dennett claims the cassette theory and the view that dreams are experiences can deal equally well with empirical evidence for instance on the relationship between dreaming and REM sleep. The cassette theory is preferable because it is more parsimonious, positing only an unconscious dream composition process rather than an additional conscious presentation process in sleep. For Dennett, the important point is that it is impossible to distinguish between the two rival theories based on dream recall; the question of dream experience should be settled by independent empirical evidence.

While Dennett shares Malcolm’s skepticism about dream experience, this latter claim is diametrically opposed to Malcolm’s rejection of a science of dreaming. For Dennett, the unreliability of dream recall also is not unique, but exemplifies a broader problem with memory reports: we generally cannot use retrospective recall to distinguish conscious experience from memory insertion (Dennett 1991; see also Emmett 1978).

An earlier and much discussed (Binz 1878; Goblot 1896; Freud 1899; Hall 1981; Kramer 2007:22–24) version of Dennett’s cassette theory goes back to Maury’s (1861) description of a long and complex dream about the French revolution that culminated in his execution at the guillotine, at which point Maury suddenly awoke to find that the headboard had fallen on his neck. Because the dream seemed to systematically build up to this dramatic conclusion, which in turn coincided with a sudden external event, he suggested that such cases were best explained as instantaneous memory insertions experienced at the moment of awakening. Similarly, Gregory (1916) described dreams are psychical explosions occurring at the moment of awakening.

The trustworthiness of dream reports continues to be contentious. Rosen (2013) argues that dream reports are often fabricated and fail to accurately describe experiences occurring during sleep. By contrast, Windt (2013, 2015a) argues that dream reports can at least under certain conditions (such as in laboratory studies, when dreams are reported immediately after awakening by trained participants) be regarded as trustworthy sources of evidence with respect to previous experience during sleep.

Unlike Malcolm, many believe that whether dreams are experiences is an empirical question; and unlike Dennett, the predominant view is that the empirical evidence does indeed support this claim (Flanagan 2000; Metzinger 2003; Revonsuo 2006; Rosen 2013; Windt 2013, 2015a).

A first reason for thinking that dreams are experiences during sleep is the relationship between dreaming and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Researchers in the 1950s discovered that sleep is not a uniform state of rest and passivity, but there is a sleep architecture involving different stages of sleep that is relatively stable both within and across individuals (Aserinsky & Kleitman 1953, 1955; Dement & Kleitman 1957). Following sleep onset, periods of non-REM (or NREM) sleep including slow wave sleep (so called because of the presence of characteristic slow-wave, high-voltage EEG activity) are followed by periods of high-frequency, low-voltage activity during REM sleep. EEG measures from REM sleep strongly resemble waking EEG. REM sleep is additionally characterized by rapid eye movements and a near-complete loss of muscle tone (Dement 1999: 27–50; Jouvet 1999).

The alignment between conscious experience on the one hand and wake-like brain activity and muscular paralysis on the other hand would seem to support the experiential status of dreams as well as explain the outward passivity that typically accompanies them. Reports of dreaming are in fact much more frequent following REM (81.9%) than NREM sleep awakenings (43%; Nielsen 2000). REM reports tend to be more elaborate, vivid, and emotionally intense, whereas NREM reports tend to be more thought-like, confused, non-progressive, and repetitive (Hobson et al. 2000). These differences led to the idea that REM sleep is an objective marker of dreaming (Dement & Kleitman 1957; Hobson 1988: 154).

Attempts to identify dreaming with mental activity during REM sleep have not, however, been successful, and many now hold that dreams can occur in all stages of sleep (e.g., Antrobus 1990; Foulkes 1993b; Solms 1997, 2000; Domhoff 2003; Nemeth & Fazekas 2018). In recent years there has been renewed interest in NREM sleep for the study of dreaming (Noreika et al. 2009; Siclari et al. 2013, 2017). This suggests the inference from the physiology of REM sleep to the phenomenology of dreaming is not straightforward.

A second line of evidence comes from lucid dreams, or dreams in which one knows one is dreaming and often has some level of dream control (Voss et al. 2013; Voss & Hobson 2015; Baird et al. 2019). The term lucid dreaming was coined by van Eeden (1913), but Aristotle ( On Dreams ) already noted that one can sometimes be aware while dreaming that one is dreaming.

Scientific evidence that lucid dreaming is real and a genuine sleep phenomenon comes from laboratory studies (Hearne 1978; LaBerge et al. 1981) showing lucid dreamers can use specific, pre-arranged patterns of eye movements (e.g., right-left-right-left) to signal in real-time that they are now lucid and engaging in dream experiments. These signals are clearly identifiable on the EOG and suggest a correspondence between dream-eye movements and real-eye movements (as predicted by the so-called scanning hypothesis ; see Dement & Kleitman 1957; Leclair-Visonneau et al. 2010). Retrospective reports confirm that the dreamer really was lucid and signalled lucidity (Dresler et al. 2012; Stumbrys et al. 2014).

Signal-verified lucid dreams have been used to study muscular activity accompanying body movements in dreams (Erlacher et al. 2003; Dresler et al. 2011), for advanced EEG analysis of brain activity during lucid dreaming (Voss et al. 2009), and imaging studies (Dresler et al. 2011, 2012). Eye signals can also be used to measure the duration of different activities performed in lucid dreams; contrary to the cassette theory, lucid dreams have temporal extension and certain dream actions even seem to take slightly longer than in waking (Erlacher et al. 2014). There have also been attempts to induce lucidity through non-invasive electrical stimulation during sleep (Stumbrys et al. 2013; Voss et al. 2014). The combination of signal-verified lucid dreaming with volitional control over dream content, retrospective report, and objective sleep measures has been proposed to provide controlled conditions for the study of conscious experience in sleep and a new methodology for investigating the relationship between conscious experience and neurophysiological processes (Baird et al.2019).

A third line of evidence (Revonsuo 2006: 77) comes from dream-enactment behavior (Nielsen et al. 2009), most prominently in patients with REM-sleep behavior disorder (RBD; Schenck & Mahowald 1996; Schenck 2005; Leclair-Visonneau et al. 2010). Due to a loss of the muscular atonia that accompanies REM sleep in healthy subjects, these patients show complex, seemingly goal-directed outward behaviors such as running or fighting off an attacker during REM sleep. Retrospective dream reports often match these behaviors, suggesting that patients literally act out their dreams during sleep.

While persuasive, these lines of evidence might not satisfy skeptics about dream experience. They might worry that results from lucid dreaming and dream enactment do not generalize to ordinary, non-lucid dreams; they might also construe alternative explanations that do not require conscious experience in sleep. There are also methodological concerns, for instance about how closely sleep-behaviors actually match dream experience. A key issue is that to support the experiential status of dreams, evidence from sleep polysomnography, signal verified lucid dreams, or sleep behavior requires convergence with retrospective dream reports. This means trusting dream reports is built into any attempt to empirically resolve the question of dream experience – which then invites the familiar skeptical concerns. Again, an anti-skeptical strategy may be to appeal to explanatory considerations. In this view, the convergence of dream reports and objective polysomnographic or behavioral observations is best explained by the assumption that dreams are experiences in sleep, and this assumption is strengthened by further incoming findings. This strategy places dream reports at the center of scientific dream research while avoiding the contentious claim that their trustworthiness, and with it the experiential status of dreams, can be demonstrated conclusively by independent empirical means (Windt 2013, 2015a).

Even where philosophers agree dreams are experiences, they often disagree on how exactly to characterize dreaming relative to wake-state psychological terms. Often, questions about the ontology of dreaming intersect with epistemological issues. Increasingly, they also incorporate empirical findings.

The standard view is that dreams have the same phenomenal character as waking perception in that they seemingly put us in contact with mind-independent objects, yet no such object is actually being perceived. This means dreams count as hallucinations in the philosophical sense (Crane & French 2017; Macpherson 2013). Even if, in a particularly realistic dream, my visual experience was exactly as it would be if I were awake (I could see my bedroom, my hands on the bed sheets, etc.), as long as my eyes were closed during the episode, I would not, literally, be seeing anything.

There is some controversy in the psychological literature about whether dreams should be regarded as hallucinations. Some believe the term hallucination should be reserved for clinical contexts and wake-state pathologies (Aleman & Larøi 2008: 17; but see ffytche 2007; ffytche et al. 2010).

The view that dreams involve hallucinations is implicit in Descartes’ assumption that even when dreaming,

it is certain that I seem to see light, hear a noise, and feel heat; this cannot be false, and this is what in me is properly called perceiving ( sentire ). (Descartes 1641: II.9)

It also lies at the heart of Aristotle’s ( On Dreams ) assumption that dreams result from the movements of the sensory organs that continue even after the original stimulus has ceased. He believed that in the silence of sleep, these residual movements result in vivid sensory imagery that is subjectively indistinguishable from genuine perception (see also Dreisbach 2000; Barbera 2008).

The assumption of phenomenological equivalence between dream and waking experience can also be found in Berkeley’s (1710: I.18) idealist claim that the existence of external bodies is not necessary for the production of vivid, wake-like perceptual experience. Similarly, Russell defended sense-data theory by noting that in dreams,

I have all the experiences that I seem to have; it is only things outside my mind that are not as I believe them to be while I am dreaming. (Russell 1948: 149–150)

Elsewhere, he argued dreams and waking life

must be treated with equal respect; it is only by some reality not merely sensible that dreams can be condemned. (Russell 1914: 69)

Hume was less clear on this matter, proposing that dreams occupy an intermediate position between vivid and largely non-voluntary sensory impressions and ideas, or “the faint images of previous impressions in thinking and reasoning” (Hume 1739: 1.1.1.1). On the one hand, as mere creatures of the mind, Hume wanted to categorize dreams as ideas. On the other hand, he acknowledged that in sleep, “our ideas can approach the vivacity of sensory impressions” (Hume 1739: 1.1.1.1). Dreams do not fit comfortably into Hume’s attempt to draw a dichotomous distinction between impressions, including perception, and ideas, including sensory imagination (Ryle 1949; Waxman 1994; Broughton 2006).

Phenomenologists often focus not so much on the quality of dream imagery as on the overall character of experience, noting that dreams are experienced as reality; as in waking perception, we simply feel present in a world. This also sets dreams apart from waking fantasy and daydreams (Husserl 1904/1905; Uslar 1964; Conrad 1968; Globus 1987: 89.

At its strongest, the hallucination view claims that dreaming and waking experience are identical in both the quality of sensory imagery and their overall, self-in-a-world structure (Revonsuo 2006: 84). This claim is central to the virtual reality metaphor , according to which consciousness itself is dreamlike and waking perception a kind of online hallucination modulated by the senses (Llinás & Ribary 1994; Llinás & Paré 1991; Revonsuo 2006; Metzinger 2003, 2009).

This seems to be empirically supported. Neuroimaging studies (Dang-Vu et al. 2007; Nir & Tononi 2010; Desseilles et al. 2011) show that the predominance of visual and motor imagery as well as strong emotions in dreams is paralleled by high activation of the corresponding brain areas in REM sleep, which may exceed waking; at the same time, the cognitive deficits often thought to characterize dreams such as the loss of self-awareness, the absence of critical thinking, delusional reasoning, and mnemonic deficits fit in well with the comparative deactivation of frontal areas (Hobson et al. 2000). Hobson (1988, Hobson et al. 2000) has argued that the vivid, hallucinatory character of dreaming results from the fact that in REM sleep, the visual and motor areas are activated in the same way as in waking perception, the sole difference being dreams’ dependence on internal signal generation. Horikawa and colleagues (2013) used neuroimaging data from sleep onset to predict the types of objects described in mentation reports, which they took to support the perceptual equivalence between dreaming and waking.

Generally, versions of the hallucination view that suggest dreams replicate all aspects of waking perception are too vague to be informative. Especially for subtle perceptual activities (such as visual search), we might not know enough about dream phenomenology to make any strong claims (Nielsen 2010). Specifying points of similarity leads to a more informative and precise, but likely also more nuanced view. Dreams are heterogeneous, and some might be more perception-like while others resemble imagination (Windt 2015a). There might also be differences between or even within specific types of imagery. For example, visual imagery might be quite different from touch sensations, which tend to be rare in dreams (Hobson 1988). Visual dream imagery might overall resemble waking perception but lack color saturation, background detail and focus (Rechtschaffen & Buchignani, 1992). Classifying dreams as either hallucinatory or imaginative is further complicated by the fact that there is strong overlap in cortical activity associated with both visual imagery and perception (Zeidman & Maguire, 2016). This means even a strong overlap in cortical activity between, say, visual dream imagery and visual perception does not necessarily set dreaming apart from waking imagination.

This is also true for evidence on eye movements in dreams. LaBerge and colleagues (2018) recently showed that eye tracking of objects is smooth in lucid dreaming and perceiving, but not in imagining. Drawing from this evidence, Rosen (forthcoming) suggests many dreams mimic the phenomenology of interacting with a stable world, including eye movements and visual search. Others argue we should not analogize dream imagery to mind-independent, scannable objects and that eye movements might instead be implicated in the generation of dream imagery (Windt 2018).

Another way to make sense of the claim that dreaming has the same phenomenal character as waking perception is to say some kinds of dream imagery are illusory: they involve misperception of an external object as having different properties than it actually has (cf. Smith 2002; Crane & French 2017). The illusion view disagrees with the hallucination view on whether dreams have a contemporaneous external stimulus source.

The illusion view has fallen out of favor but has a long history. The Ancients believed dreams have bodily sources. This idea underlies the practice of using dreams to diagnose illness, as practiced in the shrines at Epidaurus (Galen On Diagnosis in Dreams ; van de Castle 1994). Aristotle ( On Dreams ) thought some dreams are caused by indigestion, and Hobbes adopted this view, claiming different kinds of dreams could be traced to different bodily sensations. For instance, “lying cold breedeth Dreams of Feare, and raiseth the thought and Image of some fearfull object” (Hobbes 1651: 91).

Appeals to the bodily sources of dreaming became especially popular in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. Many believed specific dream themes such as flying were linked to sleeping position (Macnish 1838; Scherner 1861; Vold 1910/1912; Ellis 1911) and realizing, in sleep, that one’s feet are not touching the ground (Bergson 1914).

There were also attempts to explain the phenomenology of dreaming by appealing to the absence of outward movement. The lack of appropriate feedback and of movement and touch sensations was thought to cause dreams of being unable to move (Bradley 1894) or of trying but failing to do something (Gregory 1918).

Some proponents of the “ Leibreiztheorie ” (or somatic-stimulus theory) of dreaming attempted to go beyond anecdotal observations to conduct controlled experiments. Weygandt (1893) investigated the influence of various factors including breathing, blood circulation, temperature changes, urge to urinate, sleeping position, and visual or auditory stimulation during sleep on dream content (see Schredl 2010 for details). Singer (1924) proposed experiments on stimulus incorporation in dreams can inform claims on the ontology of dreaming: If dreams are sensations, a particular auditory stimulus should increase the frequency of dreams in nearby sleepers as well as the frequency of sound in their dreams, and it should decrease the range of quality and intensity of these dreams, making them overall more similar and predictable.

Newer studies provide evidence for the incorporation of external stimuli in dreams, including light flashes, sounds, sprays of water applied to the skin (Dement & Wolpert 1958), thermal (Baldridge 1966), electrical (Koulack 1969), and verbal stimuli (Berger 1963; Breger et al. 1971; Hoelscher et al., 1981), as well as blood pressure cuff stimulation on the leg (Nielsen et al. 1995; Sauvageau et al. 1998).

Muscular activity also often leaves its mark on dreams. It occurs throughout sleep but is especially frequent in REM sleep, mostly in the form of twitching but occasionally also in the form of larger, seemingly goal-directed movements (Blumberg 2010; Blumberg & Plumeau 2016). The relation between outward and dream movements is complex: in some cases, outward movements might mirror dream movements, while in others, sensory feedback might prompt dream imagery (Windt 2018).

Generally, it seems external and bodily stimuli can be related to varying degrees to dream and sleep onset imagery (Nielsen 2017; Windt 2018; Windt et al. 2016). Some of these cases appear to fit the concept of illusion, as in when the sound of the alarm clock is experienced, in a dream, as a siren, or when blood pressure cuff inflation on the leg leads to dreams of wearing strange shoes (Windt 2018; for these and other examples, see Nielsen et al. 1995). In other cases, such as when blood pressure cuff stimulation on the leg prompts a dream of seeing someone else’s leg being run over, describing this as illusory misperception might be less straightforward.

Saying that dreams can be prompted by external stimuli and that in some cases these are best described as illusions is different from the stronger claim, sometimes advanced by historical proponents of somatic-stimulus theory, that dreams generally are caused by external or bodily stimuli. As an example of the stronger claim, consider Wundt’s proposal that the

ideas which arise in dreams come, at least to a great extent, from sensations, especially from those of the general sense, and are therefore mostly illusions of fancy, probably only seldom pure memory ideas which hence become hallucinations. (Wundt 1896: 179)

This claim is likely too strong. It is also likely that appeals to external or bodily stimuli on their own cannot fully explain dream imagery, including when and how external stimuli are incorporated in dreams. Sensory incorporation in dreams is often hard to predict and indirect; associated imagery seems related not just to stimulus intensity, but also to short- and long term memories. A full explanation of dream content additionally has to take the cognitive and memory sources of dreaming into account (Windt 2018; Nielsen 2017; cf. Silberer 1919).

The most important rival to the hallucination view is that dreams are imaginative experiences (Liao & Gendler 2019; Thomas 2014). This can mean dream imagery involves imaginings rather than percepts (including hallucinations or illusions; McGinn 2004), that dream beliefs are imaginative and not real beliefs (Sosa 2007), or both (Ichikawa 2008, 2009). An important advantage is that by assimilating dreams to commonplace mental states such as waking fantasy and daydreaming, rather than a rare and often pathological occurrence such as hallucinations, it provides a more unified account of mental life (Stone 1984). However, the reasons for adopting the imagination view are diverse, and dreams have been proposed to resemble imaginings and differ from perception along a number of dimensions (e.g. McGinn 2004, 2005a,b; Thomas 2014). This issue is complicated by the fact that there is little agreement on the definition of imagination and its relation to perception (Kind 2013).

One way is to deny dreams involve presence or the feeling of being in a world, which many believe is central to waking perception. Imagination theorists compare the sense in which we feel present in our dreams to cognitive absorption, as when we are lost in a novel, film, or vivid daydream (Sartre 1940; McGinn 2004; but see Hering 1947; Globus 1987). Some argue that reflexive consciousness or meta-awareness (as in lucid dreams) interrupts cognitive absorption and terminates the ongoing dream (Sartre 1940), essentially denying lucid dreams are possible.

Another issue is whether dreams are subject to the will (Ichikawa 2009). Imagination is often characterized as active and under our control (Wittgenstein 1967: 621, 633), involving “a special effort of the mind” (Descartes 1641: VI, 2), whereas perception is passive. Because dreams just seem to happen to us without being under voluntary control, they present an important challenge for the imagination view. Ichikawa (2009) argues lucid control dreams show dreams are generally subject to the will even where they are not under deliberate control.

Dreams are widely described as more indeterminate than waking perception (James 1890: 47; Stone 1984). In scientific dream research, vagueness is regarded as one of three main subtypes of bizarreness (Hobson 1988; Revonsuo & Salmivalli 1995). An example are dream characters who are identified not by their behavior or looks, but by just knowing (Kahn et al. 2000, 2002; Revonsuo & Tarkko 2002). Dreams are also attention-dependent and lack foreground-background structure (Thompson 2014); while it is tempting to construe the dream world as rich in detail, there is no more to dreams than meets the eye, and many think dream experience is exhausted by what is the focus of selective attention (Hunter 1983; Thompson 2014).

Indeterminacy is also related to the question of whether we dream in color or in black and white. Based on a review of historical and recent studies, Schwitzgebel (2002, 2011) argues there has been a shift in theories on dream color that coincides with the rise first of black-and-white and then color television. He argues it is unlikely that dreams themselves changed from colored to black and white and back to colored, proposing that a change in opinion is a more plausible explanation. Maybe dreams were either black and white or colored all along; or maybe they are indeterminate with respect to color, as may be the case for imagined or fictional objects; were this the case, it would strengthen the imagination view (Ichikawa 2009). Schwitzgebel’s main point is that reports of colored dreaming are unreliable and our opinions about dreams can be mistaken (but see Windt 2013, 2015a). This relates to Schwitzgebel’s (2011; Hurlburt & Schwitzgebel 2007) general skepticism about the reliability of introspection.

The issue of dream color has led to a number of follow-up studies (Schwitzgebel 2003; Schwitzgebel et al. 2006; Murzyn 2008; Schredl et al. 2008; Hoss 2010). They suggest most people dream in color and a small percentage describe grayscale or even mixed dreams (Murzyn 2008) or dreams involving moderate color saturation (Rechtschaffen and Buchignani 1992). Indeterminacy is rarely reported.

The imagination view has consequences for Cartesian dream skepticism. If dream pain does not feel like real pain, there is a fail-safe way to determine whether one is now dreaming: one need only pinch oneself (Nelson 1966; Stone 1984; but see Hodges & Carter 1969; Kantor 1970). As Locke put it,

if our dreamer pleases to try, whether the glowing heat of a glass furnace, be barely a wandering imagination in a drowsy man’s fancy, by putting his hand into it, he may perhaps be wakened into a certainty greater than he could wish, that it is something more than bare imagination. (Locke 1689: IV.XI.8)

If dreaming feels different from waking, this raises the question why we tend to describe dreams in the same terms as waking perception. Maybe this is because most people haven’t thought about these matters and they would find the imagination view plausible if they considered it (Ichikawa 2009). Or maybe

it is just because we all know that dreams are throughout un like waking experiences that we can safely use ordinary expressions in the narration of them. (Austin 1962: 42)

Some authors classify dreams as imaginings while acknowledging they feel like perceiving. For example, Hobbes describes dreams as “the imaginations of them that sleep” (Hobbes 1651: 90), and imagination as a “ decaying sense ” (Hobbes 1651: 88). Yet he also uses the concepts of imagination and fancy to describe perception and argues “their appearance to us is Fancy, the same waking, that dreaming” (Hobbes 1651: 86).

In the scientific literature, the imagination view is complemented by cognitive theories. Foulkes (1978: 5) describes dreaming as a form of thinking with its own grammar and syntax, but allows that dream imagery is sufficently perception-like to deceive us. Domhoff’s neurocognitive model of dreaming (2001, 2003) emphasizes the dependence of dreaming on visuospatial skills and on a network including the association areas of the forebrain. The theory draws from findings on the partial or global cessation of dreaming following brain lesions (cf. Solms 1997, 2000), evidence that dreaming develops gradually and in tandem with visuospatial skills in children (Foulkes 1993a, 1999; but see Resnick et al. 1994), and results from dream content analysis supporting the continuity of dreaming with waking concerns and memories (the so-called continuity hypothesis ; see Domhoff 2001, 2003; Schredl & Hofmann 2003; Schredl 2006; see also Nir & Tononi 2010).

A number of researchers have begun to consider dreaming in the context of theories of mind wandering. Mind wandering is frequent in waking and involves spontaneous thoughts that unfold dynamically and are only weakly constrained by ongoing tasks and environmental demands (Schooler et al. 2011; Smallwood & Schooler 2015; Christoff et al. 2016). Based on phenomenological and neurophysiological similarities, dreams have been proposed to be an intensified form of waking mind wandering (Pace-Schott 2007, 2013; Domhoff 2011; Wamsley 2013; Fox et al. 2013). This basic idea seems to have been anticipated by Leibniz, who noted that the spontaneous formation of visions in dreams surpasses the capacity of our waking imagination (Leibniz, Philosophical Papers and Letters , Vol. I, 177–178).

The analogy between dreams and waking mind wandering has been discussed in the context of cognitive agency. Metzinger (2013a,b, 2015) describes dreams and waking mind wandering as involving a cyclically recurring loss of mental autonomy, or the ability to deliberately control one’s conscious thought processes. Dreams and waking mind wandering are not mental actions but unintentional mental behaviors, comparable to subpersonal processes such as breathing or heartbeat. Because dreaming and waking mind wandering make up a the majority of our conscious mental lives, he argues that cognitive agency and mental autonomy are the exception, not the rule.

This raises the question of how to make sense of lucid control dreams, which involve both meta-awareness and agency. Windt and Voss (2018) argue that in such cases, spontaneous processes including imagery formation co-exist alongside more deliberate, top-down control; they also argue metacognitive insight and control themselves can have spontaneous elements. This suggests spontaneity and control are not opposites, but a more complex account is needed. Possibly, certain dreams and instances of waking mind wandering can be both spontaneous and agentive.

The analogy with mind wandering might help move forward the debate on the ontology of dreaming. In this debate, a common assumption is that dreams can be categorized as either hallucinatory or imaginative. Yet the application of these terms to dreams quickly runs into counterexamples and it is unclear they are mutually exclusive. One option is pluralism (Rosen 2018b), in which some aspects of dreaming are hallucinatory, others imaginative, and yet again others illusory. Another is that dreams are sui generis, combining aspects associated with wake states such as hallucinating, imagining, or perceiving in a novel manner without mimicking them completely. Windt (2015a) proposes that mind wandering, which describes a range of mental states loosely characterized by their spontaneous and dynamic character, might be particularly suitable for the characterization of dreaming precisely because that term leaves open more specific questions on the phenomenology of dreaming, allowing for variation in control, determinacy, and so on. This might be a good starting point for describing what is unique about dreaming while also acknowledging continuities across sleep-wake states and capitalizing on the strengths of the hallucination, illusion, imagination, and cognitive views.

The second strand of the imagination view argues that dream beliefs are not real beliefs, but propositional imaginings. This may or may not be combined with the claim that dream imagery is imaginative rather than perceptual (Sosa 2007; Ichikawa 2009).

Denying that dream beliefs have the status of real beliefs only makes sense before the background of a specific account of what beliefs are and how they are distinguished from other mental states such as delusions or propositional imaginings. For instance, Ichikawa (2009) argues that if we follow interpretationist or dispositionalist accounts of belief, dream beliefs fall short of real beliefs. He claims dream beliefs lack connection with perceptual experience and fail to motivate actions; consequently, they do not have the same functional role as real beliefs. Moreover, we cannot ascribe dream beliefs to a person by observing them lying asleep in bed. Dream beliefs are often inconsistent with longstanding waking beliefs and acquired and discarded without any process of belief revision (Ichikawa 2009).

This analysis of dream beliefs has consequences for skepticism. If dream beliefs are propositional imaginings, then we do not falsely believe while dreaming that we are now awake, but only imagine that we do (Sosa 2007). It is not clear though that this protects us from deception. If dream beliefs fall short of real beliefs, this might even make the specter of dream deception more worrisome: in mistaking dream beliefs for the real thing, we would now be deceived about the status of our own mental states (Ichikawa 2008).

It is also not clear whether the same type of argument extends to mental states other than beliefs. As Lewis points out, a person might

in fact believe or realize in the course of a dream that he was dreaming, and even if we said that, in such case, he only dreamt that he was dreaming, this still leaves it possible for someone who is asleep to entertain at the time the thought that he is asleep. (Lewis 1969: 133)

Mental states other than believing such as entertaining, thinking, or minimally appraisive instances of taking for granted might be sufficient for deception (Reed 1979).

The debate about dream beliefs is paralleled by a debate about whether delusions are beliefs or imaginings (see Currie 2000; Currie & Ravenscroft 2002; McGinn 2004; Bayne & Pacherie 2005; Bortolotti 2009; Gendler 2013). Both debates might plausibly inform each other, especially as dreams are sometimes proposed to be delusional (Hobson 1999).

3. Dreaming and theories of consciousness

Dreams are a global state of consciousness in which experience arises under altered behavioral and neurophysiological conditions as compared to standard wakefulness; unlike other altered states of consciousness (such as drug-induced or deep meditative states) and pathological wake states (such as psychosis or neurological syndromes), dreams occur spontaneously and regularly in healthy subjects. For both reasons, many regard dreams as a test case for theories of consciousness or even an ideal model system for consciousness research (Churchland 1988; Revonsuo 2006).

Existing proposals differ on the phenomenology of dreaming: referring to dream bizarreness, Churchland describes dream experience as robustly different from waking, whereas Revonsuo argues dreaming is similar to waking and the purest form of experience:

the dreaming brain brings out the phenomenal level of organization in a clear and distinct form. Dreaming is phenomenality pure and simple, untouched by external physical stimulation or behavioural activity. (Revonsuo 2006: 75)

Revonsuo argues dreaming reveals the basic, state-independent structure of consciousness to be immersive: “dreaming depicts consciousness first and foremost as a subjective world- for-me ” (Revonsuo 2006: 75). This leads him to introduce the “world-simulation metaphor of consciousness”, according to which consciousness itself is essentially simulational and dreamlike. This is taken to support internalism about conscious experience.

This latter claim is also contentious. Noë (2004: 213) argues that phenomenological differences between dreaming and waking (such as greater instability of visual dream imagery) result from the lack of dynamic interaction with the environment in dreams. He proposes this shows that neural states are sufficient for dreaming but denies they are also sufficient for perceptual experience.

A possible problem for both views is their reliance on background assumptions about the phenomenology of dreaming and its disconnection from environmental stimuli and bodily sensations. Windt (2015a, 2018) argues both internalism and externalism mistakenly assume dreams to be isolated from external sensory input and own-body perception; she believes both the phenomenology of dreaming and its correlation with external stimuli are complex and variable. She argues the analysis of dreaming does not clearly support either side in the debate on internalism vs externalism (but see Rosen 2018a). Generally, in the absence of a well worked out theory of dreaming and its sleep-stage and neural correlates, proposals for using dreaming as a model system or test case run the risk of relying on an oversimplified description of the target phenomenon (Windt & Noreika 2011).

Recent accounts appealing to generative models and predictive processing (Clark 2013b; Hohwy 2013) suggest a new, unified account of perception, imagination, and dreaming. In these accounts, different mental states, including perception and action, embody different strategies of hypothesis testing and prediction error minimization. Perception is the attempt to model the hidden external causes of sensory stimuli; action involves keeping the internal model stable while changing the sensory input. Clark argues that on such a model,

systems that know how to perceive an object as a cat are thus systems that, ipso facto , are able to use a top-down cascade to bring about the kinds of activity pattern that would be characteristic of the presence of a cat. […] Perceivers like us, if this is correct, are inevitably potential dreamers and imaginers too. Moreover, they are beings who, in dreaming and imagining, are deploying many of the very same strategies and resources used in ordinary perception. (Clark 2013a: 764)

Predictive processing accounts have also been used to explain specific features of dreaming. Bizarreness has been associated with the comparative lack of external stimulus processing, implying dream imagery is relatively unconstrained by prediction errors (cf. Hobson & Friston 2012; Fletcher & Frith 2008; Bucci & Grasso 2017). Windt (2018) suggests a predictive processing account of dream imagery generation that links bodily self-experience to own-body perception and subtle motor behaviors such as twitching in REM sleep (Blumberg 2010; Blumberg & Plumeau 2016). She argues that movement sensations in dreams, in relation to REM-sleep related muscle twitching, involve a form of bodily self-sampling in which coordinated muscular activity contributes to the generation and maintenance of a body model. This is important because in predictive processing accounts neither the bodily nor the external causes of sensory inputs are known; at the same time, having an accurate body model is a prerequisite for action, requiring the system to disambiguate between self- and other generated changes to sensory inputs. Especially in early development, sleep might provide the ideal conditions for exploring one’s own body via subtle but coordinated muscular activity while processing of visual and auditory stimuli is reduced.

Dreams have also been suggested as a test case for whether phenomenal consciousness can be divorced from cognitive access (e.g., Block 2007; but see Cohen & Dennett 2011). Sebastián (2014a) argues that dreams provide empirical evidence that conscious experience can occur independently of cognitive access. This is because during (non-lucid) REM-sleep dreams, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as the most plausible mechanism underlying cognitive access is selectively deactivated (see also Pantani et al. 2018). This would challenge theories linking conscious experience to access, such as higher-order-thought theory (Sebastián 2014b). However, both the hypoactivation of the dlPCF in REM sleep and its association with cognitive access have been debated. Fazekas and Nemeth (2018) suggest that certain kinds of cognitive access may be independent of dlPFC activation, necessitating a more complex account.

Dreaming has been suggested as a model system not just of waking consciousness in general, but also of psychotic wake states in particular. The analogy between dreaming and madness has a long philosophical history (Plato, Phaedrus ; Kant 1766; Schopenhauer 1847) and finds particularly stark expression in Hobson’s claim that “dreaming is not a model of a psychosis. It is a psychosis. It’s just a healthy one” (Hobson 1999: 44). Gottesmann (2006) proposes dreaming as a neurophysiological model of schizophrenia. There is a rich discussion on the theoretical and methodological implications of dream research for psychiatry (see Scarone et al. 2007; d’Agostino et al. 2013; see Windt & Noreika 2011 as well as the other papers in this special issue) and a number of studies have investigated differences in dream reports from schizophrenic and healthy subjects (Limosani et al. 2011a,b).

Rather than likening dreaming to waking in general or specific wake states such as psychosis, there have also been attempts to compare specific dream phenomena to wake-state delusions. Gerrans (2012, 2013, 2014) focuses on character misidentification in dreams and delusions of hyperfamiliarity (such as the Frégoli delusion, in which strangers are mistakenly identified as family members, and déjà vu ) to argue that anomalous experience and faulty reality testing both play a role in delusion formation. Rosen (2015) analyzes instances of thought insertion and of auditory hallucinations, which are key symptoms of schizophrenia, to raise broader questions about the altered sense of agency in dreams as compared to waking.

Philosophers have focused almost exclusively on dreaming, largely leaving to the side questions about dreamless sleep including whether it is uniformly unconscious. In recent years there has been a surge of interest in the possibility of dreamless sleep experience and foundational issues about the definition of sleep and waking. This has been paralleled by growing interest in dreaming in NREM sleep.

Conceptually, interest in dreamless sleep experience has been facilitated by the precise definition of dreaming offered by simulation views (Revonsuo et al. 2015). If dreams are immersive sleep experiences characterized by their here -and- now structure, it makes sense to ask whether this is true for all or just a subset of sleep-related experiences and whether non-immersive sleep experiences exist. By contrast, if dreaming is broadly identified with any conscious mentation in sleep (Pagel et al. 2001), there is no conceptual space for dreamless sleep experience.

Following Thompson's (2014, 2015) discussion of dreamless sleep in Indian and Buddhist philosophy, Windt and colleagues (2016; see also Windt 2015b) introduce a framework for different kinds of dreamless sleep experience ranging from thinking and isolated imagery, perception, or bodily sensations, where these lack integration into a scene, to minimal kinds of experience lacking imagery or specific thought contents. A possible example of minimal phenomenal experience in sleep are white dreams, where people report having had experiences during sleep but cannot remember any details. Taken at face value, some white dream reports might describe experiences that lack reportable content (Windt 2015b); others might describe forgotten dreams or dreams with degraded content (Fazekas et al. 2018). Another example are reports of witnessing dreamless sleep, as described in certain meditation practices. This state is said to involve non-conceptual awareness of sleep, again in the absence of imagery or specific thought contents, and loss of sense of self (Thompson 2014, 2015). Some schools in Buddhist philosophy explain claims of deep and dreamless sleep by saying we never fully lose consciousness in sleep (Prasad 2000, 66; and Thompson 2014, 2015).

Empirically, interest in dreamless sleep experience is paralleled by increasing interest in experiences in NREM sleep (Fazekas et al. 2018). Most researchers now accept that dreaming is not confined to REM sleep, but also occurs at sleep onset and in NREM sleep. The deeper stages of NREM sleep are particularly interesting as they involve roughly similar proportions of dreaming, unconscious sleep, and white dreams (Noreika et al. 2009: Siclari et al. 2013, 2017). In the search for the neural correlates of dreaming vs unconscious dreamless sleep, this makes comparisons within the same sleep stage possible and avoids confounds involved in comparing presumably dreamful REM sleep with presumably dreamless NREM sleep. Findings suggest that activity in the same parietal hot zone underlies dreaming in both NREM and REM sleep (Siclari et al. 2017).

Where sleep and dream research have traditionally tried to identify the sleep stage correlates of dreaming, newer research suggests local changes occurring independently of sleep stages might in fact be more relevant. Traditionally regarded as global, whole-brain phenomena, there is now increasing evidence that sleep itself is locally driven, and local changes in sleep depth might be associated with changes in sleep-related experience (Siclari & Tononi 2017; Andrillon et al. 2019). While sleep and dream research are often considered as separate fields, changes in how sleep in general and sleep stages in particular are defined appear closely associated with changes in the theoretical conception of dreaming and its empirical investigation.

Historically, discoveries about dreaming have precipitated changing conceptions of sleep (for an excellent history of the study of sleep and dreaming, see Kroker 2007). Following Aristotle ( On Sleeping and Waking ), sleep was traditionally defined in negative terms as the absence of wakefulness and perception. This is still reflected in Malcolm’s assumption that “to a person who is sound asleep, ‘dead to the world’, things cannot even seem” (Malcolm 1956: 26). With the discovery of REM sleep, sleep came to be regarded as a heterogeneous phenomenon characterized by the cyclic alteration of different sleep stages. REM sleep was now considered as “neither sleeping nor waking. It was obviously a third state of the brain, as different from sleep as sleep is from wakefulness” (Jouvet 1999: 5). The folk-psychological dichotomy between sleep and wakefulness now seemed oversimplified and empirically implausible. At the same time dreaming, which had previously been considered as an intermediate state of half-sleeping and half-waking, came to be regarded as a genuine sleep phenomenon, but narrowed to REM sleep. Today, the framework for describing dreams and other sleep-related experiences is more precise, but dreaming has also been cast adrift from REM sleep.

A closely associated issue is how to define waking. Crowther’s (2018) capacitation thesis casts waking consciousness as a state in which the individual is fully switched on to their environment, but also to their own epistemic (cf. O’Shaugnessy 2002) and agentive potential; the waking individual is empowered to act and think in certain ways, though this potential need not be actualized. By contrast, dreaming is an “imagining-of consciousness” (O’Shaughnessy 2002: 430) and consciousness is conceptually tied to wakefulness. Because in lucid dreams, the epistemic and agentive profile of waking is at least partly realized, they might, according to Crowther, be regarded as closer to waking than nonlucid dreams.

This account of waking and sleep may also have consequences for the imagination model of dreaming and dream skepticism (Soteriou 2017). As in the imagination model, dreaming would be passive and action, including cognitive agency, would be tied to waking. If dreaming nonetheless involved passive episodes of imagining oneself to be active, one would be unable to tell that one were dreaming and imagining, as this insight would require the exercise of real agency. The sceptical consequence would be that when dreaming, one would lose agency as well as the capacity to gain insight into one’s current state. Yet our ability to know we are waking when waking would be unscathed; according to Soteriou, waking would thus have an epistemic function connected to the capacity to exercise agency over our mental lives.

Finally, definitions of consciousness themselves are bound up with conceptions of sleep and dreaming. As dreaming went from a state whose experiential status was doubted to being widely recognized as a second global state of consciousness, consciousness sometimes came to be defined contrastively as that which disappears in deep, dreamless sleep and reappears in waking and dreaming (Searle 2000; Tononi 2008). In light of dreamless sleep experience, such definitions are problematic (Thompson 2014, 2015; Windt 2015b; Windt et al. 2016). Dreamless sleep experience has been proposed to be particularly relevant for understanding minimal phenomenal experience, or the conditions under which the simplest kind of conscious experience arises (Windt 2015b). The investigation of dreamless sleep might thus shed light on the transition from unconscious sleep to sleep-related experience.

We almost always have a self in dreams, though this self can sometimes be a slightly different (e.g. older or younger) version of our waking self or even a different person entirely. Dreams therefore raise interesting questions about the identity between the dream and waking self. Locke (1689) invites us to imagine two men alternating in turns between sleep and wakefulness and sharing one continuously thinking soul (Locke 1689: II.I.12). He argues that if one man retained no memory of the soul’s thoughts and perceptions while it was linked to the other man’s body, they would be distinct persons. His position is that personal identity depends on psychological continuity, including recall: in the absence of recall, as illustrated by the toy example of two people sharing one soul, continuous conscious thinking does not suffice for identity. Locke also rejects the possibility of unrecalled dreams and the idea that we dream throughout sleep, remembering only a small proportion of our dreams (Locke 1689: II.I.19).

Valberg distinguishes between the subject of the dream (i.e., the dream self) and the sleeping person who is the dreamer of the dream and recalls it upon awakening (Valberg 2007). He argues that awakening from a dream involves crossing a chasm between discrete worlds with discrete spaces and times; it does not make sense to say that “the ‘I’ at these times [is] a single individual who crosses from one world to the other” (Valberg 2007: 69). According to Valberg, this is relevant to dream skepticism because there is no simple way to make sense of the claims that it is I who emerge from a dream or that I was the victim of dream deception.

Vicarious dreams, or dreams in which the protagonist of the dream seems to be a different person from the dreamer, are particularly puzzling with respect to identity. They may even raise the question of whether the dream self has an independent existence (Rosen & Sutton 2013: 1047). Such dreams are superficially similar to cases in which we imagine being another person, but according to Rosen and Sutton require a different explanation: in the case of dreaming, the imagined person’s thoughts are not framed as diverging from one’s own and one does not retain one’s own perspective in addition to the imagined one; in nonlucid dreams, only the perspective of the dream’s protagonist is retained.

The dream self is also at the center of simulation views of dreaming, which define dreaming via its immersive, here and now character as the experience of a self in a world. This leads to further questions about the phenomenology of self-experience in dreams and how it is different from waking self-experience. Different versions of the simulation view focus on different aspects of self- and world experience in dreams, ranging from social simulation (Revonsuo et al. 2015) to the typical features of selfhood in dreams (Revonsuo 2005, 2006, Metzinger 2003, 2009) to the minimal conditions for experiencing oneself as a self in dreams and what this tells us about minimal phenomenal selfhood in general (Windt 2015a, 2018). Yet these different versions of the simulation view are largely complementary and together have forged unity in a field that was previously hampered by lack of agreement about the definition of dreaming. They also integrate the philosophy of dreaming and scientific dream research.

As so often in debates about dreaming, there is disagreement about basic phenomenological questions. Revonsuo (2005) describes self-experience including bodily experience in dreams as identical to waking, whereas Metzinger (2003, 2009; see also Windt & Metzinger 2007) argues that important layers of waking self-experience (such as autobiographical memory, agency, a stable first-person perspective, metacognitive insight, and self-knowledge) are missing in nonlucid dreams. He argues this is due to the cognitive and mnemonic deficit that characterizes nonlucid dreams (cf. Hobson et al. 2000). Windt (2015a) analyzes the range of cognitive and bodily self-experience in dreams, both of which she describes as variable. She argues that in a majority of cases, dreams are weakly phenomenally embodied states in which bodily experience is largely related to movement sensations but a detailed and integrated body representation is lacking; instead, bodily experience in dreams is largely indeterminate (for an attempt to test this empirically, see Koppehele-Gossel et al. 2016). She proposes this is because dreams are also weakly functionally embodied states, in which the specific pattern of bodily experience reflects altered processing of bodily sensations (as in the illusion view). She also analyzes instances of bodiless dreams, in which dreamers say they experienced themselves as disembodied entities, to argue that self-experience can be reduced to pure spatiotemporal-self-location (Windt 2010); she proposes these cases can help identify the conditions for the emergence of minimal phenomenal selfhood (Blanke & Metzinger 2009; see also Metzinger 2013b).

How the phenomenology of dreaming compares to waking and what to say about how the dream self relates to the waking self bears on questions about the moral status of dreams. For Augustine ( Confessions ) dreams were a cause of moral concern because of their indistinguishability from waking life. What particularly worried him about dreams of sexual acts was their vividness, as well as the feeling of pleasure and seeming acquiescence or consent on the part of the dreamer. He concluded, however, that the transition from sleep to wakefulness involves a radical chasm, enabling the dreamer to awaken with a clear conscience and absolving them from taking responsibility for their dream actions.

What exactly Augustine thought the chasm between dreaming and waking consists in allows for different interpretations (Matthews 1981). Firstly, if the dream and waking self are not identical, then waking Augustine is not morally responsible for dream-Augustine’s actions. Secondly, actions performed in dreams might be morally irrelevant because they did not really happen. And thirdly, assuming that moral responsibility requires the ability to act otherwise, dreams provide no grounds for moral concern because we cannot refrain from having certain types of dreams.

The issue of dream immorality may also present a choice point between different accounts of moral evaluation. Where internalists assume the moral status of a person’s actions is entirely determined by internal factors such as intentions and motives, externalists look beyond these to the effects of actions. Driver (2007) argues that the absurdity of dream immorality itself should count against purely internalist accounts; yet she also acknowledges this absurdity is not a necessary feature of dreams.

Central to the question of dream immorality is the status of dreams as actions rather than mere behaviors. Mullane (1965) argues that while we don’t have full control over our dreams, they are not completely involuntary either; as is the case for blushing, considerable effort is required to attain control over our dreams and in some cases they can even be considered as actions. That lucid dream control is, to some extent, a learnable skill (Stumbrys et al. 2014) lends some support to this claim.

6. The meaning of dreams and the functions of dreaming

Philosophical discussions of dreaming tend to focus on (a) dream deception and (b) questions about the ontology of dreaming, its moral status, etc., that tend to intersect with dream skepticism. By contrast, the main source of interest in dreams outside of philosophy traditionally has been dream interpretation and whether dreams are a source of knowledge and insight. Historically, the epistemic status of dreams and the use of prophetic and diagnostic dreams was not just a theoretical, but a practical problem (Barbera 2008). Different types of dreams were distinguished by their putative epistemic value. Artemidorus, for instance, used the term enhypnion to refer to dreams that merely reflect the sleeper’s current bodily or psychological state and hence do not merit further interpretation, whereas he reserved the term oneiron for meaningful and symbolic dreams of divine origin.

The practice of dream interpretation was famously attacked by Aristotle in On Prophecy in Sleep . He denied that dreams are of divine origin, but allowed that occasionally, small affections of the sensory organs as might stem from distant events that cannot be perceived in waking are perceptible in the quiet of sleep. He also believed such dreams were mostly likely to occur in dullards whose minds resemble an empty desert – an assessment that was not apt to encourage interest in dreams (Kroker 2007: 37). A similarly negative view was held by early modern philosophers who believed dreams were often the source of superstitious beliefs (Hobbes 1651; Kant 1766; Schopenhauer 1847).

In Freudian dream theory, dream interpretation once more assumed a prominent role as the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious. This was associated with claims about the psychic sources of dreaming. Freud (1899) also rejected the influence of external or bodily sources, as championed by contemporary proponents of somatic-stimulus theory.

In the neuroscience of dreaming, Hobson famously argued that dreams are the product of the random, brain-stem driven activation of the brain during sleep (Hobson 1988) and at best enable personal insights in the same way as a Rorschach test (Hobson et al. 2000). Dennett (1991) illustrates the lack of design underlying the production of dream narratives through the “party game of psychoanalysis”, which involves an aimless game of question-and-answer. In the game, players follow simple rules to jointly produce narratives that can seem symbolic and meaningful, even though no intelligent and deliberate process of narration was involved.

Even if we grant that dreams are not messages from a hidden entity in need of decoding, this does not imply that dream interpretation cannot be a personally meaningful source of insight and creativity (Hobson & Wohl 2005). Whether and under which conditions, and following which methods, dream interpretation can lead to personally significant insights is an empirical question that is only beginning to be investigated systematically (see Edwards et al. 2013).

Finally, throughout history, views on the epistemic status of dreams and the type of knowledge to be gained from dream interpretation (e.g., knowledge about the future, diagnosis of physical illness, or insights about one’s current concerns) often changed in tandem with views on the origin and sources of dreaming, which gradually moved from divine origins and external sources, via the body, to the unconscious, and finally to the brain.

Different theories on the functions of dreaming have been proposed and the debate is ongoing. An important distinction is between the functions of sleep stages and the functions of dreaming. Well-documented functions of REM sleep include thermoregulation and the development of cortical structures in birds and mammals, as well as neurotransmitter repletion, the reconstruction and maintenance of little-used brain circuits, the structural development of the brain in early developmental phases, as well as the preparation of a repertoire of reflexive or instinctive behaviors (Hobson 2009). Yet none of these functions are obviously linked to dreaming. An exception is protoconsciousness theory, in which REM sleep plays an important role in foetal development by providing a virtual world model even before the emergence of full-blown consciousness (Hobson 2009: 808) .

Numerous studies have investigated the contribution of sleep to memory consolidation, with different sleep stages promoting different types of memories (Diekelmann et al. 2009; Walker 2009). However, only a few studies have investigated the relationship between dream content and memory consolidation in sleep (for a review, see Nielsen & Stenstrom 2005). Dreams rarely involve episodic replay of waking memories (Fosse et al. 2003). The incorporation of memory sources seems to follow a specific temporal pattern in which recent memories are integrated with older but semantically related memories (Blagrove et al. 2011). Nielsen (2017) presents a model of how external and bodily stimuli on one hand and short- and long-term memories on the other hand form seemingly novel, complex, and dreamlike images at sleep onset; he proposes these microdreams shed light on the formation and sources of more complex dreams. There is also some evidence that dream imagery might be associated with memory consolidation and task performance after sleep, though this is preliminary (Wamsley & Stickgold 2009, 2010; Wamsley et al. 2010).

Prominent theories on the function of dreaming focus on bad dreams and nightmares. It has long been thought that dreaming contributes to emotional processing and that this is particularly obvious in the dreams of nightmare sufferers or in dreams following traumatic experiences (e.g., Hartmann 1998; Nielsen & Lara-Carrasco 2007; Levin & Nielsen 2009; Cartwright 2010; Perogamvros et al. 2013). Based on the high prevalence of negative emotions and threatening dream content, threat simulation theory suggests that the evolutionary function of dreaming lies in the simulation of ancestral threats and the rehearsal of threatening events and avoidance skills in dreams has an adaptive value by enhancing the individual’s chances of survival (see Revonsuo 2000; Valli 2008). A more recent proposal is social simulation theory, in which social imagery in dreams supports social cognition, bonds, and social skills. (Revonsuo et al. 2015).

An evolutionary perspective can also be fruitfully applied to specific aspects of dream phenomenology. According to the vigilance hypothesis , natural selection disfavored the occurrence of those types of sensations during sleep that would compromise vigilance (Symons 1993). Dream sounds, but also smells or pains might distract attention from the potentially dangerous surroundings of the sleeping subject, and the vigilance hypothesis predicts that they only rarely occur in dreams without causing awakening. By contrast, because most mammals sleep with their eyes closed and in an immobile position, vivid visual and movement hallucinations during sleep would not comprise vigilance and thus can occur in dreams without endangering the sleeping subject. Focusing on the stuff dreams are not made of might then be at least as important for understanding the function of dreaming as developing a positive account.

Finally, even if dreaming in general and specific types of dream content in particular were found to be strongly associated with specific cognitive functions, it would still be possible that dreams are mere epiphenomena of brain activity during sleep (Flanagan 1995, 2000). It is also possible that the function of dreams is not knowable (Springett 2019).

A particular problem for any theory on the function of dreaming is to explain why a majority of dreams are forgotten and how dreams can fulfill their putative function independently of recall. Crick and Mitchinson (1983) famously proposed that REM sleep “erases” or deletes surplus information and unnecessary memories, which would suggest that enhanced dream recall is counterproductive. Another problem is that dreaming can be lost selectively and independently of other cognitive deficits (Solms 1997, 2000).

Some of the problems that arise for theories on the functions of dreaming can be avoided if we do not assume that dreaming has a specific function, separate from the function(s) of conscious wakeful states. This depends on the broader taxonomy of dreaming in relation to wakeful states. For example, if dreaming is continuous with waking mind wandering, imagination, and/or own-body perception, we should not expect it to have a unique function, but rather to express a similar function as these wakeful states, perhaps to varying degrees. Nor should we expect dreams to have a single function; the functions of dreaming might be as varied and complex as those of consciousness, and given the complexity of the target phenomenon, the failure to pin down a single function should not be surprising (Windt 2015a).

Questions about dreaming in different areas of philosophy such as epistemology, ontology, philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and ethics are closely intertwined. Scientific evidence from sleep and dream research can meaningfully inform the philosophical discussion and has often done so in the past. The discussion of dreaming has also often functioned as a lens on broader questions about knowledge, morality, consciousness, and self. Long a marginalized area, the philosophy of dreaming and of sleep is central to important philosophical questions and increasingly plays an important role in interdisciplinary consciousness research, for example in the search for the neural correlates of conscious states, in conscious state taxonomies, and in research on the minimal conditions for phenomenal selfhood and conscious experience.

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• Windt, J.M., 2010, “The Immersive Spatiotemporal Hallucination Model of Dreaming”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences , 9: 295–316.
• –––, 2011, “Altered Consciousness in Philosophy”, in Altering Consciousness. Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 1: History, Culture, and the Humanities , E. Cardeña and M. Winkelman (eds.), Santa Barbera, Denver & Oxford: Praeger, pp. 229–254.
• –––, 2013, “Reporting Dream Experience: Why (Not) to Be Skeptical about Dream Reports”, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , 7, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00708 [ available online ]
• –––, 2015a, Dreaming: A Conceptual Framework for Philosophy of Mind and Empirical Research. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• –––, 2015b, “Just in time – dreamless sleep experience as pure subjective temporality”, in T. Metzinger & J.M. Windt (eds.), Open MIND , Frankfurt am Main: MIND Group.
• –––, 2018, “Predictive brains, dreaming selves, sleeping bodies: how the analysis of dream movement can inform a theory of self-and world-simulation in dreams”, Synthese , 195(6): 2577–2625.
• Windt, J.M. and T. Metzinger, 2007, “The Philosophy of Dreaming and Self-Consciousness: What Happens to the Experiential Subject during the Dream State?”, in Barrett and McNamara 2007c: 193–248.
• Windt, J.M. and V. Noreika, 2011, “How to Integrate Dreaming into a General Theory of Consciousness—A Critical Review of Existing Positions and Suggestions for Future Research”, Consciousness and Cognition , 20(4): 1091–1107.
• Windt, J.M., and U. Voss, 2018, “Spontaneous thought, insight, and control in lucid dreams”, in The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought: Mind-Wandering, Creativity, and Dreaming , Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 385–410.
• Windt, J.M., T. Nielsen, and E. Thompson, 2016, “Does consciousness disappear in dreamless sleep?”, Trends in cognitive sciences , 20(12): 871–882.
• Wittgenstein, L., 1953, Philosophical Investigations , G.E.M. Anscombe (ed.), Oxford: Blackwell.
• –––, 1967, Zettel , G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright (eds.), Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Wundt, W.M., 1896, Grundriss der Psychologie , Leipzig: Engelman; page reference is to the excerpt translated by C.H. Judd, reprinted in R.L. Woods and H.B. Greenhouse (eds.), The New World of Dreams , New York: Macmilllan (1974), pp. 179–180.
• Zeidman, P., and E. Maguire, 2016, “Anterior hippocampus: the anatomy of perception, imagination and episodic memory”, Nature Reviews Neuroscience , 17(3): 173.

How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

• Philosophy of Dreaming , entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Dreams , PhilPapers collection.
• Dreams and Skepticism , PhilPapers collection.

belief | Berkeley, George | delusion | Descartes, René: epistemology | imagination | Locke, John | perception: the problem of | personal identity | personal identity: and ethics | Plato: on knowledge in the Theaetetus | sense data | skepticism | skepticism: and content externalism

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Regina Fabry and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and constructive criticism on an earlier version of this manuscript. And as always, I am greatly indebted to Stefan Pitz for his support.

Copyright © 2019 by Jennifer M. Windt < jennifer . windt @ monash . edu >

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Essay on My Dream for Students and Children

500+ words essay on my dream.

Everyone has a dream in his life which they want to achieve when they grow up. Some kids want to become rich so that they can buy anything and some want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. But only you know that for achieving these goals you have to work hard and stay attentive to it. In this essay on my dream, we are going to discuss the basic things that will help in achieving my dream .

Determination

For turning a dream into reality the first thing that you need is determination. This will help you in a lot of ways. Firstly, it will help you decide the course of action for doing anything. Besides, it will also help you to plan the journey ahead. Also, it will help to take things slow and maintain a steady pace towards the dream.

Moreover, no matter how big my dream planning and setting short term goals will always help. This is important because rushing to your dream will not going to help you in any way. Besides, there is some dream that requires time and they follow a process without following it you cannot achieve that dream.

Staying Motivated

Lack of motivation is one of the main causes that force a person to leave his dream behind. So, staying motivated is also part of the goal. And if you can’t stay positive then you won’t be able to achieve the dream. There are many people out there that quit the journey of their dreams mid-way because they lack motivation .

Keep Remembering Goal

For completing the dream you have to keep your dream in the mind. And remind this dream to yourself daily. There come hard times when you feel like quitting at those times just remember the goal it helps you stay positive . And if you feel like you messed up big times then start over with a fresh mind.

Reward Yourself

You don’t need to cover milestones to reward yourself. Set a small target towards your dream and on fulfilling them reward yourself . These rewards can be anything from toffee to your favorite thing. Besides, this is a good way of self-motivation.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Take Some Breaks

Working towards your goal not mean that you work day and night without stopping. Apart from that, due to continuous efforts, people soon start to become de-motivated. So, taking a break will help your body and mind. For doing so, take a break in between your schedule for some time an engage yourself in other activities.

Stay Among Positive People

Your company affects you in a lot of ways than you can imagine. So, be with people who appreciate you and stay away from people who distract and criticize you.

Don’t Hesitate to Make Mistakes

To sum it up, we can say that dreaming of a goal is far easier than achieving it. And for fulfilling your dream you need a lot of things and also have to sacrifice many things.

Above all, for fulfilling your dream plan and work according to it because it will lead you to the right path. And never forget to dream big because they help in overcoming every obstacle in life.

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Turn your dreams into reality with Tony at Unleash the Power Within

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How to make your dreams a reality

Posted by: Team Tony

You want to make your dreams a reality , but you don’t know where to start.

You’re not alone. So many people feel just like you – confronted by that aching question, “How can I make my dreams a reality ?,” but feeling that your life is too complicated for you to make that step. The answer is more straightforward than you might think: The path to success – and to creating the life you desire and deserve – stems from taking massive, determined action.

Many others have longed to figure out how to make dreams a reality , too, and they turned to Tony Robbins’ Unleash the Power Within (UPW).

“[Tony] really makes you conquer your fears and realize everyone can be great.”

Hindered by the past

Brothers Chad and Jordan Higley attended Unleash the Power Within looking to take their lives to the next level. A residential home inspector, Chad originally trained to be a rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard. After dislocating his shoulder and being kicked out of the program, Chad developed an unconscious fear of failure that continued to hold him back from the life he desired – and left him wondering, “How can I make my dreams a reality ?”

His brother Jordan first met Tony Robbins after interviewing him at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and knew he had to attend a live event. Jordan had found success as a meteorologist and lifestyle host, but every time he strove for more, he recalled a professor expressing doubt in his ability to make it very far. His desire to prove that professor wrong helped get him a certain distance in his career, but the doubting voice ingrained itself in his psyche, and all too often he listened to it.

Overcoming limiting beliefs

The beliefs we hold about ourselves are what end up framing our actions. Logically, Chad realized that his shoulder injury was not his fault, but he still sustained the injury and began to view it as his own personal failure. While Chad landed in a successful career despite this fear, he always found himself afraid to take the first step and start his own company. At UPW, Tony Robbins helped Chad realize that his own limiting beliefs were holding him back and by changing how he thought of himself and his capabilities, he came that much closer to making his dreams a reality. Chad plans to finally take the leap into business ownership and open a residential wholesale company.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s time at UPW made him realize his limiting belief – that he “wasn’t good enough to go further” – was the only thing holding him back from the success he desired. His story is probably similar to those of millions of people around the world. Self-doubt is a common problem that prevents you from learning to make your dreams a reality . You’ll think, “I’m going to focus on making my dreams come true,” but then provide yourself with a laundry list of reasons why you can’t do that, ranging from “People will laugh at me” to “I’ll never make my dreams a reality ” and everything in between. That’s exactly how Jordan felt – and he’s now dedicated to using that limiting belief to push him even further in his career. Striving for financial freedom, Jordan was inspired to finally invest more time in his side projects , allowing him to find more balance and fulfillment.

Watch the video below to hear more about Chad and Jordan’s story.

“I want to reach more people and my level of success is measured by their level of success.”

Staci Holweger was committed to working toward the best version of herself. Though she was a top ambassador at a health and wellness company, Staci still hadn’t achieved the level of success and financial freedom she dreamt of, and like Chad Higley, she was limited by her fear of failure.

After attending Unleash the Power Within for the first time, Staci started making progress toward her goals. She got rid of phrases like “It would be easy to make my dreams a reality if…” and began to take total responsibility for her choices every day. She was pleased, but her own success gave her an exciting idea: Her entire team would transform if they attended together.

Together with a team of 40+ employees, Staci discovered new ways to apply Tony’s strategies to her career and her personal life. She recognized her own limitations and wanted to push through them, and realized she could do so by shifting her own focus just a little bit. She realized how much she cared about growth and contribution, and this small move opened her up to massive change and new opportunities . It gave her a better understanding of how to identify people’s needs, which in turn makes her more capable of serving her clients and putting them on the path to reach their goals. Like Staci and her clients, you might not need to make gigantic shifts – even small changes could make your dreams a reality .

Staci plans to take her daughter to the next UPW and has enrolled in Mastery University with her husband. She’s also committed herself to getting more involved in her community and working more with networking groups.

Watch the video below to hear more about Staci’s experience at UPW , then read on for more tips about how to make your dreams a reality .

At UPW, you’ll begin to unload all of the baggage that’s holding you back from achieving your dreams. Then you’ll create a plan to move forward.

 1. Move past your fear of failure

If you want to make your dreams a reality , it’s critical that you move past the fear of failure . This particular fear can stop you from even thinking about taking the first steps toward the life you want. Failure is a lesson; if you fail, you can at least learn from it and not repeat whatever mistake you made. But if you fear it too much to even begin to change your life or look toward something more, you’ll very likely end up treading water in one place.  

 2. Examine your other limiting beliefs

Fear of failure is one of the most common limiting beliefs, but it isn’t the only one. Would you be surprised to learn you can also have a fear of success? Other common beliefs are that we’re not deserving of love and success, that we’ve “always been” a certain way or that we are inherently “not good at” something. All of these beliefs are false, and you must identify and replace them to make your dreams a reality .

 3. Reveal your needs

Every human on earth is driven by one of the Six Human Needs . If your top need is connection or significance, you may feel like you’re following someone else’s dreams in order to fit in or earn love. If you need certainty, you may need to break away from your comfort zone to make your dreams a reality . Discovering your top needs can change your entire perspective on life.

 4. Take action

Dreaming is vital to revealing our authentic selves and inspiring us to work hard for what we want. Techniques like visualization can transform our mindset and help us create empowering beliefs. Yet the real rewards only come when we take decisive action. As Tony says, “The path to success is to take massive determined action.” Set goals and make a plan to get there. Hold yourself accountable every day. And never, ever give up.

As Tony says, “We can change our lives. We can do, have and be exactly what we wish.” Ready to make your dreams come true? Find out how to Unleash the Power Within .

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Essay on A Dream That Came True

Students are often asked to write an essay on A Dream That Came True in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on A Dream That Came True

Introduction.

A dream is a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal. Sometimes, these dreams come true, bringing immense joy and satisfaction.

My dream was to become the school’s football team captain, a position that requires skill, leadership, and dedication.

The Journey

I worked hard, practiced daily, and improved my skills. I also showed leadership qualities both on and off the field.

The Realization

One day, my efforts paid off. I was chosen as the football team captain. It was a moment of immense pride and happiness.

This experience taught me that dreams do come true with determination, hard work, and perseverance.

250 Words Essay on A Dream That Came True

The power of dreams.

Dreams are not just the unconscious thoughts that we experience during sleep, but they are also the aspirations, hopes, and ambitions that we hold dear. They provide us with the motivation to strive for success, and when these dreams come true, they serve as a testament to our dedication, perseverance, and hard work.

I had always dreamt of becoming a published author. The dream was not just about seeing my name on the cover of a book, but about sharing my thoughts and ideas with the world, and possibly making a difference through the power of words.

The journey to achieving this dream was not easy. It required countless hours of writing, editing, and rewriting. It required dealing with rejection and criticism, and it required the strength to keep going even when things seemed hopeless.

The Dream Realized

Finally, after years of hard work and determination, my dream came true. My first book was published, and the feeling of holding it in my hands was indescribable. It was a moment of triumph, a moment that validated all the effort I had put into making this dream a reality.

The realization of a dream is a powerful experience that can inspire us to reach for even greater heights. It is a testament to our ability to overcome challenges and achieve our goals. So, dream big, work hard, and never give up, for dreams do come true.

500 Words Essay on A Dream That Came True

The essence of dreams.

Dreams are the essence of our subconscious mind, a blend of our deepest desires and fears, often transcending the boundaries of reality. They can be a source of inspiration and motivation, driving us to strive for the seemingly impossible. However, dreams are not just figments of our imagination, they can also become our reality. This essay explores the journey of a dream that came true.

The Genesis of the Dream

The genesis of my dream dates back to my childhood, when I was captivated by the marvels of the cosmos. The twinkling stars, the radiant moon, and the vastness of the universe intrigued me. My dream was to become an astrophysicist, to delve into the mysteries of the cosmos, and unravel the secrets of the universe.

The Pursuit of the Dream

The pursuit of this dream was not an easy path. It required dedication, perseverance, and a relentless thirst for knowledge. I embarked on this journey, fueled by my passion for the cosmos and the support of my family and mentors. I pursued my undergraduate studies in Physics, where I delved into the intricacies of the universe, from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies.

Challenges and Triumphs

The journey was fraught with challenges. The complexity of the subject, the rigorous academic demands, and the pressure of expectations often seemed overwhelming. However, these challenges were also the catalysts for growth. They pushed me to broaden my horizons, to question the status quo, and to develop a deeper understanding of the universe.

The Dream Comes True

After years of hard work and dedication, my dream came true. I was accepted into a prestigious research institution to pursue my Ph.D. in Astrophysics. The moment was surreal, a testament to the power of dreams and the resilience of the human spirit.

Looking back, my journey has been a testament to the power of dreams. It has taught me the value of perseverance, the importance of passion, and the transformative power of knowledge. It has shown me that dreams can indeed become a reality, that they are not just figments of our imagination, but visions of what we can achieve.

In conclusion, dreams are more than just nocturnal adventures. They are a reflection of our deepest desires, a roadmap to our potential, and a beacon guiding us towards our goals. The journey of a dream that came true is a testament to the power of dreams, reinforcing the belief that with passion, perseverance, and dedication, dreams can indeed become a reality.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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“How to Turn Your Dreams into Reality”: An Essay by Dani Felt for Women’s History Month

Throughout the year, Atwood Magazine invites members of the music industry to participate in a series of essays reflecting on identity, music, culture, inclusion, and more.

•• •• •• ••, today, recording artist and entrepreneur dani felt shares her essay, “how to turn your dreams into reality,” consisting of eight strategies to manifest your visions into reality, as a part of atwood magazine’s women’s history month series., ten years ago while just starting out, felt was a singer/songwriter searching for information and support. she quickly realized there weren’t enough heart-centered coaches or consultants in the industry who understood what creative professionals really wanted and needed, so she set out to develop it. today, she is an artist coach using her background and 10+ years in the industry to develop personalized brand strategies – evaluating each person’s goals and projected potential., “how to turn your dreams into reality”.

by Dani Felt, Artist Coach

H ello my name is Dani Felt. I have been working in the music industry for the past 15 years. Over the years I have learned some powerful techniques to help increase my chances of success with all my career pursuits including my tv show, my music, my music marketing agency and so much more.

Being an artist or entrepreneur is not easy but if we all as creatives wanted an easy job I do not think we would choose the music industry. I love working in music because it’s challenging, full of learning lessons and ways to uplevel in life. It takes a lot of grit, hard work, a strong mindset and a determination like no other to pursue a music career. With all the ups and downs, challenges, and learning lessons I have faced so far, here are some strategies and tools that have helped me. I recommend artists or people in the entrepreneurial space to implement the following strategies and tools to help increase their chances of success.

Tune Out The Doubters : We all have those people in our lives who  throw doubt at us. But it doesn’t mean we should listen. As entrepreneurs or creatives we will naturally be surrounded by  people who don’t necessarily believe in our vision the same way we do. Now, we could either choose to listen to their doubts and start believing what they tell us we are capable of, or we can learn to tune it out as simply noise. We choose what we give our power to and what we choose to believe is possible for our dreams.

Create a Vision Board : Creating a vision board will help you transform what your ideas are in your mind onto paper or your laptop. This can be used as a tool to magnify your vision of what’s possible in your life and career. Start with locations you want to travel, amount of money you want to bring into your life, the type of career you want, the people you want to meet, any timelines you want, the car or house you want, any emotions you want to feel, any awards you want to win and more. This is one of the most powerful exercises you can do for yourself and it will inspire you to take action once you visually start to see it.

Write A Plan : Thinking about what you want is not enough. You need to turn your ideas into manageable actionable aligned steps. Say you want to release a single. Your first step might be to go write a song. Then record the song. Then get the song mixed and so on. Having a plan will help you get you closer to achieving your goals. So first figure out what you want to achieve or do and then write out the plan. Break it down step by step by step.

Act As If : This is a big one and all the most successful people understand this top secret. If you want to become successful in your career, you need to start acting as if you already are. Meaning, when it comes to your branding, you have professional photos. When it comes to your sound you have professional recordings and work with good mixing engineers. When it comes to your performances, you memorized your music and you have a strong stage presence and music set. When it comes to doing interviews, you prepare ahead of time, research the company and ask for any questions in advance. It also means you start dressing like you’re already that next level version of yourself. You present yourself when you have conversations as that next level of you. You start looking in the mirror and telling yourself you are that next version of you. Soon you will start to embody it and act like it.

Watch Your Words : Your words are so powerful and what you consistently say, your subconscious will run with that story. If you want to be successful, do not talk about not having money all the time, even if you do not have a lot of money at the time. Because if you keep repeating to yourself a story about not having a lot of money all the time, you will have more of that story playing in your subconscious and you will make decisions from that perspective and that will not help you receive more money. Even if you do not have a lot of money, you could say things like “money flows to me easily and effortlessly”, “ I can’t wait for more money to arrive, its on its way”, “money is so much fun to play with”, “ money is my new bff” “ abundance flows in my life all the time in every way”, “ people love to pay me” “ people love to support me”. Try implementing some of these affirmations for 30 days straight. When you start to catch yourself saying something negative about you, replace it with a positive. For example, if you are being down on yourself for making a mistake, you could say, every mistake will help me grow. I love myself anyway, even if I make a mistake.

Tune Into Your Body : Tune into your heart,  intuition and body when taking that next step for your career. Ask yourself, what is the next aligned step for me? Do not rush this process. Really sit down in a quiet space and hear your own thoughts. Tune into your body and make sure it feels good when you make the decision. If your body feels anxious or bad, or in pain or stressed, really think about the decision you are about to make. Our bodies speak to us louder and louder when we do not listen. If you feel expanded and excited about a decision, that is a good sign.

Align With Mentors, Consultants and Coaches : Connect with people who are doing what you want to do. When you connect with people who are doing or have done what you are looking to do you will save so much of your time and energy. If you want to get into production, connect with producers. If you want to learn about artist management, befriend other artist managers. If you want to learn how to write hit songs, connect with songwriters who have been credited on successful songs.

Start Taking Action : Sometimes we get stuck not taking action because we want it to be perfect. We will wait to release a song until we feel it is the perfect time. We will wait to call or email or follow up with that client because we are scared. We will get that important email address of someone that can change our trajectories of our careers yet not reach out to them out of fear or self doubt. The most important thing you can do is take imperfect action. You will make mistakes. It will not be perfect and you will be okay. The first step is to make a move. Make the move and then fix and perfect it later. Go reach out to that producer. Go follow up with that venue. Go do the action, you will regret more things you didn’t do then the mistakes you might make going for your dreams. – Dani Felt, Artist Coach

:: connect with Dani Felt here ::

Connect to dani felt on email , instagram, discover new music on atwood magazine.

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Published: 02/20/2023

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What would any of us say or do if we had the power to think an idea into reality? If there was a way for us to think the words, “bowl of ice cream,” and have it be on the table in front of us? It would be nothing short of amazing! Finally, through the merger of computer language and the very ideas within our own minds, we are trying to bring society that very reality, literally. Our ideas, as we think them, would become reality thanks to the computer software, as if a technological magic genie were granting our every wish. Essentially, my idea sounds like the impossible. It is to construct a language for computers that is interactive with humans and our minds. It will enable anybody, anywhere to use his or her thoughts, implementing him or her into reality. The idea behind this technology and the merger of the language between computers and the human mind is to make our thoughts and desires fast, and efficient. This brings us to Step 2, which is language navigation. While some ideas, such as the aforementioned words and phrases, will be easily stricken from the system’s programmed language, others will be trickier. Weapons and words often spoken next to weapons will be deleted from the program’s coding. Other words and phrases will be more difficult to recognize. For example, if a participant writes down, “Popcorn machine,” as a simple idea to test in the control group, this is perfectly acceptable and harmless. It can be granted by the system. However, “machine” is a word that can be used with malevolence, and thus should be flagged as word that should be double-checked by the system in the event that the participant is attempting to bring something harmful into the world. Step two is primarily about working out bugs, protecting citizens, and safeguarding the citizens. Step three is more lighthearted, as it entails giving participants what they want, provided they have not requested anything that is against the rules, harmful, dangerous, or deadly. It is a testing phase that will show the program that the merging language between the computer and the human mind will actually work. Therefore, in this phase, participants will be asked to not write an idea down, but instead to think of it. Assuming the program works correctly, and is as intuitive as its creator’s boast it is, their idea should come into existence within the few seconds it is communicated to the program. They must wear a pair of electrodes on either of their temples at this point in testing for their idea to be ‘picked up’ by the program, and for the language to be converted into a material substance they can see, hear, or feel. As the program and language become more sophisticated, this may become less necessary. These tests will be conducted in a safe, secure location in the event the safeguards placed on the program fail, and a dangerous idea is brought to reality that can cause harm to the participant or anybody in the facility. As one can see, the product is still in Beta testing. What does this product mean, then, for those in general society? Practically, it could be the end of the average individual doing grocery shopping of any kind. In a more imaginative sense though, as the merger between the language of the program and the human mind becomes more intuitive and sophisticated, requests may become more creative. Of course, this is provided they are within the bounds of the vocabulary allowed by the program. The world’s scientists and inventors, for example, may be able to have the freedom to create that they never dreamed possible. Engineers and architects could design and build entire monuments and buildings in an afternoon if the software and program merge to become sophisticated enough. We are working toward a product that is personal, meaning if one receives the program and works with it, it will be intuitive and personal to that person, much like a smartphone’s autocorrect is today. The possibility then, that an intuitive sophistication such as this could come to pass is not out of the realm of possibilities. In fact, now that there is such a technology that brings thoughts into reality, nothing is off limits anymore. In sum, since their conception, computers have been doing nothing other than helping humans. Now they prepare to defy all that is science fiction and bring our very ideas into reality through though-to-software manipulation. A language to idea merger based on vocabulary coding and the human mind, once thought to have only been seen in children’s fantast novels and movies, may soon be available at your local technological hobby shop. Once it is perfected and available to the public, one this will be for certain, the world will never be the same.

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The (Simple) Secret of Turning Dreams into Reality

What’s the most important factor to living your dreams?

Is it skill, ability, intelligence, or creativity?

None of the above.

The secret to realizing your dreams is simple: consistency. It’s not a magic recipe. It’s not a secret of the top 1%. Anyone can show up every day.

It’s important to clearly identify your goals. It’s critical to create a plan, implement deadlines, monitor progress, and add accountability. However, consistency is the essential ingredient in the recipe.

To change your reality, you must change your thoughts. Learn how your thoughts and visualization can create the reality you want. Manifest and Achieve Whatever You Want

Overcome Emotions

Your emotional states and beliefs play a key role in turning dreams into reality. If you don’t believe that you deserve your dreams, you will sabotage your efforts so that you get what you deserve.

If you focus on your fear of failure, you will be frozen into inaction. If you constantly feel overwhelmed by the mountain you need to climb to realize your dreams, you will give up and climb a hill instead.

The antidote to destructive emotional states and limiting beliefs is to show up and focus on the process.

When you’re anxious and afraid, execute your plan. When you’re uncertain about the market’s response to your product, get to work. When you’re crippled by feelings of inadequacy, follow your plan. Always execute the plan and focus on the next step.

Negative emotional states lurk inside of you, waiting to pounce in your moments of weakness.

When you follow your road map every day, your emotional states lose their power over you. They can’t control you anymore. Your beliefs will be transformed as well.

Your self-image will transform from a wandering traveler swayed by the winds of circumstances to a train headed towards its destination.

Step at a Time to Turn Your Dream into Reality

Turn your dreams into reality one step at a time.

The focus on showing up every day disarms the feelings of overwhelm, inadequacy, and fear.

Your only job is to sit down and work on the plan you created. Your focus is on the next step rather than the mountain ahead. By focusing on the next step, you can apply surgical precision to overcome obstacles that arise.

When you meet a roadblock, you can strategically decide whether the best path forward is around, over, or through the obstacle. Your clarity and decisiveness result from a singular focus on the next action.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-tzu

The more you show up consistently regardless of the circumstances, the easier it becomes to continue the habit.

At some point, it becomes easier to sit down and work every day than to be derailed by endless distractions. Additionally, thinking about your goal every day tunes you into a frequency that broadcasts avenues and opportunities that facilitate your goal.

Maybe it’s an alternative approach you haven’t considered. Maybe it’s a connection to someone who provides the value you need at a specific moment. You open yourself up to seemingly fortuitous opportunities that propel you forward.

Process over Outcome

When you trust the plan, you choose process over outcome. If you obsess over outcome, the failures sting. They lead to feelings of inadequacy and incompetency. They lead to discouragement.

On the other hand, focusing on the process enables you to view setbacks as opportunities to learn and improve. Failures become your best teacher.

When you prioritize execution, the results don’t matter.

If you faithfully execute the plan, the results will follow eventually.

You can focus on excellence in each action instead of being distracted by your peers or the distance remaining to reach your goal.

You make incremental gains each day. The continuous forward progress and small wins create exponential, massive gains over time.

You’ll look back and marvel at how far you’ve travelled from the starting line. Excellence in each task adds up to a masterpiece over time.

In an interview with GQ before starting The Late Show, Stephen Colbert had a great explanation of process: “The end product is jokes, but you could easily say the end product is intention. Having intentionality at all times… The process of process is process.”

The end goal matters when you’re developing the road map, visualizing your dream, monitoring progress, and strategically adjusting your approach. However, when you’re doing the daily work that’s required to reach your goal, process, execution, and consistency rule the day.

Show up today. Show up tomorrow. Show up the day after tomorrow. Focus on the journey. Obsess over the process. That’s the simple secret to turning dreams into reality.

About The Author Jose Ramos writes about habits, skills, and systems for personal growth at Upgrowth Effect. His material focuses on taking action rather than just consuming more information. To start the journey towards your dreams today.

One of the Best Books About Affirmations

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Sunday Brunch: Mirella’s Tavern in West Town turns one woman’s dream into a reality

Mirella’s Tavern in West Town carries a legacy of hard work and family.

Executive Chef Jose Rivera explains the restaurant is named in honor of a woman who worked for him as a dishwasher for a long time. She always wanted to start her own restaurant, Rivera says, but tragically died in a car accident before that could happen.

So Rivera has teamed up with her kids to make Mirella’s dream a reality, opening the restaurant named after her in February.

“The kids approached me and said, ‘Chef, can you help us to open a restaurant?’ So I said, ‘Why not?'” Rivera says. “I knew this lady for a long time. I’ve seen the kids grow up, so they know me very well, like a family.

“So we decided to team up.”

And they make everything from scratch, including the brunch menu.

“We have a very good selection,” Rivera says. “I think we have a little bit of everything.”

Rivera joined Sean Lewis on the WGN Weekend Morning News Sunday Brunch to make Mirella’s avocado toast, which comes with two eggs any style and cheesy potatoes. Watch the attached video to see the fresh spin Rivera puts on Mirella’s avocado toast.

Mirella’s Tavern is located at 2056 West Division Street. Visit mirellastavern.com for hours, a menu and more information.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.

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N.C.A.A. Athletes’ Pay Deal Raises Questions About Future of College Sports

The landmark settlement made many wonder what the reality — and impact — of revenue-sharing plans with college athletes would look like.

By David W. Chen ,  Jacey Fortin and Anna Betts

Brent Jacquette knows a thing or two about college sports. A former collegiate soccer player and coach in Pennsylvania who is now an executive at a consulting firm for athletic recruiting, he’s well aware of issues surrounding pay for college athletes.

But even for an industry veteran like Mr. Jacquette, the news of the N.C.A.A.’s staggering settlement in a class-action antitrust lawsuit on Thursday came as a surprise, with more than a little anxiety. The first words that came to mind, he said, were “trepidation” and “confusion.”

And he was not alone in feeling unsettled. Interviews, statements and social media posts mere hours after the settlement was announced showed that many were uncertain and concerned about what the future of collegiate sports holds.

“These are unprecedented times, and these decisions will have a seismic effect on the permanent landscape of collegiate athletics,” Phil DiStefano, chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder, and Rick George, the school’s athletic director, said in a statement .

If the $2.8 billion settlement is approved by a judge, it would allow for a revenue-sharing plan through which Division I athletes can be paid directly by their schools for playing sports — a first in the nearly 120-year history of the N.C.A.A. Division 1 schools would be allowed to use about $20 million a year to pay their athletes as soon as the 2025 football season.

Mr. Jacquette thought of the word “trepidation” because of the impact that the settlement, shaped by the biggest and wealthiest universities with robust football programs, could have on coaches and athletes at smaller institutions and in low-profile sports.

And “confusion," because families of college athletes might soon be overwhelmed by all the possible ways for a student to get paid. In past years, the only form of compensation that students could get was athletic scholarships. But now, with the possibility of a revenue-sharing plan and pay arrangements involving students’ name, image and likeness , they have a lot more to consider when planning their collegiate sports careers.

“As this makes big news, people see this pot of gold at the end of the tunnel,” Mr. Jacquette said.

Many questioned what the financial burdens stemming from a revenue-sharing plan would look like.

Smaller conferences, such as the Big East — which includes Georgetown, Villanova and the University of Connecticut — have voiced “strong objections ” to the settlement, worried about shouldering an unfair burden of costs involved in revenue sharing. They said schools that have higher-profile sports teams and are part of bigger conferences, which often have TV contracts and much higher revenues, should be responsible for covering more of the costs.

Even coaches at powerful athletic programs, such as the University of Florida, which is part of the Southeastern Conference, had qualms. Tim Walton, the school’s softball coach, wondered in an interview with The Associated Press what this would mean for smaller sports programs on campus, and how the university would handle sharing revenues with athletes.

Another concern from critics of the settlement was whether female athletes would be compensated fairly. The settlement did not address how they would be paid compared to men, but Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational settings.

“Oftentimes, we put all of our eggs in the revenue-generating sports, which is comprised of mostly male sports,” said Jasher Cox, athletic director of Allen University, a historically Black and Division II school in South Carolina.

But many still questioned how the settlement would pan out in practice. Terry Connor, the athletic director at Thomas More University in Kentucky, said in an interview that the reality of revenue sharing felt somewhat distant. Although his school is Division II and would not necessarily be part of a revenue-sharing plan, Mr. Connor said that this still affects college sports as a whole.

The settlement is only the latest in a series of big changes at the N.C.A.A. in recent years, Mr. Connor said, and “how we’ll have to adapt to that is going to be the big question.”

Mr. Jacquette cautioned that it was still “premature” to assess the full impact of the settlement, since the details had not been released. And Sam C. Ehrlich, a professor at Boise State University who has written extensively about college athletes, said that while the settlement was a milestone, it should not be seen as the be-all and end-all of college sports.

Pointing to the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in 2021 that the N.C.A.A. could not bar payments to college athletes, Mr. Ehrlich said the college sports landscape has been ever-changing. That decision paved the way for N.I.L. arrangements, or payments based on an athlete’s name, image and likeness. He also cited Johnson v. N.C.A.A. , a pending case over whether college athletes should be classified as employees, which could have profound labor and tax implications.

“This is a big moment, for sure, but it’s not like we have reached the finish line,” Mr. Ehrlich said. “I wouldn’t even necessarily go as far to say, ‘this is the climax here.’ This is still going to be ongoing for several years.”

Billy Witz contributed reporting.

David W. Chen reports on state legislatures, state level policymaking and the political forces behind them. More about David W. Chen

Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for the National desk of The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics all across the country. More about Jacey Fortin

Anna Betts reports on national events, including politics, education, and natural or man-made disasters, among other things. More about Anna Betts

Inside the World of Sports

Dive deeper into the people, issues and trends shaping professional, collegiate and amateur athletics..

The N.C.A.A.’s New Era: If a judge approves, a $2.8 billion settlement  would let colleges and universities pay athletes directly for the first time. How would it work ?

Bringing Back Reebok: Shaquille O’Neal pushed to be in charge of the company’s return to the hypercompetitive world of basketball sneakers. The Hall of Famer understands the stakes .

The Capital of Women’s Soccer: The success of Barcelona Femení has made the Spanish city, and the broader region of Catalonia, a laboratory for finding out what happens when the women’s game has prominence similar to the men’s .

A Minnesota Rallying Cry:  Fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves have picked up on a phrase  uttered by the team’s star, Anthony Edwards, and are hardly put off by its mild vulgarity.

A Beloved Manager:  A coach’s soccer legacy is often reduced to titles and trophies. In Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp will endure in murals, music and shared memories .