When Dreaming is Believing According to an article entitled “When Dreaming is Believing,” by Carey K. Morewedge, PhD, dreams affect people’s judgment and behavior. It is the belief of the researcher s of this article that dreams can carry more weight than conscious thoughts. Participants in this experiment conducted six different studies, surveying nearly 1,100 people about their dreams. In one study that surveyed general beliefs about dreams, 149 university students were asked to rate different theories about dreams.
Cumulatively, an overwhelming majority of the students endorsed the theory that dreams reveal hidden truths about themselves and the world around them. In another study noted in the article, researchers explored the influence dreams had on people’s waking behavior by surveying 182 commuters at a Boston train station. The subjects were asked to imagine possible catastrophic scenarios correspondent to their future travel plans, such as a plane crash. Once the individual thought about the possible scenario, then dreamed about it, researchers found that the participants were more likely to change their travel plans.
The dream of a plane crashing had more impact on them than a government warning or a conscious thought. Additionally, in an attempt to determine if people perceive all dreams as equally meaningful or whether interpretations were influenced by waking beliefs and desires, another study was conducted. Participants were asked to recall dreams about someone they knew, God, etc. Some had pleasant dreams about people they liked, as well as unpleasant dreams about people they liked; however, specific meaning was applied to the pleasant dreams about people they liked.
In comparison, dreams in which unpleasant things happened to people they did not like were considered more meaningful, as well. Dreams in which individuals dreamed about God speaking to them were counted as important for those that believed in God, and counted as insignificant for those who did not believe in God. Because of this, it was determined that the subjects assigned more meaning to dreams that corresponded with their conscious, pre-existing beliefs and desires. This article relates to what we have studied in Chapter 4 regarding consciousness, sleep and dreams.
Even people of ancient times tried to find meaning in dreams. According to the chapter, on pages 149 to 152 in our text, some saw dreams as prophecy, some as messages from the spirits. One of the first inquiries into the process of dreaming began with Sigmund Freud and his publication of The Interpretation of Dreams. Sigmund Freud believed that people dreamed as a way to fulfill their wishes. Attempts to study and understand dreams are still being made today, many decades later.
The information in this article confirmed the information we learned in chapter four, in that dreams have different meanings for different people. It supported the assertions that dreams can reflect the events that occur in everyday life, as well as in fact aiding in the recollection of older memories. Additionally, it avowed that more research is needed to explore fully how people interpret their dreams, and in what cases dreams may actually reveal hidden information. Personally, I found this article quite intriguing.
I have had many dreams that were very unusual and many that were very insightful. It makes sense to me that dreams can reveal “hidden truths” to someone by recalling faint memories or offering solutions to problems. For instance, I struggled for a few weeks on how to efficiently and effectively resolve an issue that we were having with a manufacturing and reporting process at work. On a random night, I dreamed about the issue and actually concocted the perfect solution. It is my opinion that sometimes dreams help you to view people, issues or things without bias, whereas consciously, you could not.
Also, as studied in the second experiment mentioned in the article, I am more affected by something that I have dreamed about versus something that I have been told. As an example of this, I would be more affected by having a dream about having a fatal car crash due to speeding than I would by someone telling me “Speeding is unsafe and increases your chances of injuring yourself or others. ” Furthermore, I related to the claim that people assign more meaning to dreams that correspond with pre-existing beliefs and desires.
I consider it human nature to dismiss dreams about pleasant things happening to people that we dislike, and consider dreams meaningful when we have dreams about the people we like being in joyous situations. Though it is the right thing to do to wish good for everyone, I know very few people that do not struggle with that. We may have wild, unexplainable and senseless dreams; but oftentimes, our dreams do not lie!? Works Cited “When Dreaming is Believing: Dreams Affect People’s Judgment, Behavior, According to New Study. ” http://www. apa. org/news/press/releases/2009/02/dreaming. Carey K. Morewedge, 17 Feb. 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.
