@exodus it‘s a tricky thing to think about. i’ve read in a dream, but i wonder, have i read, or did i dream that i read? if you think about it, reading in a dream is impossible because reading is decoding information you don‘t already know, and that can’t happen in a dream. but if you read in a dream you‘ve either “written” the text yourself as you’ve “read” it, or you‘ve pretended like you’ve read something.
but then all you do in a dream is pretend. like, say you dream you're in a library, and you try to read a book but the letters keep changing. it could be that you couldn't read because the letters kept changing, or it could be you couldn't come up with filler text fast enough, or it could be you couldn't improvise a reaction to the non-existent text fast enough, and this failure to pretend is translated as an inability to read. those might seem like equally likely explainations until you remember that you never were in a library to begin with, you were pretending to be in a library while you were in fact sleeping in bed.
@pasquinelli I argued with my brother about reading in dreams and he specifically brought up this batman episode. I‘ve read in dreams and what happens is I stop reading when my brain hasn’t written the book fast enough and I catch up :o
I think I‘ve looked at shapes or locations and felt like I gleaned some understanding from them in dreams. That’s as close to reading as I‘ve done. I know there are some moments when I’m dreaming that I can focus my attention and look around, and when I try to look at something I know has numbers or letters in it its nonsense. But if I'm immersed in the fiction of my dream sometimes I feel like I read something.
I used to dream that I had woken up and was looking at Twitter on my phone and everyone was just saying the most hilarious nonsensical stuff. And I would realize that I was dreaming but then just keep scrolling because I found it so entertaining. So now i don't look at Twitter but instead just close my eyes and think about random words
I have absolutely looked at fully formed words - of course my brain created those words, but they were arranged correctly and read the things they were supposed to read. It wasn't like a book, more like a sign, or a newpaper headline, or whatever, but until someone (somehow) proves to me otherwise, I read those things in my dreams!
I‘ve heard similar things about clocks in dreams, and about how they apparently don’t keep consistent time. I think I heard this as a method people use to lucid dream, like the lack of consistency with the clocks clues them in to the fact that they‘re dreaming so they can start doing whatever they want in it. Seems cool, but if I’ve ever looked at a clock in a dream I certainly never remember to keep checking the consistency of its time!! It feels like if you're conscious enough of the fact that you might be in a dream to do something like that, the steps of actually checking the clock seems a little superfluous…?
From lucid dreams I can see consistent text on a page, but if I look away and look back it will change. I still do this habitually to trigger lucid dreams even though I don't remember my dreams barely at all anymore because weed is legal now haha
I‘ve had dreams where the entire premise happens through texts I’m sending and receiving (alarming on it‘s own right) and I’m reading through all of it. whenever my brain doesn‘t know how to continue the conversation I’m having, i feel very confused in the dream and i wake up.
i think I tend to dream about that quite often because I get a lot of social anxiety from texting and I'm constantly afraid of being misinterpreted or misinterpreting someone else.
@exodus i used to work for a place called VisaHQ, and they are comically shitty employers BUT they are essentially a middleman for getting visas (you send them your passport, etc and they take it to the consulate), and it may be worth looking into whether they could help you out. When I worked there, the visa agents had good relationships with the consulates and could usually talk to them about bending rules, dealing with special circumstances, etc.
@Funbil I think it‘s just part of the process - I taught myself to lucid dream when I was younger and there was kind of a transitionary/realization period of dream to interaction, where there’s kind of a spark toward taking control over the dream to an extent. I learned the spark another way but I guess clocks are a consistent thing for somebody.
I don't do it anymore because it wasn't restful, and now sometimes in a dream I want to take control (I'm still generally "aware") but am not as good at it. I do still extricate myself from nightmares by forcing myself to wake up though!
@rainbowbattlekid I got my visa actually - I used to work with TDS which is probably a similar place (they‘re called travel document services), and that’s how I got my china visas and things like that. I will say it was a much smoother process and you knew exactly how long it'd take, so in future times I might do something like that again!
Reading conversations such as the above regarding dreaming is fascinating to me; I want to say “I usually don’t dream” but that cannot be true. Rather, I’m lucky to recall an average of about one dream a year. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember, it isn’t as though I was dreaming (well, remembering dreams) as a child and then stopped. I just … never have.
Also, of the approximately one a year I do remember, a high percentage of them have been nasty nightmares.
I kinda envy everyone that has strong dream recall. I just essentially blink and turn off for a few hours.
@rejj I‘ve been fairly similar ever since the onset of adulthood. Only a handful of dreams recalled upon waking up generally each year. I’ve had the same small amount even with changes to activity level, diet, habitat, etc. I'm jealous of folks who get to enjoy even nightmares more often.
During childhood and adolescence, I recalled my dreams super vividly. It's a real bummer.