Care to read my tea leaves? Okay. Maybe.
Taking my hand to read my palm? Why not?
But read my dreams? No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. And apparently that’s exactly what scientists are attempting to do, according to this item on Mashable.
Hello, boundaries? Privacy? Must we now add an option on Facebook for sharing our siphoned sexy sequences with close friends, acquaintances, or the general public?
Do you want someone other than a shrink poking around in your dreaming life?
Privacy, Privacy, Privacy: Leave My Dreams in Peace!
I adore the detail and intrigue in my dreams. But the possibility of someone else lifting any element for any purpose? Non merci. I’ll keep my frothy, fierce and fecund unconscious-subconscious to myself, unless I choose to explore it openly with others.
Doesn’t this unnerve you, just a little?
According to the reported work by Japanese scientists:
Using an MRI machine, an EEG, learning software and a library of online images, the researchers tried their special algorithm on test subjects during rounds of sleeping…
The system still can’t visualize exactly what you were dreaming about, but can do things like distinguish between a person and a place… the scientists hope to develop this technology further.
Why Do We Dream What We Dream?
As to the creativity and the problem-solving aspects of dreaming? Why we dream what we dream?
There are a host of theories as to why we dream, as summarized on About.com, and why we dream what we dream, including:
- Psychoanalytic (Thank you Dr. Freud; we’re processing trauma, stress, desire, etc.)
- Activation-synthesis (We’re processing emotions and memories)
- Various other theories including “decluttering” for the next day, and more
Whatever theories you ascribe to the content of your dreams, would you offer yourself as a guinea pig if someone wanted to tap into them?
My Brain, My Business
I love the freedom we experience in dream. Like it or not, it’s the one place we cannot hide from the amplitude of who we are and what we care to dabble in. As for interpreting dreams, I find the analysis to be instructive. I feel very fortunate in that I recall dreams with detail, and that those details remain private.
As for encouraging the science of “reading” my dreams? Though I imagine there would be applications (trauma) that might shed light on an individual situation, the prospect gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Come to think of it, I haven’t had my palm read, or my tea leaves, or Tarot cards. No futures projected in any form or fashion that I can recall – unless you count fortune cookies. And that suits me just fine. I’ll take my days moment by moment, and prefer to create my future to the extent that’s possible.
If you like, check out this video clip from UC Berkely scientists using an MRI to transform brain waves into images.
Your thoughts on reading dreams? Or would you prefer to sleep on it?
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The Japanese scientists must be big fans of Total Recall. We know so little about dreams and the brain it is a little scary. ………..on the brightside think of the military and national security implications (sigh). Something for your brain: at sometime a brain named itself “brain.” (See what NCAA basketball does to the brain).