(no subject)

[daznjonesy.livejournal.com]

Something I've been curious about...

We have dreams where we're all singlets with our own bodies like in our inner world, and also dreams where we're multiple and switch just like real life. What I'm wondering is how do all of you dream? Are you multiple, or singlet, or a mixture? Or do you remember your dreams at all?

One thing I both love and hate about having separate bodies in dreams is that sometimes I can get stuck as a secondary character in someone else's dream. Like Era will dream about driving a car, and I'll be in the backseat. Or Marcus will dream about a party, and I'm one of the guests, but everything interesting is happening to him, and I'm just watching- those are always annoying. ^_^

Comments

[ladydancerhouse.livejournal.com]

Sometimes we dream that we're multiple. That we switch, and everything is just as they are for us anyway. Other times, we're separate. I remember one where Tesalyn and Terali were running from something in a dream, and they both looked as they would in their own bodies. It always seems interesting to watch, when it's like that, and sometimes it keys us in further to ourselves.

[arhuaine.livejournal.com]

same here. Sometimes we dream individually, and it's clear from the identity of the "lead" in the dream, which one of us is dreaming (even if as sometimes happens, they are dreaming about being someone else). And sometimes we're all sharing the dream, and we're switching just like we do when awake. I don't think we've ever had the sort of dream where I am a "bit part actor" though. That must be really annoying.

I was in the middle of a really fun and interesting dream last night, then the dog jumped onto the bed at 4:30am and woke me up. Drat.

[36.livejournal.com]

I think our system generally functions by maintaining singular perspectives. No many how many peopre are thinking in my head at a time it's all presented as "I think", the singular perspective. I only know I'm multiple because that's stupidly confusing from any other metaphor. I know singleton people have conflicting 'I' narratives like the part of you that wants a cigarette and the part that's committed to giving up but my narratives aren't that simple... OK I know they're people since some of them decided to come out as multiple. Anyway, we keep singular perspective so dreams are generally one protagonist although the experience of observing or manipulating or perhaps even being that protagonist is often an explicitly multiple one.

We hardly ever have any grasp on identity at all in our dreams. If it's first person perspective the protagonist is a completely generic person unless one of us thinks details onto them. Our dreams are very much 'effect then cause' like one or more of us is there thinking "that must have happened because of..." and then the dream goes from there. We won't be an age or gender or name or specific identity until someone in the dream seems to react to us that way or one of us decides that it must be the case. But that's not so far different to how we are in waking life. It's not particularly usual to have anything beyond the vaguest feeling about who you are. At the moment there's only about two people in the system who'd have such a strong grasp on things (and to think about it they're the same in dreams).

We also have second person (quite rare) dreams (like a text adventure game) (and we dream AIM and IRC conversations often) and third person dreams where we're following a character of somekind. Last night we dreamed the next chapter of the novel we're reading. We've also had thinking dreams that are generally disturbing because logic doesn't hold in dreams and you can convince yourself contradictory things are true and wake yourself up with the ensuing confused arguement.

I think what I'm saying is that for us the protagonist in dreams is as dreamlike and changable as the rest of the objects and events. I suppose being multiple we find it a little easier to think "oh well this isn't me doing these first person things, I'll just watch". Having a little influence from the 'back of the head' isn't an unusual experience but then neither is "Oh I'm someone else now, what am I doing? Who am I?".

When we visualise 'inner world' events (I don't think we have an inner world, I think we're able to lucid day dream at will) it's a very similar experience to dreaming.

[consortium.livejournal.com]

We all have our own dreams. Usually we only remember our own. Sometimes I dream about the other people in the Consortium, but as I know them in Elstru (our worlds) not as they are when they front. Sometimes we get a little bleed and remember another person's dreams, such as when someone switches in while the body is sleeping, or we fall asleep co-present and fronting -- but that's rare. If we do though, we're sworn to secrecy not to share another person's dream. ;>