EP 8: Exploring Dreams, Nightmares, and Folklore
Wondering Monsters Podcast |
Dreams have fascinated humanity for centuries. From ancient folklore to modern science, the mysterious world of sleep reveals strange stories of shared dreams, lucid experiences, and unsettling nightmares. In this episode of the Wondering Monsters Podcast, the hosts dive deep into dream phenomena—exploring how culture, psychology, and even horror movies have shaped the way we think about our nightly visions.
The Mystery of Shared Dreams
The episode kicks off with the idea of shared dreams—two or more people experiencing the same dream space. This concept has appeared in pop culture for decades, from the 1980s film Dreamscape to more modern works like Inception. But the hosts reflect on personal conversations where the idea felt less like science fiction and more like a tantalizing possibility.
Listeners are invited to consider: is the idea of stepping into another person’s dream just storytelling, or could there be a subconscious connection between people while they sleep?
Folklore, Myth, and Nightmares
Dreams have always carried weight in mythology and folklore. Ancient cultures often saw dreams as portals to other worlds or messages from gods and spirits. The podcast explores how night terrors and nightmares were personified in folklore—creatures like the Mare, which sat on a sleeper’s chest, or shadowy figures that blurred the line between waking and dreaming.
These cultural stories provided a way for people to explain sleep paralysis and terrifying nighttime experiences before science had answers. The discussion highlights how these myths continue to influence modern ghost stories and horror tales.
Lucid Dreaming and Control in Sleep
Another major theme in the episode is lucid dreaming, where dreamers become aware they are dreaming and sometimes gain control over their dream environment. The hosts discuss:
- How lucid dreams can be trained through awareness techniques.
- The strange boundary between feeling in control and the dream shifting unexpectedly.
- Personal accounts of realizing they were dreaming and attempting to change outcomes.
Lucid dreaming is presented as both exhilarating and unsettling—sometimes it empowers the dreamer, but other times it opens the door to disturbing experiences.
Science Meets the Subconscious
While folklore explains the terror of nightmares with monsters, science takes a different approach. The hosts touch on the psychology of dreams, including:
- Theories of why we dream (memory processing, emotional release, or pure brain activity).
- The strange logic of dream symbols.
- The role of sleep stages, especially REM, in producing vivid experiences.
Listeners are encouraged to think about how their own brain chemistry and stress levels might influence recurring dreams or sudden nighttime fears.
Nightmares as Storytelling Fuel
Nightmares don’t just haunt the sleeper—they inspire stories. The episode highlights how writers, filmmakers, and artists draw from dream imagery to create horror and fantasy worlds. Famous creators like Mary Shelley and H.P. Lovecraft claimed dreams influenced their work. The podcast connects this idea back to folklore, showing how nightmares bridge the gap between private subconscious fears and cultural storytelling.
Shared Experiences Among the Hosts
One of the strengths of this episode is the candid storytelling between the hosts. They swap personal accounts of unsettling dreams, moments of sleep paralysis, and uncanny coincidences when two people described similar dreams. These moments remind listeners that while science can explain much, there is still a deeply human mystery to the dream world.
Dream discussions spark laughter, chills, and speculation, making this episode especially engaging for fans of both folklore and psychology.
Why Dreams Still Fascinate Us
Dreams are universal. Everyone experiences them, but no two dream worlds are the same. This episode of the Wondering Monsters Podcast captures why we’re still fascinated:
- They connect us to ancient folklore.
- They challenge modern science.
- They blur the line between reality and imagination.
- They inspire stories, art, and even fear.
By weaving together myth, psychology, and personal storytelling, the hosts remind us that dreams will always hold a special place in human culture.
Final Thoughts and Call to Action
This episode of the Wondering Monsters Podcast is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by dreams, nightmares, or the mysteries of the subconscious mind. Whether you’ve experienced sleep paralysis, tried lucid dreaming, or just enjoy spooky folklore, the conversation offers something for everyone.
👉 Listen to the full episode to hear all the dream stories, folklore connections, and scientific musings firsthand.
👉 Share your dream experiences in the comments or on social media—have you ever had a lucid dream, or felt like someone else shared your dream?
Links from the Show
Watch & Listen to the Full Episode
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Licensing Information
- Title: Entry of the Gladiators
- Composer: Julius Fučík
- Library of Congress (Public Domain)
- Podcast theme song version edited/arranged/mixed by Dan Swift
Unless indicated, images appear in their original form.
The following images were generated using AI from MyNinja.ai, NightCafe, or ChatGPT
fighting a dragon, dreams, bloody mary, sitting hag, funnel in ear, fighting robots, fighting robots in the kitchen, stressed person, Uncle Sam, locked out of car, person flying, mechanical bird, cartoon bouncer, car over lava, car on bridge with church, banana pants, rotary phone, sleep walking, book, nonsense book, night street signs, microwave, alarm block, steaming coffee, money, light switch, emerald green spider, lamp rotary switch, red car on field, mountain bike on trail, motorcycle, baby grand piano, concert, banana pineapple, using a flashlight, garden banana pineapple, beach sunrise, nightmare, diner 1950s, something like The Matrix, arcade, nightmare arcade
Transcription
*Transcription was automatically generated and may contain errors. (Upbeat Music)
Baba: So who's charging with this one? Is it you, Dan?
Danny C: I am, I am. This is, so I'm gonna start this with a story. This is kind of cool. Baba, you might not remember this, but it starts with you kind of. And Bill, you may or may not remember this, there's this one night, actually even before that, there was a " movie from the 1980s called ""Dreamscape.""" And from what I remember, you could, it was about this guy who was like, goes into people's dreams and can like do things. I don't know if it was like kill people or whatever. I think they remember there was like a government component to it, I think, or a spy component, I think. " But there was this movie in the 1980s called ""Dreamscape.""" And Baba, I remember you and I talking one night and the idea that either from that movie or something you had researched, the idea of shared dreams was possible. And it went something like this. This is what you told me. You said, when you're getting ready to fall asleep, imagine a funnel that is going into the ear of a person. And what you do is you imagine yourself, like you're small and you get up and you like climb into the funnel and you slide down into the person's ear, going into their brain, their subconscious, whatever. So that's the part that you may not remember, but you told me that. So this one night I try to do this and I fall asleep. And I have this dream that Bill, we are actually, no, there's no we about it. I am at your house. And I can't remember now, 30 years later, if I, well, Fleur was on. But I remember that I was fighting these robots in your house. And the dream ends and wake up, go to school the next day, come home, we meet up after school and we're chatting. And I'm like, oh, yeah, Bill, did you have any dreams last night? And you're like, I don't know. And I'm like, no, no, really, really. Did you have any dreams last night? And you're like, yeah, well, actually I remember having this dream that I was in my house and I was fighting robots. And I was like, really, where were you in the house? And I don't remember where you were, but I remember whatever Fleur you said you were on, it was a different Fleur than I was on. And I thought that's crazy because I wonder if we were on the same Fleur, would we have had a shared dream? Was it coincidence? I don't know, but I thought it was really cool. And I never tried it again for two reasons. One, it borderline freaked me out. And two, I was afraid that if it didn't happen the second time that it was like, ah, it was just coincidence, it doesn't work. So I never tried it since then. So that is my one experience of having what I would call a shared dream. Dreams are weird. I'm curious if either of you had anything like that, any kind of experience like that.
WDG: year, however many years of while, when by parasol, Griffin was still alive, we would often have, I'd often have dreams of him and Donna and I having weird adventures through stuff. But I remember one time I had a dream and it was like, he was in it. And we were like, for some reason, I was at my parents' house, and he was really upset and he just kept, he was having all kinds of issues. And then it turns out that night, my mom said he was really sick and they put him on all kinds of weird drugs and he stayed up, he was up all night and freaking out. And so that was kind of really weird. So it was like, but I was like, well that's really strange. So it was kind of like a weird, almost like maybe not so much a shared dream, but I don't know, can you have shared dreams with a dog, one that you're particularly connected to or something? I don't know. So it was very, very weird. But yeah, he was having some kind of turmoil and in his dream, normally in my dreams, he wouldn't be upset. And then in this one, he was very upset. And actually, in that night, the same time, I was sleeping, he was having all these issues and was like, and really, and all kinds of drugs and stuff like that. And he was really upset because he was sick at the time. And I was like, yeah, so that was a little, I thought was particularly strange. I was like, that's weird. Yeah.
Danny C: So, Baba, before you dive in and answer the question, I'm curious, do either of you remember your part in the story that I mentioned? Bill, do you remember that dream at all? And Baba, do you remember that? Tell me about the funnel.
WDG: I don't remember that particular thing.
Baba: So. I remember you telling us this story like 100 years ago. So I do remember the occurrence of it, even though I wasn't part of either of those things. I kind of remember the technique. It seems like actually a mashup of two techniques. There's one, and maybe I had mashed them too. I don't know, it's so long ago. One is a technique I got from, I believe it was a book " called ""Universal Mind"" by Robert Ferguson." And it's about sending a dream to somebody. And you imagine you're sending the dream and it like pierces through there. Aura, and kind of like goes like, and like embeds into them. It goes through and into their body. And I thought, so when you mentioned the thing about the funnel, I was like, that sounds like that. And it sounds like a combination of that. " And there was a book by, ""You Are Psychic"" by Peter A." Sanders Jr. And he has these things about accessing. There's one in the title of the-- Yeah. You. And you. I want you to be psychic. uses funnels to imagine information going into these different intuition and psychic hearing reception area. So I can imagine either having cobbled something together myself with the two, or that maybe something got jostled in the meantime. But yeah, I do remember that. And those are some interesting books for people to check out if you got extra money and like hunting out, hunting down. I think out of print books. (Both Laughing)
Baba: But yeah, I am, oddly enough, as fascinated as I've been with dreams all these years, I don't recall a specific instance of having a shared dream with somebody. Although I do seem to remember like the instances of telling somebody about it and us being kind of be like, oh yeah, but I don't remember the thing, you know? But it's, oh boy, do I remember dreamscape though. (Both Laughing)
WDG: I barely, like, that's weird. Like I do not remember that movie, but I do remember the poster of that movie. For some reason, it's like this, it's having that like, is that like Dennis Quaid or something like that?
Baba: Is Dennis Quaid the one that's not in Independence Day and the National Lampoon one? That's Randy Quaid, right?
WDG: That's Randy Quaid, yes.
Baba: Yeah, so yeah, it's got Dennis Quaid in it. Yeah, and he's, I haven't really seen him in that many things, but he looks bad familiar anytime I see it.
WDG: I feel like I'm also often get, I don't know, maybe I'm also mixing up dreamscape and what was it, innerscape, which is like basically a reed, like the one where they shrink people down, like inside their body. It's kind of like a, it's a reed baking of, what movie was that? It's like the, it doesn't match. Fantastic Voyage or something like that. It's like, I think that might be Dennis Quaid. I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know why.
Baba: We got a weird journey, we're sending Dennis Quaid.
WDG: Like for some reason, 1980s, like before Dennis Quaid becomes weird and political, like now, it's like, it's all that.
Baba: Dreamscaping was cool, or dreamscape of the movie. It was cool, it was, and it also has brother, Ben Horn's brother in Twin Peaks, Jerry Horn. Yes. Is the bad, he's the bad guy's sidekick. He's like one of the bad guys in
WDG: Speaking of that, it was like, when you were talking about the funnel thing, and weird dreams obviously, like that reminded me of very much like David Lynch type of thing, like you'd see somebody like, drinking down and crawling into it and then ending up in someone's dream, like that feels like straight out of like, something out of a David Lynch movie or show.
Danny C: I could picture that, the whole like, the jagged walking too, you know, jerky movements and everything. I didn't realize I told you guys that story before, I didn't think I told anyone, so that's kind of neat that not only that I told you, but you remembered it, that's interesting.
Baba: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't remember the full content of it but I remember that you two were in different parts of the same place. I was always frustrated by other people's psychic victories where I didn't get them, because it's just like, damn it, I'm obsessed with this stuff, why aren't I getting it? Answers in the question probably, but you know, it's, yeah, I was always like, damn, I want her to have a dreamscape, which I don't even think that's, no one calls them that, like that was like the movie. When I tried doing research on the years later, you know, when you had to, you'd bully in searches and things like that, you know, I would try doing research, I could not find anything on it except leading back to that movie. However, there is something on it. Somebody did write a thing, there's a lady named, see if I get this right, Michel Bellinger, it's spelled like Bellinger, but I think it is a French name, but actually wait, I think ours, you do make the sound for French, it's not a quiet, anyway, see, I'm not a French guy. Practice in the comments. Bellinger, Bellinger, well, anyway, Michel Bellinger is what it looks like, and the book is called something like psychic dreamwalking, and it was experiments in this exact thing, and I have not partaken it very much. So much as I've experimented with lucid dreams, and lucid dreams are a fun area, I think for anybody to experiment with if you have any curiosity about dreams at all.
WDG: We did state the topic, right? We are talking about what you can and can't do in dreams. Is that what we're talking about?
Danny C: That's what we're ahead, yeah, that's the direction.
WDG: So yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Danny C: So let's hang on lucid dreaming for a second. I'm curious, Bill, have you ever been able to lucid dream?
WDG: I have, it's always been unintentional though. I feel like it's always been like, oh, again, there was something like, I remember being at my parents' house or something, and I was there, again, another one of these weird dreams of having a better dream. My wife and the dog, and we were in the house, and there car was parked outside, and it was like, I don't know where keys are to the car, we need to get out of here, and there was some reason for going somewhere, and then I was like, wait a minute, this is definitely a dream. I did realize it, and I'm like, so I can just have the keys, and they'll probably just be right over here, and I looked on the table, and that's where they were, and then I went outside, and started, it was like, someone was kind of like that, and then I drifted out of it, and then it kind of snapped back, and I remember that, I think that was the last time I was able to have, but I never did any kind of, I'm gonna try lucid dreaming kind of practice. I've only ever had a few random experiences here and there where I'm like, oh yeah, this is a dream, this is weird, and other, right?
Danny C: Yeah, similarly, before we jump back to Baba, because you're the one that brought it up, I also have never proactively tried it, but there are a handful of times where I actually have been in a lucid dream and was able to do different things. I was able to, I remember one, recognizing that I was dreaming, I was like, I'm gonna try flying, and I actually tried doing that, and that was pretty cool. probably less than a half a dozen times, I was able to realize I was dreaming. There are times where it was like, something bad was happening, and I was like, this is a dream, I need to wake up, and I was able to wake myself up, but as far as lucid dreaming and controlling the dream, only a handful of times. Baba, back to you.
Baba: Yeah, no, I've had lots of lucid dreams. Lucid dreams are awesome. They work a lot better, or it's a lot easier to have a lucid dream when your sleep hygiene is good in general. Mine has been horrible lately. I have not been getting good sleep at all, and so that's not the best time to do it, but best, yeah, I mean, lucid dreams are awesome. The dream environment can simulate all five senses, and I've tested them systematically, just to make sure you could hallucinate everything. And one of my thoughts in younger days, I still have this thought from time to time, is we kind of have a little holodeck in your head then, to use a Star Trek reference, or for those not familiar with it, imagine you could, or the construct of the matrix, where you could just kind of create these virtual environments that you can experience with your five senses, but they're little playgrounds, potentially, because of course, we have to open the gates to what's really going on in dreams anyway, right? Back to the whole dog story. And it's like a dream walking for that matter. But the, where's I going with this? Something about lucid dreams. The five senses. The five senses. Toss them systematically. Yeah, so you've got this little holodeck. So you have this little holodeck, you could go on this little playground adventure. In fact, that's what a lot of people use lucid dreams for. It's like, well, what if I could just play around in my dreams and fly and up with celebrities, or do the impossible, fight dragons, or I don't know the kinds of things you want to do. Sounds like a lot of work, actually.
WDG: I don't particularly want to fight a dragon, or really meet a celebrity either.
Baba: Yeah, I don't know which celebrity, you know what? No, no. People listening to this, if you could meet up with a celebrity in a dream, who would it be, and why?
WDG: Or a celebrity dragon, which one of those-- Who's your favorite celebrity dragon?
Baba: Who's your favorite celebrity dragon?
Danny C: I'll take that bait.
Baba: I'll take that bait.
Danny C: The dragon from, shoot, I forgot the name of the game. What was that game that was like in the arcade on a laser disc?
WDG: Oh, yes, I know what you're, why is this escaping me? I should know this. Oh, sorry about having bad sleep.
Danny C: Dragon face.
WDG: Dragon face.
Danny C: Is it Dragon's Lair, is that it?
Baba: Dragon's Lair, yeah. All right, I'll go with that dragon. That was close, I had the dragon part.
WDG: Yeah, that's a, yeah.
Danny C: Bob, who's your favorite celebrity dragon?
Baba: Falkor.
WDG: Falkor is a pretty good one.
Baba: Yeah, you know, that's made up. What's that from? Oh, it's a never ending story.
WDG: Oh, okay.
Baba: And the song most likely to get stuck in your head from everything in the 80s. Yes.
WDG: Trondor, Trondor. Oh, Trondor. He's both a man and a dragon man.
Baba: And a celebrity. And a celebrity. And definitely one I would not want to fight because he's got that beefy arm and just a little beefy arm though. I got him from the other side.
Danny C: So it's interesting, lucid dreams, it's so, from my experience, it's so easy to fall out of it and wake up. And obviously when you're having a lucid dream, the goal is most times, you stay dreaming so you can control the dream and continue to explore your virtual playground essentially. But it's interesting too that as much as your body will get you out of that, there are other times where your brain tries to keep you in. And I'm sure we've all experienced this before where the alarm clock, I'm dating myself, the alarm clock goes off. And it's like you're walking around, you're in a field and it's like, where's that noise coming from? And then maybe you see a mechanical bird flying that's making this buzzing noise or something. it's interesting how the brain kind of does that. " It tries to keep you in and other times it's like, ""Oh," " you're kind of awake, let's kick you out."""
Baba: Yeah. You're out of here. (Imitates Buzzing) What incentive does it have to keep you in? Because on some level your system knows what that sound is. On some level it knows that you need to respond to that to get food tokens or tokens so you can later get food tokens. Whatever you have to get up to do in the world. Your body knows what it's supposed to, but it doesn't wanna respond. " It's much more interested in this ""constructed""" " ""constructed"" in our environment." Well, why? Why is that?
WDG: Well, I was gonna say, I notice sometimes when I have essentially intense dreams repeatedly through the night, like at least ones I can recall, right? Because obviously we tend to have a lot more dreams we can't recall than ones we can. Sometimes I wake up feeling tired, physically exhausted from just having too many dreams. And then I don't know if that's a fairly common thing, but why should dreams exhaust you? But it's almost like, I guess the idea is, you're clearly getting good sleep because if you're in a dream state, your brain's things out or doing stuff. But why is it sometimes it's so much, it's almost like it's " too much and then you wake up and you're like, ""I didn't" feel like I got any sleep at all. " ""I feel like I've been doing something all night long," " ""which I have been running away from" " monsters ""or like exploring doing something."""
Danny C: I have a theory that can kind of go with that. So from what I've heard that you normally don't remember your dreams unless you wake up afterwards. Like it's whatever, whatever you dreamt less and you wake up, if you're gonna remember something, that's the dream. So I wonder if it's a case where it's like, if you're having a lot of dreams and you remember a lot of the dreams, you're actually like kind of in a waking up state and then going back. So I wonder if it's more of like a constant for like a better words, like going to sleep, waking up, going to sleep, waking up. Yeah, yeah, interesting.
WDG: So I guess we should, what's the more weird things though? Like, there's like, I don't know, when this is something people could also throw in like comments, does anyone else, I often have like, do you ever, do you have like constructed spaces that are like familiar when you're in the dream and maybe it's like sort of reminiscent of a place you've been in in real life, but it also like, isn't real, but you keep going back to it in your dream. Like it's like an actual like location, you know, I don't know, I have a couple of those that are weird and I imagine that's pretty like, it's like, why would that happen? Why do you do, why do you make up like essentially like a weird like, you know, like it's like an amalgam of some kind of spaces that seem both seem familiar and alien at the same time.
Baba: Yeah, I mean, I definitely have those places and it's kind of like, and some of them map to real places, quote unquote. And then some of them just don't at all. Like it's just, but it's, I might've mentioned this to you all before, but this there's this bridge and then off to the one side, there's this church been in the chapel of the church, but I haven't been in the main body of the church, but it's like, but I've seen this church a lot. And anytime I'm driving and we're on this bridge, the car's like,
WDG: whoa,
Baba: like it won't stay on the ground and things like that. So I don't like to actually drive on that bridge.
WDG: Yeah, I have a similar thing. I think it's just like, but in for my grade school and high school experience, like I had to travel essentially out of state. I mean, obviously we lived very close between, you know, lived in Pennsylvania, had to go to New Jersey every day for school. We drive across this bridge and the bridge was relatively old, you know, across the Delaware. And it was like, you, it's like anytime I have like lots of anxiety, I have a dream about that bridge, but it's often like really long. And for some reason, like the bus will drive off, even as an adult, like that would happen to me, like the bus will like drive off the end or it might not make it to the other side. And then like, you know, it's like, it was just like, I don't know, maybe there's some anxiety of bridges or like an anxious thing, you know, like it's like a car, it's like, it seems like a thing you shouldn't be going in a, in a dream, you know.
Danny C: Well, similar to that, when I was a kid, not so much anymore, thankfully, I used to have these recurring dreams where I'd be on a, on a bridge that was going over lava. And invariably the bridge would start to collapse. And that was like, I like that recurring dream. But when it comes to actual places, I don't have any places I've been to regularly in my dreams. There are a handful of times where I'm in a dream and in the dream I'll remember something, but I don't know if it's an actual memory or if like the memory is kind of made up within the scope of the dream. So I'm not sure about that. Yeah. And no way of telling, obviously, but.
Baba: That's a weird one. It actually reflects really weirdly on what real life is like, quote unquote, real life is like. And like we remember histories and things, but you always remember the history in the present. So how can you like have an entire history of a place in your head if you haven't lived through it, but it seems like you know all about it? And the one of the weird things is, okay, so like we look at dreams and we say, oh well, we wake up from the dream world. And we're like, oh, well that was really weird. I had all these stupid things that don't make any sense. We're in this world now that makes sense, kind of. To some extent. But within the dream world, everything makes complete sense, right? Like you're not like, this doesn't make sense within this reality. It's like, it's only if you're like reflecting to like the other reality that it doesn't make sense. In this one, it almost makes complete sense. And so it's like, it's like when you're comparing the two, they don't jive, you know? But it just a different kind of logic? Different kind of reasoning about the way things work. Like we have these ideas about the way the world works and we think that they're these certain ideas, but actually they're just kind of things we're used to. Even the things we think of as like the rules of logic, like something can't exist and not exist or something like that. That's just kind of like maybe, or maybe you can't get a frame of reference around what it means to exist. Again, different conversation, but it's like, but dream logic is just like so funky in that way that you can invent an entire history in a moment or become aware of a history that's real that you do know about.
Danny C: And kind of going along with that, I don't know if either of you have had this opportunity where it's like, I might have within the same night, we'll just say two dreams. And in the second dream, I am talking to someone about the first dream that I had. I'm like, I had this dream the other night that, whatever, but it was actually within the scope of the same night, I'm just like remembering this dream that I essentially just had, I'm telling someone in a dream about it.
Baba: That's interesting. I've had conversations over dreams in the same night, referring back to events that happened before that occurred in other dreams, but not thinking of them at the time as having been dream events, just thinking of, you know? Oh yeah, that's weird. It's really weird.
Danny C: And then yeah, you have the obligatory waking up into another dream. I'm sure everyone's had that, right?
WDG: Yeah, pretty much, yeah.
Baba: Yeah, the false awakening as it's called, which is a common experience for people that are doing their best to lose a dream. They're in a dream and then they're like, I'm having dreams. I'm like, whoa. And they're like, oh, I woke up. Oh, better put on my bananas. You know, like do whatever. Yeah, oh, this makes complete sense. Time to feed the, you know, whatever. You know, in this little world and they don't even realize they woke up or they wake up and no, everything seems completely normal or going about their day. And then there's the guy they haven't seen since fourth grade. That's completely normal, you know, but they're not catching on to all these weird clues that would otherwise cause you to do a dream. That's the thing about boring dreams. Like sometimes, like they have a really, I think we talked about this before. You have a really boring dream. Like you're like at work. You're at work and you, I don't know. You can't get, you're having an IT problem. Like it's just like you deal with it for a while and then you wake up and it's like, I haven't even gone to work.
Danny C: I think the most disappointing dream I had, I dreamt that I won the Powerball. Now I don't know how widespread the Powerball is, but you know, it's a lottery. It's usually like, you know, I think the minimum jackpot is like $20 million and it goes up to the sky. It's been over a billion at one point.
Baba: And just to mark this in history, at this point, $20 million is a lot of money. Yeah.
Danny C: And I remember like I won the Powerball super excited and I woke up and I was like,
Baba: oh man.
Danny C: So one thing I do want to talk about, I have a list of about a dozen things that you allegedly cannot do while you're dreaming. Some of them I have done in my dreams. So what I'm thinking about doing is like, we'll kind of just go around and the answers are, I have been able to do this. Like you actually remember doing it. You have, you can do it. You can't do it. So you've tried it, cannot be done from your experience. Or the third option is like, no, I didn't have that opportunity. So for instance, completely made up, say like someone said, you can't tie your shoes in a dream. You might say like, oh yeah, I've tied my shoes before. Or someone else might be like, oh, I tried, couldn't do it. And the other person was like, I never looked at my shoes, I don't know. So the first one I have that I came across has to do with smartphones. And I'll kick this off actually. So the article alleges that you very rarely will see smartphones in a dream because it's too modern was the example, which I don't buy for a second. I have tried to use cell phones in a dream. It's always, I can never find what I'm looking for. I'm trying to like find the right app and I can't find it somewhere. Or I'm trying to type, but I can't manage to find the chat application or something like that. So I have seen them in my dreams. I have not really been able to use them successfully. So Bill, where do you stand on smartphones in dreams?
WDG: Yeah, it's not something I can, yeah, I usually don't have like many, I don't know, which is really weird. It's like, I'm usually plugged into some type of device for work wise, but it's like, but yeah, it's I don't, I don't know. Yeah, no, not really anything with smartphones. Not too much with like phones in general, even like old school phones or things like that. might be around, but I don't really interact with the phone. It's like, I don't know.
Danny C: What you said just reminded me of this. I'm curious if anyone else has had this experience, either like you guys or anyone listening, watching. Whenever I'm on the phone in a dream, it's always a very awkward conversation. It's like, we forget how to talk to each other. So I'm very curious if that is a trend or if that's just a me thing, I'm not sure. But Baba, you're up next, smartphones.
Baba: I've never had a smartphone in a dream, but to tell you the truth, I barely have a smartphone in my life. So I, it's not surprising. I forget these things are part of the world, but have tried to use computers in dreams and that hasn't gone so well. So, so yeah, it might be now, as far as the talking to people on phones, the only experience I remember, although now I'm kind of curious, kind of goes back to the whole thing the sleep paralysis thing we talked about, about can you like encounter spirit things while you're sleepwalking? You know, that question I have. My other thing is like, if you call a being from within a dream, can you get like special access because you're already in there? I don't know, but interesting question. If anyone does that, put it in the comments, I wanna know. So talking to people on phones in dreams, the only experience I actually have of that that I remember is when I was in high school, when a lot of my social life involved talking to friends on phones, cause we lived in, I lived in the suburbs and they lived in Philly and like, that's how you spent most of your hangout time. And I'd feel like I have a dream where I fell asleep on the phone with somebody and I'm like apologizing into the phone that I fell asleep and they're not responding. I wonder why.
(Laughs)
Baba: And then eventually I go to hang up the phone to realize there is no phone. That is.
(Laughs)
Danny C: Bob, I'm gonna stick with you with the next one and we'll work backwards.
WDG: Can I throw a caveat in there? Yes. It's something that I made that is it, it's not technically a smartphone, but like two devices that I think have popped up in my dreams and I might be dating myself on the one, but like an iPod, like that, I've had that. And I've also used an iPad or been holding, like I wasn't actively using it, but I was like holding, carrying it around with me, or something like that. So there was like, they were like packing a bag and putting it in there and stuff like that. So like, it's basically a big smartphone. So I don't, it's like a large smartphone, but I don't know. So it's been in there at least device wise, but yeah, I don't know.
Danny C: Okay, interesting, interesting. So the one thing I came across, and Bob, this is going back to you to kick this off, has to do with speaking in dreams. So allegedly people have had dreams where they don't actually speak, it's more telepathic. So what's your take on that? What's been your experience with actually speaking, actually mouth moving, hearing, speaking?
Baba: I seem to be speaking in dreams. Like I seem to be having conversations with folks. Sharon has dreams that almost, it almost seems like more telepathic though. So yeah, so, but yeah, I would say, not speaking seems to be happening in my dreams, but you know, when you speak in real life, you often don't like think the sentence out before you speak it, it just kind of comes out. So interesting to see what people's experience of that is like, so who's next on that? I want to hear from y'all.
WDG: Bill, you're on deck. Yeah, I mean, I speak in dreams, at least I assume I'm speaking. And I definitely like, because you know, obviously you're observing things from typically, you know, first person. So I assume I'm speaking, it seems to me as if words are coming out. And I definitely know people are talking to me because like, they'll all see them like speaking at me or yelling something or you know, whatever it is, I mean, I've definitely had that experience plenty of times. So it's like, so I, yeah, I don't really, not so much like the psychic thing for me anyway.
Danny C: Yeah, I'm with both of you. I do speak in my dreams and people speak back to me and I hear it. So I am not part of the people that is more telepathic. This is a good one. And I've heard this a lot, and that's you can't write or read in dreams. And a lot of times they'll say, that's a good way to tell if you are sleeping, if you're trying to get into a lucid dream, try to read something. However, for me, I have been able to write in dreams and I have been able to read in dreams. So that does not work for me. Bill, where do you stand on reading and writing?
WDG: Definitely writing. I've done it in dreams, but it's like, but I feel like sometimes it comes out a little like, it's like, it feels, something feels weird or wonky about it, you know, like I don't know how else to describe it, but like I'll be doing it and it's like, and reading, I've definitely books, in my dreams plenty of times, there's been times where it's like, I've got to read it and like, I'll read like into a sentence and it stops making sense, and it doesn't seem right. not so much like the characters are unidentifiable. Like I definitely feel like it was like, oh, I can see, recognize these like letters and things, but like something about it, like I'm going to read it. Like this doesn't make sense at all. Like this, this sentence is weird or something's odd. And, but I also have that like, but I feel like what's happening is it's almost like, you know, when you're doing like a sub vocalization, when you're reading, right? You know, like it's almost like that. And then, but it stops making, like, doesn't add up or doesn't make sense.
Danny C: Going along with that, actually, I completely forgot about this, you mentioned it. With the speaking in dreams, that was another thing people said where like, people will speak, but it stops making sense. And I've never, I've never had that,
WDG: but I'm sorry, go on continue. No, no, no, that's about it for me. I yeah, so both reading and writing, I kind of have done them, but not in any real meaningful way. It's always feels a little jumbled or weird.
Danny C: Bobby, you're on deck.
Baba: All right, so I've experienced both reading and writing in dreams. However, they always have been inconsistent. So like, I don't, I can't like read something and then like reread it. You know, like it doesn't stay like that. I feel like I've read things like street signs or something like that, but it's kind of like one of those things of like, you read the street sign, but did you read the street sign or did you know you turned onto River Road or whatever? You know, and that's, it's kind of like the passage of time in dreams. Sometimes people say, well, time goes so, yeah, but it's a year of time and it takes just five seconds, you know, and it's like, well, some, there is some time distortion in dreams and there's also the time distortion we experience in like movies where it's like, well, it's daytime and then now they're getting back from work, it's nighttime, but it's like, well, a day passed, but it didn't, you didn't go through a day. It's just now it's nighttime, you know, and that kind of thing. So there's probably some of that going on too, but I'm jumping out of turn. So is it, is it, That's still you. Was it, oh, okay, yeah. So reading and writing, I say, I've seen it, I've tried it, it's inconsistent and weird whenever I encounter it. So it probably is something to put like a little bit of a suspicious eye towards to see if you're indeed dreaming.
Danny C: All right, and sticking, it's interesting you mentioned time because that's actually next to my list. One of the things is that allegedly you cannot tell an exact time in a dream. I'm assuming they're talking about like looking at a clock, I guess. So Bob is sticking with you. What's been your experience?
Baba: I can't actually remember telling a time in a dream. So yeah, I'm gonna say in that sense that I haven't actively tried it, but I don't remember ever seeing a clock in a dream and knowing what time it was.
Danny C: All right, Bill, how about you?
WDG: Yeah, I've definitely seen a clock, like not usually more like a digital clock, right? But it's like something you can see on like a microwave or like, alarm clock type of thing. but I've never really thought too much about telling time in the dreams, like, you know, it's like, if it's there, it's just like, it might just be like something like, which generally happens to me in a real life where it's like, I haven't checked, I don't even like, what the hell time it is? And I'll pick up my phone, which is asleep and open it up. And it's like, oh, it's 3.33, you know? And it's like, so I'll see something like that usually in my dream. It's like the repeated, if I do see a number thing, it's either like, it doesn't make sense. Like it's almost like distorted LED readout or it's like the repeating number thing. So generally, as I'm sort of just throwing this out, I'm not very good with time. So clocks might not be, for me, it might not be the best thing to hang my hat on but as a test case for this.
Danny C: All right, okay. I've never had the opportunity to check a time. So I don't know if I can or cannot, but I've never had the opportunity. Bobby, you mentioned this earlier and I'm just gonna jump to this one actually. Talking about the five senses. So specifically what I found was that you cannot, most people, cannot taste or smell in dreams. And I thought that was very interesting because I actually, for the first time, maybe within the past month, was the first time I actually smelled something in a dream. Proud of that, I don't remember ever smelling something but like a month ago, I actually smelled, I don't even remember what it was. So smelling, yes, I can. Tasting, I don't know that I've ever had that opportunity. I'm not sure. I know I've eaten, like I remember like going, like getting like pizza or something like that but I don't remember if I actually, one, ate it and two, actually tasted it. Seeing, hearing, feeling, I've definitely felt things before. That's where I'm on that. Bill, five senses, where do you land?
WDG: Yeah, well, definitely like obviously seeing, hearing, that's pretty, feeling is usually like fairly intense. I find that to be like tactile sensory stuff usually. I feel that like a lot. Tasting and smelling, like I'm having a hard time recalling like a lot of like, I think there was like one time where it's like, I remember like, but it's like, I guess tasting and smelling are almost like the same kind of thing. It was something like probably like coffee which is like makes sense because I generally drink a lot of coffee. So like that vibe might've happened. But yeah, I would say that that's probably much more on the uncommon thing if like, you know, it could have happened. It's definitely much more auditory, you know, like visual and like, you know, kind of kinesthetic, you know, sensing stuff. So yeah.
Danny C: All right, all right. And then Bob, I'm gonna leave you up because you already said you could do all five. Yeah, yeah.
Baba: And I'll tell you what, 100%, 100%, the smell and taste, it can happen. There it is. And the guy that tried to, the smell dream, I have to tell you, it was a lucid dream. I didn't have the money to buy the thing he was trying to sell me, which was like a stuffed animal with a rope, almost like it was like a purse that the strap didn't attach to the other side. And it smelled like stuff. That was the point. And you had to carry it in one arm and put the rope over your shoulder. " And it's like, he's like, ""Oh, buy this thing.""" " I'm like, ""I don't have any money.""" " And he's like, ""Oh no, check your bar.""" And I had all this money, which should have been an indication that it was a dream. " And he's like, ""Oh, your mom must have put it in there.""" " I'm like, ""Wait a minute, like, this is a dream.""" I tried to calm on it and he asked me kindly to leave the store.
WDG: Which probably would happen in real life, I think.
Baba: Yeah, yeah, exactly. This guy's kind of crazy.
Danny C: Please leave it. So sticking with you, have you ever seen yourself in a mirror before?
Baba: Yeah, I feel like I have. Me and mirrors have a weird relationship as you might remember from the Bloody Mary episode.
WDG: See also?
Baba: See the card. Yeah, so, but yeah, I feel like I have, although again, did it behave like a reflection did? You know what I mean? Or did it act on its own? I can't remember that.
Danny C: Okay, do you remember was it actually you? Because a lot of times people will say like, it'll be someone else. It won't actually be them.
Baba: Do you remember? I don't remember. Because you know how you encounter someone in a dream that's like a different person, but they're supposed to be like, oh, so-and-so wasn't available. So they're being represented by your grade school teacher. It's like a stunt double. Exactly.
Danny C: All right, Phil, how about you, mirrors?
WDG: No, nothing I can recall. I generally don't like, you know, mirrors in general. So maybe it's just like my brain's just like, ah, I don't want this in my dream. But yeah, I don't really recall like instances like seeing mirrors or looking into them in my dream. So it's a, yeah, so I'm not a, yeah. So I don't, so I haven't had the experience of not seeing or seeing myself in one. Okay, all right.
Danny C: So the sex one's a good one. You can't turn on lights in a dream. For me, this is 100% accurate. There've been many times I go to walk into a darkened room, I flip the light switch and the lights do not come on. And funnily enough, there was one day, maybe about two years ago, I came down in the morning, long went off, came downstairs, and I usually turn the kitchen light on, and I went to turn the light on and the light did not come on. And for a second I thought, am I dreaming? But I was 100% awake, there was just a problem with the light itself. So yeah, for me, I cannot turn on lights in a dream. Bill, how about you?
WDG: Yes, I definitely can turn. I've turned, I've had both experiences where you've done the light switch and nothing has happened. And also I've used it and it's either gone on or off. I've never done like a lamp, like a manual, type thing, like a click, click or something like that, or like, you know, but it's like, but I've definitely done like the light switch and sometimes it has worked and sometimes it has not. You know, so it's like, I've had both of those experiences, so.
Danny C: All right, Baba.
Baba: Yeah, so I'm kind of in between on this one. So I haven't actually changed light levels myself. However, light levels seem to be like weirdly irrelevant in my dreams. And then one of the ways I tell that I'm out of a dream sometimes is by a change in light levels. So I'll sometimes see previous note on sleepwalking. I'll sometimes wake up and I'm like, looking for this emerald green spider, it thing was huge, like where the hell did it go? And it's like, well, wait, It's so dark in here. Why would you have visual information about that spider? Because it was from a dream. It's not from my, but in the dream. So light levels seem to be a little bit irrelevant. Like I can see things sometimes that I shouldn't be able to see, although it's dark, you know, or whatever in the dream. It's almost like, given the fact that it's dark, here's the rest of the dream. You know, like it's just a presuppose that it's dark and you just go forward with it. So yeah, so light levels seem to be somewhat irrelevant in my dreams. But I don't know that I haven't really been able to change them. So yeah, so back to the actual question.
Danny C: All right, okay. How about like running or any kind of physical activity? What's that like for you in dreams?
Baba: Fighting is weird. physical combat, because I can feel other things in dreams, like you'll like hit somebody and they're just gonna go, (Imitates Whooshing) like no react and stuff like that. But like, you don't actually like feel the hit necessarily, or I don't necessarily feel the hit. Now, going back to real life, which I'm not like into fighting. Yeah, I haven't, I don't know the last time I was in a fight. Actually it was probably around the same time, any of us were in any kind of altercation. But there was a time when I did get jumped by a couple of people. Sound familiar guys? Badly enough, yes. And in that experience, although I was fighting these people, I also could not feel my fists and things hitting them, but could see the reaction. So it might not be actually very different in that regard. But driving is the big thing with me. Driving physics, they just don't work. And I don't, and when it comes to like running and things, I don't remember too many differences when it came to that, but specifically fighting and driving, forget it. They're like really, really weird.
Danny C: So how about you?
WDG: Yeah, I mean, I just have backup, persisting with a driving physics. done a lot of driving, I have my Malcolm Gladwell, I'm an expert driver. It might be like, it's a-- You are the wheel man. Yeah, but it is kind of weird in dreams, like when you go to like do something like, I find that the physics of that does seem to be a little odd. And I think sometimes what my dreams do to get that is like I kind of movie past it sometimes. Like it'll be like you get in the car to go somewhere and then you're there. You know, it's like, so it's like, well, we'll skip this boring part because the physics don't work right. We haven't solved this or we don't have the budget to make it work, I don't know, there's something like that. But yeah, running, I definitely running. Obviously, I think for most people, the jumping and like falling thing is always weird. So that physical movement, like there's like times where it's like, I don't know, I just like have this thing where it's like in my parents house growing up, they have the really long staircase. Like, it's just like very long and like my bedroom is basically at the top of it just around the corner and I'm like wake up and run and like, oh, you get to the end of
WDG: the stairs and you just kind of like, you know, you drop down like, you know, people listening auditorium making a little walking, jumping thing.
Baba:The gesture of falling character.
WDG: Yeah, and you kind of like land and then you're like, oh God, like that shouldn't have happened. Yeah, Bike riding seems to work kind of okay. Like I've definitely been on a bike in a dream and have ridden it and it's been fine. And that's like, and then actually, and sometimes it actually feels kind of cool. Like, you know, when you're riding a bike and you're going relatively quickly and you kind of lean in a little bit to it, but you don't fall over it kind of like guide, like, you know, glides. It's like that kind of vibe feels cool. I've ridden on, but never a motorcycle. I've that experience in my dreams and that feels kind of cool. Like so the physics on that seem kind of seem to work, you know, so yeah. Interesting, okay. This is the car. The car doesn't work, right?
Danny C: Yeah, for me, the car does not work either. Driving is always a challenge. I feel like the brakes never work quite right for me.
WDG: Oh yeah, the brakes never work. You always got to hit them and like, for some reason, like the car is not stopping.
Danny C: Yeah, so that's a big one for me. And I cannot run in my dreams. I have like the stereotypical, you'll hear a lot of people say this, where it's like your legs feel really heavy and you're trying to run and like, you just can't do it. And they equate that to the contradiction between you're trying to run in your dream, but like your body being essentially paralyzed because you're sleeping. Like that conflict creates that like heavy feeling in the dream. So yeah, I've never, from what I recall, I don't remember getting in a fight in my dream, so I can't comment on that, nor other modes of transportation.
(Laughs)
WDG: Running away is usually how I deal with fights. And so in my dreams, I deal with that as well.
Danny C: And maybe that's why I have a lot of dreams where I'm running. So maybe that's it. Maybe I'm just running for modifications and that solves the problem.
WDG: Get out of here.
Danny C: Problems recalling names, for me, that is spot on. There are a lot of times that I promise recalling someone's name, where I just don't know it, or I should know it, but I don't know it, or someone, oh, I just said that. Okay, yeah. Bill, back to you. How are you with recalling names in dreams?
WDG: Yeah, it's not something I've really thought about. Like, I guess okay. I just, I don't feel like, I feel like I don't have a lot of, like, in my dreams, the people I tend to encounter are people like I know pretty well. Like, you know, I don't usually encounter like, or if I'm encountering someone who's a stranger, like I don't know them, so there's no reason to know their name, you know? It's like, you know, so it's kind of a weird, yeah. So I don't feel like it's a thing that I have a problem with, yeah, because it's like, I don't know, I don't think I've had the experience. Like, oh, I know you, but I don't remember your name. Like, it's like, I don't have that kind of thing. It's either I don't know this person, or I do know this person, because I know them well enough. Yeah, so.
Baba: All right, Bob, how about you? I don't remember having that kind of scenario before. I do remember, again, like, knowing things I shouldn't know. Like, all of a sudden, knowing the history of something, you know, that I don't remember having been present for. So why do I remember that? But yeah, so, so I'd have like the opposite. I guess it'd be like the equivalent of knowing someone's name that you shouldn't.
(Laughing)
WDG: You're Dave. I don't know, I just do.
Danny C: So the last one I have on my list, there's a caveat. And it's, you can't hear music in a dream unless you're a musician. So, Baba, where do you stand on music? Have you heard music in a dream before?
Baba: Huh. I don't know. And I'm not a musician, people. I've sung, but most musicians will tell you just singing something doesn't make you a musician.
(Laughing)
Baba: Yeah, I don't recall hearing music in a dream. Now I'll have to be on the lookout for it.
Danny C: All right, Bill, how about you?
WDG: Yeah, definitely. I've heard music, I've played music. You've had that experience where you just like, you can do something like you otherwise wouldn't be able to. Like I can't play piano, but I've definitely played piano in my dream. and I've been like, whoa, wait, but I've also had experiences of, where I've had pretty vivid auditory hallucinations of music in waking life, where I've hear something and then I can hear it like, as if I'm listening to, like someone, it almost sounds like if someone's in like, I'm in a room and like the room next door, they're playing a song and I can clearly like hear it, but it's a little more muffled, but it's like, I can make out the song. I'm not hearing it in my head. I'm not hearing it in my head. I'm not hearing it in my head like, oh, you have a song stuck in your head. It definitely feels like it's external to my, so I don't know. So yes, I've definitely had the music thing. I can definitely, and I would not classify myself as a musician. If anything a tinkerer in that area, but it's not a musician.
Danny C: That's interesting, the waking life hallucination. That's really cool, I think. So I, obviously you guys know this. I am a musician, very strong music background, singer, songwriter, composer. I've written music in my dreams, which in my dream, I thought they sound really good, and then I wake up and I've forgotten them, and I'm like, no! But then I wonder, was it really good? I just think it was good in my dream, I don't know. But I've been to concerts in my dreams, I've heard music there. So for me, that's definitely not a thing. I can definitely hear music in my dreams. We'll do one more round of any other things that you may have heard of, that you cannot do in dreams that you can or the other way around, or you can't, you've heard you can and you can't. Any interesting things you wanna add about your own dream experiences? Bill, we're gonna just go backwards again, so right back to you.
WDG: Yeah, I'm not, I guess it's like, yeah, it's not a topic I'm super familiar with. So it's like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, the basic things I've heard is the reading and stuff like that, and those type of things that make sense. light thing, heard that before. But again, I've had both of those experiences. Even to the experience of using a flashlight or something like that, that kind of stuff. So it's like, so that wasn't really odd, but yeah. there's anything particularly odd that I can think of at the top of my dome. Yeah, so,
Baba: Chris. All right, Bob, how about you? All righty. Well, I don't know of anything else that I've heard of off the bat either, but I encourage you all out there to try to taste something in your dream. I would recommend my favorite fruit that exists. It's a pineapple banana, also known as the benign apple. The benign apple?
WDG: It tastes really good.
Baba: Doesn't exist in waking life, but it is the best fruit I've ever eaten. peels like a banana, but it's got a skin like a pineapple. Grows in front gardens.
Danny C: So is it like a pineapple in the shape of a banana that you peel? Is that what I'm hearing? Kind of, yeah.
Baba: So you're like a pineapple in the shape of a banana, you peel it, and then when you bite into it, it's like the perfect combination of a pineapple and a banana. It's a taste of your dreams. It's just, it's the--
Danny C: That's the marketing slogan right there, the taste of your dreams.
WDG: I was gonna say, a quick recall, like the smell thing, the, like, think about it more, I do remember being at the beach and smelling like, beach smell, you know, like you have that kind of vibe of like, you're at the beach, you know, it's like, it's like, so it's, yeah, so that's versus like smelling food or tasting food, but yeah, so it's, yeah, it's weird. We haven't really talked about nightmares, you know, evil horse that comes at you, which you have to know. Yeah, yeah. We haven't, like, we've sort of touched on that when we talked in previous things with like, the hag and stuff like that, but like, that's part of dreaming, and it seems to be a pretty common part of dreaming. in our ratings, like we should caveat into like, you know, dreams in general, or dreams combined with like nightmares as well. Are they their own sub category, you know?
Danny C: Can I tell a really fun nightmare dream real quick? Sure. This is awesome. So sometimes when I sleep, I sleep with like my arms folded, like this, like my two hands on the opposing biceps, and I'll like rest my head down, kind of like when you were in school, you know, and you can like put your head down on the desk, that kind of idea. So sometimes I will sleep like that, not very common, but every once in a while I do. So this one night I'm having this dream, and the dream is that my one son comes into my room, and he wakes me up, and he tells me that there's a monster under the bed, and I'm like, there's no monsters under the bed, he's like, well, can you please just check? Like, sure, sure, I'll go down, you know, I'll check. So I go over to the bed, and I proceed to look under the bed for this monster, and this hand reaches out and grabs my tricep. And I really like, my hand, in real life, I grab my tricep, scares the crap out of me, I wake up.
(Laughing) And then I thought, I gotta remember not to sleep like that ever again, because that was horrific. But I have gone back to sleeping like that on occasion, so.
Baba: Yeah, yeah, wow, that's a good one, that's a good one.
Danny C: Who else can share a good nightmare story, a good nightmare dream?
Baba: I have a good one, yeah, it involves a false awakening. So, yeah, I'm in this house that looks like one of those old 1950s diners, and there's an upstairs to it, it's like a house that's been made out of one of these 1950s diners. And there's this family that's been living there for generations, and then now it's considered this haunted place. And there was this family that was rumored to have this, it was this scream, like a banshee scream. And they were just known for this thing, it was like this cursed scream or something. And this guy is telling the story about this scream thing. " And he says, ""And then one day, ""the youngest daughter" " screamed so loud that she woke up.""" And then myself, I go, and scream out with this high pitched earth, you know, blood curdling scream, and have a false awakening. And then scream again, and have a false awakening. I had like six of them in a row. And like I finally sat up and I was like, what the F was that? They just got out of bed, I was just like, that was terrible, that was terrible. That was the worst false awakening I've ever had. But it was so frightening, because it was like waking up and being unable to control this scream that was coming from inside me. But I mean, the last time I woke up there was no scream, I was just so freaked out, I just had to get out of bed.
Danny C: Do you know, were you actually screaming at all? Was anyone, did anyone-- I
Baba: don't think so, I don't think so, yeah. This is just, whew, that still bugs the crap out of me.
WDG: Yeah, that's like, why do our brains do this to us? I don't know. Yeah, they're like worst, or whatever you think dreams come from.
Baba: It's like, yeah, it's a who. So, hey, I'm just gonna go with this. Do I think dreams are real? Yeah.
WDG: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Baba: Probably. Are they, as questions don't ask, are they a space of their own, or are they just something in your own head? I think they're kind of in between. I think it's kind of like this overlap where we can interface with this grander reality within this imagined space that we partially control, but not entirely. And do I think they're scary? Yeah, they definitely can be, because, see what I just said, that was kind of freaky. So, and so I'm gonna give them, I'm gonna give them four monsters and a dream monster.
(Laughing)
Baba: I don't know what you call that, half, quarter, full? That's your problem.
WDG: I don't know, depends what you think is real or not. Speaker 4Yeah.
(Laughing)
Baba: Who's next? Who wants to vote on this?
Danny C: I'll go next. Yeah, I think they could definitely be scary. I'd give that a five, because it can literally be anything. And dreams can seem so, we didn't even talk about this, where it's like, you have your typical dream where it's a dream, but then you have the other dreams where it's like, it seems so real. And I've only had that a handful of times, but I'm not lucid dreaming, it's not a lucid dream, but it just feels real. So I would say from a scary perspective, like 100%, they can totally be scary. Real, obviously, dreams can't be real. We didn't talk about if it's like, premonitions at all with dreams, dreaming about the future, Deja, we might have to do a second one. Speaking with the dead, we're gonna have to do more on that. Yeah, speaking with the dead, another good one. Dreams, I love dreaming, actually. I find it just really, really cool most of the time, very interesting stuff, a lot of the time, very rarely is it mundane or anything like that. So when it comes to dreams, even though it can be really about anything, and it can be super scary, I'm gonna put this right in the middle, because a lot of times for me, it's just like a very chill experience, very cool experience, very different experience. So I'm happy with three monsters on this.
WDG: Obviously, yes, dreams real, the phenomenons of what, I'm a little on the, I feel like I'm on the fence about what I think about that.
(Laughs)
WDG: It's, there's, yeah. When I have normal dreams that are pleasant and vivid, I like them, obviously. I also tend to have lots of vivid nightmares. I do not like them. So, they can be very scary. So it's like, sometimes, it's like definitely wish I could cut that section out of a thing, especially the ones that make me wake up and feel tired. It's like, I don't need that in my life. But yeah, so I'll give it, yeah, probably two, let's give it three, I'll go down to the two, because like, yeah, when it's, when they're cool, they're cool, when they're scary and frightening, they're really scary and frightening. And yeah, I don't always, I don't want that. I wish I could do the, do we want to experience that? No, but you do. Here's a quick question. Do you think that dreaming has become more, I'll just like, for lack of better terms, like cinematic because of like our exposure to like, kind of similar to how people will say like, when they have a weird trauma or experience in the back, it seems like something out of a movie, and it's like, and sometimes I'll even say like, to myself, like, this seems like something out of a video game, do you think that has completely altered the structure of dreaming for society? Like, it's like, or do you think dreams have always seemed like cinematic and like, maybe it's kind of reversal, you know, like it's like, you know, like I don't know, I just, yeah. So it's just like, I think that's something just to throw out. I don't know, what do you guys think? And anyone who wants to comment, what do they think?
Baba: Yeah, yeah, I'll throw in on that. Yeah, I think, I think the, yeah, I think media, movies, things like that have definitely influenced the dream landscape, because I think anything that influences the way we imagine things influences the dream landscape. And we've just been, yeah, yeah. So we're indoctrinated in a whole different way of approaching all these kinds of images and stuff. So I think, yeah, definitely they're more fantastic and stuff, but might have just been filled in with completely imaginary, quote unquote, completely imaginary things in the past, when your stories were like Bible stories and things like that, I don't know. Yeah, I kind of think though, yeah, it's definitely been changed and maybe even enhanced.
Danny C: There's no way of knowing this, but it'd be very interesting to know what dreams were like 1500 years ago, you know, where people led very mundane lives, where maybe, you know, they were all, they just farmed all day, you know, and they took care of the kids or whatever. They weren't necessarily involved with, you know, pillaging and plundering, but when there were just more, their days were just more normalized, I guess. I wonder what their dreams were like. Were they still fantastic? You know, were they, you know, I don't know. Were they influenced by, you know, religious texts maybe, where like in this dream, they hadn't encountered with God or a demon or something like that. I don't know, but it'd be very interesting to know how dreams have changed over the past hundreds of years.
Baba: Yeah, there's a bunch of research on it. " There's a book called ""Evenings Empire,"" which is all about" the history of dreams and sleep and how we've treated it as a society. There's another one. Oh, I can't remember the name of it, but there are two good books just on the history of that itself. We do another thing on dreams. I'll stir all that stuff up. (Laughing) But yeah, it's really fascinating to think about and because to flip it on itself, the idea of like have movies and things enhance the way we render dreams, but have they also reduced the importance of dreams in our life because we have all this other stuff, you know? Because what would the importance of somebody in 1520, what would they have given importance to a dream when they didn't have For those of the, Netflix was a streaming service.
(Laughing)
Baba: Beginning of the 21st century.
WDG: Yeah.
WDG: It no longer exists.
Baba: (Laughing) So yeah, would people have given dreams as much importance, greater importance in the past in the absence of all of these other distracting forms of media and options that we have now?
Danny C: So just talking about Netflix for a second, made me think of this. Like have any of you had the opportunity to watch TV or a movie in a dream or play some kind of video game? Maybe you're at an arcade, trying out a game, you know, old school like quarters on the screen or something like that. Bill, but what's your take on that?
WDG: Yeah, I mean, I've definitely played video games. I think I've also played pinball in my dreams too. So, you know, it's like, not quite like an arcade, but in like a place. like, some kind of console video game type thing.
Danny C: It's definitely- Any kind of lucidity a tie to that where you can actually control what was happening in the game, not via the controller, but just more of like-
WDG: No, it's probably not the same as like driving the car and the breaking kind of thing, like where things are wonky, like, you know, but then again, it could just be bad. Like if I was playing something like a fighting game and I'm terrible at them anyway, I guess I might just be just bad at it.
Danny C: Yeah. It's always good being able to control the game and the game doesn't control you. That's good.