2013 Off Topic Thread

[poopoo333]

I have crazy dreams pretty often.

Sometimes about girls and shit because I am a horny bastard.

Sometimes about running away from shit.

Sometimes I get shot and I actually "feel" it, it's real weird.

Lucid dreams are the best, where you can control everything. I have fun with those.

[edman5555]

That is a myth (dying in a dream kills you in IRL). That's weird that you have my dream. Have you every tried to figure out why you have it? It seems related to stress to me. I don't really buy into dream interpretation, but there has to be a reason why I keep having the same dream, it can't just be random. To me, dreams are the only "supernatural" type of phenomenon that I have personally experienced... I have never had an eerie of weird feeling, never had a panic attack, or never seen something that wasnt there. There is no reason we have them as far as I can tell, and they are crazy weird, which to me is awesome. I wonder if there is a way I can remember them more often.

Dying in your dream and dying in real life is straight out of the matrix movies,

[edman5555]

I had what you would call lucid dreams a long time ago. I was on a lot of pharmatceutical drugs prescribed by a doctor. It was actually kind of scary at first but I harnessed it one night and tried to maniuplaute the hallucinations into something sexual. It somewhat worked. I can still remember the scary feeling though. It is wierd hallucinating.

[Luke]

[Ludo]

I don't usually get involved in these conversations, but here goes:

I don't remember most of My dreams, but most of the ones I do remember when I wake up (but generally not on My mind anymore by the time I get into the shower). I probably only remember about seven to ten dreams a year. This is probably to do with the fact that I take medication to get to sleep/stay asleep each night. Some of them are recurring, some just follow a motif of sorts and the setting/exact circumstances can change while the overall chain of events stay the same.

One dream I often have is one where I have to hide and keep members of My family safe, usually but not always in My grandmothers basement, while the rest of the house has been destroyed. Sometimes it's in other locations but the sky is always a deep red and the surrounding areas always seem to be devastated as well. Sometimes this dream involves having to move from one hiding place to another due to someone or something searching the basement or wherever before leaving. I've never gotten to a point in this one where I/we actually get out of the basement. I usually wake up scared but forget about it in a few minutes.

Another is having to fight with various things/people but no matter how hard I hit them I can't seem to kill them. The setting for this is usually changes from time to time, as do the things/people I encounter. I don't know why I have to fight them but they always seem to be after Me specifically. If it's with My hands I can only knock them down but then they get back up. Usually the only weapon handy is a golf club for some reason, which makes no sense because I've golfed maybe five times in My entire life, but in the dream when I attempt to hit anything with it the thing spins around in My hand no matter what I do. After this one I usually wake up with a headache.

I have one where I have to run from some sort of unknown creature in a setting I can only describe as dark. Windy narrow hallways and sliding doors that have to be locked by an inordinately long process. Sometimes with a group of people and sometimes just Me. When with a group it's always My job to hold the door shut while it's being locked and I always end up being cut or bitten by the creature while I try to hold the door. I can always feel a painful sensation but for some reason I can't ever see this happening, almost as if My eyes are closed in the dream at that time or something is obstructing My vision. I usually wake up and have to take a few breaths to calm down.

The last one I have always takes place in one of the houses I grew up in where people are gathered for something or other but I never talk to any of them. I walk either on a paved road or through the woods to another house/store that don't look familiar to a place that is familiar. I usually get right up to that second place and wake up before I go inside. I don't really like this one regardless of what the two places are, or who's in the dream.

[Mr. IWS]

Serious interpretation:

Subconsciously he yearns for the fun loving, care free days of his youth. Going to the school was closure and told his inner mind to that it was okay to embrace the present and move into the future.

That makes a lot of sense.

[Mr. IWS]

As for your grade school dream, obvious pedo dream.

LOL

[MMA_scientist]

Scientist, any opinion on this?

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/5/14...titta-mma-news

Not really surprising, it looks about what I think everyone expected. The lawyer they have commenting on it is being beyond sensational- indentured servitude? Gimme a break. Yeah, they can't enforce it by making a champion fight, but they can probably collect damages if he refuses. It is hardly slavery.

[MMA_scientist]

I don't usually get involved in these conversations, but here goes:

I don't remember most of My dreams, but most of the ones I do remember when I wake up (but generally not on My mind anymore by the time I get into the shower). I probably only remember about seven to ten dreams a year. This is probably to do with the fact that I take medication to get to sleep/stay asleep each night. Some of them are recurring, some just follow a motif of sorts and the setting/exact circumstances can change while the overall chain of events stay the same.

One dream I often have is one where I have to hide and keep members of My family safe, usually but not always in My grandmothers basement, while the rest of the house has been destroyed. Sometimes it's in other locations but the sky is always a deep red and the surrounding areas always seem to be devastated as well. Sometimes this dream involves having to move from one hiding place to another due to someone or something searching the basement or wherever before leaving. I've never gotten to a point in this one where I/we actually get out of the basement. I usually wake up scared but forget about it in a few minutes.

Another is having to fight with various things/people but no matter how hard I hit them I can't seem to kill them. The setting for this is usually changes from time to time, as do the things/people I encounter. I don't know why I have to fight them but they always seem to be after Me specifically. If it's with My hands I can only knock them down but then they get back up. Usually the only weapon handy is a golf club for some reason, which makes no sense because I've golfed maybe five times in My entire life, but in the dream when I attempt to hit anything with it the thing spins around in My hand no matter what I do. After this one I usually wake up with a headache.

I have one where I have to run from some sort of unknown creature in a setting I can only describe as dark. Windy narrow hallways and sliding doors that have to be locked by an inordinately long process. Sometimes with a group of people and sometimes just Me. When with a group it's always My job to hold the door shut while it's being locked and I always end up being cut or bitten by the creature while I try to hold the door. I can always feel a painful sensation but for some reason I can't ever see this happening, almost as if My eyes are closed in the dream at that time or something is obstructing My vision. I usually wake up and have to take a few breaths to calm down.

The last one I have always takes place in one of the houses I grew up in where people are gathered for something or other but I never talk to any of them. I walk either on a paved road or through the woods to another house/store that don't look familiar to a place that is familiar. I usually get right up to that second place and wake up before I go inside. I don't really like this one regardless of what the two places are, or who's in the dream.

It sounds like you are having the same "fear of not living up to your potential" or "fear of the worst" type dreams that SPX and I are having. Those all same like variations on the same theme except for the impotent fighter dream, which I think everyone has had at least once, and the last one. I have no idea what that is- probably repressed memories of sexual abuse by your uncle at a funeral.

You remember a lot of detail though, maybe once every few years I will remember that much detail. All this dream talk made me wake up last night and recall dreams twice. It seemed profound at 2am and I recalled it then, but I went back to sleep and I can't pull it from the recesses now.

[SPX]

I understand that mentality. It is pretty bleak, but I don't know that this means that it must work out in the end. It could just be a random accident that we became self-aware, and then we die. Part of me hopes that it is a random accident, that frees me from pretty much any moral responsibility. But, like you, I have a sense that there is more. Maybe it is just an evolutionary remnant... but I also think that sometimes we attribute way too much authority to logic and discount some of our other intuitions too much. I really don't know the answer, but as we have discussed before... worrying about it does me no good and it helps comfort me to know that we all suffer the same fate.

I certainly don't think anything is for sure. Maybe we just live and die and that is it. I certainly don't have unshakeable confidence in any particular outcome. But it does make sense to me that this is all FOR SOMETHING and that there's an ultimate purpose behind it, a purpose that is ushering us toward a greater existence. I also feel that this is backed up, at least to an extent, by a variety of things that we've talked about in the past. But the only people who know for sure are already dead.

I have some dreams where it is basically just a rorchach of weird things with no narrative at all. I am not even in the dream sometimes.

Really? I'm not sure I've ever had a dream that I wasn't in. If I have, I can't remember it.

yeah, I have had many lucid dreams, I started being able to sometimes dictate the narrative dream when I was a kid. It does suck when you wake up.

I bought a book on lucid dreaming. This one:

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Dreaming-Stephen-LaBerge/dp/034537410X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368646352&sr=8-1&keywords=lucid+dreaming

I still need to read it. Some people say that if you can reliably master the ability to dream lucidly then you can use the dreams to resolve a lot of psychological issues you may have. That's interesting.

Well, a lot of people say that about me IRL too. But the truth is that I am actually just an eternal optimist that recognizes that whatever fate we suffer, it can be put in perspective. Lost a limb? At least you lived. Going to die? Lucky you, you go to live in the most amazing era in the history of the entire universe!

I wish I was that way. I have mastered a sort of forced optimism, but the effortless kind seems a lot more peaceful. I'm naturally a pessimist.

I remember reading not that long ago about a painting a psychologist would show to patients and it could be interpreted as either a sunrise or sunset. Optimists usually interpreted it as a sunrise, and pessimists a sunset. I have a feeling I'd think it was a sunset.

I think my job desensitized me to an extent as well. I wish I could unsee some shit for sure.

How is that? Aren't you NOT a criminal lawyer?

[SPX]

It sounds like you are having the same "fear of not living up to your potential" or "fear of the worst" type dreams that SPX and I are having.

Sounds like it. The weird thing is that I have told other friends about my dreams and no one else has seemed to have the kinds of dreams that I have. WTF are so many people on this forum having those kinds of dreams for then?

Those all same like variations on the same theme except for the impotent fighter dream, which I think everyone has had at least once, and the last one.

Impotent fighter sucks. But I will say this: Because I couldn't move at full speed, I used to always get my ass kicked. Lately I've been choking a lot of people out, though. I wonder what that means.

I have no idea what that is- probably repressed memories of sexual abuse by your uncle at a funeral.

BOL!!!!

[SPX]

Not really surprising, it looks about what I think everyone expected. The lawyer they have commenting on it is being beyond sensational- indentured servitude? Gimme a break. Yeah, they can't enforce it by making a champion fight, but they can probably collect damages if he refuses. It is hardly slavery.

But is it really the most restrictive contract in all of sports? That's what I want to know.

[SPX]

Here's an interesting article about Boiler Room--and its ties to reality--that I found last night:

http://observer.com/2000/01/gekkos-little-goons-backstage-with-the-real-boiler-room-boys/

[MMA_scientist]

I wish I was that way. I have mastered a sort of forced optimism, but the effortless kind seems a lot more peaceful. I'm naturally a pessimist.

I remember reading not that long ago about a painting a psychologist would show to patients and it could be interpreted as either a sunrise or sunset. Optimists usually interpreted it as a sunrise, and pessimists a sunset. I have a feeling I'd think it was a sunset.




How is that? Aren't you NOT a criminal lawyer?

I wouldn't say I am a natural optimist. I would probably think it was a sunset too. Optimist is probably not even the right word, because I am not very hopeful, but I just don't ever think the situation is that bad and I almost always think it will be easy to fix. Or if something goes wrong, I just file it immediately in its rightful place of importance. Mower broke, going to cost $200 to fix! (happened yesterday)- well, I have food, I have $200 and it isn't shit to me. So in the total spectrum of problems, $200 to fix the mower goes right next to "have to get up to pee" in the ranking of problems in the world. So maybe I am just stoic and not really optimistic, I really on't know.

I am not sure what you mean about aren't I not a criminal lawyer. I am not now, but I was for 6 years. I did criminal defense and child services cases. I still do criminal appeals. I have seen some pretty disturbing things and spoken with many disturbed people.

[MMA_scientist]

But is it really the most restrictive contract in all of sports? That's what I want to know.

Oh, I wouldn't doubt that if you compare to major professional sports organizations. But really, the UFC is still amateur hour and small potatoes compared to those orgs.