Guru Guru Japna

Guru Guru Japna
Aur Sab Svapna,
Guru Guru Japna
Jagat Deergha Svapna.

- Songs Of Dream BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

8 ½ (1963)

As a movie about making a movie, Fellini's 8 1/2 seems an unlikely choice for the most coveted spot on this list,
but when you consider how much filmmaking owes to dreams, the choice begins to make sense. While critics and fans
alike were comparing Inception to sci-fi blockbusters like The Matrix and Avatar, Leonardo DiCaprio cited 8 1/2 as
its most comparable predecessor. Fellini dismisses the conventional narrative in favor of protagonist Guido Anselmi's
dreams, memories, and subjective relationships with his parents and friends. 8 1/2 is a reminder that real life is often
more like a dream than we even realize and movies are just narrativized versions of the dreams of their creators.

- By Zachary Goldbaum / Source: Filmjabber.com

Dreams have such an emotional nature

One, Adam Zeman, neurologist at the University of Edinburgh, explains how her mind might have created a likely story about
stimuli she might have sensed in other ways: a whinny from a neighboring horse, her own intuitive knowledge that the horse
looked old and unwell. Another, Mark Solms, a neuro-scientist and psychoanalyst, brings up how during dreams, the emotional
sector of brains is wildly alert, which is why our dreams have such an emotional nature.
- from:Can Dreams Predict the Future? By Karin Badt / Source: Huffington Post

Dreams are not about what they are about

If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. The unconscious mind tries to compare your dream to something else, which is similar. Its like writing a poem and saying that a group of ants were like machines that never stop. But you would never compare something to itself, for example: "That beautiful sunset was like a beautiful sunset". So whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.
- Source: The List Universe

The real truth is that nobody sleeps

The real truth is that nobody sleeps, dreams or wakes up, because there is no reality in these states.

Transcend the three states and rest in the fourth state of Turiya, the eternal bliss of Brahman, Satchidananda Svaroopa.

- Swami Sivananda

take on the dream genre

Inception couples innovative art-house sensibilities with blockbuster thrill tactics to take on the dream genre with
ingenuity and intelligence. - By Zachary Goldbaum / Source: Filmjabber.com

discover how dreams 'really' work

"We think we know a lot with our rational brain, but perhaps we know a lot more in our irrational brain." So Ms. Hardie,
already acclaimed as a science documentarian (working with stem cell researchers) contacted the foremost scientists working
on the brain today, to discover how dreams 'really' work.- By Karin Badt / Source: Huffington Post

Lucid dreams can be life changing experiences

Absolutely! Lucid dreams can be life changing experiences, not merely providing the allure of wish fulfillment,
but providing us with a vivid alternate reality playground for our personal development.
- source:Lucid Dreaming – Waking Up to Alternate Realities , by Rebecca Turner from: evolution ezine

Quitters have more vivid dreams

People who have smoked cigarettes for a long time who stop, have reported much more vivid dreams than they would normally experience. Additionally, according to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: "Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms."

- Source: The List Universe

So long as the dreamer dreams

So long as the dreamer dreams, dream-objects are real. When he wakes up the dream world becomes false. When one attains
illumination or knowledge of Brahman, this wakeful world becomes as unreal as the dream world.- Swami Sivananda

tried to bring dreams alive on screen

From the early days of film making (dare I say, since its inception?), theorists have speculated about the dreamlike nature
of the cinematic experience and movies have perpetually tried to bring dreams alive on screen. - By Zachary Goldbaum / Source: Filmjabber.com

can dreams tell the future?

But what makes Edge of Dreaming a film that sticks with you is the sober panic ("I had a pit in my stomach") -- and the
question that persists: can dreams tell the future?- By Karin Badt / Source: Huffington Post

The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming

The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a very real phenomenon.

Why would you want to learn how to lucid dream? Is it really worth the effort?

- source:Lucid Dreaming – Waking Up to Alternate Realities , by Rebecca Turner from: evolution ezine

Blind People Dream

People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body’s need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.
- Source: The List Universe

The waking state is a long dream

The Vedantins study very deeply and carefully the states of dreams and deep sleep and logically prove that the waking state is as unreal as the dream state. They declare that the only difference between the two states is that the waking state is a long dream, Deergha Svapna.- Swami Sivananda

Lucid thriller

As Inception plows through its second weekend of box office glory, Christopher Nolan's lucid thriller is simultaneously solidifying its legacy as a classic of contemporary cinema.  - By Zachary Goldbaum / Source: Filmjabber.com

Lush dreamy shots

We get a sense of true thankfulness for the richness of love (husband and children) as well as lush dreamy shots of the
fields and home. We also have musings on mortality, the voice-over noting that the word "human" comes from humanitas,
meaning those that bury their dead in the earth. - By Karin Badt / Source: Huffington Post

In her book, Lucid Dreams,

In her book, Lucid Dreams, Green predicted that conscious dreaming would be found only during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.
She also speculated over a two-way signaling system between a lucid dreamer and a waking observer, using pre-determined eye movements while dreaming. This was later scientifically documented by two separate lucid dreamers in their university laboratories: Alan Worsley at the University of Hull in England, and Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University in California.
- source:Lucid Dreaming – Waking Up to Alternate Realities , by Rebecca Turner from: evolution ezine

External Stimuli Invade our Dreams

This is called Dream Incorporation and it is the experience that most of us have had
where a sound from reality is heard in our dream and incorporated in some way. A similar (though less external) example
would be when you are physically thirsty and your mind incorporates that feeling in to your dream. My own experience of
this includes repeatedly drinking a large glass of water in the dream which satisfies me, only to find the thirst returning
shortly after – this thirst… drink… thirst… loop often recurs until I wake up and have a real drink. - Source: The List Universe

The dreams point out a path

One may know how to act in a particular situation through dreams. The dreams point out a path unknown to the waking
consciousness. Saints and sages appear in dreams during times of difficulty and point out the way. - Swami Sivananda