Dreaming, Daydreaming, Meditating. Are they all the same thing?

The short answer to this question is “NO.” However, some discussion is required because dreaming, daydreaming and meditating do have a lot in common.

Dreams happen when we sleep and they are a series of images, emotions, pictures and ideas; the conscious part of our minds does not control them. Our dreams occur particularly during REM sleep, and since Sigmund Freud used the scientific interpretation of dreams to analyze the subconscious mind of his patients, the scientific world has continued to try to answer the questions of why we dream and what they mean. There are many different theories. Some scientists maintain that dreams are just “meaningless biology” without any psychological importance. Others pretend that every piece of a dream requires interpretation as they are “windows” to the subconscious mind. We are aware today that dreams are related to many physical, brain, and psychological functions, and that they all play a vital role in the fabulous capacity of our brains to constantly evolve in response to our changing world.

Non-scientific dream interpretation has been used for thousands of years to predict events, fortunes, oracles and accidents. These interpretations are interesting, but not scientific. Traditional science is very skeptical to these interpretations because they cannot be duplicated or observed under test conditions. Nevertheless, there may be forces that we do not yet understand at work when these foretold events come to fruition.  We will leave this to science to debate.

Conversely, daydreams are visions that we create when we are awake. We can trigger them consciously through memories, wishful thinking, and by what Einstein called, “taught experiments”.  It is estimated that almost 40% of our “thinking energy” during the day is spent on daydreaming. (Do not let your boss know!)

Many complex problems have been solved during daydreaming. A classic example of the “infinite power” of these “taught experiments” performed by Albert Einstein is the discovery of The Theory of Relativity. Walter Isaacson, who just published an excellent biography about Einstein, says:
“Einstein was very slow in learning how to speak as a child. Those of us who are parents can take heart that he was no Einstein when he was a kid. I think it was his slow verbal learning ability, among many other things, that caused him to be so great at thinking in pictures, of doing thought experiments, what you and I would call daydreaming if we are not Einstein. And so what he could do is, just like Newton could look at a falling apple, Einstein could look at an elevator accelerating upward, with all the windows closed, and say it would feel just the same as gravity. Or he could think about lightning striking both ends of the train and realize that, for the person in the train, they would seem to be timed differently than the person standing on the platform. And out of that comes the theory of relativity”.

Another form of daydreaming is regularly used by athletes, musicians, and other performers in something known as “visualization”. As the individual prepares for a competition or performance, he/she forms a mental picture of himself/herself executing and completing the task with the desired successful outcome.

Does visualization help? Yes… but most probably not in what “self-help gurus” call the “law of attraction.” For example, a Sales Person visualizing that he/she will sell $20,000 per day is not “attracting” bizarre powers, but rather, empowering and activating his/her internal resources to achieve a goal.

Now what is the difference between daydreaming and meditating? “In meditation, people sit quietly and concentrate on their breathing. As air swooshes in and out of their nostrils, they attend to each sensation. As unbidden thoughts flutter to mind, they let them go. Breathe. Let go. Breathe. Let go.” Meditating is the ancient discipline of training the mind. It was introduced over 5,000 years ago by the Hindi culture. It was originally not a religious activity, but some religions adopted it as a discipline to exercise mind control, and dispel desires and miserable feelings.

Recent scientific studies have demonstrated that meditation is good for the brain, the body and the mind. Serious meditators are at peace with themselves because by dominating and exercising this technique, they develop centres in their brains responsible for the creation of real feelings, ideas and emotions of happiness, compassion, love and kindness. They do not pretend these emotions; they really feel them despite their external conditions. In a study performed by Helen A. Slagter of the Weisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior of the University of Wisconsin, she and her team demonstrated that people who meditate regularly develop the capacity to “see and understand” more events taking place at the same time than people who do not meditate. For example, when we lie, some muscles in our face twitch very lightly. For the vast majority of us, it is almost impossible to connect the lie to the twitching of the liar’s face muscles; our brain cannot process all this information at the same time. However, the brain of a well-trained meditator is able to see and hear the connection.

In summary, dreams, daydreaming, and meditation are all products of our brain. Dreams are produced during sleep. They represent just one element in a vast number of activities performed by our brains to learn and adapt to our changing world. Daydreams start as “thinking experiments”; we start them and they may allow us to create whole universes in our imagination that we would normally not “see, hear and/or feel”. Meditation is exercise for the brain and mind and it allows us to increase our gray matter, improve our immune system, develop humanistic positive attitudes, and probably sharpen our capacity to better understand this world…

In one word, fascinating!

Sources
Isaacson, W., Einstein: His Life and Universe, Simon & Schuster 2007 ISBN-10: 1-847-37048-9.
Blakeslee, S., Study Suggests Meditation Can Help Train Attention, The New York Times, May 8, 2007, http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/NYT_Med_0507.html, accessed 27/07/2007.