I was having a lucid dream today that I was in an old Victorian orphanage and everybody was put into ‘counties’ and there were 6 tables representing them, a big group (about 1000) orphans about my age (17) were getting put into these counties and I was put in America. Everybody had a partner and my partner wasn’t there yet when I sat down, but my actual question is… I heard when people dream of being in public places etc. they don’t actually dream of strangers, every person is someone you’ve seen real life, is this true? There were 1000s
I’d say this was probably an unfounded myth. I’ve heard people citing this a number of times, and in truth there is little way to test it. They can say all day long that the people in your dreams were people you passed on the street and we can’t really test it effectively. Not without knowing every single person you’d ever seen and seeing if you could imagine somebody who you hadn’t seen. I find it hard to believe that our minds are capable of remembering every/many faces you have seen, as they claim, but are for some reason incapable of extrapolating a new face from a combination of others you might have seen. We know we can create artwork that isn’t seen anywhere I don’t accept its any different for faces.
So in short, I don’t believe this is true, although it is an untestable claim.
I heard about this too! I was also kinda surprised since I couldn’t believe that we were able to remember every single face we’ve seen. Although the mind is capable of doing amazing things, I don’t think it’s capable of doing that.
Good point! You’re absolutely right. That changed the way I think about it.