“albs” blog

Why Do We Dream?

Nobody knows for certain why we dream. One of the first people to come close to a scientific explanation was the Greek philosopher Aristotle. At first, he spoke of the soul exercising special clairvoyant powers, in accord with its divine nature, when freed from the body’s constraint in sleep. However, he was to conclude that the function of sleep and dreams was to dissipate the vapours that rose from the stomach after food. Similarly, for many centuries it was believed that blood rose to the brain and caused congestion there. Sleep enabled the blood to drain drained back into the rest of the body.

Science asks: Why Do We Dream?

Early in the 20th century the first scientific theories about sleep and dreams proposed that chemicals such as lactic acid, carbon dioxide and cholesterol, collected in the brain during the day. These were dissipated during sleep. In short, sleep and dreams were thought to be a function of the elimination process of the body.

Today some psychologists are reconsidering these initial ideas. Although Aristotle and others were clearly wrong about their science, they may have been correct in saying that dreams are a physiological process. Some of the latest theories propose that dreams are the body’s way of ‘rebooting’ the brain.  Dreams dispose of memories that would otherwise clutter the mind with unnecessary remembered experiences. In particular they enable the emotions to become balanced. Dreams get rid of the junk and allow the brain’s complex chemistry to stabilise. Without dreams, we would simply overheat.

REM Sleep: A way to discover Why We Dream?

One of the biggest breakthroughs in dream experimentation came in 1952 when a researcher noticed that the eyes of sleeping subjects would move beneath their closed eyelids. In 1955, Eugene Aserinsky and Nathan Kleitman published a paper on these strange eye movements. They named them “rapid eye movements” and called this phase of sleep REM periods. REM sleep (also now know as paradoxical sleep) occupies 20 per cent of your night’s sleep and alternates with orthodox sleep about every 90 minutes.

It has been found that during REM sleep the flow of blood to the brain increases, as does the brain’s temperature and both the penis in men and the clitoris in women become erect. REM sleep strengthens memory-traces although the release of growth hormones is less than during orthodox sleep. But most importantly, the brain shows a radical change in activity that can be measured on an electroencephalograph (EEG). If a person is awoken at this time, they usually remember vivid dreams. This discovery enabled scientists to tell how often we dream and by waking the subject during REM sleep they could guarantee there would be a dream to study.

How Often Do We Dream?

Most of us dream every 90 minutes and the longest dreams, lasting 30 to 45 minutes, occur in the morning.  Studies have shown that half of us wake during REM sleep and recall our dreams but the rest wake during non-REM sleep and are less likely to recall a dream. This may account for why many people believe that they “never dream”. The truth is that we all dream- every night- but most of us forget we’ve been dreaming.

REMEMBERING DREAMS

Before we can work with our dreams, we firstly need to learn how to remember them. A simple technique is to set your alarm clock a little earlier than usual. This may interrupt a period of REM sleep and you are more likely to recall a dream. Some authorities claim that many people unconsciously wake themselves at a time when they are not dreaming, because they want to repress what their dreams are revealing. It has also been shown that you are more likely to remember dreams if you are keen to have them. The fact that you are reading this book will increase the likelihood that you will have more dreams- or so it seems. In reality, you are only becoming aware of the rich dream life you already have. The difference is that now you are learning to take notice and remember them.

Another technique is to drink a large glass of water before you go to bed. You’re likely to wake up during the night wanting the bathroom. By doing this you may interrupt a REM period and thereby recall a dream. I’ve tried the method and it works but apart from being uncomfortable, I invariably wake to find that I’ve been dreaming of trying to find a toilet!

THE SEASONS
Spring: To dream about spring is a sign of fortunate undertakings and cheerful companions.
Summer: Summer foretells joyous events and prosperity; denotes the maturity of ambitions and signals unbound satisfaction.
Autumn: Implies cycle of transformation and change of surroundings. Will experience many ups and downs.
Winter: In this case is a cycle of disintegration and rest. It foretells happiness and financial gains.

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, ‘This Is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to Allah said in prayer are Received.’

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, ‘This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.’

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the Door of a very sm all station To my great surprise, only one angel was Seated there, idly doing nothing. ‘This is the Acknowledgment Section,’ My angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed ‘How Is it that there is no work going on here?’ I asked.

‘So sad,’ the angel sighed. ‘After people receive the blessings that they asked For, very few send back acknowledgments .’

&nbs p;

‘How does one acknowledge Allah’s blessings?’ I asked.

‘Simple,’ the angel answered.. Just say, ‘Thank you, Allah.’

‘What blessings should they acknowledge?’ I asked.

‘If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy .’

‘And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity..’

Also ……

‘ If you woke up this morning with more health than illness … You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day .’

‘If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world.’

‘If you can attend a Mosque without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people

In the world .’

‘If your parents are still alive and still married …you are very rare .’

‘If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.’

Ok, what now? How can I start?

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

A TTN:

Acknowledge Dept.: ‘Thank you Allah, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people to share it with.

Blind People Dream

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 need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.

You Forget 90% of your Dreams

Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke one morning having had a fantastic dream (likely opium induced) - he put pen to paper and began to describe his vision in a dream in what has become one of English most famous poems: Kubla Khan. Part way through (54 lines in fact) he was interrupted by a Person from Porlock. Coleridge returned to his poem but could not remember the rest of his dream. The poem was never completed.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

Curiously, Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the story of Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde whilst he was dreaming.

Everybody Dreams

Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder) but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women tend to dream equally about men and women. In addition, both men and women experience sexually related physical reactions to their dreams regardless of whether the dream is sexual in nature; males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow.

Dreams Prevent Psychosis

In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the studentâ'��'��s brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage

We Only Dream of What We Know

Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts - did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces - they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? The evil killer in your latest dream may be the guy who pumped petrol in to your Dad car when you were just a little kid. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

Not Everyone Dreams in Color

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. People also tend to have common themes in dreams, which are situations relating to school, being chased, running slowly/in place, sexual experiences, falling, arriving too late, a person now alive being dead, teeth falling out, flying, failing an examination, or a car accident. It is unknown whether the impact of a dream relating to violence or death is more emotionally charged for a person who dreams in color than one who dreams in black and white

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.

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: â'���"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.

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 thirstâ'�� drink thirst loop often recurs until I wake up and have a real drink. The famous painting above (Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening) by Salvador Dali, depicts this concept.

You are paralyzed while you sleep

Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep - most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. According to the Wikipedia article on dreaming, Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.

Vijay Mallya brings BACK Mahatama Gandhi…

Hours after high drama and frenzied bidding, Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings were bought for $ 1.8 million (Rs 9.3 crore) by industrialist Vijay Mallya, who said he “bidded for the country” at the auction after last-ditch attempts by India to stall the sale of the memorabilia fell through.

Parable Of The Pencil

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box.

“There are 5 things you need to know,” he told the pencil, “Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.”

“One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone’s hand.”

“Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.”

“Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.”

“Four: The most important part of you will always be what’s inside.”

“And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.”

The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.


Now replacing the place of the pencil with you. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be.

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God’s hand. And allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.

Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems in life, but you’ll need it to become a stronger person.

Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.

Four: The most important part of you will always be what’s on the inside.

And Five: On every surface you walk through, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to do your duties.



Allow this parable on the pencil to encourage you to know that you are a special person and only you can fulfill the purpose to which you were born to accomplish.

Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot make a change.

Ultimate truth
( Uncanny-but true !)

Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.

To Err is human, to forgive is not a COMPANY policy.

The road to success .. Is always under construction.

In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don’t need it.

All the desirable things in life are either illegal, expensive or fattening.

Since Light travels faster than Sound, people appear brighter before you hear them speak.

Everyone has a scheme of getting rich .. Which never works.

If at first you don’t succeed . Destroy all evidence that you ever tried.

You can never determine which side of the bread to butter. If it falls down, it will always land on the buttered side.

As soon as you mention something if it is good, it is taken . If it is bad, it happens.

He who has the gold, makes the rules —- Murphy’s golden rule.

Once you have bought something, you will find the same item being sold somewhere else at a cheaper rate.

When in a queue, the other line always moves faster and the person in front of you will always have the most complex of transactions.

If you have paper, you don’t have a pen . If you have a pen, you don’t have paper if you have both, no one calls.

Especially for engg. Students—-
If you have bunked the class, the professor has taken attendance.

You will pick up maximum wrong numbers when on roaming.

The door bell or your mobile will always ring when you are in the bathroom.

After a long wait for bus no.20, two 20 number buses will always pull in together and the bus which you get in will be crowded than the other.

If your exam is tomorrow, there will be a power cut tonight.

Irrespective of the direction of the wind, the smoke from the cigarette will always tend to go to the non-smoker

No face is more beautiful…


“Listen to the whispers of your soul,
and know how beautiful you truly are.”

“You suppose you are the trouble
But you are the cure
You suppose that you are the lock on the door
But you are the key that opens it
It’s too bad that you want to be someone else
You don’t see your own face, your own beauty
Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.”

If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won’t survive the week.

If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.

If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,
but most do not.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God’s healing touch.

If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.

You are so blessed in ways
you may never even know.

BLESSINGS TO YOU