> > > > To test this theory out yourself, you should keep a diary of your dreams to > > see if any of them "preplays" any of the actual occurences in your life. > > You can understand why I am skeptical that such a test really proves what it > FEELS like it should prove. I even suggested the experiment before I started > thinking about it more and seeing the problems with the design. It naturally > made sense to me! It could be tested in principle, but these elements would > have to be a part of the design. > > 1. We would need to know how many months of recording dreams and how many > events would be needed to make it statistically significant. > > 2. We would need to decide on some parameters of what constitutes a > connection. In the kind of open ended personal design we are subject to > shaping. Of course we also have the issue of how our perception is going to > filter to look for any connections with the dream we just had. We are > scanning our experience with a strong bias. I don't know how to get around > this because this is self-reported and we have thousands of possible > experiences to choose from. It seems to me that this would make the > likelihood of finding SOMETHING that seems to relate very high. > > There are many other variable to control for and I am not an expert in > testing design. But in principle it seems like there could be a way to find > out if there is something to this thoery. In its current form is appears to > be unfalsifiable. > > But this is unlikely to ever happen because people who view shastras as > having authority are not interested in more than personal confirmation of the > belief. There is no way to prove it false given this testing procedure. And > for hundreds of years humans have been satisfied with their anecdotal > evidence and intuitive pseudo-testing. What would be the motive to REALLY > find out? > > This natural tendency of our minds (where have I heard THAT before?) to > impose order our of chaos, to put things together and to assign connections > or to notice the naturally occurring coincidences and to see patterns is a > strength and a weakness of our minds. Depending on the context is either > pretty benign (this dream belief) or catastrophic, medical superstitions. > Our minds are very susceptible to being convinced of things that we should > only be confident about with better testing practices. But REALLY testing > things is hard. As a species we are also overfond of easy and quick. > > I have an experience that happens to me. I will be reading something on the > Web and then turn to the radio or TV and the same topic will be being > discussed. It feels like it happens a lot. It really does. >
Your idea of statistically proving that dreams predict the future is excellent. You should submit your proposal to a university or a government agency for funding. Personally, I don't have the time to spend for this effort. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > > <curtisdeltablues@> wrote: > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John" <jr_esq@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shukra69" <shukra69@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > so then thats why some consider it a good test of a new gem to judge > > > > > by the dreams you get when you put it on , that is telling you how it > > > > > affects the 9th (also luck > > > > > > > > > > > > > This is true. Dreams are good indicators of things to come. If the > > > > dreams are enjoyable then the near future should be good as well. For > > > > example, if you dream of someone just before you wake up, there's a > > > > good chance you will meet this person during the same day. > > > > > > I think this is an example of one of our mind's cognitive pitfalls called > > > "shaping." We tend to remember things that fit patterns and forget those > > > that do not. Since statistics are not intuitive to our minds we are > > > really poor judges of the truthfulness of this sort of claim. We are > > > constantly imposing order on randomness as a reflex, you can't avoid it. > > > But knowing that our mind has this tendency can help avoid being sure of > > > things that don't hold up to a more rigorous test. Glilovich's Book How > > > We Know What Isn't So, the Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, > > > studies these cognitive errors. > > > > > > http://www.amazon.com/How-Know-What-Isnt-Fallibility/dp/0029117062/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266784011&sr=8-1 > > > > > > > > > We have all had thousands of dreams that predicted nothing. When there > > > seems to be a connection our mind goes eureka! The world makes sense > > > because we are overlaying our pattern on the randomness. We dreamt about > > > a person and they called us, or we passed them on the street, or wrote to > > > us, or someone mentioned them to us. We remember our dream and overvalue > > > it as proof of our belief about the trans-personal nature of our minds. > > > But we haven't kept s journal of dreams and connections in our daily life > > > for months to really test it. And when we do our mind's shaping tendency > > > is right there to interpret the day as good after a pleasant dream. Even > > > bad things that turn out as a good thing in the end are counted in > > > evidence for our minds magical ability to predict the future. > > > > > > Dream contents may have creative uses, but I don't believe predicting the > > > future is one of them. > > > > > > > You are entitled to your opinion. But I am merely paraphrasing what is > > available in the jyotish shastras. Personally, I have kept a diary of my > > dreams for several months to determine what these dreams mean to my life. > > In one of the dreams, there was a sequence where I was taking a bus ride to > > visit my old alma mater for one reason or the the other. I met some people > > whom I did not know before. After a few days of this dream, I found out > > that my neighbor next door to me also graduated from my university through > > an alumni brochure that was incorrectly delivered into my mail box. > > > > To test this theory out yourself, you should keep a diary of your dreams to > > see if any of them "preplays" any of the actual occurences in your life. > > >
