Dreams originate in the brain {as opposed to the elbow or knee joint}, but since the earliest speculation about dreams the fabric or content of dreams has been a question mulled about by everyone from Popes to psychiatrists. And therein lies the problem. We the great unwashed have accepted {been conditioned to believe} that these folk have the answer. Leaving spirituality aside for the moment, our existence and the nature of our relationship to this phenomenon {existence} has been replete with speculation arriving as "fact" by us the great unwashed.

That we engage with existence through our senses, it would seem to follow that the brain that translates electrochemical potentials into sight and sound and so on, is the physical center of both consciousness and dreaming, but if we expand our speculation to include notions like Richard Dawkin's "memes" or observe the behavior of infants {who will cry when another infant cries although not experiencing the same discomfort or pain}which informs us that we are sensitive to stimuli around us that isn't necessarily generated by the cerebrum but is empathic...

I'm suggesting that there's far more going on with the nature/character of brain function and the balance {or imbalance} between our physical experiential and perhaps "spiritual" selves than we understand.