[Sabrina]

I was reading an article on sleep in my local magazine and this comment was made:

"You can't meet strangers in dreams. People can only dream about faces they've already seen, even if you can't remember them when you're awake."

I heartily disagree with this comment as I frequently dream of people I have never seen in my life.

What do you think?

[LadyShadow]

I agree with you Sabrina.

I have often dreamed of faces of people I have never seen before. Although, maybe I could have seen them on tv or somewhere else.

But then again, I don't know. We see people every day all the time, but everything is so hazy when we dream sometimes we can't even recognize faces. Like have you ever dreamed of a person's face that you could see so clearly when you're asleep but can't place the face in your mind when you wake up? That's what I mean.

[Trippin2.0]

I disagree. I saw my friends estranged dad in my dream. Saw a pic of him a little while after when I learned he had passed on. So even if I can't be sure the other stranger are not from tv, this man wasn't.

[Perna]

I think the people we meet in dreams we may not recognize their physical features but "who" they represent is someone we know. Our dreams are made up out of our own head; we can't really come up with a "stranger". Even the physical features we have put together from those who we have seen/know in some way. True, I'm not going to "know" a man from China but what "China" means to me, who/what the person represents will be known to me, will not be a "stranger" unless I allow it to be a stranger for my purposes. The stranger cannot get himself into my dream, I have to let him in and I do that with intent, if only unconscious intent.

[Trippin2.0]

I understand what you're saying Perna, but how did my friend's dad end up in my dream in his exact form? We live in different cities, and our paths have never crossed. The picture I mentioned was an old 1 her mother kept hidden away I saw it for the 1st time AFTER my dream... And I didn't mention it before, for fear of going OT, but he was himself in the dream, telling me to look after my friend, tho I didn't understand at the time, I knew he knew her... But no matter if there's no explanation, I'm quite used to weird non-MI related stuff happen to me. Still I disagree, if only based on this 1 dream...

[-jimi-]

We are able to put together very small chunks of information in dreams. Like a small item you saw in a commercial might be in your dream together with a car you saw day before, and down to smaller details. We're programmed for seeing faces, so we can take down faces to very small detail and build a new face in our minds. You can do it while awake. Of course you can do it in your sleep.

[yutzman]

I'm usually not sure who I encounter in my dreams. They are like fuzzy or aggressively moving....and here I agree with you Sabrina.
I see my dad, but he is the only one I recognize....and he is always a loving presence...never a negetive....always loving....and he was...