1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Music 2 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,000 They take us upon a fantastic journey beyond what a waking mind can imagine. 3 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:35,000 Dreams incredibly enrich your life, your horizons, the depths of your experiences. 4 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,000 They can terrify us, exhaust us and promise us many things. 5 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:48,000 I remember seeing a friend of mine off in the distance and I just said goodbye, like it was the last thing I would say. 6 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 They come to us when we are at our most defenseless. They take us where the conscious fears to tread. 7 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,000 They are dreams and nightmares. 8 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Music 9 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,000 Beyond what is known by an unexplored world of shadows and phantoms. 10 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,000 Music 11 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,000 A land that knows no limits of time or space. 12 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:26,000 Music 13 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,000 From the dawn of discovery to the nightfall of catastrophe. 14 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:37,000 A journey to a universe of the unexplained. The unforeseen, the unbelievable. 15 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:43,000 A place beyond reality where no question will go unanswered. 16 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,000 And a place where myths and legends are law, superstition, assights. 17 00:01:49,000 --> 00:02:11,000 Music 18 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,000 It's time for our journey to begin. 19 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000 Music 20 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000 Our eyes may be closed, yet we are very much awake. 21 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,000 Music 22 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000 Dreams, nightmares. 23 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 Music 24 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Knowledge surrounds these library walls, and with these instruments, that knowledge can be ours. 25 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:49,000 Music 26 00:02:50,000 --> 00:03:00,000 When we sleep, we dream. Our subconscious flooded with images that can entertain, inspire or terrify. 27 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,000 Dreams are signposts in an uncharted land. 28 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,000 Fantastic terrain that exists within our minds. Here, past, present and future are one. 29 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:18,000 Here, our imagination has no limits. And it is here that our innermost desires can be fulfilled. 30 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:24,000 But the power exists to remake the world into our own image. 31 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,000 This is the world of dreams. 32 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:31,000 This is the world of nightmares. 33 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:39,000 This nocturnal voyage can begin innocently, peacefully, when released expected. 34 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:48,000 As this woman falls asleep, her mind will transport her through a bizarre collage of images. 35 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:53,000 Some incomprehensible, some terrifying. 36 00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Music 37 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:10,000 These frightening images reverberate through our waking hours and become nightmares, twisted, surreal visions that can leave a haunting residue. 38 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Music 39 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:24,000 If these nightmares persist, they can consume their victims. And for this poor dreamer, her private hell is only just beginning, but the night is still young. 40 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000 Everybody dreams, everybody dreams every single night that we have about four or five different dream periods a night. 41 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,000 In an average lifetime, we'd acquire about 30,000 hours of dreams. 42 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:43,000 There have been a lot of different definitions of a dream. One that's been given by children is it's a picture that you see at night. 43 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Some people give a long, complicated explanation that it's the form of nocturnal mentation. One experiences during a sleeping state. 44 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,000 Other people would say it's just a fun experience while you're asleep. 45 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Dreaming is something that comes easily to all of us. All we need to do is to remember the dreams and we have access to what is going on unconsciously in our minds and therefore in our lives. 46 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:22,000 And sometimes we have very bright ideas that we're not really aware of and if these ideas are brought to the surface, they can help us to solve problems, they can help us to improve our relationships, they can help us in business or in school or in our careers, 47 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,000 and they can even sometimes make discoveries for us. 48 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:33,000 To learn more about this mysterious process, we must look at what happens while we sleep. 49 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:46,000 Normal sleep follows the same pattern. Electro- and celerograph machines that record the electrical activity of the brain, literally brain waves, show that four different levels of activity occur during sleep. 50 00:05:46,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Sleep is the stage where these dream phantoms perform, the setting for this theater of our imagination. And that setting can change distinctly, altering the impact of the dream experience. 51 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:18,000 Stage one sleep is the lightest, usually described as drifting off to sleep. It normally lasts only a few minutes before further changes occur, signaling the beginning of stage two sleep. 52 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Here we see the onset of deeper sleep. The mind is unfocused and there is a slowing of respiration. Sleepwalking and talking in one sleep often occur at this stage. 53 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:45,000 By stage three sleep, the dream cycle has begun. It is characterized by stronger electrical impulses from the brain. Now we're breathing slowly and regularly. The heart rate has slowed. The temperature has fallen. 54 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:56,000 At stage four we've reached the deepest level of sleep, visible as large slow waves on electronic monitors, similar to brain activity during a coma. 55 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:10,000 Now the brain returns back to stage one activity and this marks the point where we experience our most vivid dreams. This is the time of the dreamer and the body physically undergoes changes during this period. 56 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:23,000 As this woman's ordeal continues, she undergoes rapid eye movement or REM. Her breathing changes, her pulse quickens, her blood pressure rises, her body reacts to the terrible scene caught in her mind's eye. 57 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:47,000 If she's fortunate, the rational light of day would dispel her slumbering fear. If she's lucky. And though her particular dream is her own, these physiological symptoms are shared by us all. 58 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:52,000 For we all dream and we all return to tell our tales. 59 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:05,000 I always dream in color and my dreams are always very vivid and every bit is real as waking reality. 60 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:14,000 For me they are mainly dreams where I become transformed into a different being. 61 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:24,000 When I was a young kid I guess I remember being there Friday nightmares. I remember a nightmare of being in an elevator trapped and falling and falling. 62 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:35,000 If I'm involved in a schoolwork, I have many dreams about doing school projects. If I'm involved in artworks, I have many dreams about art projects. 63 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:43,000 I remember the dream exactly as I had dreamt it and what was unusual about the dream is that I was a man in the dream which surprised me. 64 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:56,000 And I was in medieval times and I was wearing thin leather sort of by calf length boots and I could feel the cobblestones as I walked through this town. 65 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Today scientists have made remarkable discoveries as to why our dreams seem so real. Some believe their discoveries prove that it is possible to be conscious while you're dreaming. 66 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:12,000 To actually control the outcome of your dreams. 67 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:21,000 While we're asleep, our dreams seem so real that they deceive us into an unquestioning acceptance of their reality. 68 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:27,000 Why is it that our brains can be so easily fooled? 69 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:37,000 As we have seen, while we're asleep our brains are active. In sleep laboratories like these, scientists have been studying these activities. 70 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:43,000 For example, many people have reported dreams in which they were aware at the time that they were dreaming. 71 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:51,000 Scientists have looked at this particular phenomena and have given it a name. Lucid dreaming. 72 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:59,000 Lucid dreaming simply means being aware, knowing that you're dreaming at the time you're having the ongoing dream. 73 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:06,000 It's in other definitions a bridge between waking reality and dream reality. 74 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:11,000 Studies have shown that a lucid dreamer has the ability to actually control the outcome of their dreams. 75 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:15,000 An ability that can take the dreamer down some strange paths. 76 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:23,000 I once had a lucid dream in which I was in an airplane and suddenly I realized that I was having a dream. 77 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:31,000 At that point I was able to manipulate and change the dream. I was able to direct the airplane to take me to any place that I wanted to go. 78 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:36,000 And I was able to bring people into the airplane that I wanted to see or wanted to be with. 79 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:42,000 And obviously this changed the nature and the direction of the dream. 80 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:49,000 For people involved in dream research, the study of these lucid dreams can be enlightening. 81 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:58,000 For me Roy, the most intriguing thing about the lucid dreams I have is just the challenging aspect of waking up while still being asleep. 82 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:05,000 Suddenly what you have taken as reality is no longer reality. You've entered a new, added a whole new aspect to your reality. 83 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:12,000 And I wonder if the same thing is not possible in waking life. I enjoy lucid dreams very much. 84 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:18,000 It's just otherwise I would be asleep for that eight or twelve hours as a case may be. 85 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:27,000 But now I can use that time to experience a whole, it's like having a second life. 86 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:34,000 Sometimes over a period of months or even years the exact same dream may be repeated. 87 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:43,000 Often it contains a strong element of anxiety such as a task that can never be properly completed. 88 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,000 What does it mean when we experience the same dream time after time? 89 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:56,000 Is it possible that the recurring dream is telling us something we need to know? 90 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:00,000 Most of us have experienced one of these recurring dreams. 91 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:06,000 And not too surprisingly there seems to be a reason for this repeat trip through illusion. 92 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:14,000 Maybe that our subconscious is trying to tell us something. 93 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:21,000 Recurring dreams generally indicate unsolved or incomplete issues or problems in our life. 94 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:33,000 And the dream will recur or will take place again in an attempt to bring closure to some issue that we have not yet been able to come to terms with. 95 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:39,000 Here's some unresolved problems, something you've not adequately dealt with and come to terms with. 96 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,000 And so your dreams are saying, hey, I'm just coming back to remind you, you still haven't squared your account with me. 97 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:50,000 And I'm going to keep coming back as many times as I need to until finally we get to record straight. 98 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:57,000 Why is this woman imagining this hideous chase? What, if anything, does this reveal about her subconscious? 99 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:04,000 The answers to these questions remain elusive, hidden deep within our mind. 100 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:08,000 The images that dreams present can leave a haunting legacy. 101 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:16,000 How many believe that recurring dreams are symptoms of something deeper, something that can impact the dreamer when he awakens? 102 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:24,000 Is it possible to learn from our dreams, to seize their power and use it to our own advantage? 103 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:37,000 In 1900, psychologist Seaman Freud, published the interpretation of dreams in which he argues that dreams are far more than haphazard meandering of the mind. 104 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:42,000 On the contrary, they are a revealing look at the content of our inner lives. 105 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:47,000 The dreamer is like a playwright. This is something they create in their own head. 106 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:53,000 They bring up the stage, they put the props on there, they write the script, they go out and they're the casting director. 107 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,000 They decide how many acts, they decide whether it's a happier set ending. 108 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:02,000 So it's only them who can really have the right to acknowledge that this is a correct interpretation. 109 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:14,000 Our dreams can sometimes entertain. They can be forgotten with the ringing of an alarm clock or stay with us for the rest of our lives. 110 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:21,000 But what about the terrifying dreams we experience? What about nightmares? 111 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:30,000 Some of these thoughts and feelings can be frightening, they can be anxious, they can be scary, they can even be horrible and terrifying. 112 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:36,000 And then we give the name nightmares for these particular dreams. Now nightmares are not unusual. 113 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:42,000 Nightmares occur to people of all ages. Some people simply have more of them, other people do. 114 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:49,000 About two-thirds of all dreams are unpleasant. The most common dreams would be dreams of being chased. 115 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:53,000 That's when it seems to be the most frequent, usually followed by falling. 116 00:14:54,000 --> 00:15:01,000 Flying would usually come in third place. Being sort of nude or only partially dressed in public would be a fairly common one. 117 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,000 Dreaming of deceased individuals would be a fairly frequent one. 118 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:12,000 An anxiety dream where somehow you go in to take an exam and a pencil doesn't write or the questions can't be read. 119 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,000 Encountering some sort of barrier or frustration like that. 120 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:19,000 I've seen some patients of mine with nightmares. People who don't just occasionally have a nightmare, 121 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:25,000 pretty much every night I give them a lot of psychological tests, I have them sleeping in the laboratory. 122 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:33,000 My conclusion is that the people with a lot of nightmares were not necessarily people whom you'd call terribly sick. 123 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:41,000 Some of them did have psychological problems, but some were just very creative, open, artistic people. 124 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:49,000 And in fact, famous authors and painters, if you look in their biographies, often have a lot of nightmares. 125 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:57,000 So if you have a lot of nightmares, you're either artistic, creative, or psychologically vulnerable, or maybe both. 126 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:07,000 Artists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, astrologers, even laypersons, 127 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,000 have sought to attach definite interpretations to the symbols of our dreams. 128 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:21,000 For instance, some would have us believe that a dream involving images of a snake is related to attitudes towards sex. 129 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:28,000 And yet, isn't it possible that in your dreams a snake is just a snake? 130 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:34,000 While Freud tried literally to assign certain symbols to common feelings and emotions, 131 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000 today's experts have a somewhat different opinion. 132 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:42,000 Many of the images that we have when we are dreaming can be symbolic. 133 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:52,000 For example, the sun might stand for the source of illumination in our life, it might stand for something that brings us warmth, 134 00:16:52,000 --> 00:17:00,000 it might represent a sun, S-O-N, instead of the sun, S-U-N, or it might not be symbolic at all. 135 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:05,000 It might simply be there to remind us of the last time we saw the sun. 136 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:09,000 Dreams can mean exactly what they appear to be. 137 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:15,000 They don't have to have all these images, all the symbols, and metaphors. 138 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,000 They often can be de-residue. 139 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:25,000 And you just complete maybe a thought of what has gone on the day before, two days before. 140 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,000 There seems to be more interest in dreams lately. 141 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:35,000 Maybe we're becoming more open, we're becoming more aware that this could be an important part of our lives. 142 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:42,000 And it doesn't mean we have to believe word for word in what Freud said about dreams, in what Jung said, or someone else said. 143 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:49,000 I think we're just becoming more interested in our lives, we're interested in dreaming as a way of getting to know ourselves. 144 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:56,000 As scientists, we're also interested in dreaming as a way of knowing how the mind functions. 145 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:01,000 And we're beginning to learn the difference psychologically, biologically, chemically. 146 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:05,000 We know from the laboratory studies that everybody dreams every single night. 147 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:12,000 The only difference is in recall, so that if people haven't been brought up to appreciate dreams, either in their family, 148 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,000 or through any sort of educational experience, they tend to dismiss them. 149 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:20,000 They tend to joke about them and they just don't give them the merit that they deserve. 150 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:27,000 It's a foolish person who ignores his dreams, so they can be the key to our innermost thoughts and feelings. 151 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,000 We must only know where to look. 152 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:46,000 Discovering the meaning behind our dreams can be a rich and rewarding experience. 153 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:52,000 And the best way to begin this personal odyssey is to write your dreams down. 154 00:18:53,000 --> 00:19:00,000 I actually look forward to going to sleep at night because I know that I have very rich dreams, 155 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:06,000 and if I can just remember to write them down, what I usually do is program myself to do that, 156 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:12,000 and I put my dream book by my bed so that it's right there and it's easier for me. 157 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:19,000 Dreams are part of my life, and for me, when I go to bed every night is a sacred place for me. 158 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:25,000 It's a place for me to listen to what's inside of me. 159 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:30,000 When you begin to write down your dreams, what can you expect to discover? 160 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:35,000 What you would learn in your dreams is about your true personality, 161 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,000 is how it is functioning at a deeper level. 162 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,000 You'd learn about your strengths, you'd be learning about your weaknesses, 163 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:46,000 you'd be learning more clearly about your needs, what are some conflicts you're not adequately dealing with, 164 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:50,000 what are the sort of aspirations that you really would like to achieve, 165 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,000 and maybe suggest some ways that you could get to those goals. 166 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:03,000 It's sobering to realize that as we sleep, we become spectators of our own imagination. 167 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:09,000 It's a realistic theater where every image becomes charged with meaning, 168 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:14,000 meaning it still defies logical interpretation. 169 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,000 We cannot deny our dreams. 170 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:25,000 They inhabit our minds, taking us across a wondrous threshold where reality and fantasy collide. 171 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,000 There are so many questions we cannot yet answer. 172 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,000 Perhaps the answer will be revealed in a dream. 173 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:52,000 Secrets and mysteries presents information based in part on theories and opinions, 174 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,000 some of which are controversial. 175 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:58,000 The producer's purpose is not to validate any side of an issue, 176 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:03,000 but through the use of actualities and dramatic recreation relate a possible answer, 177 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,000 but not the only answer to this material. 178 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,000 Thank you for watching.