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Activation Synthesis

One of the most interesting areas of psychology is dreams. While there are many theories about the purpose of dreams, one of the most fascinating (and strongest philosophical implications) is the activation synthesis theory.

The theory basically states that our dreams are products of random neural activity during REM sleep that is converted into plausible stories usually based on the day’s events.

Our brains are constantly reconstructing and synthesizing things from external stimuli to create the complete effect we are familiar with. For example, our brain fills in the blind spot) that results from the rod and cone-free part of the retina where the optic nerve connects to the back of the eye.

What is interesting about the activation synthesis theory of dreams is that entire situations are synthesized with very little preliminary information. Other forms of reconstruction rely heavily on simultaneously-perceived stimuli to “fill in the gaps” whereas these dreams would be only loosely based on recent events with the remainder of the in-dream sensations being synthesized by the brain.

The prospect that complex and “realistic” sensations (such as in lucid dreams) could be fabrications of our brains is both amazing and alarming. If our dreams can be completely artificial, what else is simply our brain’s interpretation of random activity?

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