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00:00 What did you dream about last night?
00:03 Before you head into the comments to detail every last moment of the strangest visions
00:07 you ever had, consider how weird dreaming really is.
00:11 Yes, there are various, variously conventional ideas on exactly why our brains take us along
00:16 these nightly journeys, and we will cover that in today's video.
00:20 But alongside all the more expected explanations, there are some truly out-of-this-world notions
00:26 that dreaming might actually be more than simply random stories that we tell our sleeping
00:31 selves.
00:32 A lot more.
00:34 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; do we enter a
00:39 parallel universe when we dream?
00:43 Do you need the big questions answered?
00:45 Are you constantly curious?
00:46 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:49 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:54 Dreaming has long been one of the most mysterious aspects of the human experience.
00:58 As we drift into the realms of sleep, our minds conjure up vivid and sometimes bizarre
01:03 scenarios, leaving us to wonder about the nature and purpose of these nocturnal adventures.
01:08 As strange as it all seems, however, there has been a lot of scientific thought and theory
01:13 put into trying to understand dreams.
01:15 So, before anything else, let's start with that.
01:19 At its simplest, dreaming is a complex and dynamic process that occurs during the rapid
01:24 eye movement, or REM, stage of sleep.
01:27 This time is characterised by heightened brain activity, which in turn generates vivid imagery
01:32 in the mind's eye.
01:33 Of course, dreams can be mundane or fantastical.
01:37 They can make perfect sense; they can make no sense at all.
01:40 And researchers generally believe that they're influenced by a myriad of factors, including
01:44 our daily experiences, our underlying emotions, and our subconscious thoughts.
01:50 There have been plenty of in-depth studies into dreaming over the years, and especially
01:53 in the twentieth century.
01:55 But three of the most notable and widely referenced are Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, in
02:00 1899; Hall and Van de Kassel's Content Analysis, in 1966; and the Activation Synthesis Model,
02:07 in 1977.
02:09 Sigmund Freud's groundbreaking work in many ways laid the foundation for modern dream
02:13 psychology and analysis.
02:16 Freud proposed that dreams were a window into the unconscious mind, revealing repressed
02:20 desires and unresolved conflicts.
02:23 And while some aspects of the Freudian approach have been heavily criticised, the emphasis
02:27 on the symbolic nature of dreams and their connection to the subconscious remains influential.
02:33 It was more than sixty years later, though, that another major shift took place, following
02:38 the Content Analysis Study of '66.
02:40 Here, the researchers Hall and Van de Kassel systematically logged and analysed thousands
02:46 of dream reports.
02:48 They identified common themes and symbols, providing valuable insights into the universality
02:53 of certain dream elements.
02:55 And their findings paved the way for a more empirical approach to dream research from
02:59 that point on.
03:00 Finally, however, and developed by John Alan Hobson and Robert McCarley, the Activation
03:06 Synthesis Model of '77 broadly suggested that dreams are a direct result of the brain's
03:11 attempt to make sense of particular neural activity during REM sleep.
03:16 This was something of a pivot, then, as dreams are here seen as a form of "brain noise"
03:21 that the mind simply organises into cohesive narratives… or sometimes not-so-cohesive
03:26 narratives.
03:27 This model certainly challenged Freud's ideas, highlighting the biological basis of
03:32 dreaming.
03:33 And today, researchers are usually caught somewhere between the two ways of thinking.
03:38 Either dreams are a reflection of ourselves and our non-physical minds, or they're the
03:42 creation of traceable neural firings within our physical heads.
03:47 So now, let's enter a parallel universe.
03:50 The connection between dreaming and parallel universes perhaps understandably arises from
03:55 the surreal and often nonsensical nature of dreams.
03:58 In a dream, the laws of physics and reality seem to be suspended, allowing for otherwise
04:04 impossible scenarios.
04:05 In your dream world, you may inhabit a version of you that can fly, or change faces; a version
04:11 that's turquoise all over, or one that doesn't have eyes or a mouth.
04:16 Seemingly, anything goes.
04:18 And so, while dreams themselves still don't serve as direct evidence for parallel universes,
04:23 they have long prompted speculation about the nature of reality and the boundaries of
04:27 possibility.
04:29 Some theories suggest that the bizarre happenings in dreams align with the principles of quantum
04:34 physics and the concept of a multiverse.
04:37 Broadly, quantum uncertainty posits that all possible outcomes of a situation do exist
04:43 in what might be termed as "parallel universes".
04:46 This means that, even in the apparently real world, anything actually is possible.
04:51 And so, dreams could then offer glimpses into these alternate planes.
04:55 Quite how, no-one's really sure, but it's a suggestion that has gradually garnered some
05:00 support.
05:01 Robert Lanza is an American scientist.
05:03 For much of his career, he's worked in the fields of stem cell research and cloning.
05:07 But in 2007, his profile took a different direction when he published an article titled
05:12 "A New Theory of the Universe" in The American Scholar.
05:16 In it, Lanza outlines his model of biocentrism, which he puts forward as a candidate towards
05:21 a grand, unifying theory; a theory of everything.
05:25 In short, biocentrism argues that life and the universe are inherently related to, dependent
05:31 on and created by the individual; by consciousness.
05:35 It's said that seemingly key concepts such as Albert Einstein's space-time can only
05:40 ever amount to speculation.
05:42 And that all we can truly be sure about, when contemplating the true nature of reality,
05:47 is that it's always, essentially, our own doing.
05:50 The look of a tree, the shape of our hands, the passing of time, the contemplation of
05:54 gravity… it's all biocentric in that none of it exists without consciousness to make
05:59 it exist.
06:00 The bridge between this worldview and dreaming is then quite simple.
06:04 As Lanza and other biocentrists would have it, all that we do in a dream - creating and
06:09 experiencing perceived realities - is also all that we do in waking life.
06:14 There is no or little difference, and the two aspects of life only feel as though they're
06:19 separate, because we require sleep to access one of them.
06:23 Lanza argues that both the waking and dreaming experiences amount only to the "collapse
06:28 of probability waves into an observer-led reality".
06:31 In this way, the approach does somewhat mirror the aforementioned principles of quantum physics.
06:36 Things only exist when we see, feel or experience that they do.
06:40 But quantum uncertainty, at the same time, means that anything is possible.
06:45 In dreams, compared to in waking life, that last part is always far more apparent… which
06:50 is why we can dream-fly, among endless other things.
06:53 In an article for Psychology Today in 2021, taken and adapted from a 2020 book he co-authored
06:59 titled "The Grand Biocentric Design", Lanza explains further.
07:04 In dreams, he writes, "we leave the consensus universe and can experience an alternate cognitive
07:10 model of reality, very different from the one shared by other observers while awake."
07:16 Here then, it's never as though we pass through some kind of wormhole while dreaming, to enter
07:21 into another dimension.
07:22 Instead, it's a realisation that any alternate universe that might exist does exist within
07:28 consciousness.
07:29 It's merely a matter of access.
07:31 The waking world is an interpretation of reality shared by all who populate it.
07:35 The dream world is an interpretation usually shared by far fewer, and often only inhabited
07:41 by one - the dreamer.
07:43 It's as though, on a set that picks up infinite radio stations, your dreams are those where
07:48 only you are listening.
07:49 So, what's your verdict?
07:51 How do you view your own dreams?
07:53 How do you feel when someone else starts telling you about theirs?
07:56 One somewhat stereotypical response whenever another person begins recounting their dreams
08:01 is to suddenly drift off… to find their tale perhaps unfairly tedious.
08:05 Could that feeling in itself betray something more?
08:08 Could it be that you're often less interested in other people's dreams because those are
08:12 parallel worlds that you're simply not a part of?
08:15 Lanza hasn't commented on that particular aspect, but in general his approach has hardly
08:20 gone unnoticed in recent times.
08:22 For some, biocentrism amounts only to philosophy, and has yet to seriously break new ground
08:28 in terms of the scientific understanding of reality.
08:31 But to others, the overriding ambiguity is also key to how and why this model works.
08:37 All of us live, all of us dream, but the connection between those two shared experiences has always
08:42 been somewhat mysterious.
08:44 Freud argued that dreaming was a reflection of our innermost selves.
08:48 The activation synthesis model says it's the result of our physical brains responding
08:52 to random neural activity.
08:54 But biocentrism throws all of that out the nearest window.
08:57 Instead, it suggests that dreaming is every bit as real as living.
09:01 And that's why, perhaps, we enter a parallel universe when we dream.
09:06 What do you think?
09:07 Is there anything we missed?
09:08 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
09:12 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.