Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 "If you die in your dream, you die in real life."
00:04 It's a claim as old as time, whispered knowingly and ominously everywhere from elementary school
00:09 playgrounds to high-rise city office blocks.
00:12 For many, if anything, it's an urban myth, plain and simple.
00:16 But still, there are some who will swear that it's true.
00:19 So what's really happening here?
00:21 In this video, we'll take a closer look at this age-old belief to find out what's
00:26 really going on… and be sure to stick around until the end, because we'll also be taking
00:30 a closer look at how dreaming might, at the very least, bridge us to parallel worlds.
00:35 But for now, this is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question, "What
00:41 if you die in your dream?"
00:44 Do you need the big questions answered?
00:46 Are you constantly curious?
00:47 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:51 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:53 For most people, dying isn't necessarily something you want to think about.
00:58 During the day, if the specter of death ever even threatens to rear its head, our brains
01:02 can feel as though they're hardwired not to notice it.
01:05 We don't usually come away from watching a murder mystery movie, for example, desperately
01:09 scared that our own lives are about to end.
01:11 We're not typically and instantly plunged into an existential crisis every time we pass
01:16 a funeral parlor.
01:17 For the most part, our brain just muddles through without any major issues.
01:21 But that's not quite so true when we're dreaming.
01:24 Every night, all of us have the potential to unwittingly enter into a dream world.
01:28 It's rare that we ever choose to dream, or choose what we dream about.
01:33 Dreams just happen, and in the morning, we're left blinking ourselves awake, trying to make
01:37 sense of it all.
01:38 So much so that nightmares can be difficult to recover from.
01:42 And a dream of death can often feel like the worst nightmare of all.
01:46 Here's where the idea that if you die in your dream, you could die in real life quickly
01:50 takes shape.
01:51 It's a notion heavily shrouded in folklore and anecdotal tales, and it mostly links back
01:56 to variously ancient and modern understandings that dreams are much more than made-up stories
02:01 in our heads.
02:02 They're significant, and particularly as harbingers of future events, or as reflections
02:07 of our deepest fears.
02:09 Overall, it's usually said that if you actually, finally and ultimately die in your dream,
02:14 then it's either because you have died in real life in your sleep, or you're about
02:18 to die in real life, possibly during the following day.
02:21 The stipulation is, though, that you do have to actually, finally and ultimately die.
02:26 If you dream of death in general, or dream of the moments up until but not including
02:31 your own death, then most of the myths, legends and rumours concede that you should be fine.
02:36 Over the years, and all over the world, many cultures have viewed sleep in itself as a
02:41 state akin to death.
02:44 Researchers have suggested that while we sleep, although being unconscious to everything around
02:48 us, we're actually tapped into a higher level of consciousness, a higher dimension
02:53 to some.
02:54 Again, according to various claims, it all leads back to dream death being fundamentally
02:59 linked with dying in this reality, if not in all.
03:03 There's a profound, even physical, link, they say, between the here and there of sleep.
03:08 However, and despite its seeming prevalence as a baked-in idea, there is no scientific
03:13 evidence to support any of these claims, most notably of all.
03:17 Even if you were to die having dreamt of death, then you're obviously unable to link the
03:21 two as a warning for anyone else, because you're dead.
03:25 Meanwhile, reports in the living, waking world of a dream of death can always be explained
03:29 away as not quite fulfilling the criteria, in the event that the person reporting them
03:34 never actually dies as a result.
03:36 Much of the fear is quite understandable, however, because again, dreams can feel like
03:40 a very powerful force.
03:42 In general, it's thought that dreams are products of our subconscious minds.
03:46 They're seen as a cognitive method to process our emotions and life experiences, even those
03:51 emotions that we don't otherwise notice while we're awake, and those experiences that might
03:56 have similarly passed us by at the time.
03:59 Most dreaming happens during rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, which is during the very deepest
04:04 parts of sleep.
04:06 Particularly intense nightmares can certainly cause physical reactions as well, like increased
04:10 heart rate or sweating.
04:11 In some cases, you might even cry out or violently jerk your limbs, as if in self-defence.
04:17 Or perhaps sleep paralysis could set in.
04:19 But, while all of this physicality is suggestive, perhaps, of how impactful dreams can be, there
04:25 is still no direct link between dream content and actual mortality.
04:30 According to almost all mainstream science, you cannot "dream" yourself to death.
04:34 That's not to say that dreams are never related to a person's demise.
04:38 Unfortunately, in a broader sense, they can be.
04:41 From a psychological perspective, dreams about dying can certainly be unsettling.
04:47 Repeated dreams even more so, to the point where, with some conditions and in some circumstances,
04:52 it can feel as though the lines between a desperate dream world and the waking real
04:56 world are no longer there.
04:58 If this is the case, then a professional psychologist can help.
05:01 Because in fact, some psychological approaches suggest that if a dream about death means
05:06 anything at all, then it is most likely something much less sinister.
05:10 Such visions may instead signify change or transformation in general, with a metaphorical
05:15 dream death pertaining to old habits or former situations being shed for new growth.
05:22 Mostly then, it's actually a positive thing.
05:24 The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung posited that dreaming about death typically reflects
05:29 an inner desire for change, or simply a general understanding of one's own mortality.
05:34 Austria's Sigmund Freud, author of the internationally recognized and pioneering text, The Interpretation
05:40 of Dreams, suggested it might express repressed wishes or unresolved conflicts, yes, but never
05:46 an imminent death in the making.
05:48 In essence, experiencing death within a dream wasn't and isn't considered a warning or
05:53 indeed a death sentence, but rather an invitation from our psyche to explore wider transitions
05:58 that are apparently occurring within ourselves.
06:01 Some then might prefer to think of death dreams as simply being one of the many that you might
06:05 experience and probably have experienced in your lifetime.
06:09 Other seeming dream omens include endlessly falling, which is said to hint at a person
06:13 feeling out of control in life, and therefore thoroughly stressed.
06:17 There's also being chased, which some suggest links back to any kind of lingering problem
06:22 in your day to day that you're trying to avoid.
06:25 Dreams of darkness are sometimes tied to depression in general.
06:29 Losing teeth signifies a real world loss of something significant.
06:32 Or, and on an especially epic scale, do you dream of the apocalypse?
06:37 If so, then it potentially points to collective anxieties in the waking world as your brain
06:42 attempts to unpick particularly monumental themes, such as societal unrest, war, or even
06:48 future technology.
06:49 Importantly, we know that dream interpretation is inescapably subjective.
06:54 It varies from person to person.
06:56 The context of the dream, the individual's personal experiences, and their cultural beliefs
07:01 all wield an influence.
07:03 And when it comes to dying, we clearly all have our own ideas, theories, and past experiences
07:08 with that.
07:10 Nobody thinks about it in quite the same way.
07:12 So, if you die in your dream, you don't automatically die in real life.
07:16 That's true.
07:17 But if you do ever wake up feeling thoroughly reminded of your own mortality, then it is
07:22 perhaps worthwhile to take some time to think about what's happening in your life, regardless.
07:27 For now, though, what's clear is that a lot can happen in our minds while we sleep.
07:32 So, and steering away from death, how far could dreaming really take us?
07:38 Next up, we take a closer look at the link between dreams and parallel worlds.
07:43 At how our sleeping brains might actually be tapping into endless other, multiple realities.
07:49 And it's starting right about now.
07:53 What did you dream about last night?
07:56 Before you head into the comments to detail every last moment of the strangest visions
08:00 you ever had, consider how weird dreaming really is.
08:04 Yes, there are various, variously conventional ideas on exactly why our brains take us along
08:09 these nightly journeys, and we will cover that in today's video.
08:13 But alongside all the more expected explanations, there are some truly out-of-this-world notions
08:19 that dreaming might actually be more than simply random stories that we tell our sleeping
08:24 selves.
08:25 A lot more.
08:27 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the
08:30 extraordinary question; do we enter a parallel universe when we dream?
08:36 Do you need the big questions answered?
08:38 Are you constantly curious?
08:39 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
08:42 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
08:47 Dreaming has long been one of the most mysterious aspects of the human experience.
08:51 As we drift into the realms of sleep, our minds conjure up vivid and sometimes bizarre
08:56 scenarios, leaving us to wonder about the nature and purpose of these nocturnal adventures.
09:02 As strange as it all seems, however, there has been a lot of scientific thought and theory
09:06 put into trying to understand dreams.
09:09 So, before anything else, let's start with that.
09:12 At its simplest, dreaming is a complex and dynamic process that occurs during the Rapid
09:17 Eye Movement, or REM, stage of sleep.
09:20 This time is characterised by heightened brain activity, which in turn generates vivid imagery
09:25 in the mind's eye.
09:27 Of course, dreams can be mundane or fantastical.
09:30 They can make perfect sense; they can make no sense at all.
09:33 And researchers generally believe that they're influenced by a myriad of factors, including
09:37 our daily experiences, our underlying emotions, and our subconscious thoughts.
09:43 There have been plenty of in-depth studies into dreaming over the years, and especially
09:46 in the twentieth century, but three of the most notable and widely referenced are Freud's
09:51 Interpretation of Dreams, in 1899; Hall and Van de Kassel's Content Analysis, in 1966;
09:59 and the Activation Synthesis Model, in 1977.
10:02 Sigmund Freud's groundbreaking work in many ways laid the foundation for modern dream
10:07 psychology and analysis.
10:09 Freud proposed that dreams were a window into the unconscious mind, revealing repressed
10:14 desires and unresolved conflicts.
10:16 And while some aspects of the Freudian approach have been heavily criticised, the emphasis
10:21 on the symbolic nature of dreams, and their connection to the subconscious, remains influential.
10:26 It was more than sixty years later, though, that another major shift took place, following
10:31 the Content Analysis Study of '66.
10:33 Here, the researchers Hall and Van de Kassel systematically logged and analysed thousands
10:39 of dream reports.
10:41 They identified common themes and symbols, providing valuable insights into the universality
10:46 of certain dream elements.
10:48 And their findings paved the way for a more empirical approach to dream research from
10:52 that point on.
10:53 Finally, however, and developed by John Allen Hobson and Robert McCarley, the Activation
10:59 Synthesis Model of '77 broadly suggested that dreams are a direct result of the brain's
11:04 attempt to make sense of particular neural activity during REM sleep.
11:09 This was something of a pivot, then, as dreams are here seen as a form of "brain noise"
11:14 that the mind simply organises into cohesive narratives… or sometimes not-so-cohesive
11:20 narratives.
11:21 This model certainly challenged Freud's ideas, highlighting the biological basis of
11:25 dreaming.
11:26 And today, researchers are usually caught somewhere between the two ways of thinking.
11:31 Either dreams are a reflection of ourselves and our non-physical minds, or they're the
11:36 creation of traceable neural firings within our physical heads.
11:40 So, now let's enter a parallel universe.
11:43 The connection between dreaming and parallel universes perhaps understandably arises from
11:48 the surreal and often nonsensical nature of dreams.
11:52 In a dream, the laws of physics and reality seem to be suspended, allowing for otherwise
11:57 impossible scenarios.
11:59 In your dream world, you may inhabit a version of you that can fly, or change faces.
12:04 A version that's turquoise all over, or one that doesn't have eyes or a mouth.
12:09 Seemingly, anything goes.
12:11 And so, while dreams themselves still don't serve as direct evidence for parallel universes,
12:16 they have long prompted speculation about the nature of reality and the boundaries of
12:21 possibility.
12:22 Some theories suggest that the bizarre happenings in dreams align with the principles of quantum
12:27 physics and the concept of a multiverse.
12:30 Broadly, quantum uncertainty posits that all possible outcomes of a situation do exist
12:36 in what might be termed as "parallel universes".
12:39 This means that, even in the apparently real world, anything actually is possible.
12:44 And so, dreams could then offer glimpses into these alternate planes.
12:48 Quite how, no one's really sure… but it's a suggestion that has gradually garnered some
12:53 support.
12:54 Robert Lanza is an American scientist.
12:56 For much of his career, he's worked in the fields of stem cell research and cloning.
13:01 But in 2007, his profile took a different direction when he published an article titled
13:05 "A New Theory of the Universe" in The American Scholar.
13:09 In it, Lanza outlines his model of biocentrism, which he puts forward as a candidate towards
13:14 a grand unifying theory; a theory of everything.
13:18 In short, biocentrism argues that life and the universe are inherently related to, dependent
13:24 on and created by the individual; by consciousness.
13:28 It's said that seemingly key concepts such as Albert Einstein's space-time can only
13:33 ever amount to speculation, and that all we can truly be sure about, when contemplating
13:38 the true nature of reality, is that it's always, essentially, our own doing.
13:43 The look of a tree, the shape of our hands, the passing of time, the contemplation of
13:47 gravity… it's all biocentric in that none of it exists without consciousness to make
13:52 it exist.
13:53 The bridge between this worldview and dreaming is then quite simple.
13:57 As Lanza and other biocentrists would have it, all that we do in a dream - creating and
14:02 experiencing perceived realities - is also all that we do in waking life.
14:07 There is no or little difference, and the two aspects of life only feel as though they're
14:12 separate, because we require sleep to access one of them.
14:16 Lanza argues that both the waking and dreaming experiences amount only to the collapse of
14:21 probability waves into an observer-led reality.
14:25 In this way, the approach does somewhat mirror the aforementioned principles of quantum physics.
14:30 Things only exist when we see, feel or experience that they do.
14:34 But quantum uncertainty, at the same time, means that anything is possible.
14:38 In dreams, compared to in waking life, that last part is always far more apparent… which
14:43 is why we can dream-fly, among endless other things.
14:47 In an article for Psychology Today in 2021, taken and adapted from a 2020 book he co-authored
14:53 titled "The Grand Biocentric Design", Lanza explains further.
14:57 In dreams, he writes, "we leave the consensus universe and can experience an alternate cognitive
15:03 model of reality, very different from the one shared by other observers while awake."
15:09 Here then, it's never as though we pass through some kind of wormhole while dreaming,
15:14 to enter into another dimension.
15:15 Instead, it's a realisation that any alternate universe that might exist does exist within
15:21 consciousness.
15:22 It's merely a matter of access.
15:24 The waking world is an interpretation of reality shared by all who populate it.
15:29 The dream world is an interpretation usually shared by far fewer, and often only inhabited
15:34 by one - the dreamer.
15:36 It's as though, on a set that picks up infinite radio stations, your dreams are those where
15:41 only you are listening.
15:43 So, what's your verdict?
15:44 How do you view your own dreams?
15:46 How do you feel when someone else starts telling you about theirs?
15:49 One somewhat stereotypical response whenever another person begins recounting their dreams
15:54 is to suddenly drift off… to find their tale perhaps unfairly tedious.
15:58 Could that feeling in itself betray something more?
16:01 Could it be that you're often less interested in other people's dreams because those are
16:05 parallel worlds that you're simply not part of?
16:08 Lanza hasn't commented on that particular aspect, but in general his approach has hardly
16:13 gone unnoticed in recent times.
16:15 For some, biocentrism amounts only to philosophy, and has yet to seriously break new ground
16:21 in terms of the scientific understanding of reality.
16:24 But to others, the overriding ambiguity is also key to how and why this model works.
16:30 All of us live, all of us dream… but the connection between those two shared experiences
16:35 has always been somewhat mysterious.
16:37 Freud argued that dreaming was a reflection of our innermost selves.
16:41 The activation synthesis model says it's the result of our physical brains responding
16:45 to random neural activity.
16:47 But biocentrism throws all of that out the nearest window.
16:50 Instead, it suggests that dreaming is every bit as real as living.
16:54 And that's why, perhaps, we enter a parallel universe when we dream.
16:59 What do you think?
17:00 Is there anything we missed?
17:01 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
17:05 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.