Is Fantasy a dream or an escape?

[littlemanpoet]

Dreams are understood as the mind processing one's day/life while asleep. Nothing planned about that. By contrast, fantasies are constructed by the waking human mind. There are similarities, surely, but there is artifice in the one and happenstance in the other. Make sense?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Dreams are understood as the mind processing one's day/life while asleep. Nothing planned about that. By contrast, fantasies are constructed by the waking human mind. There are similarities, surely, but there is artifice in the one and happenstance in the other. Make sense?

Unless you are capable of lucid dreaming. I knew someone who reckoned he could do this, but I remain sceptical.

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Unless you are capable of lucid dreaming. I knew someone who reckoned he could do this, but I remain sceptical.

I've dreamed lucidly a couple of times. I did change the outcome. I have a friend who reports that she dreams lucidly quite often.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I've dreamed lucidly a couple of times. I did change the outcome. I have a friend who reports that she dreams lucidly quite often.

The only kind of lucid dreaming I can do is managing to wake myself up screaming just at the moment the bomb drops or the rocks fall on my head. I will often return to the same dream, too, though I do suffer with recurring dreams anyway as that's a feature of PTSD, unfortunately. Hmm, I might be more convinced if you can do lucid dreaming - the guy I used to know who could do it ended up seeing the Four Horsemen one afternoon and being taken away, so I'm always cycnical and see it as part of his erm 'problem', which is not appropriate to go into here.

So, is a lucid dream a fantasy or a dream then?

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I will often return to the same dream, too, though I do suffer with recurring dreams anyway as that's a feature of PTSD, unfortunately.

Yike. Perhaps you might look into EMDR. Worked for me.

Originally Posted by Lal

So, is a lucid dream a fantasy or a dream then?

It's dreaming; but in this case the conscious mind is able to affect the subconscious, and thereby render the incipient chaos, ordered. ... very important for mental health.

[Lalwendë]

Well, I'm mighty glad I came onto the Downs today! That sounds worth looking into. I have the feeling that recurring dreams are not good for you, especially recurring nightmares, and I have ones which I remember all day long. The more I read about Tolkien and the more I read of some of his characters and some of their own mental torments, I'm sure Tolkien himself had some form of PTSD after his war experience as he certainly understood the torments you can go through - recurring dreams, a 'doomy' outlook, fascination with fantasy etc. It seems he understood. Luckily he appeared to have a capacious memory.

[Raynor]

Seeing that Tolkien planned very little when writing, I think that he conceived fantasy as some sort of "lucid" dreaming.

I'm sure Tolkien himself had some form of PTSD after his war experience as he certainly understood the torments you can go through - recurring dreams, a 'doomy' outlook, fascination with fantasy etc.

I agree; he does reffer to "mental suffering" in a letter to his son, thanking him for being such a great support.