Free Will and Dreams

[mVitus]

This has been intriguing me for a while. When we dream, our mind takes the dream reality as true reality so in one sense, a person could say their actions in a dream are what they’d do in real life, but on the other hand we know that thought to be false. (I’m sure we’ve all had at leat one dream wgere our dream self commited a sin that’d we’d never do in real life.) But if our dream state takes the dream as reality and the dream is contained within our own mind, then what will do we act on in that dream state if not our normal free will?

 

[z_0101]

If you use the search tool, this type of question has been asked and answered several times

Here’s one take: Should we confess sinful dreams? Fr. Anthony Saroki explains what the Catholic Church teaches about temptation.(link)

Here’s a discussion concerning the nature of dreams: Interpretation of Dreams (link)

Both of the above links are from www.catholic.com

 

[Gertabelle]

This has been intriguing me for a while. When we dream, our mind takes the dream reality as true reality so in one sense, a person could say their actions in a dream are what they’d do in real life, but on the other hand we know that thought to be false. (I’m sure we’ve all had at leat one dream wgere our dream self commited a sin that’d we’d never do in real life.) But if our dream state takes the dream as reality and the dream is contained within our own mind, then what will do we act on in that dream state if not our normal free will?

I’ve had dreams of cute little forest animals delivering messages by telegram and by tapping out Morse code on their bellies (the turtles did that) – so that I could get important information to the families at my school!

Nope. Not generally how I send messages home about what students need or are up to.

Dreams are just mushing up of events, thoughts, concerns, etc. And if you’re concerned about sin, or fighting fierce battles against temptation, there is no surprise at all that you (or I) would dream about such things.

Giving into sin may actually be a good sign – because it means that you are concerned about doing that in real life.

No sins can be committed in dreams. So don’t worry. When you wake up – regardless of your dreams – immediately say a prayer of thanksgiving, or make a morning offering, or talk with your guardian angel.

God bless you!

 

[1Lord1Faith]

If our dream state takes the dream as reality and the dream is contained within our own mind, then what will do we act on in that dream state if not our normal free will?

Volition is lacking in a dream unless it’s a lucid dream. I don’t know what free will minus volition equals. Or, another way of putting it could be free will minus reason.

I think one of the purposes of sleep is to let the body recover from the physiological stresses on our body caused by the pushing and pulling of our free will. So, perhaps in dreams, there is a kind of purer determinism going on in the brain’s functioning with more of an attitude of observation and reaction, resulting in reduced physical stress from decision making. Maybe the purpose of dreaming is to reinforce the neuro pathways that help us to submit to external forces instead of our waking state of constantly trying to manipulate our external environment to our own selfish ends.

 

[GEddie]

Even in a lucid dream, we are not responsible.

The “Dream reality” is just bits and pieces from our head’s editing floor, including whatever we have already willed or decided. As such, free will does not apply and there is nothing to confess.

ICXC NIKA

 

[e_c]

The OP did not ask about culpability for dream-sinning. There is no culpability, ever. The question was, “What will is it” that we use when dreaming?

The “will” is a kind of appetite. An appetite is - roughly - a desire that can be fulfilled by the use of faculties and suppressed by other appetites. The will is the “rational appetite,” that is, the appetite which is informed by one’s reason/intellect. We have non-rational appetites - like for food, for warmth, and so on, but also for honor, for money, for love, etc. While these things only make sense with the use of the reason, we have a desire for them on account of our reason but which can act independently of it. That’s why you can have a moment of vanity without deliberating about it.

Usually, the will is supposed to be checking these appetites, moderating, suppressing, or cultivating them as is in accord with reason. (Sometimes the will has to choose a good without the corresponding appetite, like how a sick man might have to force himself to eat).

These kinds of appetites are running wild in a dream because the usefulness of the tool which the intellect and will use to moderate them (the brain) has been compromised. They are making use of the memory and imagination, both of which have been informed/shaped by our intellect but are not then being controlled by it (or by the will).

Helpful?

 

[GEddie]

The dream, again, is the editing floor of our memory. The whole content is memory, including whatever “volition” is employed.

ICXC NIKA