What are the limits of what you can dream about?
I would say that we can dream about most things but there are a few obvious limits as there are types of thoughts that will make you wake up:
* Reading is difficult and typically books in dreams don't have words in them.
* "Pushing" (there is no good word for this) the direction of a dream in a particular way too hard will wake you up. It has to be done very gently.
* Abstract reasoning / logic is difficult in dreams, it causes you to concentrate too hard and then you wake up.
In general the limits are to do with the two dominant modes of thought: spontaneous unquestioning creation of ideas is very compatible with dreaming and you can float easily between multiple "perspectives" or versions without any problem. Analytical / questioning / critical thinking is incompatible with dreaming and causes you to wake up. Lucid dreaming is typically learning how to float in the sweet spot between the two modes.
I'm not being snarky, but... how do you know? I mean, if you can't visualize when you are awake, how do you even know what you see/saw when you were dreaming?
I think the range of abilities and experiences around visualization, perceptual memory, and so forth, suggests that seeing and remembering are pretty complicated collections of multiple simultaneous processes that are a little differently expressed in different people, and that are not necessarily perfectly coordinated.
More generally, I think we tend to think of ourselves as singular, but we have pretty good reasons to think that a person isn't actually a singular thing, but is instead a collection of many processes that are only more or less coordinated and cooperating.
The only exception would be the hypnogogic state when I have visual imagery but I'm not entirely present to process it.
I think that I know that I dream, deep down, because of things that former roommates and my wife have told me, but... I am trusting them at their word. And I know they're not lying to me, because why would they, but... I don't know it myself because I haven't experienced it.
But when I wake up, I'm remembering what I experienced and it's like a fuzzy movie playing in my head. Imagining things, I think, is very closely tied to remembering and manipulating visual input.
What does this mean?