Making no aalowances for external stimuli (sound, touch) are our dreams predetermined from the outset?

Question

Or do they unravel randomly as the dream proceeds?

Answer 1

No one can interpret your dreams or tell you what they mean. Only you can do this. Never mind those who say they can tell you what your dream "means." It only means something to YOU because you give it your personal meaning.

Don’t bother with dream books, dream dictionaries, Internet sites that tell you to look for codes or symbols or hidden mysteries in dreams. Dreams do not contain such things. Dreams are straightforward, just like your waking thoughts.

There is always a purpose to a dream. Everything that human beings think, feel, or do has a purpose. It is part of what Dr. Alfred Adler called "the psychology of use."

Dreams don't come to you from outside yourself, nor do they arise from your "subconscious." (That's a term from Pierre Janet, by the way. Freud's term was "preconscious," or the consciousness that comes just before awareness.) Once you become aware of having a dream, it’s conscious. You make your dreams up. You create them, just as you create your thoughts.

The purpose of your dreams while you are asleep is the same as the purpose of your thoughts while you are awake. That is, to solve your problems.

Figure out the purpose of a dream and the problem it is trying to solve, and you have its meaning. Dreams are thoughts while you sleep, attempting to solve your problems.

Answer 2

Dreams are a reflection of your subconscious.  If I could answer this question of yours, Freud would personally shake my hand....

With practice, I've been able to manipulate my dreams and determine the outcome of it.  I would tend to think that they are not predetermined.  The outside stimuli may not be the issue but rather the inside stimulus of our subconscious.  Our subconscious life would be affecting the unravelling of the dreams.

Interesting question...