Daydream Believer

        The tenth in a series of articles connected
                to the psychology of gaming

A few months ago I was listening to a radio competition when a
tie-breaker question was posed. The two contestants were asked
what proportion of Londoners daydream. As someone who spends a lot
of time daydreaming, I thought, hmm, got to be a high number ...
maybe 70%. One of them guessed at 50%, the other said "Lower". I
snorted at their poor estimates, then almost choked when the
answer was given at 20%.

Surely this couldn't be right, I thought. But then I know that in
psychological terms I'm not what you'd call 'normal' in many ways.
In personality tests, I come out in the 1% of the population which
is classed as INFP (introvert, intuitive, feeling and perceptive)
and my scores in categories for intuition and feeling are very
skewed to that end of the scale (18/2 or thereabouts). INFP is the

smallest of the 16 classes in the Myers-Briggs classification.
Maybe this made a difference?

Or maybe it was something else?

When I play adventures and RPGs, I get very engrossed in them -
ditto books, music ... In games, if I get killed, I take it very
personally.  (Hmm, just noticed I typed 'I' not 'my character'
which shows how seriously I take it!). I know that a lot of other
SynTax readers feel similarly so I thought, maybe gamers have more
imagination than other people and also daydream more?

Time to test the theory. I wrote an email and sent it round as
many adventurers and RPGers as I could think of, some SynTax
readers, some not. I asked them if they daydreamed and if so, what
they daydreamed about, in general terms. Anonymity was promised,
if people preferred. Then I sat back to see if anyone replied.

Out of the 63 people I contacted, 20 replied. There was always a
worry that maybe only people who daydreamed would reply, but I had
replies from both dreamers and non-dreamers. And I was very
gratified that out of the 20 replies, 17 daydreamed and 3 didn't.
Even if those who didn't reply were non-dreamers, it still meant
that 27% of the gamers contacted were daydreamers, slightly higher
than the general public and confirming my suspicions to some
extent though not as much as I had hoped. Some of you gave me
permission to use your names, but I've decided to leave it totally
anonymous.

What thrilled me was the response I got from the day dreamers. I
thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your own daydreaming experiences.
Only a couple were indifferent about them - most were
enthusiastic.

     "Do I day dream? Hell yes."
     "You've touched on a subject on which I'm an expert, it's my
     favourite hobby. Do I daydream....my goodness, is the Pope
     Catholic?"
     "Do I daydream often? Hmm, yes I do, and it's usually pretty
     deliberate too."

Some of us seemed to think that maybe we were a bit unusual:

     "Hope this is the sort of thing you wanted or I'm going to
     seem a bit strange ."

But that it made us into better, more rounded people ... and maybe
it is even essential to our mental well-being?:

     "Without going into any personal details which I'm sure any
     psychiatrist would love to get their teeth into, I am
     confident that both playing RPGs and day-dreaming have made
     me a more complete, and contented character. I know there's
     much more to do, I have to explore further afield, both
     'within' and 'without'."
     "There are other times when I deliberately slip into
     'day-dream mode' for longer periods, which makes me wonder if
     day-dreaming, like dreaming when asleep, is a necessary part
     of our lives. Perhaps it's essential for one's health and
     well-being to drift into 'day-dream mode' now and then?"

But what do we daydream about? The range of topics is surprisingly
large, ranging from thoughts about real life to total fantasy.
Daydreams can be about many things including wish fulfilment,
thoughts of achieving a better future, or looking back to the
past.

     "Yes I day dream all the time, mostly about what I would
     prefer to be doing, such as playing golf."
     "I'm heavily into dragons, so much of my day dreams involve
     them and the era they are usually involved with, medieval,
     with knights and suchlike, but I prefer to add a bit of magic
     into it too."
     "Well mostly it's to do with being somewhere other than where
     I am now. It usually involves money, so thoughts of winning
     the lottery or the Premium Bonds are paramount."
     "At the risk of revealing evidence of a psychologically
     incriminating nature my daydreams generally take the form of
     a sort of egocentric escapism."

     "I day dream rather a lot. Usually about books or films I've
     seen which I haven't completely enjoyed. Inside my head I
     will revisit them until I do like them."
     "Like many men with red blood in their veins and being armed
     with more than my dying breath, delightful images of the fair
     sex occasionally course through my mind from time to time,
     and why not?"
     "Nowadays, in my advanced years, I do find myself drifting
     off into fantasies about the 'pleasant' past - somehow
     unpleasant past memories never seem to feature in my
     daydreaming experiences."
     "Personally, I tend to go for the 'what if' kind of
     day-dreams, imagining myself in impossible situations. For
     instance, what if you could choose to live your whole life
     over again - would you choose to be the same person? The same
     sex? The same century? Would you choose the same partner?"

But why do we daydream? People who replied had different
suggestions. Some said they thought their daydreams came about
through boredom, either generally, or with a particular situation
in their life. We've talked about this in previous articles in
this series, how our brains can free-wheel when we do a repetitive
or familiar task. Dissatisfaction with our lives can make us wish
for something better - job, house, relationship, more money. If we
daydream about winning the lottery, we can plan what to do with
the money if that magical day ever comes - after all, someone's
got to win!

     "It's probably the "grass is greener" syndrome."
     "I tend to day-dream while doing monotonous chores, like
     ironing or washing dishes."
     "It is likely that a daydream is triggered by monotony,
     boredom or the task you have is not demanding enough to
     require your full attention.  If you are busy and your mind
     is active in solving problems or tasks that need your
     attention you are unlikely to daydream."

Or we can just move totally into the realms of fantasy. What would
life be like if we did something completely different ... well,
what's YOUR fantasy?

     "I'd like to experience a totally different life...how about
     a wealthy landowner in the 16th century? A buccaneer? How
     about marrying Kevin Costner? What would it be like to be
     Elizabeth Taylor? A Pharaoh? An alien from another world?
     Captain Kirk? How would you feel being Queen Elizabeth I?
     Picasso? Enid Blyton? Bill Gates? Albert Einstein? What if
     you were as rich as Bill Gates - what on earth would you do
     with so much money? How would you handle the fame?"
     "Then I daydream that I'm some great hero sprung to life from
     a Moorcock Novel, leading great armies and mastering great
     magic. Of being some Eternal Champion, defending the Good
     from the Forces of Darkness, beginning with stone clubs and
     primitive magic, progressing through the ages to some far
     flung future with epic space battles with science and magic a
     single entity. Mr Moorcock has a lot to answer for."

After all, maybe it's safer to just daydream about some of our
fantasies ...!:

     "And sometimes I just fantasise about slicing up work mates
     and clients and eating them."

I've read several articles which say that we can increase our
sporting skills, for instance, by practising performing the
correct moves in our heads. And if you subscribe to the theory
that you can attract things by thinking about them positively,
then who's to say that daydreaming about winning the lottery and
getting a better life won't have an effect? That could be the
financially rewarding side of the power of positive thinking!

It struck me that several of you had very emotionally fulfilling
daydreams and, like me, would hate to lose them:

     "I daydream of peace and tranquillity, of country walks,
     shady woods in summer and a bubbling stream, and of sunny
     beaches.  Of warm blue seas and friendly restaurants, of
     reading good books and listening to a variety of music. I
     guess day-dreaming's just a feeling of wanting the comfort of
     the womb, the security and warmth of that, before we're
     brought kicking and screaming into reality. It's escapism
     from the troubles and turmoil, the responsibilities and
     worries of our daily existence. A psychological release. I
     love it. I've always been a dreamer, looking out the window
     and drifting off...  'gimme the beat boys and free my soul, I
     wanna get lost in that rock n' roll, and drift away.' "
     "For many years I have been able to 'fly', mentally at least,
     and enjoy far away places that I love. Some of these places
     are in this physical world, and some of them are not, and any
     difference between them it seems unimportant. The fact that
     I've conjured up any number of 'special' places to visit in
     my own head seems to be neither here nor there; I enjoy them,
     and that's all that matters."

A couple of you pointed out that you'd daydreamed more when you
were younger. I must say that my daydreams were quite different
then and some of what you said confirmed that you felt the same.

     "When I was considerably younger than I am now I recall
     daydreaming of achievements.  As a schoolboy it'd be
     excelling in sport. As a teenager thoughts would be directed
     to spending time with a girlfriend, or being in a pop-group,
     or of owning an exotic car. "
     "In the first place I came in contact with the word when I
     was at school, and I was often accused by various teachers of
     day dreaming and not paying attention! I guess if the subject
     was a bit dull I was fantasising about something totally
     unrelated to it, like which girl I meet be seeing after
     school ."
     "I can remember having fantastic daydreams as a child, the
     images were so real that I'd swear that I could have stepped
     straight into another world and left this one behind. Of
     course these experiences were quite random, coming and going
     with the wind. Naturally enough, such wasteful habits were
     soon knocked out of me, children are invariably taught not to
     use their imaginations at all, until they are old enough
     (early teens) and then it has to be restricted to boring
     stuff concerning 'education', and never fantasy. (or such was
     my experience anyway) "

     "I suppose I daydreamed much more as a teenager though I
     suspect the bulk of the dreams then would have been about
     nice looking boys or rock stars!"

Maybe we can increase our skill at daydreaming by encouraging it?
One reader mentioned the related topic of pathworking and said:

     "I've done some work on 'Pathworking'. Don't know if you've
     come across that idea before. It's a way of developing the
     imagination by visualising yourself going on imaginary
     journeys. In many ways it's very similar to playing certain
     computer games. All the imaginary places I visit are very
     much 'of this world', ie forests, seashores, caves, a special
     quiet place by a river bank etc. Most of my visits are to
     'real' places though."

And someone else talked about another possible advantage of
daydreaming, especially for women:


     "Strangely I recently dipped into a book called The Playful
     Self by I can't remember who, sorry. It was saying that women
     in general don't make time for play (obviously with some
     notable exceptions :-)). Whereas men always have done. It was
     really pointing the way for women to use play as a means for
     relaxing in this stress filled world. It did say that
     daydreams are a way of doing this and the childhood ones of
     wanting to marry a prince, or to be a superhero in my case
     shouldn't be dismissed as silliness, but we should still use
     this as a tool for relaxation in adulthood."

So we shouldn't feel guilty about taking time out to
daydream!

And maybe it helps with other imagination-fuelled areas of our
lives?  I was struck by how many of you also wrote stories, or
were planning to. Perhaps because we would have to develop plots
in our heads, it makes daydreaming more likely?


     "I've recently started work on a story about magical knights
     in a modern day, so far I've gotten to chapter one...it's
     going slow."
     "But then again I thought a bit more and realised that now
     and I again I like to imagine myself as a successful writer
     with the attendant book signings etc. So perhaps fantasy wish
     fulfilment."
     "Sometimes I kid myself I could write a better script than
     George Lucas, or improve on books by my favourite authors.
     The Phantom Menace was good on effects, short on writing."
     "Without imagination we would have no vision or daydream.  Do
     authors, artists, playwrights, sculptures who create things
     from their fertile minds have more daydreams than those who
     have little or no imagination and are unable to envisage
     things which are not physically before them?  Or do those who
     are just lazy daydream more?"

One thing I know is that I enjoy my daydreams and feel that my
life is richer for them. It allows me to consider other
possibilities, test out opportunities and travel to other places
when I'm stuck at my desk with too much work while the rain pours
down outside. In my mind I can visit friends, travel to exotic
locations, walk through misty woods ... anything. I feel very
lucky to be one of the fortunate few (as it turns out) who have
this skill.
                                                  Sue













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