Is it the brain that produces dreams?

[Post deleted at Brian's request]

It is usually presumed that it is the brain that produces dreams but perhaps that isn't the case?  I started this thread so as not to continue hijacking Chuck's thread on dream structure.

You might want to change the title of the thread to avoid confusion, as I'm guessing we are going to be talking about mind vs brain and not necessarily mind/brain/dream... Just a thought.

Anyway there are lots of sources of evidence to support the theory that the brain plays a more secondary role than we have always imagined.

I need to assemble some links to this stuff so pardon me if I don't get into all the details right at this moment. This is why I was delaying a bit before creating the thread. But since Brian did that let, me mention a few things for now...

1- There are many examples in medical situations where patients shouldn't have much if any brain function, but they report deep experiences. These are usually associated with NDE or OBEs. And it's not just the ability to see or hear, its the cognitive and experiential quality of the experience I'm talking about. A vastly diminished brain should not be capable of higher thought, never mind "hyper real" levels of experience.

Typical skeptical responses are that the person had the experiences at a different time than reported (this has been refuted in many cases by external time references), or that the brain was actually not that diminished (this is usually done with a wave of the hand with little evidence to support).

2- There are tests that have asked a person to make a decision and it has been shown that the decision must have been made before the signal was present in the brain.

3- It has been shown that the speed of signal transition through nerves is not electrical, but chemical, and that the speed is actually quite slow. So slow in fact that that it seems the muscle must begin motion BEFORE the signal has reached it. Thereby indicting some un anticipated, possibly non-physical connection and possibly that the brain is NOT initiating this movement in the first place.

4- The medically supported and reported "missing brain" problem. Cases have been reported numerous times. Sometimes there is profound deficit in these cases and in other little or no deficit.

5- The Two ball optical illusion. Will need to explain and provide link to picture, to show you how this works.

I changed the title a little but I want to discuss dream evidence specifically here.  There is however scope for some deviation into mind/brain generally as it will be important to the discussion.

OK, no prob.

You might want to change the title of the thread to avoid confusion, as I'm guessing we are going to be talking about mind vs brain and not necessarily mind/brain/dream... Just a thought.

Anyway there are lots of sources of evidence to support the theory that the brain plays a more secondary role than we have always imagined.

I need to assemble some links to this stuff so pardon me if I don't get into all the details right at this moment. This is why I was delaying a bit before creating the thread. But since Brian did that let, me mention a few things for now...

1- There are many examples in medical situations where patients shouldn't have much if any brain function, but they report deep experiences. These are usually associated with NDE or OBEs. And it's not just the ability to see or hear, its the cognitive and experiential quality of the experience I'm talking about. A vastly diminished brain should not be capable of higher thought, never mind "hyper real" levels of experience.

Typical skeptical responses are that the person had the experiences at a different time than reported (this has been refuted in many cases by external time references), or that the brain was actually not that diminished (this is usually done with a wave of the hand with little evidence to support).

2- There are tests that have asked a person to make a decision and it has been shown that the decision must have been made before the signal was present in the brain.

3- It has been shown that the speed of signal transition through nerves is not electrical, but chemical, and that the speed is actually quite slow. So slow in fact that that it seems the muscle must begin motion BEFORE the signal has reached it. Thereby indicting some un anticipated, possibly non-physical connection and possibly that the brain is NOT initiating this movement in the first place.

4- The medically supported and reported "missing brain" problem. Cases have been reported numerous times. Sometimes there is profound deficit in these cases and in other little or no deficit.

5- The Two ball optical illusion. Will need to explain and provide link to picture, to show you how this works.

So here's some more info-

1- See Pam Reynolds and Eben Alexander examples. They are both solid gold examples of brains with no detectable activity but where the patients have complete and even extraordinary experiences.
Reynolds

2+3- 

Many tests where subjects predicted randomly generated events before sense info reached the brain. 
Radin 1997 118-124, Bierman and Radin 1997, Honorton and Ferrari 1989

Dr Benjemin Libit Univ CA, tests where subject was consciously aware of physical stimulation a few thousandths of a second before brain registered response.

4- missing brain 

Here's another category-
5- How about language or music savants? Where do the skills come from? We can assume "outside the brain" since the subject has never learned the skill. Do I really need to direct people to these dozens of examples? 

That's all I can do in the moment. Gotta run and work on my honey-do list...

It is usually presumed that it is the brain that produces dreams but perhaps that isn't the case?  I started this thread so as not to continue hijacking Chuck's thread on dream structure.

Obviously what I am saying here is that I believe the brain is essentially a mind-body interface.

Well my brain definately seems to have something vital to do with dreaming. The question for me is really to do with whether it's really isolated in the way most neuroscientists assume it to be. From my research, the idea of that type of isolation is wrong.

What specifically leads you to be so sure that your brain has something so vital to do with your dreams?