02.29.00
Like life, dreams are both fascinating and unpredictable. I mean...I suppose you can plant seeds (images, ideas) into your mind with hopes that your subconscious will grow them, but that isn't always the case. Our mind works in mysterious ways. They pose numberous questions such as: Are dreams a recreation of past events?...A fictitious storyline with us as characters?...Predictions of things to come?...or...Are they our dreams at all?
Such phenomenon has occurred in isolated parts of the world (ex. Alaska) where nature's own fireworks, the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) comes up with its' own mindgame. Anyways, these Northern Lights have had a known affect on its' inhabiters...in layest terms, the switching of dreams amongst individuals. That's a spooky thought, eh? Imagine...experiencing a dream that was intended for someone else. What do I think? Let's look at the facts. What drives this mighty engine called the mind? Electricity. It is in anything and everything. Brain waves coasting on synaptic junctions. Our very own brainwaves can merely be bouncing off the ionosphere in search of a host. I mean, if your radio conks out because of sunspots, then why can't your cerebellum? It's all something worth thinking about.
Whenever talking about such topics envolving the science of psychology, most likely someone with more experience has said the same thing, only better. And seeing as though I am a mere observer in this grand ferris wheel of life...I look towards others to offer insight into this realm of the unknown. First, I would turn to the always informative Carl Jung, who had this to say about dreams:
"The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the psyche, opening into the cosmic night which was psyche long before there ws any egoconsciousness, and which will remain psyche extend...All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of the primordial night. There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinquishable from nature and bare of all egohood. Out of these all-uniting depths arises the dream, be it never so childish, grotesque, and immoral."
Jung hits popular belief in his definition of "dreams." But a lesser-known writer/playwright/poet had a different view. Known better as Witkacy (Stanislaw Witkiewicz), he said that,
"Dreams are never experienced directly during the actual time of dreaming: they exist solely and exclusively as memories. Hence the singular, specific character of even the most ordinary dream. This is why memories which we are unable to locate exactly in the past assume precisely that special coloring of dreams."
Metaphorically, I believe dreams to be the postcards of the mind. Spirit(essence) to brain....innerself to outerself....right hemisphere of the brain constructing that bridge to the left. Every now and again, these "messages" come back unread- return to sender, address unknown. But what happens when these actually pop up out of nowhere....unexpected mail is always received with a grin of amazement. Most everyone eventually runs into that brickwall of amazement when confronted with the phenomena of deja vu. Most people say an immediate "yes" when asked if they've experienced it. Just recently (11/09/98) I had my first bout with deja vu that I have had in a good while. I was watching the movie "The Hidden" and there was a scene when this guy (a man- Host#2) fell to the floor in a convulsive-like state. Stop right there! Turn back the clock and do that again, I thought! It felt...above other things...extremely real...that perhaps I had seen that same scene in a vision/daydream/nightdream just the day before...or the day before that, even. Quite extraordinary. Other questions emerge from this, such as: Was it a sudden recollection of a past dream?...or...Was my initial image just a passed-down recollection/dream from another time? One possibility is from the past to present. The other (and the most absurd) is from the future to present. But in many ways, they are just as likely.
One thing that I am sure of when it comes to the mind is that it loves to make connections. They (brains) want the easiest to understand....the most logical/realistic, reason why! For example; a person is on a plane. He has always been terrified of flying and wonders if this one will crash. If it so happened that the plane had a problem, and was going to crash, the person would say or be compelled to say "I know it!"...and would be cursing himself for choosing that particular airline. The individual is not taken in account the countless times his mind has pondered the thought of crashing on previous flights.
Returning to where we began...the topic of dreams...it is quite a shame that we can't fully discover the mysteries behind it all. Because, low and behold, there's a whole different world out there, or in here depending on your point of view. But for all we know, this very moment could be nothing but vapors of the ol' imagination. As Bertrand Russell mused-" I do not believe that I am now dreaming but I cannot prove that I am not." Good point. Indeed, there is much more to these nocturnal journeys than commonly considered or accepted. And coming back to the question of whether or not you can dream another person's dreams....I say "why not." The Netherland of the subconscious is a weird thing. But don't we all have the same primitive instincts, longings, desires and fears in life? So, yeah...maybe we do dream others' dreams.
"They say dreams are the windows of the soul.--take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts."
Goodbye Folks...
Till next time...
Rob
Text in this color is taken from my philosophical 'brother', Chris Stevens. (From Northern Exposure series)
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