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"Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All the people in the whole world - no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe." - Neil Gaiman, The Sandman If
only we related to dreams as well as Mr Gaiman there. To many of
my friends, dreams are like some mistake of the mind - awkward when
recalled, and just as quickly shrugged off. Worst of all, they don't
seem to make sense. But
they do make sense - dreams are a language in their own right, replete
with its set of rules and symbolism. It's just that we lack the
tools to understand them properly. Dream logic, after all, does
not work in the same way as reality does. To figure out what our
subconsciousness is saying takes a little deciphering. Consider
this: we're asleep for a good third of our lives, 30% of which time
is spent dreaming. During this period, the mind goes through the
most fantastical narratives imaginable. You're walking softly through
places so oddly familiar yet unvisited. You're flying as soon as
you will your legs into action. Yet to the mind all this is completely
realistic and believable. Then
the shrill alarm clock jerks you back to reality. Your groggy mind
registers something about cats having a meeting. The impression
fades as you go about your morning rituals. Hold
that thought. Instead,
lie still and try to visualize the details as firmly as you dare
to. Write it all down, even those woolly parts that don't make sense.
Then go out and get yourself a dream dictionary. Freud
published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899; but the intervening
century has done little to elevate it to the status of a proper
science. Perhaps the common attitude is that dreams are like some
cheap magician's illusions, good for a laugh and little more. Our
hermetic belief in reality doesn't allow for such anomalies, especially
when it is our subconsciousness trying to tell us those truths we
dare not face awake. When
faced with a dilemma in the waking world, I sometimes turn to my
dreams for counsel. They are no oracles, but do tell me what my
true feelings about a situation are, and I respect their latent
insight as much as I do my own judgment. The need to understand oneself is of paramount importance, and what better way than by embracing this natural, intuitive form of communication? Perhaps what we are looking at is a language more universal than even mathematics or science. Words by Jared Tham. Graphic by Dawn He. Published: The Nanyang Chronicle, Aug 26 2002. |