Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Dreams

I don't generally remember my dreams, but lately I've been having a spate of nocturnal mental movies that stick around well after wakefulness.  Not only am I able to remember the dreams, but I remember - and to an extent, I feel - the emotions I felt in the dreamworld as well.  It's an odd sensation, to say the least... but then, dreams are odd things.  Not much makes sense in them, though in the dreamstate, all seems perfectly normal and rational.

I'd like to think that dreams are something more than just the randomly-firing neurons processing daily events and thoughts, storing them away for later... part of me would love it if dreams were a way of reaching out into some great, collective unconscious, making contact, if fleetingly, with fellow dreamers.  Sharing in their journeys, as it were.  It would be fascinating to discover that all through the night, our dream selves are free to wander in and out of scenarios rising out of shared thoughts, desires, memories.  It would certainly explain some of the more distressing dreams I've had - and part of me would like to think that those upsetting scenes and encounters weren't my doing at all, but were instead the product of someone else's mind.

In the same way, I'd love to believe that the friendships I've made in dreams lingered in more than just my own mind... that somewhere out there, another person is mulling over a particularly pleasant dream he had, and wondering who and where that other player - me - came from, and if I'm just a figment of his own imagination.  I can't really make myself believe this, of course... I am, at my core, too rational for that.  But it would be nice, nevertheless.