Sunday, November 20, 2011

Idiotic Blatherings on Dreams.....


Dreams... I have always had great dreams... and also mind numbingly horrifying ones when I was young. I still have them, they haven't mellowed with age. There are some that... as soon as I wake up, I want to go back to bed and continue them.. then there are others, specially when I was young, that I would wake up from and be afraid to breath I was so horrified.

I remember being so scared once, that I could not will my arm over to turn on the light because I was certain that the monster under my bed would grab me. During the bad dreams, it always amazes me how real they seem and how long it takes you ( maybe only a minute it real time but it seems much longer) to realize it was just a dream... and the overwhelming sense of relief that you feel.

As I grew older, even my bad dreams took a cool twist, they usually started bad and then somehow the tables turned. I have to say, for some reason I seem to have the worst luck with weapons in my dreams... firearms at least, maybe that is true for all firearms on the dream plane. I remember one where a murderer was chasing me and some friends ... things looked bad... then BAM! I find a whole closet of guns (that took herculean strength to pull the trigger)... lets just say the tables turned ( even though a few didnt operate).

Its amazing how real everything seems and even feels. I wonder if anyone will ever be able to harness the Dream world as a entertainment venue. Its been covered in movies, but imagine how cool it would be if your new gaming platform was your subconscious mind ( though I will argue I have been entertained by my imagination for all my life).

How would that mess you up.... to be someone else in a dream, then wake up. How would the lines between real and "unreal" blur. I mean I have had a dream where there was a person... who I have never meet... Dont ever remember seeing and yet I felt like I knew them all my life... I even felt that way when I woke up, imagine how a manipulated dream could mess you up.

Where do the "NPC's" come from in my dreams. Sure sometimes some friends...maybe even the person reading this... finds there way into a dream, but for the most part I don't recognize anyone. Is there Central casting? Is it like a Random Character generator?

what if the brain could be programed? can you "load specific "software" ( or wetware maybe), could you have a "multi player" Dream based game? What would the mainframe be like for Dream-players to meet and interact? Would you remember those you met? What you had done? What would losing a life be like?

Romance in dreams? Is it like cheating? should there be guilt associated with it? If you could be programed to dream about a certain woman/man, is that then cheating.... one is not controlled by you (I think) the other would be. What a can of worms that would open. I have always wondered if people get jealous when their other's have a dream about another person.

I am sure that there are people who could and will tell me the science of dreaming and why we do, then they will launch into a dissertation on what dreams mean and how F'd up I am... like someone trying to explain a magnificent illusion... but I like the mystery. I like to think that its a subconscious play ground, sure I believe that the dreams we have must mean something but hey... I have no complaints.... just wish I could revisit some of the past episodes.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you ever had a recurring dream? I had one for at least 35 years that I can remember. I have not had it in about 2 or 2.5 years now but I can still walk you through that dream like it was a movie I've seen one million times. Dreams are odd things for certain!

Clockmaker said...

I have never had a reacurring dream...wow that sounds bizarre. I have had Episodic dreams...and maybe reacurring themes but never the same dream over and over