Been an interesting week, and it flew by too. I mean, Christ, it's already Friday, how the hell did that happen? Of course, this is to be expected when living in the world of summer break. The previous weekend was fracking crazy with work and it left me seriously out of my mind and wickedly tired. Took Monday and Tuesday to recover. Also met an adorable Chihuahua named Foxy on Monday. She had the biggest eyes ever, I seriously couldn't resist her gaze. She ended up sitting my lap for nearly two hours. I gotta get me one down the road.
Anyway, I had some things I wanted to get off my mind in this blog post, so here it goes.
Ever notice how dreams tend to come and go? Like, for example, you have two weeks of extremely vivid dreams? Then you'll have that stretch where you can't remember any of the dreams you had? Lately, my dreams have been extremely vivid. Which I'm not complaining, because the imagery of such dreams are incredible. A lot of the ideas I've written have been inspired by dreams, might explain why some are so damn difficult to write.
Dreams can be weird, beautiful, or even terrifying (especially if you're ill). Your brain is most active when you're sleeping, or when you're going through REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Anyone have a cat or dog? Ever notice when they sleep they start twitching and making weird grunts and whines? We do the same. It's also when we dream. The cool part about dreaming is there seems to be no understanding for where they come from, or even why we have them. But, if I'm not wrong, I think I heard somewhere that when your dreaming is when the subconscious is running wild, thus the dreams.
Your dreams have meaning. Looking at them for their face value makes it's difficult. If you've been following my blog, you'll know I've been ranting constantly about how a change of mind can lead to a positive directional change in life. This has allowed me to understand dreams better. Another part of this has come from long conversations with my mother about dreams and what they mean. Dreams speak to you in metaphors, they speak with images, it's all they have over there, so you have to meet them halfway if you want to hear what your subconscious has to say. It takes time, patience, and a willingness to listen in order to understand what your dreams mean. Sometimes it's minor, other times it's something serious.
I won't deny, however, that some dreams are just too messed up to understand.
Sometimes, however, those dreams lead to ideas. James Cameron came up with the idea for Terminator through a fever dream. He described a chrome skull appearing through a wall of flames. He has mentioned several times he loves nightmares because the imagery is so much more vivid and usually gave him ideas. In addition, we've seen dreams influence Hollywood. Inception anyone? Another that comes to mind is Vanilla Sky, although the movie wasn't well received, acts II and III was pretty much all a dream. Star Wars is another example, mostly in Episode II and III however.
Sometimes dreams will slap you in the face to get your attention, like dreams of fire, pay attention to those. Have anyone you don't get along with? Feel envious of? Unspoken anger? They'll show up in your dreams usually involved flames or the color red (the color of anger). Go to bed thinking of something, say, how you want to go on a vacation for example. Your subconscious will usually respond. I had such an instance once where I had a dream and felt pure elation. I was so happy, so excited, then I woke up and was seriously depressed to realize it was a dream. It felt so tangible that I thought I was living that dream. Three weeks later, I was going down to Georgia for vacation (without parents) and having all the same feelings I had in the dream. That ladies and gents, is called deja vu. Everyone has had that.
If you are so inclined to respond, what are your thoughts on dreams? Most people are usually just weirded out by them or don't see the need to talk about them, but I'm always interested to hear/read opinions from others.
Keep dreaming!
J.G.A.
I've always meant to try controlling my dreams as a source of inspiration/enlightenment, but it never works out for me. :P Dreams are fascinating; the horror stories H. P. Lovecraft wrote were almost entirely inspired by his waking terrors and nightmares. He even had a whole cycle of stories set in the "Dreamlands," which could only be accessed by dreams - and which were very real in the Mythos.
ReplyDeleteI have, in the past, had some pretty vivid dreams myself; in fact, the universe that I primarily write in was inspired by an extremely vivid and detailed dream I had!
Most of my dreams are nightmares, unfortunately. Many of them feature clowns, which send me into near seizures when I get too close to them in the waking world.
I also study occult traditions in my spare time, and so am interested in dreams on another level, too. There's the whole line of thought that dreams are actually glimpses into other dimensions or other realities, or are manifestations of the astral plane. There is also, a tradition I ascribe to, the idea that dreams are in the realm of the animus mundi: the consciousness of the world. The idea behind this is that everything that happens in your imagination is just as real as what happens in the corpus mundi (body of the world, or what we know as the material), and that dreams can actually be the world's consciousness speaking to you and imparting secrets and the like to those who listen. Certainly gives dreams much more importance, too. :P