I guess it's not that weird, since each definition deals with envisioning things that are not actual, current realities.
Anyway, this tangent is not about definitions, and it's not about reaching for the stars. It's about the fun and mystery of having dreams while we sleep. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia (and greatest tangent generator ever), says that "the content and purpose of dreams are not yet understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history." Let's speculate.
Some of the greatest features of the dream experience
Flying
I have had dreams with two different types of flying. One that's just swimming in the air and one that is legitimate, awesome, Superman-like soaring. The rare dream that lets me race through the air high above the city is basically the jackpot of all dreams.
Dream within a dream
This doesn't only happen in Inception. [Mini-tangent: man, that movie was good.] On a few occasions I have been dreaming, then "woken up" into another dream in which I'm in bed, musing about the original dream. Then when I wake up into real life, I have about 15 seconds of existential terror during which I hug myself and question what is real.
Lucid dreaming
This doesn't only happen in Vanilla Sky. [Mini-tangent: man, that movie was bizarre and mediocre.] Sometimes something so outlandish will happen in a dream that I will think to myself, "This is a dream." If it's a nightmare, I'll then will myself to wake up (which usually works). Other times, I decide to take over.
One great example of this is a dream I had a few years back in which my campus minister revealed he was a Satanist and tried to coerce me to join his dark ways. As I ran away from him in slow motion (for some reason, dreams force you to flee from life-threatening situations as if you're running through syrup), I realized I was dreaming. So I took over the dream, turned around, and started shooting blasts of light out of my hands at him and basically vaporized him.
Some other notable dreams I've had
- Many nightmares in which I'm about to go onstage to perform in a play but have no idea what play I'm in or who my character is.
- The common dream in which my teeth are loose and seemingly about to fall out.
- Some great celeb crush dreams: in elementary school, one in which Kelly Kapowski was in my backyard and I was working up the guts to tell her I liked her; in high school, one glorious dream in which Mandy Moore was my girlfriend.
Let's do an Inception "shared dream" thing
Sadly, that technology doesn't exist. But definitely tell me about your favorite dream features and the craziest dreams you've ever had!
Jon
I would love to have a dream of flying. My worst dream (seems to reappear when I am a student, which of course lasted for 40 years off and on) is that I go to the wrong class, with the wrong books and can't find my schedule. Another thing that seems to happen in my dreams is that I try to yell or scream and my voice is muted - sometimes I actually wake myself up when I finally find my voice and make noise. Best dreams are when I see, hear, smell and feel people I love that have passed on. I wake up with a wonderful feeling of visiting with the person I miss - those dreams are blessings!
ReplyDeleteok my dream last night was that i was in a seminar on how to create wallpapers for my phone. and if i wanted the background of my masterpiece to be white, i still HAD to take a photograph of something white. and it made me angry...there ya go!
ReplyDeleteawesome dream huh?!
Ironically, I also frequently have the dream of my grown-up teeth being loose and about to fall out. I wonder if this is common for a lot of people?
ReplyDeleteMy recurring dream, is that I'm in the car with my family and we are trying to get away from of group of t-rexes chasing us. Very Jurassic park only we are in a family type of car. We run out of gas and the dinos are upon us about to eat us. My brother decides to turn up the music of the radio, so he can listen to music as we die. The dinosaurs (which I should mention are "Land Before Time" in appearance, not realistic at all) like the music and instead of eating us they dance away into the night.
ReplyDelete@Brian: Yeah a lot of people have that dream.
ReplyDelete@beth, kmech, daughter: Thanks for sharing!! Great stories!
Update: my dream last night was that I was a sophomore in college and Roger Hershey (a speaker and now author for the company I work for) was visiting WVU. He entrusted me with a valued possession, a fly in a bag. For some reason he treasured it. When a rainstorm came, I lost the fly. I thought Roger would be really mad, but he acted like it happened all the time and he would just get a new fly.
@Brian: I have that dream all the time.
ReplyDeleteDREAM REMEMBERED LATER IN THE DAY UPDATE!!
This is really nasty but I was digging something LIKE ground beef out of my mouth with my hand in my dream last night. And it just kept on coming out...how weird is that?!
I had a really weird dream a few weeks ago that seriously messed me up emotionally the next day. I have never had a dream affect me in this way before. It was a very vivid dream.
ReplyDeleteIn it there was a series of events where Rachel Onishi would not listen to me anymore. She no longer respected or loved me, and basically she just wanted to get away from me. She was at a party with this guy, and I looked for her everywhere. Finally I found her alone with this guy and I said, "I am taking you home right now." As we got back to our house (it must have been in Vzla, because we had to ride the elevator home) I stepped onto the elevator, and she said oh wait I forgot something. She pressed the elevator button to send me to my floor and she walked away.
I woke up like really distraught at how she had treated me. Seriously ALL day I felt that it had happened. I found myself acting towards her as if she had betrayed and abandoned me. I honestly felt like I needed to forgive her. It was a really weird/emotional day all because of that dream.
Has anyone else ever experienced that?
@Kaitlin: I don't think I've had anything quite so emotionally charged with someone important to me, but I once had a dream in which a former baseball coach berated me. The next morning at breakfast I started to tell my mom that it had happened. Halfway through I stopped and said, "Wait. I think that was a dream I had last night. Yeah, that didn't really happen."
ReplyDelete