Dream Effects

Dreams are interesting.  They are weird.  Like really weird.  One of the inspirations for writing a story about the world of dreams is to explore some of the weird phenomena of dreams that I (think I) have experienced (as well as the stranger content of some dreams).

One of the peculiar things I’ve experienced is re-runs: dreams that I have had before.  And which, by and large, have in the exact same manner each time: the same content, the same sequence, the same everything.  On the one hand, maybe this isn’t surprising.  The generally accepted explanation for dreams is the sub conscious accessing and processing of memories and current events.  So if you see the same things frequently, have the same worries and troubles, deal with the same sorts of crises or happenings on a regular basis, then it would stand to reason under this explanation that you would, at least occasionally, have the same dream as you had at an earlier time.  Moreover, as you experience a dream, you are using your brain (one hopes; unless dreams are some sort of extra dimensional, outer-self form of communication) and thus firing neurons and creating and reinforcing specific pathways.  In short, creating a memory.  It wouldn’t be surprising if from time to time a buried memory of this sort were stumbled upon, as it were, or if our subconscious attached greater significance to a dream-memory for whatever reason and thus it stayed in our active as well as long term memory in a manner wholly unlike our more common experience of forgetting dreams.

On the other hand, it’s really frickin’ weird.  For whatever reason, we don’t really seem to expect to retread dreams; every day is a new day, and as I lay me down to sleep, I am a different man each time.  Maybe not as much as I suppose?  But maybe that is just me; I can’t speak for the minds of others.  Perhaps there is a cultural element.  I don’t know.

And of course, it is perhaps suspect to know that we have had a dream before.  After all, it is well recognized I think that a common phenomenon to encounter in dreams is certain knowledge of a thing, despite waking knowledge to the contrary or appearances differing, often to a degree of absolute certainty that is rarely experienced in the waking world.  But I have as often had that revelation of prior dreaming after waking as I have had during; and when during, I find that elements of the dream can change with some conscious effort, and I know that these are changes, differences from a prior dreaming.

So I don’t really know what to make of that.

And the more cliché issues of not knowing whether something is a dream or not, those occur too.  But they can take different forms too.  I am sometimes unsure if a place actually exists or not; I could swear that I have been there, have detailed memories of doing so, but at the end of it all, can’t say for sure.  I remember looking for a place, feeling certain it I know which area it is in, but not knowing how to get to that area.  Knowing how a place in the real world looks and how a place in my memory looks, knowing they are contiguous, remembering why I was there, but then not really knowing if any of that was real because I can’t seem to find any of it again (or not being in a position to even try).  And all this occurs in the waking world.

That is infinitely more disturbing.  If you were merely uncertain whether you were, in the instant moment, dreaming or not, the question is largely of academic interest only.  What is more important in that situation is whether you will change the manner in which you behave or not; your perception shapes your reality and you still have certainty in what you perceive, and thus your reality.  But to have ambiguity after the dream, when you are awake, is a bit terrifying; it’s a fundamental inability to define your reality and distinguish it from fantasy.  The only saving grace is scale and importance of the ambiguity; if I can’t find a really interesting store or plaza, well who cares.  But that ambiguity remains scary until it can be resolved, one way or another.  Existence is in some ways like a house of cards (the saying rather, is that proof is like a house of cards; but we take it for granted, as well we ought, that we exist); if the foundational evidence is undermined, the whole thing collapses.  Perception defines our reality in the tangible and intangible sense.  If our perception is suspect to alteration, our reality is suspect.  And if our reality is suspect, then our very self and identity is suspect; we are the sum of our experiences and beliefs – in short our memories and those things shaped by our memories.

And I didn’t even get to “sleep paralysis” or the whole myth of waking up before you die in a dream (I have died in a dream more than once, but the most vivid instance being one of having been rendered helpless and then stabbed fatally… blacking out and existing in a black limbo before waking up).