This week @ecotrain has prompted a very interesting Question Of The Week regarding our dreams: What do they mean? To me this feels like a very light-hearted question, since no matter how much we ponder and speculate, study and interpret our dreams, there is really no way to answer that question with any semblance of certainty. Sure, many people have tried, those who are into art, divination, psychology, and the esoteric... not to mention all those multitudes who really want their dreams to be more than just random images and feelings.
Well, to be perfectly honest, I am not among these people any longer, though I used to be very interested in finding a meaning to my dreams for a long time. By now, I have come to the point where I enjoy them, without trying to puzzle them out to force some sense into all the nonsense. And for this QOTW I am happy to discuss some of the things that were brought up in the prompt post.
Nightmares
So, let me get the ugly stuff out of the way quickly. I have never suffered too much from actual nightmares where you wake up screaming. The most unpleasant kind of dreams I remember having, most typically as a child, was falling off high places. Interestingly, the fall itself wasn't even the worst part. It was the endless moments before it, walking on the narrow rim of a canyon, or climbing around on a scaffolding, knowing that I would fall. When I fell, it was a sudden shock, causing me to wake up with a spasm. Though I had this kind of dream lots of times, I never actually remember hitting the ground. Also, in real life I've never been afraid of heights, nor have I had any experiences of falling off a high place.
The other kind of nightmarish dream was trying to run, and not getting ahead, or trying to flick on the light, which then wouldn't work, indicating that I was still dreaming. I'm sure I'm not the only one here. This was more frustrating than actually scary, so it's not even a good comparison to the situation where I knew I would fall down eventually.
Places
So what do I dream about? People, things, events? For me, the most memorable dreams involve places, especially places that I have never been to in real life.
Sometimes they are cities, complete with certain squares, avenues, underground train stations, old and new buildings, which I see from outside, but also inside sometimes. Other times these places are tree-lined roads, ponds with ample vegetation growing around them, train tracks running towards the horizon, or massive monolithic buildings somewhere in the desert.
Some of these places look similar to actual places I've visited, many others however are completely new for me. The city I mentioned could easily be somewhere in Europe (probably towards the East, with its wide and empty streets), but none are actually familiar, at least not from my waking state.
However, on more than one occasion I have recognized these places... from previous dreams! The city I mentioned is such a case, where a nagging suspicion hit me that I had been there before. But it was the building in the desert where it hit me with certainty: I had dreamed about that place before, with its five meter thick walls, and a window of at least 20 x 20 meters, from where I could see a still desert landscape stretching out endlessly behind the 50 cm thick glass.
Oh, as for the meaning in it all... Hahahaha, don't ask me! Maybe it was a glimpse into the future? Or an alternate present? Beats me, but it's still cool to guess.
Controlling My Dreams
Back when I was a teenager, who would clearly remember his dreams every morning (it doesn't happen that often any more), I got interested in lucid dreaming. That means, to become aware of my dreaming state, so I could... well, ... take advantage of the fact that it's all just a dream. The quote in Ecotrain's post talks about gaining an adjusted perspective, in order to make wiser decisions based on our truths. Well, as a 14 year old I didn't care about all that. What I wanted was what all 14 year olds want but can't have... exactly!
Amazingly, it's really not that hard. Being a generally distracted kid, I probably wouldn't have kept up the practice if it didn't lead to some results after the first few attempts. As I remember, all I had to do when falling asleep was to keep in mind that I wanted to realize when I'm dreaming. How could I do that? By counting my fingers, or simply looking at my watch. Since precise numbers are not compatible with the dream world, I could easily end up with six fingers on a hand (or four for that matter), and my watch would tell me anything but the time. That's how I knew that I was dreaming! And yes, the first time I got so excited that it woke me right up. Soon, I managed to work it well enough, and that's when the debauchery started.
No point in going into the details here (I may have to publish them on Dporn), but it was all fun for a while. The other thing I used the lucid dream state for was for flying. Since I remember being worried about falling, I once tried to place myself into those high places. I know I was on a steep hill side, with slippery mud under my feet, where I slid down fearlessly, knowing that it was all just a dream. In the end I came to a steep drop-off, where the momentum just took me over. Now I was really falling. But I knew it was just a dream, right? So I should be able to fly, I figured, and so I tried. Of course it worked, but it was not like flying at all.
Zooming In and Zooming Back Out
No matter how weird dreams may be, they are all based on our actual experiences. That includes flying. So while I was certain to make myself fly in my dream, it didn't have the feel I would have expected from cinematic experiences or the closest thing to actual flying: sitting on a plane. Instead, it was a lot like very fast zooming.
First I saw the trees and bushes from above, then suddenly it felt like I was being sucked up toward the stratosphere, and everything I saw below me started to get smaller and move together in a circle, like when you zoom out of a map. Since I didn't really like that, I tried to "fly" in a different way, but all I could do was change the zoom back. Now I was zooming in, getting closer to the trees, closer to the ground. I still have yet to figure out what that was supposed to mean.
Modern Dreams
As a kid I would ask my parents about their dreams, and they'd just tell me it was "all a bunch of nonsense" or that they simply couldn't remember it. Back then it seemed weird, and at first I thought it was all just an excuse for not wanting to discuss their dreams. Today, however, I know that I don't remember most of my dreams either, especially when I sleep in home in my own bed.
On the other hand, there are some situations where, for whatever reason, I have the most vivid dreams, which also stay with me throughout the day. One such place is the property in California I stayed on during this Summer. In fact, on my first night there the deceased owner of the place greeted me and welcomed me in a dream. It took me several weeks to figure out that it was him, but then again, I had a good friend with me who was quite eager to discuss dreams with me. And I'm sure that must have helped.