I had a dream last night. I’m not going to tell you anything about it, who she was, or how it finished! You see, everybody’s dream is private and personal; a space where nobody else can enter.
But isn’t dreaming the strangest phenomenon all the same? We do not invent our dreams, have no conscious input into and cannot banish it before we wake up. We are all always the centre-piece of our own dream – its main character and main event.
They say that some of the possible meaning of dreams includes representing unconscious desires and wishes … but if this were true, would not every dream have a happy ending? There are dream analysts out there who claim to be able to put a meaning on all things in dreamland, but to me their findings are very limited. Nobody can understand the meaning of dreams, or why we dream in the first place. It is a mystery when you think about it … and we do think about such things on your behalf!
I can see there being a cause for certain dreams repeatedly invading our sleep place. These are usually negative, stressful encounters due to an unresolved mental conflict pertaining to our waking life. Here is an example of what I am talking about.
After I got out of milking and sold my dairy herd thirty-odd years ago; I began to have recurring, troubled dreams over many years. In the dream I had neglected the cows at calving time, forgot to milk them, or wilfully neglected them in some other manner. This was subconscious guilt for doing a Judas on the lovely animals I had reared from birth. And speaking of animals, I believe that animals do have dreams also. Watch an old dog lying out in the sun and note the ‘twitches’, grunts, and changing facial expressions!
I don’t like being in or on the water –unless it’s a big boat. If I have a dream in this sort of situation to do with water, it is never a good one. The experts would tell me that this sort of dream indicates a sign that I feel overwhelmed or unsupported by the people around me. I would tell them it’s because I almost bloody drowned once! If another person loves canoeing and water-skiing then they would have a pleasant dream from the same setting.
There is no sense to most dreams. It can be about a person or place totally removed from our awake mind. Everyone has a dream at some time or other about being chased by somebody. You might not even know who or why you are being chased, but if you are like me, you can never run as fast as you want!
A lot of people experience dreams where they are falling. One would imagine this has something to do with anxiety or insecurity they have no control over. When I was a boy I often dreamt that I went to school, or to serve mass, only to realise when I got there that I forgot my trousers!
But no matter what the dreamy experts tell us, I don’t believe that most dreams signify anything in our lives. A dream just takes on a story of its own and be totally removed from any living experience we have ever had.
‘Sweet dreams’ and ‘pleasant dreams’ are two common ways of saying ‘goodnight’. Think of all the songs that have ‘dream’ ‘dreaming’ or ‘dreamt’ as a central message. ‘I was dreaming of old Ireland’, ‘I’ll see you in my dreams’, ‘Sweet dreams Baby’; we could go on …
Now we come to the nightmare – the most unwelcome dream of all. Waking up after a nightmare and realising it was only a dream, is one of life’s great little pleasures.
Some study or other claims to have found a link between persistent nightmares and dementia. This finding applies to middle-aged people of both sexes and says that those in that age group who suffer with excessive nightmares are more likely to get dementia. They don’t know if the nightmares contribute to the onset of the disease, or if the dreams are the first symptom.
We said somewhere up above that we cannot control our dreams, but that is not strictly true, because there is one dream we can steer in the right direction; and that is the ‘daydream’.
Daydreams occur while we are awake and represent a kind of escapism where our mind wanders away from chores of today. We allow our mind to drift into imaginary scenarios, recall memories, and dream of future possibilities. Daydreams are a testament to our creativity and ability to transcend our current environment. It allows us a little fantasy fun and gives us a playground for our imagination.
So until next week; sweet dreams ….Baby!
Don’t Forget
If you want a secret kept – keep it.
