Dreams

Have you ever wondered how many songs are called like this? Well I have, kind of. Basically if I look on my playlist on my phone, I have plenty by that title. However not the same one. I mean they are not all covers of the same song. The Corrs’ version of Fleetwood Mac is my favourite.

As I am laying in bed drifting away, I can’t help but wonder what will dreamland be like tonight? Are dreams the realm of the unknown? Or are they more like the key to all our questions?

Obviously I fell asleep but it left me thinking, afterwards, about this topic. If we speak just about the dreaming process, we are not alone. Animals also do it. If you have pets at home you have seen them. Mostly dogs but also cats and they are so fun to watch. And I wonder often what may they be dreaming about. So it is not just our thing.

According to experts I heard on the radio the other day, there are different parts to the dreaming process. The first part is all the dreams we have about stuff we have seen during the day, memories and other things from our life. In my opinion, the most important part is the last one, just before we wake up, and it is about all we need to fix in our lifes. It is basically what we must pay attention to and those experts were encouraging people to keep a dream diary where we would write them before we forget them. Because we all agree that as the day passes by, we tend to lose the memory of them. They fade away.

I guess we all have our preferences regarding dreams but I can’t go through them without talking about nightmares. And how they influence us on our lifes. For some people they are just too much cheese for dinner. Others try to find some reason to their existence, and others just relive them on and on.

Scary dreams are my greatest fear. Basically because I used to believe they could be a premonition to warn you about what is going to happen. It would not be the first time I dream about something awful and it becomes true. A long long time ago, I had a dream about my sister being strangled by her boyfriend. I saw everything and I woke up scared and crying. I called her and she was OK. 5 years ago, she died from mechanical asfixiation, in very obscure circumstances that involved her exboyfriend. That is creepy and disturbing. As well as terrorising and sad. Since you can’t control what you dream about, that freaks me out. I know some people would say to take the warning and prevent things from actually happening. Unfortunately I don’t know how to do it so I keep hoping for nice or neutral dreams. Then again, they may just be a way of my unconscious to put out what scares me and deal with it. Now I feel dumb.

You all remember Freddy Krueger and the bunch of movies about this horror character. He could kill you in your dreams and then you would die in real life. So he would be chasing people and scaring them for ages. He was not the only scary figure from that realm. Candyman had also some parts from there but it was basically mirrors, which are another mystical item. Cinema tried to mix them in a series of horror crossovers that ended up being a bit lame.

Not all magical creatures that dwell in dreamland or are associated to it are evil. The Sandman is supposed to be good. And even the tooth fairy. Then again there are versions of them that are demonic. Though why dreams? Probably because they have always thrilled us. We have dream sorcerers and witches that used them to comunicate with the above and beyond. It seemed to be the realm of magic and power. Remember when we were kids, the good things always happened while we were sleeping. I talking Santa or the Tooth Fairy. You would wake up and all the exciting surprises would be there waiting for us.

Speaking of which, I read somewhere that dreams are the plane where you can find the past, the present and the future at the same time. This means you can interact with them. And though it may seem a bit mystical or, for some sceptical people, rubbish, I find it quite interesting. Let me elaborate. If we consider our previous and actual selves, it would be quite possible. I mean the future can be out of reach so I won’t go there, but it would be useful to reach who we were in order to understand lots of things that made us who we are. Then again, sometimes repressed memories could rise to the surface and help us heal. Basically get to all that forged us and maybe hurt us in the past to make a better present and allow us to recover from it and move on.

Lucid dreams happen when the dreamer is aware of the fact he is asleep and having them. This can happen sometimes and others it can be triggered by the subject after some training. In them, he or she can control them and move consciously where he or she wants and do as pleased. The subject then becomes proactive and can force things to happen. Personally I think it would be great to be able to guide myself in that realm towards some specific goals. We all would love to fly. Although I must say it has happened to me a couple of times, and without waking up, I have been aware of me not being awake. Changing the outcome of the dreams is something more complicated, but it can be done. If lucky or well trained.

Dreams are always closely related to hopes and desires, as well as their counterparts fears and terrors and the nightmares. I would say you can’t have one side without the other to counterbalance them but it’s not true. What we do about them and how we let them guide or influence us is what makes the difference.

Speaking of love and music, we have the song called Dreams by the Cranberries. Kylie Minogue wrote another one with the same title for her album Impossible Princess, where she talks about the opposition of concepts and feelings, hopes and desires that make «the dreams of an impossible princess». And we all have the lyrics in our minds of Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by The Eurythmics. No need to quote them.

We always put in this place all our desires and longings, hopes and wishes, for the present and mostly for the future. We always talk about the dream job, or the dream house, or the dream partner. It is a place where everything is allowed and possible. Even if waking up may be painful sometimes. We can manufacture or create that ideal person or place or job so we know what we really want in real life. Which would prevent us from being disappointed when we find lower versions of it and we don’t have to go for second best or for the next best thing. If we know what we want and what we don’t, we can search for it more easily and never have to stoop for less.

January 2022