Let’s ponder over this question for some time today.
Unfulfillment?
Subconscious mind on a ride?
Association and strengthening of memories?
Side effects of your brain replaying daily events?
Expression of your deep desires and fantasies?
Your self looking for solutions to complex issues?
Unfulfilled day seeking completion?
What are they?
Do they mean anything?
We associate dreams with two things: one, dreams that we dream at night, our nightly motion pictures inside our minds, and second, our goals, desires, or fantasies. Today we are referring to the dreams of the night (and of the day—commonly known as daydreaming.)
Let us read a definition of dreams, and then we will dissect that definition to understand the meaning.
“A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in mind during certain stages of sleep,” as described by Wikipedia. The sources also mention: “Humans spend about 2 hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, although the dreamer may perceive the dream much longer than this.”
Now, let’s pay attention to this extended definition mentioned here. Take pauses at specific steps to go deeper and understand what it means.
First, the definition talks about the movement of dreams as involuntary. It means conscious dreaming is primarily out of our control, it’s possible with training, but it happens on its own.
Second, we read that although dreams last shorter, the dreamer may perceive them longer. In dreams, we go beyond time or our usual daytime timescale. Time ceases to be or runs more slowly, taking a new speed and meaning altogether. You may get smitten by someone, propose, or go on several dates together before you decide to get married. Then you finally do, only to find a couple of years later that things didn’t quite work out as they were supposed to, so you get separated, feeling guilty of your doing all the while. All of this, a life full of agony and ecstasy lived in a matter of few mins, with your dream girl or dream boy deep inside a dream.
Isn’t it interesting?
The point to note is that there is a place or a dimension where we are beyond time. We transcend our boundaries. If it happens in dreams, we can jump out of it by will if we desire to. More importantly, time is relative. It’s not absolute, as it appears in our daily waking life.
The third and final point is: the definition talks of a “dreamer” dreaming the dream. The dreamer is not the dream. The dream is something outside of the dreamer. The dream is separate, and it’s not you. Not only is it a false play of your mind, but it is also different from you. Your existence is not a dream. Both are separate phenomena. That means you can easily unhook yourself from the dream if you desire.
“who looks outside, dreams
who looks inside, awakes” — Carl Gustav Jung
#dreams #nightdreams #importanceofdreams #meaningofdreams #whataredreams #dreamer #sleep #luciddreaming
