Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Do you dream?

Dreaming seems to be so rare for me. I know that we probably all dream, but don't necessarily remember the dreams. I don't. At least, not usually.

So, what goes into a dream?

Where do the images that haunt it, the people who inhabit it, the locales where it is set come from? Why does what happens in the dream happen?

My husband always dreams the end of the TV show or movie he falls asleep watching. Usually a mystery or spy story, so he gets his stint as master detective or spy. He always tells me how it ended. He always solves the crime. He is always wrong.

I have a recurring dream (by recurring, I mean that I have waken from it half a dozen times in eight years) that was initially caused by medication I took to prevent malaria when I went to India in 2000. The possible side effects listed for this med included vivid dreams and psychotic episodes. You took the pills only once a week, and I only took them for four weeks. So I was only psychotic a couple of times--paranoid and agitated. And when I first dreamed that dream and woke screaming, the only other person awake in the compound was the night watchman, who spoke no English--and, of course, I was paranoid anyway. The dream recurred three or four times in the following months then faded. Then, several years later it popped up again suddenly--again while away from home. It scared me half out of my wits. And I screamed again.

And as for the malaria? I didn't meet a single mosquito in India. Wrong season. But what did we know!

So what goes into a dream?

I woke this morning later than usual but earlier than I'd like. I lay in a half awake state, hunkered into my quilts seemingly to stay warm, but what? I was not cold and I was really hunkering and then I looked around and...

Well, I didn't look around, my eyes were still closed and it was still dark anyway. When I realized that I was not where I had seemed for -- how long?--to have been just before, I wanted to scrunch further into the covers--like a turtle pulling into the shell.

No, that won't work! It will just take me back where I had been wherever that was but it was not good stuff was happening.

So, what goes into a dream?

The happenings:
--events in the book I just read--but transported 250 years forward into sort of contemporary times and not looking anachronistic at all
--events in the TV show we had watched before going to bed. Don't remember the name of it: the one where the guy is Henry and Edward and one of them is an assassin and the other is a peaceloving husband and father.
--the shooting that happened in the next town yesterday
--war and strife images from the news: Afghanistan, Iraq, Zimbabwe
--the drive across state last month with a seriously disturbed person

The people:
--a ranger we worked with this summer, sort of
--a blogger I visit regularly, or maybe my daughter-in-law. She drove like my DIL did when she was learning to drive. (Come to think of it she drove like all my kids did on their first practice drive around the block. Those were harrowing experiences.) Or maybe it was someone else. Well, obviously it was someone else.
--a lady from the Altar Society who I've known for thirty-odd years. The others, whom I was in the company of were vague. This one was very specific--definitely her.
--the mother of the second person--I spoke to her by phone and she had a heavy accent.

The locations:
--Spokane (That's where we drove like--well)
--my town (That's where the Altar Society lady was standing in the middle of the street holding--well)
--Canada (That will be explained later.)

Some of the props:
--a canon
--a convenience store
--a collection of cell phones in my pocket--It was using the phone that put me in Canada, because I specifically told the ranger person that I couldn't call the blogger/DIL person because my cell phone wouldn't work in Canada. As it turned out, I had her phone--which was how I ended up talking to her mother.
--a bus
--folded blue pieces of paper
--a me that was, hmm, at least 30 years younger--maybe 40--than I am today

So, what goes into a dream?

You know! Every single thing made perfect sense. Images and people who have been in my mind at some time in the last couple of weeks.

Except the folded blue paper.

Where on earth did the folded blue paper come from?

8 comments:

Daryl said...

Interesting ... sit down, get comfy and lets talk about your subconscious ... oh time's up, we'll get to that in our next session.

:-Daryl

mrsnesbitt said...

My husband had a very disturbing dream a couple of weeks ago. He dreamt he was removing his private parts with a spanner......what can I say?

the mother of this lot said...

I have only ever dreamt during pregnancy.

Obviously, if I dream now, I panic slightly when I wake up.....

Cath said...

There is so much in our subconscious that there is no telling where our dreams will take us.
If you ever find out about the folded bits of blue paper, I'd be fascinated to know! Do you do origami? Could it be related to quilting?

PERBS said...

I know I have had dreams but I can't remember them when I wake up.

P.N. Subramanian said...

Very interesting. I dream too. I fly pushing my hands downwards like birds. My performance during the dream is better than the Spiderman. Thanks.

becky aka theRAV said...

This is so cool & interesting Katney. I have never had a dreamd explained like this before. Glad it made sense to you. I have had a reoccurring dream since I was little. Men were wrestling in the streets near where I lived as a young girl. They wore black swim trunks and black masks like wrestlers used to do back in the 60's. One of them gets killed. I see them carrying the body which scared me because I'd never seen a dead body before. The streets were lit w/ those small torch balls they used to use back them instead of the barricades w/ flashers they use now. They placed these around the dead man. I had this dream 3 times in my life. Mom used to tell me if you dreamed it 3 times, it would come true. The last time I had it, I was in high school. Still not sure of the significance of it. I just thought it was odd I had it 3 times in my life. Hope I don't have it again tonight. LOL! Now when I have dreams I have 2 friends who interpret them for me.

Mary said...

Fascinating! I seldom remember dreams, but when I do they are usually very strange mixtures of people I know but doing unusual things. Like you, I have had some of my most vivid ones while on medication I don't normally take.