Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Dream theory, part II

I feel I should expand on my post from yesterday. So I apologise in advance to all my lovely readers who come here for the craft and have had to put up with my esoteric musings and metaphysical wonderings!

But Gina raised some interesting points in the comment she left on yesterday's post, so I thought about them overnight.

I'd like to clarify a point I made, to wit: that in dreaming we are our true selves.

I don't by any stretch mean that our dreamworlds are our ultimate realities, and I don't feel that everything we do in our waking lives is wasted. I love all the things I do in my waking hours! Well - *most* of the things, anyway.

What I do think is that it's worth looking at the importance of sleep and dreaming, in reverse. The theory goes we need sleep to recharge, so that we can get through our days.

I say though, what if sleep is actually the primary objective, and the getting through of days - eating, working, crafting - is what provides us with the fuel for our sleep? Let's look at sleep and dreaming as the primary objective rather than the supporting mechanism.

There isn't any evidential proof for this theory - it's just something I've wondered about over time. Perhaps it's because I feel that in my dreams, I can achieve anything. I can access the power inside me, to fly, breathe underwater, change my reality, do amazing things. In my dreams I'm not held back by the artefacts and assumptions that weigh me down in regular life. In my dreams I'm free of all constraints, and I get to explore parts of myself that I could never access through my conscious mind.

Carlos Castaneda, that famous mysticist, said that dreams are a gateway to a magical realm of separate realities, otherwordly beings, sorcery, and magic. My experiences certainly lead me to believe this is true.

Dreams are a method of learning. They're a pathway to discovery and enlightenment - and in them, we can throw off the mantles of drudgery that weigh us down in the waking world.

4 comments:

CurlyPops said...

Oh dear - if my dreams are a pathway to discovery and enlightenment, then I'm very afraid... in fact, I can't even type what I've been dreaming about!

Marcia Dream said...

Isn't a part of our true selves the way in which we interact with other people? When we are sleeping and dreaming, we are not interacting with others at all. Just a thought.

trash said...

People always look at me strangely when I say I do my worrying in my sleep.

Gina said...

Thanks for revisting this... I think I was reading your perspective in the previous post as more pessimistic than you intended! And no need (from my perspective) to apologise for metaphysical musings rather than showing us the latest sewing project.
There's more food for thought here, although I'm far from convinced about sleep being the primary objective. Mostly because of the point Marcia Dream raises. I see life's ultimate meaning defined by and through relationships with things outside of ourselves - God, other people, the environment. My dreamscape helps me to explore and process my relationships, but it's an egocentric activity, not a shared one.
Hmmm, off to do some more philosophizationing! And craft!