Last night I had the strangest dream. I was having a conversation with some Albanians in a coffee bar in London about their struggle settling in the UK and the culture they left behind. I can’t remember much about the details but it all felt very informative and fascinating. When I left the coffee bar I found myself on the corner of a street waiting for someone to pick me up.
While I waited I had a conversation with a man and a woman about the parking restrictions in the area and then I became aware of a small silver car coming towards that I identified as belonging to me. I looked inside at the driver and noticed, with some pleasure, that it was woman wearing a brightly coloured Hijab (head wear worn by Muslim women). I quickly realised the woman was my wife and got into the car.
Before we could drive away the car stalled and wouldn’t start again. I had to get out and push it in the hope that I would be able to bump start the engine back to life. It was proving highly challenging as the woman (apparently my wife) couldn’t seem to engage the gear stick and I eventually became exhausted by the strain of pushing the car.
Suddenly the scene and circumstances changed and I was in an office engaged in conversation with some ex colleagues talking about work and people we used to know. A whole new set of people and a whole new me.
Now, while I'm sure dream analysts would have some fun unpacking that lot, it all seems a bit randomn to me so I'll leave it to those who know more about the subject. But here’s the thing. I am not, nor ever have been married to a woman who wears a Hijab, however in my dream all this seemed perfectly normal. Now as I picture the faces of the ex-collegues I was talking to in the dream I realise they were people I’d never seen before in my life, and yet it all felt very familiar. I had encountered several individuals all of whom seemed to have thoughts of their own and said things that surprised me. Somethings were said that I’m sure I’d never heard before. On top of that my own identity had shifted and yet I always felt like myself.
Sleep researchers suggest that dreaming is about dealing with our unconscious desires and fears and rehearsing responses to situations we may face in waking life. Some even suggest that each character in a dream is an expression of our own personalities.
In other words everyone you dream about represents an aspect of your own feelings, thoughts and behaviours. Personally, I am not entirely convinced by that theory but it is certain that when we dream we are purely in the subjective realm of experience. There is no objective, physical dimension to engage with as everything is played out in the imagination. And yet , when we dream we meet separate entities seemingly feeling, thinking and acting independently of us, the dreamer.
I was reminded of the movie ‘Inception’ where the Ariadne character explains to Di Caprio that during the dream state “ It’s like you are discovering a new world and yet you are creating it.” One mind, many perspectives.
It is possible that pondering on our ability to 'dream' up an experience of reality full of people, places and things during sleep may help our Western minds, more used to individualist thinking, to better understand the Eastern, spiritual perspective of everything and everyone being an expression of ‘One’ energy.
Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism offer the concept of ‘One’ awareness behind many minds. The central idea being that duality, separation and multiplicity is an illusion.
In other words there is only one dreamer dreaming us all.
And if that is true, that dreamer is YOU.
No comments:
Post a Comment