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Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Dreams
I've been having so many bizarre dreams lately—I
mean nights filled end-to-end with strange dreams—for the past week now.
Last night there was Quantum Mechanics, Science Fiction (flying fighters through
vivid multicolored cloudscapes trying to bomb cities), strange outdoor worlds
with tribes of feral children and huge trees with mean and angry faces shaped in
the bark, blowing wielding in a very strong wind-storm...
I've been having so many bizarre dreams lately—I
mean nights filled end-to-end with strange dreams—for the past week now.
Last night there was Quantum Mechanics, Science Fiction (flying fighters through
vivid multicolored cloudscapes trying to bomb cities), strange outdoor worlds
with tribes of feral children and huge trees with mean and angry faces shaped in
the bark, blowing wielding in a very strong
wind-storm...
I've been tossing around the idea of starting a dream journal again. One of my favorite (occasional) pastimes is writing down and talking about dreams. I think of them as whispers from the creative side of my brain. (The side that has been sitting on its hands for the past month while I work on this nasty Statistics paper.)
I actually did some formal dream work a couple years ago when I lived in Manhattan. There was a guy in my apartment complex, Bill Stimson, who had a small weekly dream workshop. It was based on the work of an expert in the field Montague Ullman. The process is a really well-designed one in which a lot of time is spent "teasing out" the details of a dream, plus the background of what was going on in the dreamer's life at the time. Two realizations came from this work.
1. Almost without exception, dreams are restatements of the current issues and events we face in our waking lives. Examining the dreams in this context gives us an understanding of what's really on our minds.
2. There is a part of our brains that "speaks" in the language of pure metaphor. That voice, even when it comes from the least artistic or articulate individuals, rivals in creativity the greatest poets.
Personally my interest in dreams is less psychological/therapeutic and more creative. Many years ago, before I even moved to New York I hosted a last Dungeon & Dragons campaign with some old friends who were still hanging around the hometown. In order to come up with adventures every weekend I kept an active dream journal and used the material from it to spin my tales. I can't express how much of a (creative) success that campaign had been.
So now I'm dogged by these dreams, taunting me because until I finish this masters project I don't get to "play". It's driving me nuts. Speaking of which... it's time to get back to the paper!
I've been tossing around the idea of starting a dream journal again. One of my favorite (occasional) pastimes is writing down and talking about dreams. I think of them as whispers from the creative side of my brain. (The side that has been sitting on its hands for the past month while I work on this nasty Statistics paper.)
I actually did some formal dream work a couple years ago when I lived in Manhattan. There was a guy in my apartment complex, Bill Stimson, who had a small weekly dream workshop. It was based on the work of an expert in the field Montague Ullman. The process is a really well-designed one in which a lot of time is spent "teasing out" the details of a dream, plus the background of what was going on in the dreamer's life at the time. Two realizations came from this work.
1. Almost without exception, dreams are restatements of the current issues and events we face in our waking lives. Examining the dreams in this context gives us an understanding of what's really on our minds.
2. There is a part of our brains that "speaks" in the language of pure metaphor. That voice, even when it comes from the least artistic or articulate individuals, rivals in creativity the greatest poets.
Personally my interest in dreams is less psychological/therapeutic and more creative. Many years ago, before I even moved to New York I hosted a last Dungeon & Dragons campaign with some old friends who were still hanging around the hometown. In order to come up with adventures every weekend I kept an active dream journal and used the material from it to spin my tales. I can't express how much of a (creative) success that campaign had been.
So now I'm dogged by these dreams, taunting me because until I finish this masters project I don't get to "play". It's driving me nuts. Speaking of which... it's time to get back to the paper!
Posted: Thu - November 13, 2003 at 09:17 AM