Dreaming

First of all........why in heavens name does PSU have to perform system maintenance every morning between 5 and 7???? Don't they know some of us are ready to work at that hour? Thankfully I could write this all in MS Word and then paste it. But seriously........grrr..............but I digress before I even begin. More coffee please............

I’ve always found the topic of dreaming a little interesting, but not as interesting as most people I know. I think that the reason for that results from the fact that I rarely ever remember my dreams. I would say it only happens a few times (less than 5, maybe) per year. Of those few dreams, most of them are boring. I’ve often wondered why it is that I don’t have these super vibrant, crazy dreams. Last year, I subjected myself to a sleep study to try to determine why I was completely and utterly exhausted all the time, after the doctors failed to find anything wrong with me. The sleep study revealed that I simply don’t sleep well. I rarely enter deep sleep or REM, and when I do, it is for a terribly short time. It’s a bummer.
I never thought about my lack of quality sleep having any sort of impact on my creativity, but maybe there is some sort of connection. Throughout these readings, many observations were made regarding the links between dreams and creativity. Hughes (p. 47) states that we have a “biological need to dream”. He further goes on to say that “by strict medical criteria each of us, when dreaming, is formally psychotic, delirious, or demented.” Geez. I don’t know that I like to think of myself that way! It makes sense, though, since dreams are often odd distortions of reality.
Much has been made of dreaming over time. Hughes (p. 49) states that in ancient times, “Dreams were used for diagnosis and treatment of sickness as well as for prophecy”. In the 17th and 18th century, people like Rousseau and von Goethe began to question what was “known” from the Enlightenment based on what they though dreams represented. Freud came along in the late 19th century and decided that dreams were a result of “unacceptable sexual and aggressive desires repressed in the unconscious and sanitized through a process of disguise and distortion.” (Hughes, p. 52) He portrays us all to be, deep down, sexual deviants with anger-management issues. Nice. Is it possible that we are trying to read too much into all of this? Couldn’t a dream just be a dream? Maybe the mind just gets bored while we’re sleeping and likes to play around a little bit? I had a dream the other night that an acquaintance came over to help me study for my American Lit. class, and all he did was talk about how beautiful and wonderful his girlfriend was. I have never known this friend to be much of a reader, and we aren’t good enough friends that I would call upon him for help. I think that it was just something left in my mind, since my husband and I had been talking about the odd couple (the relationship is just weird) that evening. I think that dream was just a dream. I don’t see much in there that is along Freud’s lines!
Hughes and Walsh (obviously) discussed the connections between dreams and shamans. Hughes (p. 49) states that shamans were “professional dreamers who used their skill to assist the community through prediction and healing.” When this idea is put so simply, it is easy to begin to question the legitimacy of shamans. No one can prove what was revealed to one in a dream. As crazy as it might sound, the dream revealed by the shaman will likely be believed because of the place of prominence s/he holds in society. It’s easy to see why there are many who doubt shamans.
Walsh discusses the widely held views that shamans are mentally unbalanced (or “disturbed”) individuals. It is definitely easy to apply such a label. He states on p. 90 that it is hard for someone who has never “themselves engaged in shamanic practice” experience to understand shamanism. That statement raised an issue with me. I don’t know that someone necessarily needs to have experienced something to be able to observe and report on it. A doctor doesn’t need to have a disease, and experience its effects in order to be able to research it and treat it!
Some believe that shamans have suffered psychologically, but have triumphed over such afflictions, and are now better because of the suffering. Walsh quotes Socrates on p. 108: “our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness, provided the madness is given us by divine gift.” It’s an interesting idea, but again, not one I’m sure that I buy into.
The Pearce reading was interesting. Overall, he was focusing on the idea that “Answers are shaped by the questions demanding them, just as the question is finally shaped by the nature of the answer desired.” (Pearce, p. 61) I thought that was a pretty cool statement. It makes sense. When one poses a question, s/he is going to be looking for a specific answer, based on that question. We don’t simply ask the question, wait for the answer to come, and then find it dropped in our lap, fitting perfectly in line with the answer. We have to play detective a bit, and dig for the answer. We have to analyze ideas and put aside bits of information that aren’t relevant. When we finally find an answer that WE deem to be satisfactory, we consider our question answered. As Pearce states (p. 66), “The true believer can bring about the very change that can fit his new idea into the then altered background.”I thought the examples Pearce used of St. Augustine and John Wesley (p. 65) were fascinating, especially since they were of religious nature. They both sought something very specific and after time, found it. Did they “find” it or did they “create” it?