Dreams…
Dreams are nothing but a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. – Wikipedia
Simple definition, isn’t it? But have you ever thought any deeper than this? Have you ever imagined of the link, strong or weak that it may possess with our real lives? Have you ever wondered why some of your dreams come true or why you face some particular nightmares very often in your dreams?
Have you ever thought it my way…?
Well what’s this ‘my way’ anyways? Read ahead!
Disclaimer: This post is purely based on my personal thoughts and has no scientific approach. It is also not meant to be acceptable to everyone and neither do I want to enforce it. So if you disagree with any of my thoughts, you are free to close this blog post and forget it.
My Definition of ‘Dream’
Dream is an incident or a set of incidents experienced in a universe similar to our conscious universe but set in a sub-conscious state of mind.
Don’t get lost if I defined it too technically. Here is the explanation – When we are awake, our mind is said to be in conscious state and during sleep we are in a sub-conscious state i.e. we are not aware of the things going on in our environment.
According to some of the literature, we experience a cycle of non-dream sleep and dream sleep every 90 minutes of our regular sleep. That means, for about 90 minutes we experience non-dream sleep and then for some time like about 10 minutes we experience a dream, then the dream ends giving way to another 90 minutes of non-dream sleep and so on.
Moreover the dreaming duration increases with every such cycle i.e. the 10 minute dreaming duration increases to about 20 then 30 minutes and so on. In the morning hours, this dreaming duration is the maximum.
Our mind and body are periodically controlled by some element that results into this cycle.
What interests me is not just such controlling element, but the more interesting thing is what happens in those 10 minutes of dream…
The Physics of ‘Dream Universe’
10-15 minutes.
This is what you get for one dream. It is said that this dreaming period extends to a somewhat longer duration during the end of our sleep i.e. during the early morning hours.
But don’t you sometimes feel that you just had a really long dream? Has it anything to do with the ‘time’ element of dream universe?
According to me, it is not possible to set a unit for time in that parallel universe. 1 second may range from 0.01 second to 1 minute (just like the slow motion or fast forward button) at different instances, different dream instances.
This was about time, now about the most famous laws – gravity, cell structure and every other law of uniformity.
Flying around the sky is the favorite dream for any child. And its a well known fact that gravity, the ultimate foe of flying imaginations is completely absent in the dream universe. Actually ‘redefined’ would be a better word than ‘absent’ in this case.
Also, its very easy to stretch your body parts to any length and shape in your dreams. Anything that is systematically defined in this real world may be redefined in that parallel universe.
This was about the facts that almost all of you know of. Now lets discuss about the origin of dreams and their unique physics, i.e. the ‘Creator’.
The ‘God’ of Dreams
Consider this conscious universe. We think of a ‘God’ who is the creator of this world. Similarly, we have a God of our dreams too..
I don’t know how to personify the God of our conscious world but I can even name the God of our dreams… Its you!
And this is where my theory on parallel universe starts..
Dreams are nothing but incidents of that parallel universe governed by you, yourself. You own that world. That world, which not only comprises of you, but also all those innumerable faces you have ever seen in your life or will see in your future. Each and every particle of that universe is a part of your soul, each and every valley, mountain, river and sand, everything is contained in your subconscious mind.
All the laws of physics and chemistry that apply to your dreams are set by you.
Did you ever think this way? As God? No? Well, read ahead maybe you also missed the other important things…
Link With Conscious Universe
“Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
– Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
As I said before, your dream is a universe parallel to your conscious universe.
Now, have you ever thought why, just why do you dream particular things or incidents? Who are all those people you see in your dreams? Are they really a product of your imagination? Or does it link with the conscious universe in any way…
According to me, every single face that you see in your dreams whether it is a human face or a non-human face, is linked with your conscious universe, mostly from your past or present. Even the future in some cases.
Let me give an example. Suppose you see a pigeon in your dream. Whether you know it or not, maybe its the same pigeon that visits your balcony most often. Even if you can’t recognize non-human faces neither can you differentiate between the pigeon who visits your balcony to the one who visits your neighbor’s balcony, in your dreams, your memory is thousands of time more effective than your conscious memory.
I’ve read some literature that says that each and every incident experienced in our life has a place in our memory.. a place which we can easily forget in our conscious universe but never in our dream universe. Those memories play a very important role in dreams. Dreams can reveal hidden secrets of our lives, dreams can bring back forgotten details of our past, and dreams have a special link with our future too.
All of you may have experienced at least one dream which ‘literally’ came true. Haven’t you?
Let me give you my own recent example. Just yesterday night I had a dream about 2 people speaking in some foreign language. The language was totally unknown to me. Still I remember the way they spoke, it was fluent and seemed to be full of meaningful words.
How did my subconscious mind render words on its own without me having the knowledge of those words?
Or did I have knowledge about those words..? And the language..?
I also remember that once during that dream, I came across a written word. And all of a sudden, I realized that I was in my dream. Yes, I was aware that I was dreaming. Such a state of awareness while dreaming is called ‘lucid dreaming’. (Refer next topic for more info on lucid dreaming)
I took advantage of that moment and tried to memorize the word and its spelling, so that I could check its meaning when I wake up.
The word as I remember was something like ‘Oulipian’ or ‘Oulifian’. I’m not sure.
Whats more surprising is that a word ‘Oulipo’ does exist in french! And ‘oulipian’ can be nothing but a word formed from that root. The word that I saw in my dream.. had a real meaning! Even though I don’t know any french words, how can this word come into my dream?
By the way, ‘Oulipo’ is a gathering of french-speaking writers and mathematicians. This is what I got from Wikipedia. Its a special group consisting of about 38 writers and mathematicians as of 2012. Now I have no idea how this would be linked with my past, present or future, but I am sure from my own experience that our brain doesn’ t make any imaginary terms, faces or places in dreams. Every language, face or place that we see in our dreams certainly has a link with our real world.
Also there’s a popular belief in some religions that ‘morning dreams’ come true.
I guess its because as stated earlier, dreaming duration is longer during the morning compared to nights (remember the 90 minute cycle mentioned earlier?). If by any chance, morning dreams of a person do refer to the future, it means that dreams are really a portal to our past as well as future.
There are some people who claim that they see future in their dreams very often while some neglect it completely. I have a graphical representation of both such people’s dream universe and our conscious universe in the concluding paragraph, do check it out. For now, let me introduce you to the topic which has interested me the most over the past few months…
Lucid Dreaming – Being awake while sleeping
Lucid dreaming is the state of mind, when in your dream, you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming and you gain the ability to control your dreams directly to the ultimate level.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
Imagine a world where magic exists, where you can shape the whole of universe in just a matter of seconds, where you can beat any law of physics, seek hidden answers, control the whole of universe.. This is what lucid dreaming is about. Though it seems fun and of ultimate value to thinkers, its still a world full of secrets worth exploring.
If you ask about my experience, then I have had a few many lucid dreams till now but none of them lasted more than a minute. Either I would wake up with a raised hearbeat or the dream would just dissolve and I would lose my awareness. Memorizing the word ‘Oulipian’ has been my greatest achievement in lucid dreaming so far.
There are some methods by practicing which one can attain lucidity in dreams more often. I don’t have much space to write about those methods here as this post has already reached a length of 1500 words, but I would like to speak up my thoughts about lucid dreaming.
According to me, lucid dreaming is a direct portal to connect our conscious universe with the subconscious one. We get to not only participate in dreams, but also to shape it, to direct it or even to change it. Lucid dreaming can be considered a portal to understand and acquire knowledge of all the hidden valuable things deep inside our memories, our past, our present and future…
If one lucid dream can give me the knowledge of a french word that I don’t recognize whether it was ever in my memory or not, then what would be the result if I ask to myself, in my dreams about my past or my future? Will I get any answers? Is my memory so strong that I really remember anything that I see or read once in my life? Do I also have my deep childhood memories long forgotten fresh into that hidden section of my subconscious mind..?
Does my subconscious dreaming mind really know about my future..? How does it all link together?
My Thoery of Parallel Universes
Now that I have told you about my views on dreams, their origin and scope, let me conclude with my theory on how it all links up with you.
This is the figure that explains my theory about how the conscious and dream universes are parallel yet linked with each other.
The circle depicts uniform nature, characteristic of the conscious universe and the 2 wave-patterns depict irregular nature, characteristic of dream universe for 2 people. The first one, being the one which intersects more often with the conscious world, the 2nd one being the one intersecting less.
According to my theory, the intersection of the conscious universe in the dream universe is when we get to see things closely related to our past, present or future in our dreams. Yes, I mean to say that when these two universes intersect, your dreams are the portals to your inner self, your conscious self.
Most of the times, when you say ‘I saw this thing in my dream!’ or ‘My dream came true.’, its when knowingly or unknowingly, your conscious and sub-conscious universes had intersected and that’s why you had a dream about your real self.
Now, I said that these universes are parallel but the so established definition says that two parallel things never intersect! For that I would say that by parallel I mean two totally different universes that exist at the same time and yes, they can intersect without doubt if you got my meaning.
For some people they intersect more often (the 1st wave-pattern in figure) and they are those people who believe that they see future in their dreams, while for some, they intersect rarely (2nd wave-pattern) and they are the ones who don’t experience future in their dreams very often.
Earlier I had mentioned that according to me, dreams can open portals to the deepest secrets and undiscovered questions about your past, present and future. For that I would like to recall that one important property of dream that is the key to achieve this.
The key is lucidity.
The last and most important part of my theory is about exploring the limits of dream, the hidden value of dreams.
Awareness is the key to 2 most fascinating and untouched secrets of this world – Hypnosis and Dreams
All those times, when your conscious universe intersects your dream universe, you have the portal wide open to explore your conscious life details in your dreams. But the problem is that you are not aware that you are dreaming and so you remain mere puppet and watch whatever your subconscious mind has to show you.
The key to exploring the real thing is to let your conscious mind dream…
I recall back, lucid dreaming is the state of mind when in your dream, you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming. The figure shows what I think about the intersection of dream universe with conscious universe and the key of lucidity involved in it. The intersection of these 3, you can imagine I know, can lead to that unknown, unexplored state where you can find out anything you wanted to know about your conscious life, your past ever since you were born, your present as well as.. maybe.. your future.
You will be able to talk to yourself better than before, your conscious mind can talk to your subconscious mind, you can know about the existence of soul, birth and rebirth, maybe even meet the spirits and what not…
Have I experienced anything yet?
The answer is no. I am still practicing lucid dreaming techniques and as of now, I am unable to hold my anxiety once I am aware that I am in a dream for more than a few seconds. But yes, many times in my life I have experienced that in some way or the other, my past or my future has been depicted in my dreams.
Conclusion
Space, Hypnotism and Dreams – are 3 unknown lands still unexplored. The 1st one out of which, is the most explored one and the 2nd is out of belief for some, but the 3rd i.e. dreams… everyone experiences it every night. They see it, like it or hate it and just forget it. People tend to neglect its hidden value.
Whether you ever had any interest in dreaming or not, whether you liked reading this article or not, keep one thing in your mind – If its going on in your head, it doesn’t mean its not true…
Thanks for reading and do comment your thoughts, experiences and theories on dream!