a dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep

my dreams have always been important to me, and more now so than ever, my dreams have been realistic, vivid and all relating to things i've been thinking about. whilst researching about dreams, i found this rather interesting article, and i loved the way the writer talks about the meaning of dreams.

"An approach to meaning that most people ignore is that of pattern recognition and the correspondence between patterns. The correspondence may be direct and exact, analogous, or formal, as in mathematics. One understanding of meaning is that when we say that one thing means something we are saying that the patterns we see in it correspond to the patterns we see in something else. We may correlate the patterns we see in a person’s life to patterns we perceive in the wisdom literature, or in history.

Does the sport of basketball mean anything? Throwing a basketball through a hoop, the rules of the game--do they mean anything? Was meaning intended by the designer of the game? Why do people get so excited by the game? We intuitively and emotionally respond to the correspondences between the patterns in the sport of basketball and patterns of effort, competition, risk taking and skill in our own lives.

I believe it is perhaps to miss the point to ask if dreams have meaning. Nothing can have meaning without reference to a corresponding pool of patterns with which to make the connection. Rather I would say, can you find patterns in dreams that correspond to patterns in people’s lives? Are the correspondences of any interest?

Clearly the answer is yes. Dreams are a wealth of metaphors and analogies that pertain to important issues in people’s lives. The clinical literature of dream interpretation is full of such data. It can’t be denied."

to say that this is true, would be incorrect, as how would we ever know this for certain? to me i would say this is partially true, as some of the dreams i am currently having are so related to my life that they may aswell be my life. but at the same time i can think of two dreams in particular which as far as i can conciously understand, have no relation to my life at all.

however, like Henry Reed mentions above, those two dreams that i am thinking of, could be metaphors or analogies that pertain to issues in my life. these metaphors just being too convuleted or abstract for my concious brain to decipher, along with the fact that the account of the dream is only based on what i can remember, meaning the most important clues to what the dream could mean, could have been easily forgotten.

maybe our dreams are portals into another world? another life that we have lived, or will live someday. or maybe just insight into our purest of thoughts, free of all inhibition and prejudice.
on the other hand our dreams could just be a random simulation that we play through based on memories.

do we have freedom in our dreams? do we actually play out a role, deciding how the story will play out, or is it all predetermined? i'm trying to think through any dreams that i have remembered, trying to find a memory of myself actively choosing or changing something in a dream, but i just can't remember in enough detail.

maybe that's the reason why we can never remember our dreams completely and accurately. maybe if we did it would unwravel the whole mystery of dreams, it would allow us to see far into our brains, allow us to travel into some other universe, or allow us to live in our dreams forever. maybe we just can't know what's really happening in our dreams, because the truth is too unimaginable, too unbearable or too simple.

i find that we make our dreams seem so overly complicated that they are just too intricate to understand. can they really be so complex and so metaphorical if other animals can dream too? my dogs, do something in their sleep that i can only assume to be dreaming. if we work under the principle that they are 'inferior' to us, then can they really be dreaming? can they really be thinking up and playing through their desires and life problems? to suggest such a thing sounds ridiculous, but it is a valid question.

my mum once said to me, that when i was a baby i used to make sounds and twitch in my sleep the way that the dogs do. does this relate somehow to the relation between their mental capacity and that of a baby?

i don't know the answers to any of my questions, but feel like finding them would turn our dreams into just another bodily function, just another mystery solved. do we really need to solve this one?

a dream is defined as both of the thoughts above.

1.a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.

2.the sleeping state in which this occurs.

3.an object seen in a dream.

4.an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.

5.a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.

6.an aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream.

7.a wild or vain fancy.

8.something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.

i know which ones i'd rather believe in...