The other night I found myself lost in a place in which I was part of a somewhat familiar, yet alien landscape. The surroundings, the people, all in black and white. At some point, I heard a knocking emanating from nowhere and everywhere, and as it grew more discernable, I discovered I was awakening to someone knocking on my door. I had just exited a most bizarre and mysterious realm that still puzzles even the brightest of minds to this day: The dream.
While the dream is one of the most mysterious of experiences, the vast majority of us visit the world surreal regularly. It is an accepted part of the human condition, the subject of study, stories, and simple conversation; and the more we delve into the subject, the more we realize that dreams are much more than what we theorized in the beginning.
Depending on the person, dreams can play a significant role in one’s life. I cite myself as an example: I have been plagued with nightmares from an early age, following seeing several horror films as a child. In the dreams of youth, gargantuan monsters walked the landscape freely – they were the product of a child’s imagination. In adulthood, the monsters are people.
In the conscious world, I see strangers daily, and have no fear. After all, strangers populate the entire globe, milling around every time I go out in public. However, in the world of the dream, strangers take on a whole dimension. They are alien, and I am frightened. I gaze around, and do not know where I am - treachery and trickery are everywhere. Keep in mind that this is only one man’s experience, and perhaps a few others, but we are all different from the start, and our dreams seem to differ based a person’s experiences. Nevertheless, we all share one element, though controversial with the mainstream public, and that is the prophetic dream.
I learned of this quite a while back, after having several odd experiences involving dreams and the conscious world. I found that amidst the usual stream of rapid images and nightmares (nightmares involving people – they really are the scariest things in the world), I would have the occasional dream that was, let us say, off kilter.
For instance, in one dream, I was in a hospital viewing tiny babies wrapped in newspapers. Newspapers! And to make it even more bizarre, I saw animals in the hallways, most notably a gray cobra slithering like liquid across a white tiled floor. All of the elements in the dream just did not match, but seemed significant.
The next day, while talking with my mother on the telephone, she exclaimed, “That baby is playing with a cobra!” She had been watching television, and the program was showing a baby playing with the dreaded thing. I really had no idea what she was talking about, but I explained my dream to her, and she merely replied, “Oh, I’ve dreamt about snakes before.” Regardless, I had the a most unsettling feeling upon hearing about it.
To top it off, a few days later, while watching television, I chanced upon a police drama in which an officer had to deliver a baby in an abandoned house. Upon delivery, he looked to and fro for something, anything to wrap the child in; and what do you think he found? Newspapers. He snatched up some newspaper and wrapped up the newborn. I immediately made a connection. More experiences would follow, and I learned how to spot a “significant dream.” I believe I am not alone in my conclusion that prophetic dreams are real.
I think the most widely recognized aspect of the dream is symbolism. Dream symbolism has been studied for many years, books have been written, and we now know many dream icons symbolizing the different aspects of our lives. The literature is endless in regards to the hidden meanings behind dreaming about everything from sex to spiders to flying. One object may signify a persons fears or anxieties, while another may be amplifying ones’ hidden desires.
Overall, dreams are trying to tell us something in their own sublime and oftentimes grotesque ways. Dreams will always be the subject of conjecture and debate. I choose to embrace dreams, for without them, sleep would be dull, would it not?
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