Un-consciousness Conspiracy

I used to believe that dreams were just the flotsam and jetsam of daily life rising to the surface. That it was the brain's way of repackaging the human experience and filing it away neatly for later reference. But it's very difficult to maintain that arch sense of aloofness when your brain spits out something like this:

I dreamed that I was taking a drama class at SJSU (this is a nice touchstone with reality because I have been considering this lately). So I go to class and the instructor is just, well, Gorgeous. And I develop an immediate crush on him to the point where I see him after class to tell him I'm considering dropping the course just so I can date him. ;-)

The creation of this dream "character" was very specific. He was tall, slender, dark-haired, American but of East Indian descent, beautiful smile... And I can assure you that I have never seen this man before in my life. Not in life, or television, or movies, or even a book.

So where did he come from?

I am reminded of Donna Noble's experience in the world library and how she was never entirely sure afterwards if her husband in that virtual world was real or imagined. (Ref: Forest of the Dead).

I am also reminded of that really marvelous conversation between Harper Pitt and Prior Walter in Angels in America:

Harper Pitt: What are you doing in my hallucination?
Prior Walter: I'm not in your hallucination, you're in my dream.
Harper Pitt: You're wearing makeup.
Prior Walter: So are you.
Harper Pitt: But you're a man.
Prior Walter: [looks into mirror and screams] My hands and feet give it away.
Harper Pitt: There must be some mistake here. I don't recognize you. Are you my... - some sort of imaginary friend?
Prior Walter: No. Aren't you too old to have imaginary friends?
Harper Pitt: I have emotional problems. I took too many pills. Why are you wearing makeup?
Prior Walter: I was in the process of applying the face, trying to make myself feel better. I swiped the new fall colours at the Clinique counter at Macy's.
Harper Pitt: You stole these?
Prior Walter: I was out of cash. It was an emotional emergency.
Harper Pitt: Joe will be so angry. I promised him no more pills.
Prior Walter: These pills you keep alluding to...
Harper Pitt: Valium, I take Valium. Lots of Valium.
Prior Walter: And you're dancing as fast as you can.
Harper Pitt: I'm not addicted. I don't believe in addiction and I... I never drink and I never take drugs.
Prior Walter: Well, smell you, Nancy Drew.
Harper Pitt: Except for Valium.
Prior Walter: Except Valium in wee fistfuls.
Harper Pitt: It's terrible. Mormons are not supposed to be addicted to anything. I'm a Mormon.
Prior Walter: I'm a homosexual.
Harper Pitt: Oh. In my church, we don't believe in homosexuals.
Prior Walter: In my church, we don't believe in Mormons.
Harper Pitt: I don't understand this. If I didn't ever see you before, and I don't think I did, then I don't think you should be here in this hallucination because in my experience the mind which is where hallucinations come from shouldn't be able to make anything up that wasn't there to start with that didn't enter it from experience from the real world. Imagination can't create anything new can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visions. Am I making sense right now?
Prior Walter: Given the circumstances, yes.

*****

So where do we go when we dream? Is it the Dreamtime? Is it Jung's Collective Unconscious? Is it echoes of the past, or through-a-glass-darkly glimpses of the future? Or are we, perhaps, catching sight of our infinite self in a myriad alternative realities? Hmm.


I don't know. But one thing is certain: I am definitely going to wander over to the theatre and see who's teaching drama this year...






96 Days til the Burn