Saturday, January 16, 2010

Dreams are neat!

I've always had an interest in dreams ever since I can remember. My first memory is actually a dream rather than something that really happened. When I was younger my mom and my friends at school would ask me almost everyday, "what did you dream about last night?" Sometimes I remember to keep a dream journal, but if I don't write about my dream right when I wake up I usually forget it. I've decided that now that I am a college senior that I should have some discipline, so I should be able to be dedicated and actually keep a dream journal for the next couple of months.

I'm going to look for trends in my dreams to see if certain themes, objects, or people show up multiple times. I'm also going to try to interpret them by doing some research. In addition, I'm going to see if I can influence my dreams. I read somewhere once that if you eat peanut butter before going to sleep that you are more likely to remember you dreams, or maybe they are more vivid when you do remember them. So... over a one or two week period sometime soon, I am going to eat a spoonful of peanut butter every night before going to sleep and see what happens. I'm going to do some research on other things I can do to influence my dreams or how well I remember them.

A lot of the time I am aware of the fact that I am dreaming and I am able to control things and do whatever I want to a certain extent though there are some limitations. The name for being aware of the fact that you are not awake in the real world is lucid dreaming. I've been doing some research about lucid dreaming and there are some exercises you can do to increase your ability to have lucid dreams. I'm going to do these exercises and see if I can get to the point where almost all of my dreams are ones that I can control.

I'm also going to be making some short films inspired by dreams that I will be including here. Here's an example of a film I made about dreams a couple of years ago.



And now for my first entry into my dream journal!!! This is a pretty short one because I can't remember much of my dream... if I had been able to wake up enough after the dream to write it down it would be way more detailed. All I can remember is the following:
I was in a slightly familiar house, it may have been my grandmothers, and everything was pretty light colored. I was looking through flowy light blue curtains outside at a really large black and red squirrel. Its colors were really beautiful. I watched the squirrel give birth to a small sheep like creature, but when I was telling people about it they told me that it was a pig.

And now for the interpretation: (I used this website http://www.dreamforth.com/search.php?query=black+and+red&type=dreams&page=1)
-blue: wanting to escape the pressures of your life
-window: considering an important decision and that I may need guidance on
-squirrel: collecting or accumulating something
-red: danger particularly in sex. A nudge for you to rethink your actions and avoid being impulsive.
-black: disapproval in a person or situation.
-birth: new start, anticipated occurrence
-pig: filthiness, stubbornness
-sheep:afraid to embark on innovative endeavors and experience new adventures.

When I combine all of this it's actually pretty relevant to what's going on in my life right now. Wow, so even if dreams seem super crazy and irrelevant, they can actually be applicable to one's life! Crazy stuff.

2 comments:

  1. I think the dream focus for your project is very intense and fascinating. Dreams can be so imaginary and so really from day to day. It would be worth the while to really brainstorm more, and even consider various subcategories of topics to cover in dreams. Also, what if you were to trace or find out how many people feel that they have the power over what the dream of, and those that feel they don't. Further, examine the powers that dreams have over us when sleep or not...the line between our conscious and subconscious selves. I tend to write alot about those two world, and its quite amazing what we as humans experience and have power over. Looking forward to your project! Dreams take us so many deep places

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  2. Do you find the more conscious you are about your dreams, the more intense they are? Blogging your dreams and including the Internet interpretation is great. We wonder how it will evolve?

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