the nightmare

i'm going to begin with something really vague and hard to talk about; that is, dreams.

let's fucking face it: dreams are the weirdest things ever.
the simplest ones make sense. OK, you dream you're standing naked in front of a class room the night before a big presentation, it should mean you're anxious, yeah?
but what about other shit that happens, like baboons coming in out of nowhere?

if you google 'history of dreams' you come up with a slew of results which lead to sites explaining the relevancy of dreams in relation to ancient cultures and civilizations.
we know that animals dream, too.

yes, we know that dreams are a big part of mental stimulation. when a baby dreams, its brain is developing. when you dream, your brain is processing information and trying to implement it, creating and making stronger neurological pathways. your mind is healing.

but what about the less-than-obvious dreams?
the ones where you wake up and you're like, 'what the hell did i just experience?'
what about the ones you have and you swear to god become a déjà vu? (ok ok, i'm not sure how many people experience this... i know i have a few times, but maybe that's for another discussion)

thanks to sigmund freud's psychological application of this ordinary phenomenon (but i will of course disclaim that he is the first to think about it; the poor brilliant psychoanalysts who went disregarded in their time!), many people today believe that dreams do matter, that they aren't just 'trash' assembled by our brains to disorient us; nightmares and pleasant dreams both have purpose in the vast playing field that becomes our mind.

does imagination have a part of it? i'd imagine so. does trauma? depression? oh, definitely, i'd say. i'd love to see a survey done of dreamers; those who have had relatively stress-free lives versus those who have struggled psychologically...

think about it: would a person who's extremely repressed have a dream where their brain is up-front about their issues regarding a hidden fear of, say, asian women? would that person have a dream where an asian woman bites them on the hand? or perhaps -- say they have knowledge of foot-binding -- would they instead dream of having their feet painfully wrapped? maybe this is a bad example, perhaps they are more likely to have a nightmare where a canary pecks their eyeball out, but hey, it all depends on what you might associate with that fear on any kind of conscious level, yeah? which is why dreaming that a monster is chasing you down a narrow hallway might relate to your fear of being humiliated by your family if you don't go down some pre-conceived path that you never really agreed with.

and to the skeptics:
oh damn, what's the point, though? surely these things shouldn't matter. dreams are just fucked up, right? some of them don't make sense. why should it matter?

ok, then tell me: if it didn't fucking matter, then why would you dream of it? why would you even remember that dream if it didn't hold any importance to you what-so-ever?
now, question yourself. are you afraid to think when you say you don't think it held any meaning? remember, what if these are repressed feelings taking form in your subconscious thoughts? what if you are consciously rejecting the possibility because the truth might be too disturbing?
here is an example: say you have a dream that your partner cheats on you. do you think you have abandonment issues? or perhaps you are projecting your own insecurities because you've been thinking about affairs, maybe you feel guilty, maybe you've been checking out people in passing.

"yeah, my ex-girlfriend was having dreams about me cheating on her and then she cheats on me! isn't that weird?"
yes, that is pretty weird.