A Strange Adventure



Recession engulfs the world. One by one every industry winds down. The commodities for sale are becoming lesser and lesser. Finally things come to pass that there is just a single commodity for sale –a pair of slippers belonging to me. They are right now in a dry patch in the middle to the sea. I need to rescue them. I valiantly float towards them to rescue them. I don’t know to swim. So I have to float. I reach the slippers. I rescue one slipper and get in on to my feet. When I am just about to rescue the other slipper, the tide comes in and snatches it away from me. Is the last hope of reviving human economy gone? What are we to do? I stand in the beach and watch the sea. Like a hologram I just change my angle of vision and I see a beautiful medieval city in the middle of the sea. My lost slipper is washed on the shore of the medieval city. I walk up to the city to rescue the important slipper. Suddenly my vision shifts and the city vanishes. I am caught in the middle of the sea. I hope the tide recedes and I can rescue the slipper. But instead the tide only seems to be increasing and I seem to be in serious danger of drowning. But by a lucky chance I am washed ashore. But still I am left with just one slipper.

Many of you would have recognized what the above was. Yes. Indeed! A dream! Aren’t dreams so fascinating? Sometimes they are so much more interesting than fantasy films! And the most fascinating part is that you are part of it. You do not want it to end and you curse the alarm clock that brings it to an end. Then there are dreams which ending brings a sigh of relief. Memories of some dreams just fade away with time, some of them even within hours of waking. Others tend to persist. Some dreams recur and sometimes there is a continuation between dreams of two different nights. At times the memories of dreams mix with reality and over time one loses the distinction between the memories of dreams and memories of reality.

Many of the mythologies and local religions and traditions attribute a lot of significance to dreams. As do psychologists and philosophers. Freud’s most famous book was titled ‘Interpretation of Dreams’. Many philosophers contend the possibility of the so called reality itself being a dream. They question the distinction between reality and dreams. Then we have scientists and entrepreneurs coming up with breakthroughs in course of dreams, Kekule and Walt Disney being prime examples. Lot of movies have been made around the concept of blurring boundaries between reality and dreams, Matrix and Inception being the most popular ones in recent times.

So I guess I have made my case regarding the importance of dreams in human life. Lots of people are interested in interpreting dreams. To interpret dreams one has to record them. I have often resolved to record my previous night’s dream first thing in the morning. But somehow never managed to do it till this moment when I finally captured the elusive dream on paper. Now what I have decided to start writing self-motivated blog posts again, I thought the dream at the beginning of the post was sufficient motivation. I wonder if people will find this interesting.

Before I conclude one another interesting angle I wanted to touch upon was taking control of dreams. I don’t know if others have experienced this but at times during the dream itself I have become aware that I am dreaming without waking up. This realization gave me God like powers. I could go about doing anything without fear of consequences. I could freely indulge in the vilest of crimes, I could jump from a high building and try to fly, defy every law of nature and still face no retribution. All I had to do was wake up and it would all be wiped out as if nothing has happened. I have found this kind of absolute power extremely seductive and often tried to maintain concentration while going to bed in the night so that I could seize control of the dream and have uninhibited fun. But it has never really worked that ways so far.

I am sure there are many more fascinating possibilities people must have explored in their dreams. I am curious to hear of the same.

Picture Credit: http://www.hiren.info/desktop-wallpapers/natural-pictures/beach-dreams_seychelles

17 comments:

indu chhibber said...

Sometimes dreams do connote something which is going to take place.i have seen that whenever i see filth & dirt in a dream ,i fall sick-invariably.and this is not auto-suggestion.

umashankar said...

That is a dream paper on dreams! And an amazing narration of a typically exasperating yet wistful vision. It is said the most vivid dreams occur in REM level sleep when the Muse in our brains is at her prolific best. Controlling one's dreams belongs to the realms of hypnagogic hallucination and I have occasionally tried to rest control of the flights but have woken up bemused trying to do so. As a consequence I have had concluded it was best to fall back on good old daydreaming rather than fooling with the nature's gears! However, you have written about magical controls over the unbridled powers of the mind and going by what you have to say I can only wish more powers to your muse.

sharmila said...

A dream account of dreams!Forget control over my dreams,I used to find myself tongue tied and glued to a spot in my dreams.Very frustrating if you ask me.Now,strangely I find that dreams are elusive.They do not frequent any more.

C Suresh said...

Now you have made me nostalgic about my lost dreams! I cannot remember the last time I dreamt in my sleep! Daydreams of course are an everyday affair :)

Unknown said...

Yup. pretty true, sumtimes it seems dreams are the only way to keep you happy from your retarded life.. just like in the movie inception..

T F Carthick said...

That is strange, Indu. I have never seen dreams that were premonitions. And being an expert in psychology you would know if it was auto suggestion I guess.

T F Carthick said...

Thanks umashankar. Seems like you have also had interesting experiences with dreams. I did not want to lose the workings of the muse from my dreams and get them to paper.

Somehow day dreaming is not really so vivid like the regular dreams.

T F Carthick said...

Strange, Sharmila. My dreams are so varied. Maybe you have dreams but too busy in the morning and forget them. Thats why I was thinking I should document them every morning.

T F Carthick said...

Dreams are too zany to be lost, CS. Thats why I thought I should capture these precious ideas. Day dreams are not pure like dreams. They are just boring stuff driven by our greed.

T F Carthick said...

Absolutely true, Pratik.

RioZee said...

Dreams and inrerpretation of dreams. I had bought a book by sigmund fried on interpretation of dreams. Read little, and as you pointed very tedious task to jot down the dreams.
The first thinv I had learnt on this was the prayer before sleeping.

I , thy child forever. play about thy knees at close of day,within thy arms I now shall creep.and learn thy wisdom ,while I sleep.

Nice nostalgic post.

RioZee said...

Dreams and their interpretation, very well recollected and penned.
I remember reading a well researched book by sigmund freud, dreams and their interpretation.
A prayer that it started with was very close to my heart. I am sharing here.
I , thy child forever.
play about thy knees at close of day,
within thy arms I now shall creep.
and learn thy wisdom ,
while I sleep.

T F Carthick said...

Thanks a lot, Pramod. I was sure this is a topic that you would very well relate to.

Jayashree Srivatsan said...

Hi TF

Your dream infact reminded me of a scene from Inception :) Talk about dreams, thats one fascinating world eh? And yes, I can totally relate to the powerful feeling you described in the last paragraph of your post.

T F Carthick said...

Actually Jaishree, now that you mention I am wondering if my dream was triggered by the movie. I saw the movie 2 years back and the dream was last week though. Guess you also have had experience trying to control dreams.

asteria's canvass said...

Its kind of spooky that I read this piece of yours hoping it to be another well woven story...but strangely I do keep a dream journal...and have been trying to control my dreams since 2 years.
I say spooky because it was yesterday when I recorded my weird dream and did it after like ages...and in the morning the person called me up just for chit chat...after like ages...
spooky right.??

T F Carthick said...

Thanks, Asteria. Good to know I am not the only weird one around. Spooky indeed when dream relate to reality.

Yesterday night I dreamt of being in a strange bloggers meet.

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