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FOOD
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1994-04-08
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DREAM FOOD FOR THOUGHT
What Are Our Dreams?
Someone may have told you when you were a child that dreams are
figments of your imagination. A preferable definition might simply
be, "something we have experienced." When put into that context it
would seem that perhaps we feel our dreams to be more real to us than
others do. Most of us have experienced someone at one time or another
telling us that dreams are "just our imagination."
Are Our Dreams Real?
"Just our imagination," seems to have a particular note of skepticism
to it, don't you think? It would seem that way, although the
skepticism may have been being used for a good purpose, for example,
if we were a child having a bad dream, and a parent used the skepti-
cism to comfort us.
What happens to us as a child, as described in the last paragraph,
could easily be the reason many of us have a difficult time
remembering our dreams after we awake.
Some of us have had the experience of having our dreams nullified by
others who are attempting to protect us from the uncomfortable effects
of bad dreams. And at the same time that the bad dreams were being
nullified or negated, our memories of the good dreams may have been
squashed as well.
Since there are good dreams as well as the bad ones, and if we like to
experience the good dreams, is it possible to have good dreams and
remember them after awaking? This is something, of course, which we
all have to experience for ourselves, since dreams are not something
we can put into a laboratory test-tube or under a microscope and
examine.
Although scientists have went to great lengths to examine dreams, it
seems there is a long way to go before we will be able to somehow
actually record a dream using mechanical means and be able to examine
the dreams at a later time for purposes of analysis.
In the meantime, what we have to rely upon in order to examine our
dreams at a later time is ourselves, or our memories of our dreams, if
we are able to remember them. So, is it possible to improve upon our
abilities to remember our dreams?
Well, this is something you will be able to determine for yourself
should you be willing to use a rather simple idea expressed in a later
chapter entitled "Some Fun Dreams." There we will also describe a
method which may be helpful to you in starting to have dreams if you
presently do not.
Have you ever had the experience of dreaming, and it wasn't a
relatively good dream? Someone bad was chasing you, or you were
falling through space?
Then, all of a sudden you thought for a moment while inside your
dream, and said to yourself, "wait a minute. This is only a dream."
And the bad person chasing you stopped and looked at you with a
dismayed expression, as if you had somehow ruined their fun. Or the
sensation of falling suddenly stopped and you were very relieved. Has
that ever happened to you?
Maybe instead, it was a case of you abruptly and fearfully awakening
when you were falling, or when someone bad was chasing you. But I'll
bet if you dream to any extent, you have experienced one of those
dreams where you suddenly knew it was a dream and were relieved.
Is There A Way In Which
We Can Control The Content Of Our Dreams?
Again, this is something wherein we will have to rely upon ourselves
in order to provide an answer to this question, since science has yet
to provide the answer, not that science is not trying.
In order to answer this question let's first ask ourselves another
question. There is this thing called our imagination, something which
seems in at least some way related to our dreams. Do we have an
imagination? Does the faculty of our imagination exist?
If we consider the notion that we are able to perceive an idea being
in our mind, it would seem logical that we do have an imagination, and
that it is something we are capable of using.
For example, do you have an apple in your hand at this moment. No?
Then, can you imagine or picture in your mind the scene of an apple?
Very good! There is your imagination at work for you right there.
Now that we have decided that we do have an imagination, and it is
something which we are capable of using, is it something wherein we
can improve upon its use? I don't see any reason why not, do you? It
seems logical to most of us that with a little practice, many things
we may have formerly thought to be impossible, are now very possible
and, in fact, rather easy.
And now that we have decided that it is possible to improve upon the
use of our imaginations, is it safe to assume that with the use of our
improved imaginations we can somehow improve our dreams?
Again, I don't see any reason why not, do you? Remember the example
of a dream mentioned above where we took control of the dream when
being chased or falling. We had the realization within the dream that
it was a dream, didn't we? And we took control to that degree, with
our stopping our falling, or stopping the person from chasing us.
Well, what was it we were using when taking control of our dream, if
it wasn't our imagination? I suppose we could give it another name,
such as our will power or whatever, but it still has the same effect.
When using our will power or imagination, the experience we were
having took on a different aspect and started to go the way we wanted
it to go.
And with a little more practice at such things, is there any reason
why we can't get a little more control of the dream each time? Maybe
it's because my imagination is failing me, but I certainly see no
reason why not, unless it is simply because we do not want to, for
whatever purpose.
For a little more dream food for thought and mind expansion on the
above see, "Some Fun Dreams," which lies ahead.
--- End Of Dream Food ---