Dreams

As life goes on, each of us spends an unbelievable amount of time dreaming. It is arguably the most bizarre phenomenon related to the human mind. And yet, dreams are almost as natural for us as sleeping itself…but no one has ever explained with complete and infallible assurance why these dreams occur. People have advanced theories, written books, tried to explain the hidden meanings and truths, but they have never reached the final conclusion which would eventually explain how and why these occur.

So a dreamy surreal question arises…what are dreams? Freud, the founder of modern psychiatry, developed a few ideas on the subject. He studied different people in different situations, and formulated certain facts. He claimed that dreams are in fact a wish of a person that has yet to be fulfilled. It is something that the person wants to happen. That’s why his subconscious acts his ‘dream’ out for him. Freud would elaborate, that for instance if you dream of losing a close relative, you really want to lose him/her. It is your sub-conscious saying, ‘kill that guy’. So if this were true, many people subconsciously want to fall off tall buildings, for falling into an unending void is a common recurring dream. As is the above-mentioned ‘death of a loved one’ dream. No doubt, Freud knew what he was talking about, but perhaps dreams can be explained through other theories.

So what does one dream about? Maybe of one’s wishes or goals? Or perhaps dreams are merely visions of possible futures? Just imagine, every dream that one has, could very well occur. Or it may have already occurred. When one did not exist as he/she exists now. This adds a whole new dimension to the theory. Past lives? But Islam disallows that, so we will not go into that however interesting it may seem. Another fact in favor of dreams being visions of the future is the feeling of déjà vu. How many times has one felt that? Perhaps subconsciously we do know what will happen and sometimes we remember bits of that information.

Maybe dreams are visions of an alternate reality, which is not really that alternate, just a bit different, sometimes happier than our reality, and sometimes sadder. The existence of these alternate universes is a much-debated theory. But with new findings in the quantum theory, these could very well be possible. Infinite parallel universes, all on each other, layer on layer. In each, certain events changed, and hence the whole timeline changed. Every thing one does, could lead to a whole different set of events. So considering that if these infinite worlds do exist, on the same plane of space and time, then could one not sometimes see them when there is a discrepancy in the space-time fabric? One should be able too. And that discrepancy could very well be occurring when one dreams. When one’s mind goes through all the different possibilities of one’s actions.

Dreams might even be the manifestation of one’s soul. A manifestation of one’s sub-conscious, as it calls out, as it cries out. To be heard, to be pleased, to be hurt or to be entertained.

But there are assuredly simpler explanations for dreams. Simply, one’s mind running free. One’s imagination being allowed the freedom to traverse all the different things one admires or hates, or which one saw, or experienced. One’s mind running free, free from the day-to-day tensions which bind it to the single dimension to which it doesn’t belong, because the human mind is multi dimensional to say the least. There is so much about the human mind that we don’t know, and maybe in some part of that unknown knowledge, the existence of dreams could very well be explained. But until we learn enough, until we know, all we can do is dream.