Dreams

Dreams are a funny thing. One second your completely aware of something that you have never before experienced in your whole life, something wonderful and fantastic that only you can see, and the next your waking up to your alarm and its time to start another day. I've always been facinated by dreams, probably because mine are so vivid that i almost always remember them, but i have yet to find an explanation that makes sense to me. My psych professor says that dreams are ways that the brain can process the events that have happened during the day, or that they are influenced by what the body is experiencing while sleeping, and that makes some sense. But i have trouble with the fact that this explanation seems to be the only explanation that science is giving us. I may be wrong on that, its really late and im writing this with no further research done besides what has already been told to me, but in two years of psych classes this is it. Of course they talk about Frued, but he was a crack head and no one really takes him seriously any more.

so i have decided to make my own theory of why we dream what we dream. I believe that dreams are not a way to process what we have seen and learned through out the day, but rather a way to escape it. life is HARD, and sometimes its absolutely no fun at all. but dreams are a way to escape that, to go to a good place or a fun place or a place where everything that you wish you could do in real life you can do here. it doesnt always work out that way of course, we are human and thus fallible creatures, but i would say 90 times out of 100 it does. And its when we do this, escape our reality for one of our own creation that is so much better than, that our minds can take the hurt and pain we see everyday and put it behind us. Kind of like Aloe, making the pain of the sunburn go away for one more day. and in this world, in the times we are living in right now, who doesnt want that kind of comfort?

i think that maybe thats the reason that so many people like science fiction/fantasy. I am a huge reader of science fiction, devour books from my favorite authors and those who i havent heard of with equal delight, yet find myself unable to read any other type of genre with any real interest. people constantly ask me why, why only this one genre and no other? are there not books, they ask, worthy of being read that are as good if not better that the silly sci fi and fantasy books you are reading now? of course there are, but most of those books are set in this world, in this reality with all the constraints that we face here and now. and while i wont say that the people in sci fi books never experience hardships similar to those faced in this world, they always seem to come out on top, with the good guys winning and the bad guys defeated. i dont know if i could say that about other books. and so when people ask me why i read them, i say some silly excuse and they just asume that im weird, but the reality is i read them to get away from here, just for a couple hours, and go somewhere were the wrongs in the world can be righted by someone with a strong sword, loyal companions, and a little magic. the same can not be said for our world.

Night, Dieter