Advanced Dreaming

Apparently October is paranormal month in my blog. To continue that theme…

Dreams are odd things to me. I really like having dreams and not to toot my own horn but I’m really good at it! Someone once told me that most people aren’t able to dream in color. I’m not sure if that’s true. Most people I’ve asked either know for certain that they can or simply had never thought about it before. My dreams are typically in full color but sometimes only certain colors are accentuated. I assume when that happens my brain is trying to tell me something through that color. I also recall being able to smell and feel things in my dreams, which seems slightly unusual but might also be more common than I know. Most importantly, I’m able to stop, pause, and rewrite dreams. It’s like having a tivo in my head! Usually when I’m having a dream some small part of me is still conscious of what’s going on and knows that I am dreaming. If I am really enjoying a dream but something wakes me up unexpectedly, I can sometimes go back into the dream and sometimes if I don’t like what is going on I can either wake myself up or change the outcome of the dream. I rarely have nightmares and when I do they are rarely ever set up in my head to convey an event taking place, but instead it’s just a feeling of dread or sorrow that creeps into my sleep without any sort of image or sound to go with it. It’s sort of hard to explain.

Last night I had a dream about my husband. As far as I know, I’ve not yet met him, at least not in person (but I could be wrong). I have met him on the dreamscape at least twice. The first time we were standing in a park in the dark sort of slow dancing. I couldn’t see his face but at the time it didn’t matter, I knew who he was. It’s like when you go to sleep with your significant other next to you. If you wake up in the middle of the night you don’t need to verify who is in bed with you, you just know who it is – it’s the same in my dreams. Early this morning I met him again. This time we were in some huge beautiful art museum/ archive. I knew where I was at the time and knew I worked there but now that I’m awake, I couldn’t tell you where it is or if it even exists in real life. I was giving him a tour. This time I could see his face but my mind assigned a name to him and it was the name of someone I knew, so he took on some warped characteristics of that person. This happened the first time also. It was the same guy both times but each time I called him by a different name and he took on slightly different characteristics to match the name I called him. I think this was just my way of explaining who he was even though he physically didn’t look anything like either of the guys whose name I called him. I doubt that that makes sense… My brain knew he was my husband, but my brain also knew that I hadn’t yet met him and therefore couldn’t possibly know who he was so it inserted the name of someone important to me each time so that the character could exist in my sleep-mind without question. It’s very strange. I can describe his build and height, the color and cut of his hair, and I would even recognize his cologne if I smelled it again but I couldn’t tell you what his face looks like or what his name is. In this dream he was a writer or maybe a researcher or teacher of some sort. The first dream was years ago and it took place shortly after we were married and we had been together for a while. I believe the dream I had this morning was a recollection/ premonition of our first date.

I honestly don’t know if I believe any of what I just said. I suppose there could be some truth to it. I suppose the guy in my dream was a subconscious construct of all the traits and characteristics I want in a guy. I suppose it’s also possible that my dreams have some measure of prophetic value. I might meet that specific guy some day while I’m working in an art museum or an archive. It is more likely that it was all simply symbolic. I currently work in an archive adjoined to an art museum and I would give a tour of the building to someone I was dating. Also, yesterday I applied for a job in an art museum and I was thinking about giving a tour to a friend that is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, who happens to be a writer. Maybe this was my brain’s way of sorting things out. Who knows. But I remember the feel of his hand in mine, the smell of his cologne as he leaned in close to me, and the way I felt about him. He was obviously important and someone I knew. It was a very powerful dream.