Night Story

In reference to William Dement, “dreaming permits us to be quietly and safely insane”. I believe that dreams allow us to participate in activities that real life does not permit. Activities such as walking or running in my case, now this does not mean that just because I am running it is a good thing. I could be running for my life, away from some animal, running after one of my children that had just been abducted, or any sort of thing. This is what Dement meant by safely insane. Dreams do not often make sense, and often sound insane when you wake and express your dream to others, or even your internal commentary with yourself. More often than not dreams can be considered INSANE! My interpretations of Gottschall’s statement “trouble is the fat red thread that ties together the fantasies of pretend play, fiction, and dreams” Gottschall is making this statement that dreams mean something, that the activities of your day are reflected in what you may dream that evening. He makes this correlation with the dream he has about his daughter and her falling from a cliff. It is Gottschalls assessment that he needs to spend more time with his children and that the neglect he has shown them from ether reading a book, watching a “BIG GAME”, or neglecting his children is being displayed in his dreams as some horrifying act that he seams to be paralyzed physically and can only watch as the scene unfolds. The way these two statements relate to one another is that first of all we are talking about a dream state. Both refer to how each of us are affected by dreams only that Gottschall seems to hint that we may have more power over what we dream about because our dreams would reflect the experiences of the day or week. Dement does not make any reference as to why we dream about what we do, only that most of the time our dreams do not make scene and we are at no risk physically or mentally from our dreams, that our dreams are relatively safe. In a study conducted by Udini, Frank Nicanor Pascoe conducted tests on 18 subjects as to wether sharing the same dream with one another would bring a couple closer together and increase their ability to communicate with one another. “Most participants reported changes due to their shared dreaming experience, ranging from psychological and spiritual changes perceived in themselves and others, to altering their view of reality and in some cases behavior changes in their daily lives.”(Pascoe) This is very interesting; David Maurice, Ph.D. has challenged the beliefs and ideas of the past about REM sleep. Maurice states that he believes that Rapid Eye Movement is essential not for sleeping but that if the eye does not move in this way that the cornea will suffer damage while sleeping. "Without REM," Maurice told 21stC, "our corneas would starve and suffocate while we are asleep with our eyes closed."(Maurice) It is thinking like Dr. Maurice’s that challenge old ideas and usher in new theories to be tested. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.4/breecher.html http://udini.proquest.com/view/shared-dreaming-and-communication-goid:847028488/