Sometimes my dreams over the course of two or more nights seem connected in ways that defy common imagination. It is the kind of connection that only some sort of factually existing alternate reality could have. I hope the following accounts of two separate dreams that I had last night and the night before will express my meaning.
First of all, for the last two nights (3-4/3-5-2011) I have been having (or perhaps just remembering) more dreams than usual. But, that is not unusual. I sometimes go a few nights with almost no dreams, and others, like the last couple, I seem to dream constantly while I am asleep. Often even I seem to start dreaming as soon as I close my eyes.
So, the dreams that follow are picked from a hodgepodge of dreams, though these two specifically occurred on separate nights and in the midst of other seemingly unrelated (and unconnected) dreams.
The first dream in and of itself was a bit unusual. In this dream I was at a well attended outdoor induction ceremony for some sort of Harry Potter like magic college. I was in fact one of the inductees, and found myself wearing scholarly (or wizardly?) black robes suitable to the occasion.
The dream seemed to begin just as I was called forward from a group of other inductees, some of whom I knew to be my friends, and was compelled to take an oath of class by the traditional means of repeating short statements that were metted out to me by the headmaster.
I remember having trouble hearing the oath I was expected to repeat, and at one point I was certain that I flubbed my lines. The headmaster paused at that very point, and the entire student body fell silently still. I was not sure if this was because my oath was complete, or if my mistake had been a drastic faux pas.
At any rate, the headmast announced my acceptance into the school and a huge cheer went up from the entire student body as well as the group of other inductees who all started dancing around in celebration.
I too started dancing and waving my arms at everyone causing my robes to ceremoniously fly all over. I even leaped into the air at one point and actually few for about twenty feet and a good ten feet off the ground with my robes fanned out around me like a giant black bird. I did this to demonstrate my own worthiness to be a member of this college, though it was apparently the extent of my ability to fly at the time.
I “flew” back to my position in the group of other inductees and rejoined some of my friends in that group. I remember excitedly explaining to them that at my graduation I would be able to soar around in the sky flying for real!
Then the ceremony continued, and another boy's (we seemed to be teenagers) name was announced and called forward to be inducted. He was also a friend, or at least someone that me and my friends knew, though he was not in our immediate group. In addition to the black robes that all of us were wearing, this next boy also had a cowl drawn up over his head and as he walked forward he turned about so everyone could see – and appreciate! - the truly sinister appearance of his face buried deep in the cowl. My friends and I commented to each other on how gastly he was. We were impressed as only teen boys could be impressed by such a thing.
Well, the dream continued for just long enough for one or two boys (whom I didn't know this time) to be similarily inducted, each followed by rampageous cheers and a brief ceremony as the boys demonstrated in one way or another their prowess, usually by climbing a tall heavy curtain that hung from the wall of a nearby building and cutting off a piece of fringe from the top. This fringe cutting was some sort of tradition that I myself felt bad about not having engaged in.
So, that was the first dream, though there were a few other details that I'll just skip. What made this dream a bit unusual was how out of character I was in the dream. The person I was in the dream was clearly very outgoing and sociable, revelling in the attention of not just his friends, but an entire student body! In real life such attention would have made me very nervous. I am usually uncomfortable with the direct attention of more than just a few people at a time, especially if I am expected to win their acceptance as in this dream. And yet, in the dream I felt only the excited anxiety of a popular and accepted teenage boy in his element. It was not “me” at all, not even close.
The second dream, the one I had just last night, was far less extravagant in detail, but nonetheless interesting for the reasons I have already asserted above; the uncanny connectedness to the first dream.
In the second dream I seemed to be some sort of student of a very old university campus. I was apparently walking between classes. I was by myself, and as I just said, there were few details that I was aware of. It was like a vague “snapshot” memory of some mundane and ordinary day in the life of a college student.
There was no conscious connection between this “campus” and the previous dream. I did not think it was a magic school, but it could have been. I did not realize I was dreaming at all. In fact, it seemed my mind, in the dream, was blank. I wasn't thinking or feeling anything in particular at all. I was just moving (walking I presume) toward a building where I knew my next class would be.
That was all. Actually, the dream continued, but I cannot remember anything except a vague memory of being inside the building, which was some sort of very old church.
Again, I emphasize that this dream was vague and in no way seemed connected to the dream from the previous night. But, at some point later in the dream I remember looking at a brochure that had an idealistic photo of the same building I had entered earlier in the dream. I remember looking at the photo and realizing that this was the brochure that my parents must have used to select the school. The picture made the building seem much grander than it was in actuality.
That was pretty much all for the second dream. Now, here is the strange connection: according to the brochure, the building in the second dream was a monastic temple, but distinctly not Christian! That would mean that I was attending classes at some clearly mystical (i.e. magical) school!
Could it be that this was the same school that I remembered (i.e. dreamed) being inducted into the night before? If so, then why did I not appear to realize this connection while I was having the second dream?
Actually, and this is the uncanniness of it, the only reason I would have realized the connection is if the connection was subjective! In other words, if the connection were not “real” (i.e. objectively existing in some other “reality”), then it would have been necessary for the connection to be established subjectively in order to provide continuity.
But, if the connection were objective, and actually existed in some “real” sense, then there would be no reason for me to realize that connection within the experience (i.e. the dream) itself. You would not expect to “realize” the connection between any two random events of your life unless you were actually relaying those events in some narrative (i.e. subjective) form.
The fact – unfortunately a fact that only I can confirm to myself – that the dreams seem objectively and not subjectively connected at the same time is what I find so astonishing! Could this be evidence that dreams can at least represent some kind of objective experience?
Or, perhaps an even more intriguing question might be; is there any such thing as objective reality at all?
If dreams can represent objective experience – which is not to say that they always do, just that they can – then why couldn't our everyday “reality” just be a dream?
Of course I am admittedly biased on this point, believing as I do that dreams and so-called reality are intimately connected. But, like the proponent of any unproven theory, I get understandably excited everytime I encounter some apparent evidence supporting my belief, as these two dreams seem to do. (The real challenge, of course, is to keep my mind open to the possibility that I am mistaken; maybe dreams have nothing to do with reality. But, so far I have found no convincing evidence or argument to support such an antithesis.)
Alas, I find myself once more compelled to quote the great dreamer, Edgar Allan Poe:
“All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”
