What Does it Mean to Dream? What does it mean to dream? Why do we dream? In fact, what is dreaming really? In this world, a lot of definitions and answers were formulated to solve this question. Up till now, nobody has actually defined clearly what is dreaming or why do we exactly dream.
People after all have different contentions from each other and opinions can play a heavy role in determining a decision. Because of this a lot of prominent psychologists developed different definitions to the meaning of dream. Even before that, Philosophists have already pondered on such an interesting concept. Some say that dreams come from an external source, wanting to communicate with us or convey to us an important message. Others say that dreaming is related to fulfilment… meaning that a dream is essentially something you wish to happen but are either actively repressing it or subconsciously doing it to yourself. Others say that dreams are a reflection of waking life… of what we have experienced translated unto the realm of dreams. But what is dreaming really all about?
Dream, otherwise known as Morpheus or Oneiros, and his willy antics extends itself to the realm he presides on. Just like the enigmatic being, the landscape is unpredictable, changing and foreign. It may be rapid in its change or it changes itself in a snail’s pace. There is no limitations to the human mind after all. Anything that can, could and couldn’t happen can be easily conceived and achieved by the mere thought of it. And so it happens that rare would be the circumstance when the same dream is experienced simultaneously between different individuals. Dreaming itself is as unique and different as there are many and varied personalities in the world. No same person dreams the same way after all. A dream is a work of art which requires of the dreamer no particular talent, special training, or technical competence. Dreaming is a creative enterprise in which all may and most do participate.
Dreaming can also be presented as an endless void. There is no definite beginning nor does it have a clear ending. For a dream can be absolute or free flowing. Thus a dream can be presented as a null existence or simply defined as a “zero”. Two sides of the same coins. One representing the null validity while at the same time the capability to reach limitless potentials. It can represent the beginning of life or the herald of its end. For dreams are where we visit the many lands and landscapes of human possibility and discover the one where we feel at home.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The great ashen tree sleeps in its seed, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities. So treasure your visions and your dreams as they are the offspring of your soul, the blueprints of your definitive achievements. Dreams after all can be considered as the skeletal framework of success.
Dreaming though could be an effective poison too. For its unbound and unpredictable nature, dreams have the power to corrupt pure thoughts that were once conceived to be able to help other people. Beguiling and enticing, it is like a slippery snake awaiting its next victim to choke in its clutches. Charming its way into the hearts of men and managing to convince them to keep on dreaming. Trapping and confining their thoughts in its immortal realm while the physical body wastes uselessly in the mortal world. Languishing the loss of its mind and the negation of its very being and existence.
As dreams are immaterial, it can continue on forever. Ownership may be solitary in nature but dreams are bequeathable at its very core. Some dreams have the capacity to outlive the one who birthed it in the first place and can continue to exist till the end of time or its existence is but forgotten. Time has no definite hold on it and even Dream’s sister, Death, has no jurisdiction over it. Surpassing the limits of any existing mortal coils, Dream has the capacity to live on. The capacity to incite new beginnings or to enslave the minds of men for eons and eons to come.
Some dreams start out small before growing into epic proportions. Others dream grandly and highly before imploding within itself. Dream small dreams. If you make them too big, you get overwhelmed and you don't do anything. If you make small goals and accomplish them, it gives you the confidence to go on to higher goals. Dreaming big isn’t exactly the way to go if you don’t have the capacity to go through it. Dreams could be as vast and endless as the night sky… or dreams could be simple and ordinary. To see what has never been seen, to experience something nobody has experienced before! A dream is a unique experience beholden to no one but ones’ self. Whether a dream stays a dream or not depends upon your decisions and choices. Living after all may be a delusional dream or dreaming can be a way of living.
Dreams are born of imagination, fed upon by illusion and put to death by reality… but in this world we are living though, can we exactly define what reality is? We are all capable of dreaming as we are capable of achieving said dreams. We may not be living within our dreams but it doesn’t mean that we are not living in the dreams of others. What is real or fake depends upon the perception of a person. What we could perceive as real and defined may not be applicable to everybody else. The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities. For all we know, being hypocrites and denying dreams existence is all but trampling others people’s dreams that you happen to tread upon. Dreams do not exactly die, it’s just that you have given up on it when you felt it became too hard for you to accomplish.
“Reality” as perceived by our society has construed what we should do and expect in our lives unfortunately. Telling us what to do and how to do it, forcing us to follow through with their demands. As such much of what we have right now has stagnated. No new ideas are formed and dreams are slowly losing its meaning. What we “discovered” are essentially just minor improvements of what the dreamers did in the past. Essentially, society is turning us into robots by killing our motivations and drives to dream.
Most people, due to that reason, wants to change the present and the past in order to change the inevitable future. But what people don’t know is that all of us have their own portable versions of time machines hiding in the confines of our mind. The ability to see and visit the past can also be called memories while the ability to see, visit and perceive the future can also be called dreaming. We are capable of great things, grandiose and legendary in each their own rights. Let not our memories push us to the future but rather to let your dreams pull you there.
Dreams though in all its expanse and glory cannot move by itself nor its sways affects greatly the four corners of reality. Dreams would stay as dreams if all you ever did was just to dream about it. Without putting out your own effort, it would just become a poison that would silently destroy your life. I'll tell you this: You have to remember to chase and catch your dreams, because if you don't, your imagination will live in empty spaces, and that's nowhere land. Dreams do come true; without that possibility, we wouldn’t experience it at the first place.
I have now listed and written on what is dreaming all about. On how it functions, on how it runs and on how it could possibly affect the realm of possibilities and impossibilities known as “Man”. Dreaming and fairy tales aren’t there exactly to tell us that dragons exist, but rather it tells us that dragons are susceptible to be wounded and killed. All of us may have different notions on dreaming but in its basic core, dreaming represents the possibility of things. Dreaming doesn’t only happen when you are asleep you know. Dreaming when asleep and waking up after that would make you realise that it is all about vanity. But dreaming while your eyes are open enables you to act upon it. That is why daydreamers are dangerous individuals to tangle with. For they have the capacity to act upon those dreams. For me dreaming isn’t all about envisioning what is to come. But rather it is there to prepare us to do what is necessary and the inevitable. That is to be unpredictable and adaptive for what is there to come. So the best way to make your dreams come true is to simply wake up…. What does it mean to dream for you?