The following is taken directly from the automatic writing experience which done in class. The topic is dreaming, and the exercise goal was to write down thoughts as they came to mind.
What is a dream? Part of the unconscious uncontrollable, moving on a whim, like this exercise. “To die: to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream… aye there’s the rub.” (Shakespeare 2003) Perhaps as in Bram Strokers, Dracula, this reality is a nightmare of undeath, a sleep-induced hypnosis from which salvation comes slowly and in salvation comes death. The Buddhists meditate like a dream, allowing their thoughts to catch the wind and travel the globe. One thought seamlessly turns into another as they (the Buddhists) journey along the path to inner peace and enlightenment. Perhaps even the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama dreamt of the Promised Land before he attained nirvana, which puts dreams within the grasps of those few who are willing to strive towards a dream. In the words of the great Louie Armstrong who said, “Dream a little dream of me”, a dream can be love and fantasy, pure heartfelt emotion which extends from the mind out into the world. Our dreams are our own, but whether they are meditation, a goal, fantasy, love or even a nightmare, dreams transcend reality.
During the time which I was writing this response I had a clear image in my mind of a recurring dream I once had as a child. No doubt the recollection of this image was assisted by my recent reading of Bram Strokers, Dracula, however when I link the image to my response, my childhood dream comes back so clearly and vividly that it makes me shudder to think of it. For a moment, much like in the movie The Science of Sleep my dream transcended reality to make me afraid. Immediately afterwards I realized how foolish and how powerful dreams can be. Dreams are an incredibly important visual medium in that we have so little control over them yet they can convey so much to us about real situations we may be in.
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