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What's in a Dream?

Robert Feinstein

Dreams are not magical. Indeed, based on what I know, there is nothing surprising about them.
The author may be contacted via e-mail at harlynn@panix.com.

2004-04-06



What's in a Dream?


When I was in Hebrew school, one of the rabbis told the class that the "modeh ani" must be said upon waking up, to thank God for returning our souls to us. He said that, while we slept, our souls were taken out of our bodies, and this is why we often dreamed. If God did not return our souls to our bodies, we would not wake up.

I am in a minority among blind people in that I have never had any visual input at all, not even light. For this reason, my knowledge of the world is from what I have heard, read, and the limited experiences I had touching things. As a young boy, my mother would let me touch things like the windows in the subway cars, the doors, cars on the street that were parked, trees, poles, some animals, and even an occasional person's face. As I grew older, it was less correct and acceptable to touch things.

I have always dreamed a great deal during the night, and I am in a position to report that the Rabbi's belief that our souls wander thither and yon to augment our dreams is incorrect. I know this because my dreams reflect my limited knowledge and experiences. I never dream of things I could not know, i.e. colors, visual ambiance, etc., and my dreams are incredibly limited and seem to be totally dependent on hearing. When I dream, I feel nothing; I never feel the touch of a friend, or even the beautiful fur of my guide dog, Harley. My dreams are like radio broadcasts, but they consist only of voices and a kind of knowledge about my environment that I am privy to without knowing how I got this information.

For example, if I dream of a friend, I will hear his voice, but I will never feel his hand, smell his cologne, or even walk with him guiding me. If the text of my dream needs for me to be in Canada in a restaurant, I will be there, but I will never dream of the mechanics of walking there, or even being guided by my guide dog. I am at a loss to know why this should be the case. I do have a possible explanation. Perhaps, getting from place to place as a blind person is so difficult, that I need a rest from this while I am sleeping. As wonderful as it is to have a guide dog, walking with my dog requires incredible concentration, and this might destroy the beauty of my dream. So, my mind, by omitting the mechanics of blindness, makes it possible for me to rest while still having quite intricate dreams. If, for example, I need to read a book in my dreams, the contents of the book is known to me, but I never hear the book being read, nor do I ever feel the braille moving across my fingers.

Often, when I am between sleep and consciousness, I will invent very complicated plots in my mind. In these scenarios, I am usually in a powerful role, like the person chosen to take care of others, or I will suddenly know that, instead of being blind, I have become deaf, or unable to walk. When, however, I have these transitions in disability status, my power as an authority figure is increased, and I am usually sought after for my knowledge. But, I never dream of people signing to me, or of actually walking with crutches, or being in a wheelchair. I just know, by virtue of the dialog, that I can't walk. What is very curious is that, in my dreams, when I am myself, I do not know I am blind, and the word is never mentioned, nor am I treated like a blind person.

Because of my unique life experiences, I am in a good position to be reasonably sure that we only dream about what we know, or can know. Dreams do not enable us to experience what we have never known, and, as beautiful as they can be, they are limited by our waking reality. For this reason, I would be quite skeptical if I met someone who claimed to actually speak a foreign language he did not know while he was dreaming, or who claimed to experience things that he had no knowledge of. A dream is just a way for us to fantasize, and the dream has no more power than our waking brain can give it.



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