“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
- Voltaire
My theme for this April is Questions
What kind of questions?
Ah, you will have to turn in each day to find out.
“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided
if people would simply take the time to ask, "What else could this mean?”
- Mark Twain
“There exists a passion for comprehension,
just as there exists a passion for music.
That passion is rather common in children,
but gets lost in most people later on.”
- Albert Einstein
“Reason is a tool, a machine, which is driven by the spiritual fire,”
- Dostoyevsky (contemplating how we come to know truth)
TAKE THE QUESTION OF
DREAMS --
Why can we not remember most dreams?
When we sleep, we enter a "dim and ancient house of shadow."
We wander through its rooms, climb staircases, linger on a landing.
Towards morning we leave the house again.
In the doorway we look over our shoulders briefly
and with the morning light flooding in,
we can still catch a glimpse of the rooms where we spent the night.
Then the door closes behind us
and a few hours later,
even those fragmentary memories we had when we woke have been wiped away.
It seems like a pact with the devil.
As soon as you're in a position to record a dream, it starts to disappear.
One possibility is that our brain's neuro-chemicals during sleep are very different
from during wake time and so they don't allow us to consolidate memory.
The other thing that's quite possible is
that we don't pay attention to our dreams or are unable to do so during sleep.
Those who are light sleepers, frequently awakening, tend to remember dreams better
If my dreams were as lush as your description of them, maybe I'd remember more.
ReplyDeleteThe more intense the dream, as you say, the more likely we will remember them. :-)
DeleteI'm not sure why we remember some and not others. Could it be that our spiritual side is in control during dream time and not our cognitive?
ReplyDeleteCool theme! I look forward to exploring questions with you.
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2017/03/fools-know-wise-question.html
Freud has his own ideas on why we remember dreams. :-)
DeleteThis sounds like so much fun! great idea!
ReplyDeleteTheme Reveal: Dirty Little Secrets
Thanks so much!
DeleteNow I've got that Moody Blues song running through my head...
ReplyDeleteOops! Sorry about that. :-) At least I didn't play "It's A Small World After All!"
DeleteAnd now I have that song stuck in my head...
DeleteHey, at least I got that Moody Blues song out of your head. I could have gone with "Blue Bayou!" :-)
DeleteLinda Ronstadt's version, or Roy Orbison's? I love both.
DeleteI remember way too many dreams. Some good, some not so good. I think you have to be open to it, just as anything else in life.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hear the answers! :)
Thanks, Yolanda. Science only thinks it knows many of their "facts" which seem to change with the seasons! :-)
DeleteWe definitely should all be asking more questions. Looking forward to tuning in during April!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nick. Now, if I can only think of some worthy, entertaining questions! :-)
DeleteI used to recall many of my dreams on a regular basis. Dreams in color, (can't ever recall having one in B&W). I'd always know what I was dreaming when the am alarm clock went off. Always recalled what dreams were in my head if I woke up anytime in the night. I say always, meaning "often" or "a lot", tho' one may never know what dreams they don't recall?
ReplyDeleteIn my own case, seems like I've recalled but one irrelevant minor dream in the last 9 yrs. That's it one. I often think sitting up thru the nights for a solid year, trying to grasp a fact, the phone next to me was not going to ring, during that year of nights. I haven't had any dream memory's to speak of since my Brother died. Either something inside of me also died, or simply something equally as absurd died inside? Although I'm quit sure I haven't stopped dreaming, Kim seems to know more about what I'm dreaming than I have; even with her help, still cannot recollect dreams. Something changed upon Daniel's passing. Something profound enough, to knock me off my memorization of dreams. Sad in a sense, as I have for 43 yrs now kept a notepad next to my bed, just for capturing dreams upon waking. Much like Kerouac did when he wrote "Book Of Dreams". In my case, the book's full of empty pages, last entry in 2007. In his case, he created a Novel out of his book of dreams. I don't get it Roland. With your knowledge of the sciences of the mind, what's your take on those who've lost their dream memories? Gassho-Namaste, and God Bless.
It could be that your mind is trying to mend from the terrible loss of your beloved brother, Daniel.
DeleteWhen your unconscious mind sorts out all the shards of this loss, you will begin to remember more and more of your dreams.
Always in your corner, Roland