In Dreams

[poliphilo]

In dreams we forget ourselves. We exist, but exist without fixed attributes. Sometimes we revert to earlier phases of our existence- so that we find ourselves back in school or parenting children who in "reality" are middle-aged. In dreams our status and even our gender are up for grabs. We are naked consciousness, rifling through the dressing-up box. Dead people appear and we don't turn a hair. We're in a state akin to weightlessness with everything unmoored and floating around- only the constraint that has been removed isn't gravity but time.

In waking life we clasp our identity tight; in dreams it is lightly mocked, modulates, ceases to be.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I dream female and always have and that in itself is intriguing!

[poliphilo]

I have dreamed female on occasion. In many dreams gender is immaterial.

[lokbiiviing]

I (think) I'm always a girl. I never switch genders. But I am usually young; mid twenties, maybe. Even if I see young people and identify them as young, I am still young as well, even if I know I am supposed to be older. I don't grow.

[qatsi]

I certainly recognise what you say about dead people. Plus I remember a few dreams where I have taken refuge in a house I moved out of (and sold) 20 years ago, and I always worry about being an intruder. I find it noteworthy because at the time I was surprised how easy it was to "let go" of the place, I held no conscious attachments to it.