Michael Mitchell: Archive

No trust.

What if I said I know when I'm dreaming, that I'm as fully aware of them as I am the keyboard I'm typing this on? Would you believe me? How would you know?

If you're not fully aware of your dreams, have no "direct dream awareness" of your own to reference, and there's no scientific means of "seeing" my awareness of my own dreams, then it would appear to be impossible, to you, but it would also appear to me to be impossible to prove my ability, because I believe it's a virtually unanimously agreed upon belief that it's impossible to be aware of one's dreams. In other words, literally, everyone would think I'm crazy, and justifiably so, but it's also true that no one could disprove my assertion. I couldn't even prove it to someone who agreed with me. The only evidence I'd share with someone who also possesses the ability of "direct dream awareness" would be perceptually available to neither of us.

The reason psychologists (and everyone else) are so fascinated by dreams is the distrust of consciousness itself. We trust the subconscious, which we lack control of, because we lack control of it. DEMONS! But if we can't trust what someone says they think or believe or whatever, then how the fuck do we know what someone has dreamt? How is analyzing someone's dreams, their descriptions of subconscious thoughts, essentially, any more reliable as a source of what they really think -- I'm hungry...

For the record, I rarely dream, or, at least, I don't remember them, but I do know when shit gets unreal. It's like the contrast between reality and imagination is too obvious, and then I wake up. That's awareness, and control of it, conscious awareness, while I'm asleep. Which is more fascinating? Whatever I was dreaming or the fact that I'm sometimes aware of it?

It's not very interesting to me at all, just the natural consequence of a conscious devotion to reality, but it's probably endlessly fascinating to anyone who isn't, to anyone who hasn't learned to think critically for themselves, anyone who is paranoid of what other people think, for the very reason it's seemingly unknowable.

For instance, I don't believe in monsters or whatever, so if I see one in my dreams, I wake up. That's the indication that I'm dreaming. If my convictions weren't firm about something like that, then it would be impossible to know I was imagining something rather than actually seeing it. Now if almost everyone agrees we're not aware of our dreams, that we have no control of our consciousness while asleep, does that mean I'm the only person in the world with strong convictions? I doubt it.