the juxtaposition of similarities

I’d like to touch upon the subject of dreams. “dreams!?” I can hear a thunder of groans ripple across the readership. “oh no. anything but dreams!” let me offer this balm: I place zero stock in codified dream interpretation, whether birthed from the mind of freud or jung or some other more poorly dressed and less compelling guru. I find the whole notion of dream analysis to be laughable in that we do not even know precisely what dreams are let alone what, if anything, they might “mean.” lastly, beyond this sentence, I will not use the words wish-fulfillment, displacement, yoga, archetype, prophesy, repression, incubation, astral realms, telepathy, healing, premonition, projection, gestalt, Oneiromancy, or divination. i promise.

of interest to me is this: how do people’s dreams compare through the ages?

what did humanity’s evolutionary ancestors (covered in fur, living in caves, tearing out gazelle throats with their teeth) dream about? not ‘showing up to the office in their underwear’ it’s safe to say. lightening and deep growls from the darkness perhaps? what did homo-erectus dream about? what did ‘lucy’ dream about? what did the first people to sail open water dream about (other than sea monsters and dry land)? what did the earliest inuits dream about? or the aborigines? what did the stone carvers on rapa nui dream of (other than ever broadening brows and, later, food)? what did the egyptians dream about? the sumerians? the aztecs? the gauls? the vikings? the greeks? you get the point. and how do these visions compare to the things which fill our heads today?

what does a linebacker for the packers dream about? what does a shoe salesman dream about? how about the woman who sells ground rhinoceros horn in china town? or a secret service agent? or an accountant’s secretary? or the guy who mops up the monkey cage? what does a las angeles dermatologist dream about? or a pakistani mathematician? how about a ‘librarian-schtick’ hooker perched in a thin amsterdam window? what does a transsexual dream about the night before the operation? what does a c.e.o dream about as, night after night, tiny sums of money are funneled off shore?

i realize these modern examples have no particular meaning being so narrow, which is to say they are not appropriate analogs to the broad ancient cultures i mentioned above. then again, in a certain sense, as the world grows smaller, and cultural differences shrink (we’re all capitalists under the skin) shared cultural signposts become more common. whose to say a man in the deepest congo is not dreaming about being doggedly pursued by an army of tiny tom cruise penises at this very moment?

the point is no matter the root cause of dreams (strictly neurological, spiritual, baldly functional, or accidental) i think it is safe to say in that our cultural experience form us (our ideas, our sense of self, our fears) and if so then they also directly, explicitly, without question, effect the content and quality of our dreams. seems intuitive, no? if we we are products of our individual cultures then so are our dreams. fair to say? is it also fair to say then that in some way our dreams effect the world around us?

of interest to me is this: are our modern dream lives less “interesting” than those of our ancestors? did the dreams of shamans and priests and ancient philosophers result in the bizarre mythologies which then formed their world views? what do our dreams, which are taken as a sort of amusing or fearful “late show,” contribute to our cultures? (the odd mathematical proof aside.) will we invent small computer chips to embed in out ass cheeks that beep out warning when we head off to work without clothes on?

of interest to me is this: does knowledge, as a species, of the workings of the world around us, make our dreams more banal? does more perceived security make them less affecting? less exciting? less rich? does intelligence and success as a species drain our dream world?

of interest to me is this: does language, and the relative complexity of language, alter that feeling of “meaningfulness” many have concerning their dreams? what is the difference between a flash of nameless images and a succession of definable and analyzable events?

i imagine that the dreams our ancestors had were far different from my own. to be more specific i imagine they were more bizarre, fascinating, scary, wild, portentous, illuminating, and affecting. that could be strictly romanticism i admit. in any case i’m sure the dream life of humans has evolved along with us. or perhaps it is more accurate to simply say “changed” since i suspect they may have actually devolved in some way. the import given dreams certainly has.

an exercise: look at the images below and try for a minute to imagine what kinds of dreams these people had.






do you get the sense they were different only in particulars but similar in the broad strokes? do you get the sense they were wildly different on every level? are there any similarities? even within cultures? are similarities less about culture and more about personal temperament? or is each individual truly and really “individual” with dreams appropriately unique? just curious.

now the admission: i have an extremely empty adult dream life, which is to say i almost never remember any dreams. it’s always bothered me. i feel cheated. when i do remember them they are usually crowded, very crowded, but utterly banal. which brings me to my last question-

of interest to me is this: being on the nicotine patch has resulted in -many- more dreams than i can remember having in the years previous. “intense dreams” are a known side effect of the patch. so here’s what i want to know- if the pharmaceutical industry have the ability to synthesize substances which result in “intense dreams” why haven’t they marketed a product specifically for this purpose? isn’t there a market for drugs that make you dream while you’re asleep rather than when you’re awake?