Posted
1/03/2008 05:34:00 PM
by Douglas
Everyone's had a messed up dream. Here's
why:Dreaming is so basic to human existence, it's astonishing we don't understand it better. It consumes years of our lives, and no other single activity exerts such a powerful pull on our imaginations. Yet central as dreaming is, we still have no idea why we dream.
[...]
Faced with actual life-or-death situations—traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, street assaults—some people report entering a mode of calm, rapid response, reacting automatically, almost without thinking. Afterward, they often say the episode felt unreal, as if it were all a dream. Threat simulation, Revonsuo believes, is why.
Well that makes sense. And when I was 15, if ever I was
threatened by a naked cheerleader, my gangly, acne ridden body would have known
exactly what to do. Tragedy narrowly averted. So then why are most of our dreams aggressive, or at least negative?
Anything the brain tags with a strong negative charge gets thrown into the threat bin and dredged up at night.
I can see that, but there was
nothing about my college English teacher that was negative. Nothing, but I digress. But it's not like we can saturate our brains with stupid shit and have worthless dreams about it, can we?
Anyone who's ever played too much Tetris knows you can start having Tetris dreams.
Damn Tetris, I knew that was the real reason I want to shoot my neighbor.