Origin of the Dreamer
Theres something quite magical that happens when you lay down and close your eyes; sleep. Oh, the peace that becomes our life by simply closing our eyes. In these moments of deep rest our imagination comes to life and our dreams get a chance to show us our spectacular side; vast wilds, open skies, people and animals of all kinds come before us, fantasies and hopes, as well as fears and hidden desires reveal themselves to us- without taking our physical bodies anywhere. These dreams, or visions, are irreplaceable and unique to our own lived experience, memories and life.
Although we may never uncover definitive evidence showing us when or where dreaming as we understand it began, there has been some interesting hypothesis put forth. What we do know is that by the 20th week in womb, our hippocampus, the part of our brain that forms and encodes memory, develops. Importantly, it plays a direct role, as we construct dreams using our memories as building blocks. Acting to form, translate and store memory, our hippocampus also grants spacial orientation; helping us to navigate by keeping it clear where we are, how we got there and where to go next. Interestingly, the hippocampus can be found not just in humans, but in other vertebrates and mammals.
In trying to understand the origin of why we dream, some scholars have hypothesized three prominent points on why we dream: In his article Frederick L. Coolidge, Ph.D. says, "dreams might help prime us to be more alert for particular dangers when we are subsequently awake (threat rehearsal), dreams might help consolidate and enhance the memory for visual-motor skills (like navigating in larger territories) and perhaps aid the processing of emotional thoughts and memories, and sometimes dreams are creative and give us innovative solutions to problems that might not come to us when we are awake."
Many of us have active dreams, where we are doing something, having an experience like driving a car, or physically visiting a place we felt inspired by. One of my first memories of an active dream I had was the day I first learned to ride a bike; that night I dreamed of riding my bike and when I woke up it felt as if I'd been riding a bike for years, my confidence skyrocketed and I was riding up ramps and around sandy tracks the next day. Dreams can give us courage, creative inspiration, even help us develop and strengthen skills. The somatic experience of active dreams is one of the great gifts of dreaming.
Dream by dream we can travel from one place to another in a flash, from one time period to another, in mere moments. I like to think creation and inspiration come from dreaming, and I have a feeling the belief systems and philosophies of our world have had their share of dreamy-influence. As we see in the biblical Creation Story, where on the seventh day God rested- before God created anything and there was darkness, perhaps a bit of sleep and some dreaming as well? God being creator, is "he" too a dreamer?
Where would we be without dreams, without deep rest and sleep? Do we owe certain innovative ideas and solutions to the dreams we craft? Countless people who have added to our evolution as humanity, were inspired by their dreams.
So I ask, where would you be, who would you be, what might you not have done or created if it wasn't for dreams?
Would humans be as resilient, or as loving? Would we have faith, if we didn't dream?
Some innovative and influential people I think of when it comes to dreaming are Nelson Mandala, John Lennon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Leonardo Da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Harriet Tubman, farmers, prophets, and scientists. We're all dreamers, even our dogs and cats actively dream.
Im not the first one to ask these questions, or to believe that the more we dream the more we get to know ourselves- and by doing so can create, heal and grow. Sleep and rest is the OG of self-care, it literally effects all the systems in our body and their daily growth and recovery, as well as how we communicate and understand others in our family and community.
