Sweet Dreams

"Dreams. They have puzzled mankind for generations, and will probably continue to so for generations yet to come. If you have happy and sweet dreams every night, you are blessed for sure. If you have abnormal, weird or frightening dreams, join the crowd."

One of our neighbors is a member of the Red Lake tribe. He is 100% Native American. A talented man, and a great guy. A few years ago, he decided to do a side gig by making dream catchers. They were high quality work.

For those who have never had a dream catcher, the story goes to hang one in the room where you sleep. Any bad dreams are caught in the dream catcher, so they would not visit you at night. Only the good dreams are allowed through. Do they work? Not for me, but the jury is still out. 

My wife and I also send some funding to a Native American school in South Dakota. They are located on a reservation, and always in need of funding. In return, some of the students send us letters and dream catchers, which they make at the school. We have collected so many over the years, our grandies each have one, and we give the rest away.

Why bring this up? Dreams. One of the most perplexing things that mankind has pondered over the years. Our brains never stop working. They are on 24 X 7 X 365. The autonomic part which keeps us alive, to our subconscious which seems to come out at night or in daydreams, and our consciousness. It really is quite an organ. 

For years, our brains have been compared to computers. Like, which is better - our brain or a computer? As much as an answer would be helpful, it is like comparing apples to oranges. Why? Our brains are very complex, and can learn. Right now, we are trying to teach our computers how to learn through AI, but are still a ways away. But our brains have fascinated doctors and scientists so much over the years, some have dedicated careers to the study of the brain. Some have focused only on dreams. 

Aldous Huxley was very interested in our brains, particularly the subconscious. He wrote a book called Doors of Perception about his experimentation with drugs, in particular mescaline. I read that book many years ago, and found it to be interesting, only much too much focus on drugs. His observations on the subconscious were (as I remember), very interesting. He never did figure out the how and why to our subconscious. Why at night, it can knit together all kinds of dreams which can go from the confusing, to the frightening. Most of the time we awake from one of those weird or frightening dreams, wondering "where in the heck did that come from?"

Dreams. They have puzzled mankind for generations, and will probably continue to so for generations yet to come. If you have happy and sweet dreams every night, you are blessed for sure. If you have abnormal, weird or frightening dreams, join the crowd. And why do we have dreams like that? I don't know the answer to that one, but let me sleep on it.