Power of Dreams
Passive Dreaming does nothing. Lucid Dreaming takes action.
Enter Sandman: Study shows dreams spill over into the workplace and can be channeled for productivity
They always scold-told us to follow our dreams. Little did they know we had none. We had nightmares. They insisted dreams are good. Nightmares are silly. And you should always follow your dreams. What a hollow goal.
Maybe we should enjoy reality as it is, instead of elegizing what it’s not. Maybe we should enter our dreams instead of exiting them. Maybe we should be lucid instead of lethargic. Maybe, just maybe, we are intersecting with introspection. Maybe the threshold between nightmares and dreams is razor-thin.
For the past year my sleep patterns have revolved around job requirements. I suppose like most of you, and like many careers, nights, weekends, and holidays are the deal.
This might be a good spot to explain why my publishing schedule has been so sporadic. I posted at least one, and for a awhile, two articles a week. For 185 weeks. And now, it’s like 5 in the last three months. I got tired, and keeping it going required a significant time investment. Not only the writing part, but the thinking part. I underwent significant life changes.
Then a weird thing started to happen. I had this strange feeling. It felt like satisfaction or contentment. Or so I’d heard. Mini-wins were piling up. Disappointments and let-downs still took their cut of my spirit. But success, as I had defined it and measured it, happened.
Things that I had worked for, I got. Changes I worked on, changed. But so did one big thing: the source of my writing (so I believed). My rage against the man and the chip on my shoulder, the wellspring of words for me, seemingly dried up. What the hell?
Seemingly. But not necessarily. The aspiration of introspection is awareness. The goal of awareness is growth. The product of growth is purpose. And purpose surrounds success.
I value the time you spend with Compass Star, and keep your concerns in mind as I search for topics and themes. I look for ways to weave them into a story that brings a new look to an old thought. I find humor in all situations, and live by laughing.
My last two posts have revolved around Working From Home. It’s importance to society cannot be understated. A looming commercial office space “Apocalypse” is all but upon us. Its importance to me cannot be overstated. Not commuting lets me claw-back two-plus hours a day of my life. Things are not going back to normal. And won’t. Some people haven’t realized that yet. I have.
I’m three weeks in and looking for good things. It’s exciting to be excited. I can think again about thinky-things. Thank you for giving me some space to grow, and supporting that growth with your community and readership.
"Similar to epiphany, we found that connecting the dots between dreams and reality gives rise to awe—an emotion that sparks a tendency to think about ourselves and our experiences in the grand scheme of things," said Belinda, who specializes in organizational behavior, specifically emotions, interpersonal communication and close relationships in organizations. "This makes subsequent work stressors seem less daunting, bolstering resilience and productivity throughout the workday."
Sixty-plus hour work-weeks, replete with 18-hours days sprinkled in, completed by varying call times. Not uncommon was it to work until 1230 am only to return at 6 am for another service. Dreams? I dreamed of sleep, and actively participated in that dream!
Working From Home changes that dynamic. It’s about Productionism, not Presenteeism. I’ve been writing about it over the last few posts. While perfect attendance has always been a prerequisite for excelling at any endeavor, its solo occupation at the apex of meritorious effort signifying expertism worthy of celebratory recognition is bullshit.
Presenteeism used to be when we showed up to work hungover after an all-nighter binge. Once in a blue moon or we got fired. Now, it’s showing up and doing nothing. Everyday. Producing less than nothing while asking for more. Of everything. When’s my break?
To the detriment of society and the entitlement of a few. At least one of my readers can attest to the futility of a 10th-grade English teacher of ours, Mr. Hunter, that demanded butts in seats to count as present. Like in the seat, not hovering 6” above it. Duly reprimanded, I was. Tardy by hovering. My obstinance knows no bounds.
Digression aside, presenteeism alone in academia or business isn’t a signifier of success. In some cases, it absolutely is. Plumbers and doctors, chemistry labs and archeological digs pop to mind. Plugged toilets and clogged hearts are for real and call for in-person solutions. Can we dream those away?
But think of the one place where most of us have never been present. Actively inside our dreams. Sure, remembering them ok. But inside them? Acting out the story, or even directing it. How exhilarating would that be? There’s a dude called Mr. Wonderful that is totally researching that. And says we can.
And there’s another dude that’s called the world's first cyborg. A real-life Human Truman Show, Steve Mann invented the wearable camera, and has documented his life since 1991 with that technology. Creepy but here, and on the way into our dreams.
‘Dreamscape’ (1984): Silly then, fairly prescient today
He imagines giving people control over their dreams, a kind of virtual reality played out inside the brain. “That said, that same technology could be used for commercial purposes,” Cerf cautions. “Many companies are already after our attention and choices. In the wrong hands, this could help people hack into our minds. Your brain is programmable. If you don’t program it, someone else will.”
Jet and helicopter pilot, most eligible bachelor, founder of White Hat Hacker Club, PhD, cracks opens skulls to watch brains thinking in real time. I bet he had perfect attendance. Whatever dude.
I watched Dreamscape the other day for the first time since at least the 90s. Click to read some reviews of it at the time. Mostly centered on the special effects, like critical of them. Seeing it again the other day, the dream sequences actually felt dreamy. Or more correctly, nightmarish. Ridiculed at the time as being hokey, they’ve become a perspicacious pre-apocalyptic performance.
If you’ve never seen it, imagine a world where assassins enter dreams and kill the dreamer. Follow your dreams! To your death. But we need a hero. Let’s be our own for once. What if we could enter and manipulate dreams? Would you?
Lucid dreaming study explains how to take control of our dreams
The argument of well-being is now completely abused, disguised again as usual and unambiguously “good for us” and trotted out to check HR employee engagement boxes. How can our dreams be productive if we are expected to expend endless energy on meaningless Presenteeism tasks? We can’t.
To be lucid means having full use of faculties and the ability to understand circumstances. Situational awareness inside of lucid dreaming is the ability to place yourself, the subject of the dream, in a self-preserving position.
Dream thinkers posit that self-preservation in dreams is akin to preserving life in reality. Dreamscape brings that perceptive reality to life. So does Freddie Kruger, in a more brutal and graphic manifestation. Which is why Nightmare on Elm Street hit harder than the more psychological competitor of the same year - 1984.
It’s not lost on me that these films debuted in 1984, George Orwell’s presaged post-apocalyptic dystopia. Dreaming is inherent in mankind, and most likely critical in the evolutionary survival of humans.
Cave paintings and tomb carvings are the journaling of ancients, describing their dreams and translating them into action. Are we not the descendants of those dreamers? Can you draw your dreams? Does Doomsday Prepping incorporate Dream Technology?
Dream Invasion is a concern, just look at that search page result. What can we do to combat this deflowering of our dreams? Can we escape our envisions? Do we have the determination to dream?
Are our nocturnal illusions illustrative or merely ignis fatuus? Do we have the intelligence, innate or inculcated, to introspect?
How The Remote Senoi Tribes Use Dreams for Personal Growth
Instead of Follow your Dreams, maybe we should Find our Purpose. And then build some foundations upon that premise. Dr. Duda, besides being bold, is living a dream. Pausing her nomadic life by buying a 200 year old cottage on the edge of a forest in Northern Hungary, her dive into dreams is for real.
Calling her lifestyle techno-indigenous, she set about existing authentically by fusing modern tech with ancient lifestyle. Sowing seeds into the soil beneath her feet while also across the world-wide web inspires me. Dream it and do it, right?
Writing for one hour a day, usually before bed, she learned the art of transformation. Her life is a story that she tells. She tells us about the Senoi Tribe, who teach their children the power of dreams. Or more precisely, the power of the dreamer.
According to their research
They are famous for being free of crime and mental illness, showing virtually no signs of neurosis. Their secret? The less attention as they spend on their material surroundings, the more they spend on their dreams...
What the children learn from this is open to interpretation, and how that experience informs their life I’m left to ponder.
Dr. Duda provides a list:
Confront and Conquer Danger
Advance Toward Pleasure
Try to Achieve a Positive Outcome
In Dreamscape, Dennis Quaid’s character, Alex, is gunning for all three. The Snake Man creates panic in his soul, and that dream-emotion manifests as self-doubt in real life. He wants to bang the hot chick and invades her dream as foreplay. He needs to save the kid and the world by gaining trust.
He pulls the trifecta! Is this our next frontier? Or can we just use the power of knowledge about dreams to harness the beauty of them?
The intention of dreaming is the focus of the movie, as it was based on a 1966 book by Roger Zelazny. The Dream Master is now on my list, with a passage like this, who can resist?
“We are living in a neurotic past. – Again, why? Because our present times are graded to physical health, security and well-being. We have abolished hunger, though the back-wood orphan would still rather receive a package of food concentrates from a human being who cares for him than to obtain a warm meal from an automat unit in the middle of the jungle.”
Have your warm meal and shut up and quit dreaming on your own. You thought we just wanted your thoughts. Now we want your dreams.
As for me, I’ll subscribe to the sentiments of the greatest existential thinker in my lifetime of reading about existentialism, D. H. Lawrence
I can never decide whether my dreams are the result of my thoughts, or my thoughts the result of my dreams.
Every single person dreams a different dream, but we can all listen to the same music and dream together. I’ve collected 14 songs for this playlist, and excluded so many more that it broke my heart. But I didn’t want to break your ear.
Listen to this if for no other reason to experience 14 dreams. If someone asks you if you want to hear about their dream, say YES.
One day we can all meet in our dreams,
Ric