'A candy-coloured clown they call the sandman
Tiptoes to my room every night
Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper
"Go to sleep. Everything is all right."
I close my eyes, Then I drift away
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer
Like dreamers do.
Then I fall asleep to dream
My dreams of you.'
-from 'In Dreams'
In Dreams, Roy Orbison / 1963

We all dream. Some dreams we recall very clearly and some leave mere traces; they linger in the subtle refuge between sleep and awake. Some dreams are so powerful they remain with us all our lives. Their memory becomes tangled with who we are and how we see the world. Other dreams are like reflections, we view them once, then again, but only in passing. Some dreams we never recall. They are lost to our psyche; dangled in the darkness but gone forever when we awake.
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) maintained that "the dream fundamentally acts as the guardian of sleep." He argued that when we sleep we are "attempting to disconnect from our reality by extinguishing all external stimuli." We draw the curtains, turn out the lights and repel all sight and sound. We, in essence, are attempting to escape this reality in exchange for another. As if, we sleep to dream in some altered state.
Freud believed that "dreams are not comparable to the spontaneous sounds made by a musical instrument struck, rather by some external force than by the hand of a performer." Dreams, he believed, were not absurd or without meaning. Nor did he imply that one part of us sleeps as another begins to awaken. Dreams are a "completely valid psychological phenomenon, specifically the fulfillment of wishes; they can be classified in the continuity of comprehensible waking mental states; they are constructed through highly complicated intellectual activity." He also argued that "those wishes are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires" and that "anxiety surrounding these desires turns some dreams into nightmares."

"Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?" (Leonardo Di Vinci)

When I was 7 years old I had a terrifying dream. It frightened me so much I ran to my parents' bed and slept at their feet. Although the vision itself was horrifying for me, the emotional state I experienced is what, almost literally, scared the shit out of me.
My sister and I answered the door to our home and were greeted by the milkman. Instantly, he grabbed my sister and ran towards his waiting truck. I ran behind them, all the time screaming for help and from fear.
He got in that truck and sped away with her. I woke up screaming still.
For all its might, for all the terror its memory holds, this dream was not real. The next morning, my sister seemed fine and no kidnappings were reported in the neighbourhood. It was just a scary, silly dream. I have carried it with me ever since.
When I was 23, I dreamt that Jesus came to me during my sleep. He took great care to show me I had nothing to fear and invited me on a journey about the heavens and earth. We flew about heaven and flew above earth and even glimpsed into the fire of the pit far below. I remember the feeling of flight and peace and serenity I experienced. I have often referred to this state comparatively. This dream revealed joy to me, a sense of speed.
It was just a fancy, silly dream. I have carried it with me ever since.

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” (Karen Ravn)

Some dreams are mere dreams. Perhaps they are an expression of deep-seeded issues that materialize in the sleeping mind. Perhaps they are only expressions of our conscious mind, once freed they manifest and take form. A dream is just that, a dream.
In my experience, there is something else beyond the dream. A creation from an outer force that takes you to an outer place. In our altered state, we migrate from the unreal constructions of a resting mind. These dreams are not dreams. They are real. They occur.
Some of us just don't recognize them as such.

'Now here I go again, I see the crystal vision
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell,
Dreams of loneliness, like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering
What you had, And what you lost
What you had, oh what you lost'
-from 'Rumours'
Dreams, Fleetwood Mac / 1977

Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan (1887 - 1920) was a self-taught Indian mathematician who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.
He compiled results that were both original and highly unconventional, such as the Rāmānujan prime and the Rāmānujan theta function, and these have inspired a vast amount of further research.
Rāmānujan credited his insight to his family Hindu Goddess, Namagiri of Namakkal. He looked to her for inspiration specifically in his work. He claimed to dream of blood drops which symbolized Namagiri's male consort, Narasimha. After each dream, he received "visions of scrolls of complex mathematical content unfolding before his eyes."
Rāmānujan left a number of unpublished notebooks filled with theorems that mathematicians have continued to study.
Rāmānujan remarked that "all religions seemed equally true to him." He led a life of self-denial and considered himself "rigorously orthodox." At age 32, he died of apparent liver infection. Rāmānujan's theories have found applications in crystallography and string theory making him light years ahead of his time. His influence is greater today than was possible during his life.

"An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God."
(Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan)



Therein the lesson:

'Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams, whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me'
-from 'The Papas & The Mamas'
Dream a Little Dream of Me, Mamas and the Papas /1968

I don't dream much these days. The medication I take for my bi-polar disorder knocks my butt out for 7 hours every night. I often miss dreaming. I have flashes from my REM sleep on occasion, but there is not much detail for me to interpret. Jesus doesn't visit anymore and something wicked no longer comes my way.
In the year since my Mother died, I only have recall of one time she entered my sleep. It was anti-climatic at best, and I felt cheated when I woke up. Sometimes, I ask her to come to me in dream, but I fear she either cannot or chooses not to at this time. I figure if she exists in my dreams, then she exists on the Other Side.
Proof by proxy, one could say.
In the 16 years since the death of my first partner, I can only recall 7 times he has visited me. In each dream, he addressed me as if I was awake and he spoke to me in the present tense. He didn't fly around or appear in a watermelon, he was as real as anything I could know when conscious.
These dreams seem more real to me now than anything I can touch or feel here.
I believe I was in an altered state where I could interact with them specifically. I may not have experienced a touch, but I just knew it was them. As creatures consisting of energy, it is not that far of a stretch to believe our energy can interact with other energies. The unconscious mind is fertile for such matters.

"Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” (Khalil Gibran)

I think our mind can act as a portal, either bringing that which we seek to us or taking us to that which seeks us. Great men throughout history have been led by their dreams. Jacob, in flight from his brother Esau, climbed his ladder as he slept (Genesis 28:10-19).
Srīnivāsa Rāmānujan received some of the most complex mathematical theories in human history from dreams. There are many more silent dreams, unknown travels. Dreams which imparted information, precognition, solution and warning. These dreams are as real as my dreams and your dreams.
As if we take a leave of our senses, then we fly to a better place.
We do not recognize it for what it is because we exist as matter on this side of the curtain.
Maybe there is something to the idea that we can access the metaphysical presence through dreams. The stargate may be in us, not out in deep space. Maybe if we stop heeding the gods that aren't and start listening to those dreams which are, this world would be a better place for lovers and dreamers and me.

'Sleepyhead, close your eyes.
Mother's right here beside you.
I'll protect you from harm,
You will wake in my arms.
Guardian angels are near,
So sleep on, with no fear.
Guardian angels are near,
So sleep on, with no fear.'
-from 'Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht' (music)
Lullaby and Goodnight (Braham's Lullaby),
Johannes Brahms Op. 49, No. 4, published in 1868
Georg Scherer, stanza / 1849

"We all have our time machines.
Some take us back, they're called memories.
Some take us forward, they're called dreams.”
(Jeremy Irons)





Sources


Freud on Dreams
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/freud.htm
http://www.insomnium.co.uk/dream-theory/introduction-freud-theory-on-dreams/
http://www.creative-personal-growth.com/freuddreams.html

Rāmānujan
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Ramanujan.html
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Ramanujan.html
http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Mathematicians/Ramanujan.html

Hindu Goddess Namagiri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namagiri

Jacob's Ladder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Ladder

Famous Dreams/Quotes
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215623/famousdreams.htm

Think Exist
http://thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation.asp?search=dreams&q=



Photo

http://www.denisdesigns.com/blog/2009/02/into-the-light/



"We are such stuff as dreams are made of." (William Shakespeare)