Pointless Mental Exercise

Today's Track: Magic Carpet Ride--Steppenwolf


How many people dream?
Trick question, because obviously everyone does.
Have you, then, ever had a nightmare?
Yes? Good. That is, probably not good, but acceptable in the sense that you know what I'm talking about. You do know what I'm talking about, right?
Really?
Wow, I'm impressed.
In that case, to continue:
What makes a nightmare frightening?
Well, you say, it has to be the seven-foot-tall, three-headed, slime-dripping monster with fangs the same size as municipal flag poles. Duh.
Perhaps it is.
But what makes the monster scary?
At this point, you no doubt point patiently at the above description and don your best talking-to-the-inmates face and wait for me to finish gibbering.
Obviously you are not going to cooperate, so I'll just handle this on my own, OK?
Nightmares are scary for the same reason that pleasant dreams make you feel so good. They seem real.
More to the point, to the dreamer, they are real.
While you dream, that dream is your whole world. It is only after you wake that they begin to seem like the preposterous foolishness that they are normally held to be.
Dreams really are silly, aren't they? Once you wake in the real world again, that is.
The real world.
And of course we make this distinction offhandedly, because it's perfectly plain that that in which we wake is always the real world, the familiar world of cars and jobs and wars and Rolling Stones concerts.
But why is that?
Why is what, you ask?
Why is it that we are so sure that we wake up in the "real world"?
Well, where else would we wake up?
Good question.
However, I'm sure, at one time or another, everyone has had one of those dreams in which you think you have awakened, only to find that you are still dreaming. And in case you haven't, let me assure you that it is terrifically disorienting.
Which, of course, is perfectly understandable. Here you are, sleeping comfortably and dreaming away, just like every night, when suddenly you "wake up". Immediately your mind falls into its accustomed waking mode, and you make a good approximation of going about your "real life". Then, suddenly, you realize that things are not at all well. Perhaps it is that the laws of physics seem to have been waived temporarily. Or it could be that the fearful beasts from your "dreams" are proving strangely reluctant to give over the chase. Whatever it is, you must grudgingly admit that this could not possibly be reality as you more normally accept it. And so, in due course, you wake. Ah, reality, sweet reality...

Are you sure?

Whilst you dreamt--in the beginning--you knew that what was presented to you was nothing other than the good old Earth, just as you'd always known it. Then, after your "awakening", you harbored not the slightest doubt that you opened your eyes on a perfectly acceptable, perfectly ordinary world, just like any other morning. And then, with a silent (or not so) sigh of relief, you finally reassume consciousness in your bed, in your home, right where you left it, and all is perfectly normal once more.

Is it?

Sleep tight, friends.