Dream Diaries
Earlier this month, Richa Vadini Singh wrote an absorbing post on her Substack titled "Why Don't We Take Our Dreams Seriously?"
The essay was effective. It made me feel things. These past weeks, I've made a modest attempt at taking notes about my dreams as soon as I wake up - before they evaporate into the morning light.
My dreams are basic and somewhat abstract. They lack sensory detail. And they seem to slip away from my conscious awareness quickly.
My friend Z is the opposite. She has vivid dreams and a composite recollection of them.
Her dreams often have a whole storyline. And they are fantastical, absurd, and hilarious.
Our WhatsApp history from the past several years is littered with discussions about Z’s amazing dreams.
Here's a sampling:
China Career Adventure: I love this dream and half wonder what life would be like if it were real.
The real surprise is that I had a backpack, and that this dude gave me a USB to safekeep.
Our ‘Mutual Dream’ about a train station: Sometimes, this cool, inexplicable thing happens where our dreams intersect in this odd, sci-fi way. The last time this happened was last year.
Mutual dreaming is more common than you'd expect - although it's hard to study because dreams are inherently unobservable and subjective.
The little research that's out there suggests that mutual dreaming is typically observed among individuals who share a close emotional bond. And that makes sense, because Z and I go back a hundred years.
There's a symbolic resonance to these dreams - and themes, symbols, and narratives in the dreams of the involved individuals might resonate with each other. Jungians might call that a tapping into the collective unconscious. This stuff is wild!
A Myna Tragedy: Z may have dreamt up the plot of a tragic children’s rhyme.
Sometimes, I contribute to the discourse with descriptions of my dreams.
But they are simplistic.
***
There’s something to be said about being more curious about our dreams. Some of the greatest creatives of all time have used dreams as a source for creative inspiration.
"Inception" emerged from Christopher Nolan’s deep fascination with the intricacies of the dream world.
Stephen King allegedly dreamt the plot of Misery during a nap he took in a train.
Paul Mccartney has said he dreamt the tune of ‘Yesterday’.
There's a whole discipline dedicated to studying how lucid dreaming contributed to Salvador Dali's surrealist art.
David Lynch, the creator of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks often speaks about how his dreams influence his creative process, using them to explore the subconscious and create his unique, often unsettling, visual style.
This is all to say that I agree with Richa Vadini Singh - we ought to be more curious about our dreams. And that maybe dream journalling is a useful start point.
Last year, after Z and I had our mutual dream about the train station, I bought us both this journal. I’ve not been very consistent in my recordings, but I will try to be.
Happy Sunday!
Love this glimpse into your dream world, Uthara! Thank you for the mention.
I’ve experienced mutual dreaming, too (with my brother), and I’ve heard some fascinating accounts of mutual dreams that were also precognitive (premonitory). I hope to explore some of these in my newsletter.
This also makes me wonder how often we’ve had mutual dreams but we've never known it because we don’t discuss dreams.
Incidentally, I awoke from a disturbing dream this morning and decided to record it despite the emotional resistance and sleep inertia. As soon as I finished typing out the dream on my phone, I checked my email and saw your post. :)
This was such an interesting read! Fully went down dream memory lane ✨, so much fun. And you write so well!