Ever since I was a kid my dreams have been crazy as hell. Last night, I had a dream where I was dropping my kid off at school, but there were people on both sides of the road standing waiting for a wedding. I see the couple and nope right out. Turning around a curb, suddenly I was in a fucking baseball stadium and rows of seats cut me off. I had to get home so I got out of my car? I’m walking down the stairs when I hear “oh, there it is!” I look up where the person was pointing to the sky. I see some rocket like thing, and assumed it was fireworks. It stopped, I hear three dreaded bomb falling noise, and then it slams into a seat a few rows down from the wedding. I hit the deck because I don’t want to die. But instead of exploding it sprays enough glitter throughout the stadium I ended up with a mouth full. Then I get out of there, call my mom, explained what happened, head to their house which is now a bunker in new York City and they refuse to believe what I went through. Then I woke up.
Natalie Portman, who does have an education in neuroscience, thinks dreams are just your mind getting rid of debris. That was in response to a question on her Hot Ones interview, and she didn’t seem to think it was a strong conclusion backed by broad scientific consensus or anything. Still, I found it an interesting pushback against the common idea that dreams have some deep meaning.
Your mind getting rid of debris… interesting.
I don’t know that its common, I encounter about 50/50 people thinking they’re nonsense and others getting insight from their dreams.
People, including Natalie Portman during her interview on the chicken wing youtube show Hot Ones, can have layers of motivation to dismiss their dreams as nonsense. Paying attention to the symbolism in dreams can reveal some dark and anxiety provoking truths. Or not :)