Dreaming the past, present and future

Jan. 17, 2002

Dear Leslie,

To the Australian aborigines, whose cultural history dates back an estimated 65,000 years, the period when the Earth was shaped, is the Dreamtime, the time before time was known.

Robert Lawlor writes: In the Aboriginal world view, every meaningful activity, event or life process that occurs at a particular place leaves behind a vibrational residue in the earth, as plants leave an image of themselves as seeds ... Everything in the natural world is a symbolic footprint of the metaphysical beings whose action created our world."

For aborigines, the past is not dead and gone but is as alive as today. "The dreaming," the creation, is still unfolding.

Dreaming means something very different in Western culture. A dream is something we remember or don't, relate to a spouse or friend or don't, and then usually forget.

Not everybody remembers their dreams. I wonder if not remembering is different from not dreaming.

In a dream one Saturday night when I was in the fourth grade, a girl at school I had a crush on somehow appeared in my Sunday school class. The next day when I walked into Sunday school, she was there as someone's guest.

I was dumbfounded, but in the fourth grade you think you can play baseball for the Cardinals and save the world like Superman. Why not think you can make someone appear?

A skeptic would say I must have overheard that the girl was coming to my Sunday school and must have deposited the information in my subconscious, where it materialized in a dream. I would say there are ways of knowing our logical minds cannot comprehend.

In "the dreaming," past, present and future are all the same.

DC remembers her dreams better than I do. A few days ago she told me she is writing a novel in her dreams. She just finished the first chapter. She hasn't any idea what the novel is about. That's a dream for you.

The dogs dream, especially Hank and Alvie. We watch fascinated as they simulate running motions and make little woofing noises.

Dreaming reminds us that a whole world of experiences exists within us.

Daydreams are different from dreams.

In daydreams we manipulate reality to fit our desires. The ball lands on the green, bounces twice and disappears into the hole. People can't get enough of our company.

But daydreams can be a trap. Every whim comes true. We think this is how fulfillment is achieved.

Reality has different rules. There are challenges to making our dreams come true. There are bills to pay.

In dreams we work with problems, often in symbolic ways. Falling off a cliff and living helps us face the fear of making a big decision. In dreams we face off with monsters, all of them well-known demons we run from when awake. Dreams are the school for growing up. Dreams are the clay where reality is formed. Dreamtime continues.

When I lived in San Francisco, my old friend C.C. Fish told me a story about something that occurred to her and ended by saying she didn't know if it really happened or was a dream.

What's the difference? the aborigines wonder.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.