Strange dream last night

[alexxkay]

I had a weird dream this morning. I don't usually write those up, but this one was extra-strange and also guest-starred some Friends, so here goes:

To begin with, in addition to being myself, I was also Charles Gunn from Angel. But I had reverted from lawyer-Gunn to badass-Gunn, ang Angel and I had split from Wolfram & Hart. Angel was busy on some mission, but I had to go back to W&H to pick up a vision from Cordelia, who was working as a receptionist there. She was away from her desk, but had left me a note on a phone message: "Last Siege of Camelot Bar; 8 am Tue - 2 am Thu; 30 - 06". Cordy showed up while I was still deciphering her handwriting. Apparently, there was going to be big demon trouble at that bar, and I was already late (the final entry was a suggestion on armament).

I groused about how going on such a big job without backup would probably get me killed. One of the people setting up tables said, "Don't worry, Joss'll bring you back." I replied, "But this is the last season, and there aren't any spinoffs lined up; I might stay dead." One of the workers was my old friend Adam Roy, who I had often gamed with in college. I asked him if he was up for some demon-hunting, but he said he had to finish setting up for the banquet.

The next thing I knew, we were all seated at two long banquet tables, and Joss was announcing that there would be a prize for the first person to identify the Mystery Soup. Some servitors brought in a small side-table, set with desserts, that was put behind the main tables. msmemory was complaining (rightly) about the portions being too small, when cristovau (seated to my left) nudged me and said, "Hey, look! It's Leland, Sarah, and Killer Bob!" Indeed, that wacky Palmer family from Twin Peaks was now seated at what had been the dessert table. There was another character there (whom my dreaming brain thought was also from Twin Peaks), a blind writer named Doyle. I nudged kestrell (to my right) and said, "Do you... know who is sitting three rows over?" (I almost said "see", but caught myself in time. I asked anyway, since at least one of the people at that table was a supernatural entity, which she might have sensed across the room.

I was then distracted by Joss moving along the table, ladling out Mystery Soup (which looked like gazpacho). When I looked up, the Palmer family had vanished, but kestrell had gone over to sit next to Doyle. She was talking on her cell phone, though, so Doyle had pulled out an old electric typewriter, and was banging away at the keys.

And then my alarm went off.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

That's unusually coherent for a dream! Beats my "carving a cave system underneath a peat bog" dream of last night all hollow!

woah...cool dream.

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

For some reason I just about never remember my dreams. Once or twice a year, I will remember one, and I usually wake up gasping and sweating or even quietly screaming (I think I remember these because the gasping and sweating is real and Carin wakes me up in the middle of it.) But then the dream usually vanishes within seconds - I can almost watch it erase itself.

Re: woah...cool dream.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Hey, I didn't realize you were here! Welcome!

I'm pretty sure that dreams are not "meant" to be remembered. Doing so requires (for me) a good deal of conscious effort, and even then, is imprecise. Basically, I have to mentally "tell myself the story" immediately upon waking. The direct experience of the dream *does* vanish very quickly, but I can subsequently remember what I "told" myself.

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

hungrytiger hooked me up in his recent quest to find more friends. Wait, that didn't come out the way I intended it. Wait again though...I am amused at the way it came out.

Anyway, interesting idea about dreams being 'meant' to be remembered. I sometimes try to mentally record the events of the dream, but I usually only get the first scene in (or the last one) and by the time I do, the rest is gone. And of course, I start filling it in with a 'better' (read, more rational) version anyway...and then what's the point. Of course, I often wonder what the point is anyway.

I don't mean this as an attack in any sense, since I enjoyed reading about your dream, but what _is_ the point of recording dreams? I mean, sure I enjoyed reading it, but then, I enjoy reading whatever you write, and more the more it is your opinions that I am reading.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Well, my purpose for writing up this one was the unusually high degree of narrative content. Others have other reasons for posting, I expect, certainly those who do it more often than I.

The "meant" was shorthand for "evolutionarily adapted". There's some cognitive modelling research from about a decade back that seems highly supportive (to me, anyway) of the idea that dreams are a mind's mechanism for garbage-collecting. More detail available on request.

[jducoeur]

what _is_ the point of recording dreams?

Aside from simply finding it fun, there's a pretty well-documented connection between formally recording dreams and being able to remember them better; beyond that, it seems to lead to a higher incidence of lucid dreaming. Since I find lucid dreaming to be both fascinating and fun, I try to keep a dream journal (although I've been bad lately and haven't been keeping it up).

And howdy! Welcome to the fray...