Chapter 1: The Nature of Dreams

Dreams are a complex part of our subconscious that we carry with us at all times. Many people believe they do not dream, but this is often due to a lack of awareness. When it seems we've left our dreams behind, we have merely closed a door. Contrary to the notion that we dream in solitude, the truth is quite the opposite.

While it may be considered poor form to speak in absolutes, I have come to understand dreaming deeply. I believe dreams are not mere fantasies; they serve as a form of visual communication.

I have memories dating back to when I was just a few months old, including fragments of dreams from infancy. In those early days, my dreams were painted in muted greens and grays, focusing on the world and people around me. However, after my second birthday, color began to seep into my dreams, mirroring the vibrant hues of my waking memories. This transformation captivated me, and I started to observe and learn from the patterns within my dreams.

The initial dreams of each night were still shrouded in green-gray tones. As I matured, this palette shifted to black and white, reminiscent of early television shows. Yet, around the age of five, vivid colors burst into my morning dreams, inspired by the illustrations in my storybooks.

There was a clear distinction between my early night dreams and those that occurred in the morning. The night dreams often involved familiar people and situations from my life, as if they were visiting me. In contrast, my morning dreams felt like a journey—I sought them out rather than waiting for them to come to me, leading me to places I didn’t always recognize.

During this time, I began to dream of my home expanding, with rooms appearing in curious places. One dream featured a small door in my yellow bedroom, which led to a space between the ground and the first floor. This fascinated me, prompting daily reflections on this dream house. As more rooms and levels materialized in my dreams, I eventually asked, “Is this house a part of me?” Even if I couldn’t recall the face that answered, the response was clear: “Yes. There’s the door.” The recurring yellow door unveiled even more passages.

This realization sparked my curiosity not just to remember dreams but to analyze them. I devoured my mother's dream dictionary and her favorite magazine, American Astrology, absorbing the insights. I effectively established a personal dream “school” where the dreams themselves became my instructors.

I discovered that dreaming allows us to grasp the deeper truths about ourselves and our existence—not just isolated fragments. I believe that when we dream of a home, it symbolizes the various facets of our self at that moment. Conversely, dreams involving other structures often represent our connections with others.

The locations and buildings we encounter in dreams are among the most significant symbols, revealing what is going well in our lives and what requires attention. Dreaming transcends mere fantasy; it forms a comprehensive visual language with an additional layer of unrecognized communication that we only begin to comprehend as we delve deeper into our dreams.

Why do we dream? It’s not merely a phenomenon that happens to us; I believe it serves as a means for universal consciousness—connecting all conscious beings to communicate with one another. Dreaming transcends our lived experiences and continues beyond our existence.

I also suspect that dreams possess multidimensional qualities. If we could visualize our dreams accurately, we would see that perceptions of space and time are fluid—faces morph into different ones, objects vanish or transform unexpectedly, and images can split to reveal multiple scenes.

There are signs that dreaming is a continuous process. I recently spent an entire night and morning within the same dream narrative, awakening periodically yet returning to the same storyline.

Interactions with others over the years have taught me that when we’re not recalling our dreams, we are crafting dreams for or with others. As Shakespeare suggested, "We are the stuff that dreams are made on." We are not merely dreamers; my partner Tom and I sometimes share the same dream from different viewpoints.

Dreamery acts as a universal internet, one we are perpetually connected to. We constantly transmit and receive information.

Not only can we enhance our dream recall by maintaining journals, but we can also write down aspirations for future dreams and manifest them through dream writing. This practice can even influence real-world events, as illustrated in my memoir, BEING Home.

What elements of dreams might surprise you? Any conscious being capable of dreaming is interlinked within this dream web, and it extends beyond humans.

Indeed, we dream while awake—in many forms. Hallucinations are not simply ailments, despite circumstances where they might surface due to drugs or biochemical changes. We all experience hallucinations for various reasons.

So, I affirm: Yes, we dream even when awake, in ways you may not have realized.

We can engage consciously within our dreams, a phenomenon known as lucid dreaming. As I mentioned earlier, one can revisit the same dream multiple times—not just in a single night. I have experienced dreams that spanned several days, where I would awake and carry on with my life, only to return to the dream when sleep beckoned again. I have learned invaluable lessons in such dreams—ones Carl Jung would have appreciated.

Dreams also serve as a means of assessment. When we encounter repetitive scenarios in our dreams, we continue to experience them until we grasp the underlying message.

This quest for understanding fuels our curiosity, revealing an endless array of mysteries awaiting exploration within our minds. I believe we enrich our lives by giving equal attention to our dreaming experiences as we do to our waking realities. I see little difference in their significance; both represent our lives, with the only distinction being that waking life follows a linear path, while dreams exist beyond the constraints of time and space.

The first video titled "Recurring Dreams: What Are They Trying to Tell You?" explores the significance of recurring dreams and what they may reveal about our subconscious minds.

In the second video, "Dreams Are PROOF That We Know Nothing About The Brain | Joe Rogan & Robert Epstein," the discussion centers around the mysteries of dreams and their implications for our understanding of the human mind.