Why Dreams?

When I was 17 years old, I had an inexplicable experience with my dreams. A close friend, who I’ve had a falling out with months before, was having a hard time and would miss high school for days or even weeks at a time. 

During one of these periods of indefinite absence, she showed up in one of my dreams. The dream wasn’t about her at all. I distinctly remember seeing her for just a moment, looking at me, as my dream went through the school cafeteria and then continued on to another location. The next morning, my estranged friend was back at school.

A few weeks later, during another period of her absence, I saw her in a dream again. It was again very brief, not connected to the main dream at all. The next day, she was back at school.

A third time, she appeared in my dream during a period of absence. And sure enough, the next morning, she was back at school.

I haven’t been able to settle upon an explanation for why my subconscious mind seemed to be able to predict my estranged friend’s returns to school―when we hadn’t even spoken for months. The closest I’ve found is Carl Jung’s theory that dreams can be “an anticipatory combination of probabilities”― essentially, an estimated guess of the future by our subconscious.

But the experience opened my eyes to one clear lesson: We are all far more connected to each other than meets the eye. 

This is why dreams have become such an important element in my life and my writing. Dreams can show us hidden sides of ourselves and others. Dreams help me take a closer, more raw look at my life. Dreams can help me look past the apparent limitations of my life to deeper truths, like how very much I still missed that friend and wished I could be there for her through her hard time.

By writing about dreams, through my own experiences and in my fiction, I hope to further increase my understanding of myself and, in the process, perhaps inspire others to discover hidden deeper truths in their own lives too.