Whispers in the dark

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I dream frequently. Dreaming always fascinated me and I'm kind of disappointed when I wake up after a dreamless night. Some people say you can tell the future from them or they even contain prophecies from gods. Personally, I think it's a bunch of shit. Although there are no universally agreed facts about dreams and we're not completely sure what purpose they serve, everyone has some theories about them. Most people try to explain the experience biologically, like they're for removing useless information from our memories or to strengthen useful ones. That's cool, but I'm more into the psychological side of things, as always. I have some theories about dreams too. Yeah, I might be full of shit too, but at least I can share my ideas with you and feel better about it. Of course the foot-stone of all my thoughts are the theories of Carl Jung. What? Don't tell me you didn't see that coming.

So we all know that our brain function on two major levels, one is the concious and the other is the sub-concious mind. During the daytime, our sub-concious is repressed by our concious mind because god knows what would happen if we'd release the deepest thoughts from our sub-concious, especially from our shadow. Things get interesting when we fall asleep because that's when we can't fully control our concious mind and thoughts. Yes, I'm aware of the stages of sleeping (N1,N2,N3 and REM), but I don't want to go into detail because I'd sit here forever. Check it out on Wikipedia if you're interested.

So our repressed thoughts can roam our minds somewhat freely when we're sleeping. Dreams are merely the reflections of our sub-concious thoughts mixed with some of our (un)processed concious ones. You might say "so how come I see people and places in my dreams I had no chance to see before?". Well, the thing is - you did. A glimpse from a TV program, a magazine, a poster, a face on the street. Your brain contains far more information than you're aware of. It pieces them together, mixes them, creates new material be it people, places or faces.

But no matter what dreams actually are, one thing is certain. We need them for various reasons. Some of us need them to let their imagination and thoughts free, others need the aid of their dreams to cope with their personal problems, others, like me just enjoy the thrill even if we're talking about nightmares.

Enjoy your dreams, cherish them because when you're dreaming you're truly free.

Another part of me

Why do people blog?

I don't really know. I only have assumptions and the approximate reasons why I blog. I say approximate because I'm not fully aware of my own reasons to do this stuff, in fact I think most of us aren't aware of the reasons for most things we do. Remember when you were a little kid and you did something supposedly wrong, so your parents asked; Why did you do it? You couldn't answer. Now there were times where you could but didn't wanted... but most of the times you really didn't know. There are certain things we just do... maybe out of instinct, maybe habit... maybe we feel obligated to express our opinions, feelings and whatnot to other people, possibly to many we don't even know.

So why do I blog? Maybe I feel I'm not heard out enough in real life, I kinda feel like people often don't care even when I have some important shit to say. People are stupid, they don't listen. I try to hear out and listen to them, consider their opinions and give them appropriate feedback. Why can't they do the same with me? Am I really that boring? I like to think not. All they care about is expressing their stupid opinion and they expect me to nod like I'm their pet monkey. God forbid my opinion differs from theirs... they usually try to change my mind on the spot. They don't get it that I have my well considered opinions just as much as they do. Exchanging opinions stooped down to a level where we try to change other people so they'll bend to our favor. I think a conversation shouldn't be about bending people to our favor, it's about hearing them out even if it's something outrageously stupid, then replying in a civil manner if possible. We can learn, gain from conversations, maybe even profit from them in one way to another. But no, most people feel like their opinions are the most important and most valid so they don't even care what other people have to stay. That's why they will remain stupid for the rest of their lives.

I also like to blog to challenge people. Not change them, just challenge their mind. I like to make them think on a deeper level than they do in their everyday lives. I like to paint on their mental canvas situations, emotions, thoughts, ideas and challenge their mind so they have to make themselves think harder and in a more complex way they usually do. To consider ideas they never faced before, to give them something fresh, a new input if you will that can stimulate their brain. People need to realize that there is more beneath the surface, there is a deeper line of thought. I don't say you always have to be a sententious asshole, because that's pure pretentious bullshit right there. I just say that sometimes when you have nothing better to do, or when you just feel like it, you can immerse in your thoughts or rather, immerse in other people's. Maybe it's only a foolish illusion from my part, maybe I can't challenge anyone. But I still try and if I manage to succeed then I accomplished something and it's for the better of both of us.

Of course I feel the natural need to let my voice be heard. It's a very human desire, we feel a little better about ourselves if we can express our views to a wider range audience and even if our readers only consist of people who we already know. You can't explain the same thing to everyone in the same way multiple times and you can't expect them not to derail the conversation. In fact, if you're talking to someone it's a good thing if you derail each other every now and then, it opens other doors to the conversation. But this is the beauty of writing a blog. You can express yourself without interruption, without sidetracking because of outside input. Often you write only for yourself, but somehow you feel better if you do. Also, it's a waste if you don't put your ideas out there. It's besides the point that who actually cares. Your ideas and opinions are always worthy to manifest in written form.True power lies in ideas. There are few better ways to express ideas than to write them down to the world. Especially if you don't have the opportunity to put your ideas into practice just yet.


I hope I encouraged some of you to start or continue to write your blogs. If not, at least I hope you'll continue to read this blog and others you deem worthwhile as well, in hopes that your mind gets challenged and it'll encourage you to think out of the box every now and then.



PS - Sorry folks, no music today. I'll make up for it next time.

The power of one

Damn. Can't sleep. Insomnia, my friend nice to see you again.

This is what happens if you get sleep on an irregular basis for months. We all experienced this at some point. One day, you sleep a good healthy 8+ hours, the next day you only manage to get 2 and the third day you sleep 12+ hours because you're exhausted as shit. It's only downhill from there, I can tell you that. This doesn't bode well for me, because school starts on Monday and I can't seem to force myself to do normal sleep-wake cycles. At the time I started writing this, it was half past four in the god damn morning and I just woke up after barely three hours of sleep. Yeah, I take my sweet time to write these posts, no need to rush. But anyway, waking up too early is bothersome even though I'm not that tired or anything, I actually feel well rested but by the time of noon I'll be in zombie mode.

So anyway, these times are good to do some thinking, because you're basically torn out from your normal life cycle. May sound stupid, but I feel like I'm in an alternate dimension where I can be alone... thinking. At times like these, I like to listen to chilled out, laid back stuff. Lyrics are not important, just the feel of the music. Keeps me relaxed, lifts up the tension, creates the mood for thinking.

I like to think out of the box every now and then. René Descartes, the French philosopher said "Cogito ergo sum" which basically means "I think therefore I am". What it means is that one cannot be sure of anything else but the existence of self. Not the surrounding world, only the existence of one's own self. Of course Descartes thought a bit differently about the subject in the 17th century than we do in these modern times, but I think it's fairly accurate to assume that with time, not only people but ideas tend to change quite a bit.

If this is all true, then we can easily apply this to every individual in the world. Every individual thinks, therefore they exist. If everyone in reality would be the figment of imagination of one's self, then they wouldn't have the same basic human properties as one's self does. Or maybe they would because arguably, we have the subconscious need to apply our basic human properties to others. I see what I did there, I just disproved my own hypothesis. It was nice arguing with myself, because I can always agree with me.

In the end I think that's one of the most intriguing beauties of life. To be able to think. If you're uncertain in everything, you can always be 100% sure about one thing. You think, therefore you exists. Even if you're just a figment of my imagination. If that's the case I subconsciously gave you the same basic human properties that I too posses, therefore you really exist because I made you exist. This works vica-versa, maybe I am a materialized figment of your imagination that became part of reality. But isn't it awfully peculiar that we share so much in common, even if we never met? Maybe somewhere a great mind which doesn't exist anymore started it all and it developed into a self sustaining system. Reality as we know it became, because "Cogito ergo sum". The mind is a powerful tool indeed.

...

I got distracted since I started writing this, so it's half past six in the morning. Guess what? I'm tired again. I wanted to elaborate more, but my mental capacity is inadequate for me to do so. I may finish this on a later occasion (probably not), but I need to get some sleep now, at least a few hours worth.

Hope you enjoyed my pointless philosophizing, I sure did.