Listening at the door again
To continue. There as many functions and types of dreams as there are people and commentaries, so any characterization, by me or others, is comparable to the parable of the blind men and the elephant, each only perceiving a small point of view, but fervently arguing it to be the truth. Recent research into the levels of norepinephrine during REM sleep suggest that as the stress hormone (one of it's functions) is decreased during REM, it allows more "relaxed" review of charged content, so as to consolidate and integrate, providing hope to PTSD individuals. Again, only one of many aspects of dreams (remember the blind men) and we are encouraged to adopt the attitude of "this/and" rather than "either/or" leaving the 'and' as an open end for further thought. What else might be going on....
Most recently, as I watched from the cracked open door at the conversation in the other room, I was struck by the variations of deconstruction and construction motifs in some of the content, albeit only a small portion of the flow, but it caught my attention. Since I know that my Mind is constantly updating, reorganizing and re-prioritizing it's use of the neurons (physical structure for the moment only) then some portion of the conversation that I "hear" at the doorway of consciousness, conceivably, will be my "dream egos" view and translation of this process of consolidating and re-building.
This is not to dismiss more comprehensive reflections on the content and images, but just a very narrow slice, for the moment. Since I only have the subjective lens of my "little self," to witness the "dream egos" view of this stream and dream content, my perception is limited. How I perceive it, invariably takes on the "garments in my subjective closet," which for me, are often "construction motifs." That I should have a dream one night of a dystopian landscape, and not feel an immediate connection to waking events, and have in a subsequent night, a dream of now cleared out space and buildings, followed by yet another night in which I am witness to "someone" connecting some intricate pipes and wires is a small arc of content, but the progression on this one thematic stream seems plausible.
There were certainly other aspects of the content that had more subjective "grounding" in my awareness, and the dreams were certainly more detailed and substantial that my brief reference here, but... at least some portion of the endless flow of images and stories that I listen to intently from my perch by the door, could be a reflection of this small, but important aspect of consciousness, as witnessed by my "dream ego." My "self" is to my "dream ego" as it is to my "Mind" and as my "Mind" is to the greater "Self." An order of magnitude of unknown scale between each increment. My little "self" is but a small reflection of my "dream ego" and yet my waking attention perceives it (the small "self") to be the one who directs the flow, oh, the delusions of "self-importance."
