Dreams, Reality, and Actuality

The soul of a sleeper is supposed to wander away from his body and actually to visit the places, to see the persons, and to perform the acts of which he dreams. For example, when an Indian of Brazil or Guiana wakes up from a sound sleep, he is firmly convinced that his soul has really been away hunting, fishing, felling trees, or whatever else he has dreamed of doing, while all the time his body has been lying motionless in his hammock. A whole Bororo village has been thrown into a panic and nearly deserted because somebody had dreamed that he saw enemies stealthily approaching it. A Macusi Indian in weak health, who dreamed that his employer had made him haul the canoe up a series of difficult cataracts, bitterly reproached his master next morning for his want of consideration in thus making a poor invalid go out and toil during the night. The Indians of the Gran Chaco are often heard to relate the most incredible stories as things which they have themselves seen and heard; hence strangers who do not know them intimately say in their haste that these Indians are liars. In point of fact the Indians are firmly convinced of the truth of what they relate; for these wonderful adventures are simply their dreams, which they do not distinguish from waking realities.

---The Golden Bough, Chapter 18, The Perils of the Soul

I have yet to have my soul venture off into interesting venues recently. I dream, but they are mundane, consisting of my Dad making me breakfast, or of myself arguing with a friend over meaningless topics. For those who have seen Inception, the dreams within the film are way cooler.

SPOILER ALERT:

The movie, Inception, is about people who go into other people's minds via their dreams through a special device. They then can steal an idea from that person's dreams or they can proceed further into the subconscious by entering into another dream while in the first person's dream. Some characters go down so many levels of dreaming that they eventually reach a stage called limbo; a dream so complex that the dreamer believes he or she is actually in reality.

This touches closely to what Professor Sexson was saying about what is real and what is imaginary. If we think it's real then to us, it's real. If we think it's imaginary, than we have already set a limit on that situation and it can not jump to the level of reality. What about deja vu? Wouldn't that feeling of a situation being eerily familiar only belong in a dream? Pay attention to what we conceive as reality. You may be dreaming sooner than you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sd0ff1sbJU&feature=channel