Dream a Little Dream of Me

Ideas brought up in Miss Riley's post on dreams intrigued me. Many of the concepts she postulates remind me of the theories of C. G. Jung, in particular his thoughts on a species memory, or collective unconscious, in relation to myths and dreams. For more on Carl Gustav Jung, see this wonderful page that has what is quite possibly every single piece of information you will ever need to know about the man and his thoughts. Of particular interest to those intrigued by mythology, his work Man and His Symbols is of particular interest. For more on dream theory, also see the thoughts and works of one of Jung's companions, Sigmund Freud, and his work The Interpretation of Dreams (complete text here).

If dreams are from a collective unconscious, a gestalt mind compiled by every living person, are not myths the same? Both contain facts and non-facts, both reach to be greater than we are or ever can be, and both can feel far more real than the "truth" we learn in textbooks. Humans are emotional beings, despite how far we strive to be solely rational (and here and here). We love, we hate, we anger, we sadden, we sorrow, we pity, we empathize, we do a whole host of irrational things in an irrational manner and then attempt to justify them and feel rational.

Accepting the irrational is the way to truth. Human minds, human hearts, human souls, these are not made up of numbers and scientific facts. They are made up of hopes and dreams, thoughts and emotions, feelings of both joy and sadness. Sometimes human lives don't make a whole hell of a lot of sense, so why should how we think? Why must the rational control the lives of irrational beings? Set free the dreams, unshackle the myths, and soar. Even if, like Icarus, you fall from the sky and die in the attempt, you will still be remembered forever.