the stuff dreams are made of

So I've been having some intense dreams lately.  I'm paying even more attention to them after I watched a documentary about dreams and that they are a way for our brains to learn and 'practice' things.  we generally have positive dreams during non-rem sleep, and more negative dreams during rem sleep.  According to a scientist in Montreal, who catologues a huge dream database, about 3/4 of all dreams are negative.  This is kind of a relief to me, who has had disturbing messed up dreams my whole life.  Apparently its NORMAL.  Someone in the thing also said that 50% of people are able to consiously think about something the night before, and then dream about it.  I have been able to do this occasionaly but I think I need some more practice.  I also maybe need to pick easy topics since I pick abstract things I want to get better at.

I've always wanted to keep a dream journal, but I just can't do it.  When I wake up from a dream I always think I will remember it all, OR I really want to get back to sleep and I can't be bothered to write shit down or I wont be able to sleep as easily.  I really like sleep, but I regret times like saturday morning when I dreamt about something funny and woke up laughing uncontrollably.  I'd probably be rich off whatever that was, but oh well I'm sure my brain can come up with something funnier.

Scary dreams, as I was told, are supposed to be to prepare us for the dangers that our ancestors used to face, but we quickly thought/invented our way past.  Mostly wild animals, I expect, but my bad dreams, like last night for example, often involve ghosts.

Last night I dreamt I was staying in this one room cabin with like 4 other people, all sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor, and for some reason the cabin was on the stilts (i think it was in the swamp) and so was 2 or 3 stories up.  We knew the cabin was haunted, but it was the only place we could stay.  While we were all sleeping, someone woke everyone up because the ghost had brushed past them.  Soon enough, a bit later, I felt the ghost brush past me (for some reason i knew it was an old lady, and she hobbled and walked slowly).  Finally, at one point, the ghost grabbed me by the shoulders and slid me clear across the room, almost sending me out the window except i managed to roll out of the way at the last second.

Now thats all well and good, but how does that help me?  Does my brain think I deal with ghosts on a regular basis, and that's something that I need to be wary of?  I think I just watch to many horror movies.

TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME

I had a pretty awesome dream last night.  I don't have a dream journal.  Rather, I have a pen and pad of paper under my bed which I would like to use for a dream journal.  The facts however, are that I like sleeping a lot - so when I wake from an intense dream - say where I am chosen by aliens along with 2 other humans to consume a potion, and, after a period of meditation I am able to read strange alien languages and am beginning to be told the secrets of the universe...well the thought to write it down just doesn't occur to me until I'm dressing for work, long long after the dream had past.

I've always had bizarre, crazy and disjointed dreams - And to be honest I don't know what kind of dreams you have, maybe they are more similar than I imagine - but this one grabbed my attention not only because of the subject but the dream was intensely vivid.  Sometimes my dreams have the same intense intensiveness, but the content is simple, like flying an old fashion airplane through a barn, but this one had a similar theme to one I had a few years ago.  Once I took too many Tylenol 3s and the next thing I knew I was standing in a desert type place with A hooded figure like that death guy.  He told me his name was Time and he had something very important to tell me...yep.

Anyhow, either he was just stalling for time or I forgot what he told me.  When I woke up I was on the floor and people were standing over me saying "What happened to you Eric?"  Maybe they said it too many times and made me forgot.  Or, maybe that was the point, that the secret is I need to remember things better.  If not maybe I'll get another shot at it.