Dreams - A Gateway to Consciousness?

Luke O’Rafferty

Dreaming is a phenomenon that has been debated through all of time, a hidden treasure that most people take for granted, never stopping to think if maybe there is something profound occurring during our sleeping hours. Maybe this is a question that will never be answered, that the answer cannot be perceived by our stand point as humans, but it’s definitely still a topic of interest and debate nonetheless.

For the majority of the time, dreams occur in R.E.M (rapid eye moment) where scans have shown the brain is most active, though it can happen other times too. For the most part it is agreed that every human being has dreams, whereas the intensity and commonality may differ from person to person. There are many theories that have grabbed popularity over the years, mixed in with a few of my own.

Scientists have a few ideas about the purpose of the dream world, so let’s start the ball rolling by getting the most boring one out of the way.

One theory is that dreams serve no remarkable purpose but are merely a collection of all the input from our waking life, allowing our minds to digest the large amount of input we experience every day, which is a very rational conclusion, considering the number of thoughts and observations that occur unknown to the conscious mind.

Another idea similar to this is that dreams are a way of us being able to deal with things happening in our life's, may it be small things like what we saw on the street the morning before, or a silly argument with a parent, to much bigger ordeals like an essay paper that's still not finished, or a bad breakup with someone you loved. Dreams give us a space to work through these emotions without any external input, thus allowing us to move forward with our life without dwelling too much on those things. Some studies have been done looking into the relationship between dreaming and memory, that our brain is sorting through what has happened in the past, deciding what information is relevant, either storing it into the long-term memory or discarding the information into the abyss. More evidence is being collected to show the process of sleep and how it reflects this idea, but where do all these abstract landscapes appear from? Are they entities unknown to man?

I've woke up several times with vibrant images of the dreams I just came out of, and most of the time it isn't memories of things that I have ever experienced in the physical realm, but a more warped version of reality, of which I can’t say has really happened to me. Other times there can be a reflection of things going on through that phase of my life, and more times than not can be relative to that day’s events.

All of these theories have good points to make, and maybe all have application, but there seems to be a lot of gaps, still unanswered questions. For the more abstract personalities like my own, we can't stop here.

Now I am a fan of questioning basic principles and archetypes to which we look as a starting point, as is the philosopher’s mindset, who is to say that what is perceived is what is actually there. This can be shown in many ways, a basic illustration would be personal emotion, the view of a certain situation may be tainted by one’s disbelief or unwillingness to accept, or to even properly look, therefore the truth will be hidden until they are ready to be shown it. Even in science there are various examples of this, one that always gives me a kick is dimensional space, where we as humans see in three dimensions, but it is only one level of perception, which can be surpassed, to the 4th and so on, resulting in a completely different landscape to which we thought was true, coexisting in the same space that we live and breathe, but yet un-seen.

Now with this in mind the question is which experience is of more relevance, or equal relevance, waking life or dream state? Two different states of consciousness and one is considered vastly more important than the other, due to our relative standpoint, but does that suffice as any real evidence? We may experience continuation and sustainability in our day to day life, and have memory of what has happened, but can that be a definitive argument? Whereas our dream state is a foggy existence of uncertainty and disbelief, leading people to dismiss the idea of it being something of importance, but could it be exposure of another reality, another plane of existence? Dreams may not just be a bi-product of our complex brain, but a tool, a gateway to greater things. The ability to be able to lucid dream, which is where one becomes aware - consciously that they are in a dream, is a point that can tie directly into this argument. The simple fact that a dream like reality can simulate all the senses that we use to experience waking life, is some indicator. It makes me realise that life and everything we do whilst awake, is information via our five senses, and what we are told by it is how we view our reality. If my brain is working the same in a dream, who's to say this same idea doesn't have application, where can the line be drawn?

This idea of our dream state being a door to something beyond this reality, this vessel, is very prominent in religion and spirituality. In various religions humans are shown true reality in its fullness, answers to impossible questions, visions of past and future occurrences all through dreams. As if there is a line of communication, of esoteric knowledge being told, by something beyond, by even God. Through this ideology religions have built up interpretation systems, to translate what the dream is trying to tell the dreamer. Some of them can be quite complex, with all kinds of associations of meaning to things like animals, setting, colours and so on. With actual results of real happening's in alignment with the translation, but who's to say if these are real facts or fiction.

Looking deeper into the subject, some dots start to connect, with maybe something a bit stronger than speculation. Humans sleep is down to the responsibility of the pineal gland, which produces melatonin - a hormone that regulates wake and sleep cycles. Thanks to a great man by the name of Dr. Rick Strassman, a scientist born in 1952, new theories started to accumulate. He carried out numerous tests with the hormone melatonin, finding that psychoactive effects could be caused by it, but nothing substantial. Dr. Strassman then turned his attention on to DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine) a tryptamine molecule, he called it the "spirit molecule" which he went on to write a great book about (an amazing read).

DMT is a highly psychoactive substance, causing intense hallucinations, "spiritual experiences", trips to alternate dimensions and contact with unknown entities. Now what does this experience sound strangely indistinguishable to? Dreams! Dr. Strassman believed that DMT could also be found alongside melatonin in the pineal gland, though it was never proven. Still to this day scientists are trying to prove the existence of DMT in the human brain but have only gotten as far as finding it in the pineal gland of small rodents, but that doesn't exclude the idea quite yet, we also know that it is produced endogenously in humans.

In certain religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, the pineal gland is referred to as the "third eye", a gateway to the spirit realm and super consciousness. The third eye is linked strongly with perception, and how we look at information, and our reality. Dreams, DMT and the third eye, which are all thought to be sourced from the one place, and all have the same commonalities, a doorway to the other side, the rabbit hole if you will. This could just be a strange coincidence, or there may really be something truly special at play here, something that humanity has been given, but with modern culture and technology this has been forgotten and simply left to the river of time.

So, we still don't know what dreams are for, but at least the paints have been bought, but the picture has yet to be painted. I hope that our future generation can venture more into this topic, to one day uncover this true wonder, but till then, I think I'll go take a nap.