THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

[Stanley]

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT.

I think most normal people dream and like me they have three sorts: The ones you don’t remember having. The ones you know you’ve had but can’t remember the details. And the ones that are so vivid you remember everything. I had one of the latter last night and it triggered this piece off.

I was on my first day in a mill running two engines, an enormous diesel that ran the mule spinning section and an old beam engine that ran the weaving. The old engineer had left suddenly after a falling out do with the management and I was in at the deep end, I hadn’t even got an oil can, he had taken them all home with him! I won’t bore you with the details but one peculiar thing was that I had to start the beam engine, run it slow and use the drive from that to turn the diesel over to get it started, then I ran the diesel up to speed and after that got the beam engine going properly. The strange thing is that I’ve never heard of or seen a set-up like that, I made the whole thing up in my head whilst I was asleep. Another funny thing was that the place was so big there was a Russian or Chinese security man sat in the middle of the mill to direct workers who were lost. I had to get him to send someone with me to find the engine house.

Enough of that particular dream, but where do they come from? I have heard a theory that dreams are a way that your mind uses to clear out the files in your head and re-arrange your memory. Knowing how complicated the brain is makes this plausible but that doesn’t explain some of the dreams we have. My sister Dorothy and I used to have simultaneous dreams and it was always the same dream. This went on for years. We have often talked about it but neither of us has any idea what the dream meant (if anything) or what triggered it.

Anyone who has made a digital film knows what processing power it needs and this is with ready made images. How complicated must the process be to manufacture all the details of the dream? I can even remember the dirt floor outside the engine house in mine. I reckon that we must use images that are already there in our brain and re-arrange them.

The bottom line is that dreams baffle me; I accept them because they happen but I have no idea how they are made or whether they have any meaning. All I know is that this one woke me up and so must have some significance, but what……? It was in colour as well……

Got any ideas?

SCG/25 July 2004

[Cathy]

Maybe your brain is just defragging itself Stanley
I always try to think of what I 've been reading about or watching on Tele etc in the last few days if I have a weird dream, I think it influences them.

[Stanley]

I think you're right Cathy. A fascinating process though....

[Moh]

I often wonder how we dream about people who we don't know.

[Cathy]

Yes Moh, sometimes that can be fun. I used to keep a dream diary and found that quite interesting but these days most of my dreams seem to leave my consciousness as soon as I wake up.

[Stanley]

Bumped and still a mystery. All I can say is that I think they are a good thing and perfectly natural.

[Gloria]

How odd your sister had the same dream as you, some dream studying geek would have a field day with that one.

[Stanley]

Wouldn't they! But that of course assumes we would let them! No way.....

[Stanley]

It's a bit spooky because this article was the next in order to be bumped and it coincides with a vivid dream I had this morning and which I can remember in detail even now.

[Stanley]

I still dream vividly and in colour...... The brain is such a mysterious tool!