【2024-05-31 PT】《Dreams》

Ruby: It's been a while! This week's Party Time topic is "Dreams." Dreams are a wondrous manifestation of human mental activity, reflecting personal experiences, emotions, desires, and even potential creativity. From a psychological perspective, Freud believed dreams fulfill wishes, whereas Jung saw them as expressions of self-regulation and wisdom from the depths of the psyche. So, are you a dreamy person? What kind of dreams do you have?

Selena: Absolutely, my dreams are a roller-coaster ride through the bizarre and the thrilling. They range from being pursued by an eerily benign bus, symbolizing perhaps the relentless pace of life, to encountering wise elders in desolate landscapes, suggestive of seeking guidance amid isolation. It's fascinating how these dreams, though mostly fleeting upon waking, also include a recurrent fantasy of sudden wealth, echoing universal aspirations for security and comfort.

Anna: I absolutely love dreaming! I dream almost every night, covering all sorts of content. If it's a pleasant dream, I might dream of people I want to see or beautiful landscapes... If it's a nightmare, such as losing loved ones, I wake up feeling unnerved.

Tyler: I don't feel like I dream often, or maybe I just don't remember doing so. My dreams, if any, tend to be a bit chaotic. I recall fewer nightmares and more mundane scenes of daily life, sometimes even continuing stories from previous dreams.

Selena: There's one dream that has stayed with me vividly. In it, I was back in my rural hometown, and suddenly my brother turned into a villain. The entire village turned red, and that crimson landscape left a deep impression. My brother then tried to catch us, and we hid under a large straw mat—it was a strangely effective hiding spot. He chanted terrifying spells, something like "I've got you now." The dream was incredibly intense; I hid silently under the mat, trembling at his roars. Just as I decided to confront the 'devil' with my friends, I woke up.

Anna: One of my recent interesting dreams was about enlisting and then being discharged with my favorite idols, though waking up to reality knowing this is impossible made me face the long periods of absence due to their military service. Another memorable dream from high school, during an extremely busy week with little sleep, was a sweet dream where I walked through tall gray grass, feeling a cool yet strong breeze.In that dream, I felt a long-lost sense of freedom, I had encapsulated a sense of liberation so profound, it momentarily alleviated the pressures of reality,fleeting as it was before waking up to reality again.

Tyler: My most memorable recent dream involved receiving Taylor Swift's newly released album, 'The Tortured Poets Department,' on vinyl, gifted personally by her. Unlike reality, the record was emerald green, translucent and stunning. I even chatted and took photos with her! She was tall, beautiful, and gentle, just like an older sister next door.

Ruby: Interestingly, studies suggest that the more dreams one remembers, the higher their level of creativity might be. Dreams provide an unrestrained thinking environment, allowing the brain to freely combine ideas and break free from reality's constraints, potentially leading to novel and creative solutions. Paul McCartney's inspiration for the classic song 'Yesterday' from a dream is a prime example of dreams fueling creativity. What do you all think? Are dreams a catalyst for creativity or a disruption to sleep?

Selena: If dreams scare me awake, they're hardly a good thing. Waking up with a racing heart and teary eyes isn't pleasant. When I wake naturally and realize it's still early, going back to sleep often leads to light sleep and more dreams, only to be interrupted by the alarm—it can be quite distressing.

Anna: For me, it's a positive thing. During junior high, when I was passionate about writing novels, many of my inspirations came from dreams. As someone who frequently experiences fantastical dreams, I find the dream world, whether good or bad, more vivid, lively, and colorful than reality. Dreams have never affected my sleep quality, and I'm grateful for the escape they offer, even if there are times I reluctantly return to reality.

Tyler: Dreaming itself, I believe, carries no inherent good or bad—it's the content and its impact on the individual that varies. The notion of a dream as a personalized narrative, sometimes continuing from previous nights, hints at the ongoing dialogue our subconscious engages in, processing the complexities of our waking lives. Both pleasant and nightmares may reflect aspects of our subconscious, each revealing unexpected imagination and creativity. Thus, why not document them? Perhaps our dreams, both good and bad, are fragments of the multiple universes within our lives.