January 20, 2015

It All Started With A Dream
By Charlotte

Dreams mean many things to different people. Scientifically, it's been theorized that dreams result from how our brain processes information related to limbic activity (associated with emotion and memory), stress (physical and emotional), external stimuli, our creative center, or repressed memories.

I have a lot of dreams, most of which I don't remember. Some of my dreams, however, have been vivid and/or disturbing enough to stay in my memory. And some of those dreams have had a profound effect on my life. For example. . . .

DREAMS AS A MESSAGE

The year before my breast cancer was diagnosed, I had a confusing and disturbing dream: although I couldn't remember it, I felt like someone was trying to tell me something. The experience was so strange that, when I went to bed the next night, I was determined to dream again, but more clearly so I could comprehend the message I had missed the night before.

There was nothing unclear at all about the dream I had the second night! It was definitely a message—a message from my body warning me of danger. There was no history of breast cancer in my family, but I hadn't had a mammogram in four years (TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!), so I called that morning to schedule a screening. That was when they found the calcifications which at first appeared benign, looked the same six months later, then suddenly changed within the following six months. The breast cancer I was diagnosed with was DCIS (one of the most curable forms), and I firmly believe it was detected so early because I went in for a mammogram right after my dream. By following the changes to that initial baseline screening, they were able to detect even subtle changes to the tissue over the next year.

DREAMS AS CREATIVE INSPIRATION

On a lighter note, the initial plot for The Dream Crystals of Gandara came from a dream I had while I was pregnant with my second child. I wrote it up as a novella and, when I later met Sharon at a writing workshop, I asked her for her opinion of it. She was honest with her critique—thankfully not brutally, although when I think back to that first draft, she could have been. (While it was a good idea for a story, I hadn't executed it well at all). Seeing just the small amount of editing she did made me realize this story needed both of us to become the book it needed to be.

So I'm of the opinion that, whatever form your dreams take, pay attention to them. They may mean nothing. Or they may mean everything.