I recently watched a piece that was produced through NOVA on dreams. It was mostly about the research being done into the purpose of dreaming. During this episode (I watched via Netflix) I learned that Freud is still perceived as a leading expert of dream interpretation. I learned that men and women both have a greater percentage of their sexual dreams dedicated to persons other than that of their spouse/partner. I also learned that REM sleep induces completely different dream experiences than non-REM sleep. And for a very minor moment in the episode a male "expert" asserted that we inherit the dreams of our ancestors (particularly the scary ones) that are trainer dreams for all the things we must endure to survive. This is what struck me most and not only did it remind me of some of the ideas that I have been playing with the past few years. I remember having a recurring dream as a child that was particularly vivid and frightening that I did not have the contextual framework to have built in my subconscious at the time. Meaning: there were places and events in the dream that I had no point of reference for from my surroundings, the books I read/had read to me, the television I was exposed to, or the stories people in my life would have shared at the age of four through six. I have since seen things and experienced things that would provide the visual reference for the landscapes, the odors, and the strange and sometimes incredibly violent behaviors that were exhibited in my dreams - at the time I was unaware of such things - which made the dreams stand out even more to me then. This dream that came to me often has, in fact, provided me with some natural aversions to particular odors and was probably the key to surviving some real traumas in my life. It may be the key to why at times I have known it was safe to fight and other times knew I had to endure pain and humiliation in order to survive and find safe passage through an event. But, this idea of inheriting scary dreams as a gift of survival leads me into thoughts of all of the places where our ancestors have developed lessons through terror and fear. The number of fairy-tales that are immensely frightening that were told to children that served as a way of spooking them into behaving or acting cautiously. I even think about the "Seven Deadly Sins" a Christian idea where people live in fear of eternal damnation of their soul. But, truth be told - look at the sins . . . wrath...being uncontrolled hatred and anger...now I am not someone to deny the power of rage and the purpose of all of our emotions, however, I think it is generally wise to not let your anger control you and that in fact being in control of your anger is often a fantastic tool in focusing energy to promote change in yourself and the world. Greed, wanting to pursue status and financial wealth to an extreme which often requires a sense of superiority and the desire to be and have more than others which puts a value one life over others - inequity in thought and action. Sloth . . . sloth . . . doing nothing . . . being lazy . . . doing nothing . . . well . . . let's see . . . grasshopper and ants . . . little red hen's corn . . . if you do nothing and work is left undone people die. Seem extreme? If farmer's don't plant - things don't grow -if people don't gather up food - there is nothing to prepare - if you don't prepare the food you have nothing to eat - if you don't clean the dishes you can get a disease - all of these steps require working . . . and if you don't work . . . there could be a negative consequence and in some cases death is indeed the consequence. So, take it as you wish sloth is bad and should be avoided. Pride...this is not meant as pride of accomplishment but rather a feeling of being better and more worthy (the attitude behind the greed) once again the idea that a person is superior - my dog is better than your dog, my religion is better than your religion...I could go on but, will leave that topic for another day. Lust, excessive sexual thoughts . . . I have a lot to say about lust and will think about it another day as well but, I would say that although sexual thoughts are unavoidable and completely natural obsession of sexual thoughts can turn into dangerous distractions and ultimately destructive to your life and relationships. Envy . . . what a waste of energy...I wish I had that life/body/talent/thing...your body is limited to the genetic material you were given at birth and the lifestyle you choose to operate in. Your life is a combination of things you can control and things you cannot so control the things you can and let go of the rest (or pray as my grandmother does and "give me the power to change the things I can change, the strength to accept the things I cannot and the wisdom to know the difference") stop wishing for the impossible and pursue a life of joy and fulfillment. Gluttony. . . read again . . . Over-consumption . . . stop wasting food, money, space, time, people, air, water, fossil fuel, electricity . . . the list goes on.

So, fear of eternal damnation aside . . . the seven deadly sins CAN in reality be deadly. And consider the time and place the fear mongers of the time were operating. If anyone took to committing any of these sins on a regular basis they could have actually caused a shit ton of damage to their community. Even now, the overconsumption of resources is killing the planet. . . people are at war because of the belief that one form of government is so much better than another . . . and think of the number of relationships destroyed because folks can't help but wish their girlfriend is hot like me - or the amount of plastic surgery to make boobies bigger, noses smaller, and backs less hairy . . . ugh. Think about all the other reasons to AVOID behaving with selfishness or a sense of superiority . . . . it is a little scary.

... but, if fear of eternal damnation is what it took to curb people's selfishness back then . . . what on earth would it take now? What could you do to convince folks to live with love in their hearts, peace in their future, and diligence in their daily pursuits . . .

If we can have nightmares that save us from danger why do we not have similar experiences built in to prevent us from acting like assholes? Maybe we do and we have taken the fear mongering and unattainable desires outside of our dreams to such an extreme we are anesthetized to the lessons we are supposed to be learning during our REM cycles? What if the reason we dream of other lovers is to prevent us from taking up other lovers? What if we dream of having different bodies or living the life of a movie star as a way of previewing a life we envy and instead of seeing these things as having their own set of troubles we interpret them as flights of fancy that feed our selfish desires instead of trips into places to satiate our ego so we can be healthy when we wake...if the dreams we inherited from our ancestors of wolves chasing us have morphed into paparazzi and flash bulbs...how effective will we be in passing on warnings to our progeny?