Dreams

I have no evidence for the truth of any of these feelings about dreams.
ἄνεμος κατ ὄρος δρύσιν ἐμπέτων

Have you ever had the experience of waking from dreams, remembering separate episodes, but unable to discover their sequence? That is because there may not even have been any sequence. We dream many dreams simultaneously, and on waking may remember several. In fact, we still dream while we are awake, but usually we are unconscious of this. We do not begin to dream when we fall asleep; rather we re-enter a dream that has been unfolding continuously within ourself. More precisely, some part of ourself that is capable of retaining a memory and of yielding it up later to our conscious self, re-enters the dream. Often it is hard to recall a dream at breakfast. But after lunch, particularly in the middle of a boring meeting or seminar, dreams will come tumbling out as if from a drawer that has suddenly unjammed, tipping its contents onto the floor.

One dream I have often; the details may vary but the theme is the same. I am busily engaged in some activity with friends, when I suddenly think where is my car - my beautiful red Lotus Europa ? Did I leave it in a certain hotel's car park? No, I can remember giving a friend a lift from there. It must be parked somewhere. It must be hours since I thought about it. Will it be picking up huge parking fines? Hours? It was last Wednesday that I left it! With a sick feeling I wonder if I should call the police. But how can they help? Hold on! It was in 1970 that I parked it - forty years ago! With relief, and a tinge of nostalgia I realize that I sold it in part exchange. As I wake I realize that I never lost it. It was my youth I lost.

Dreams take place in inner landscapes - oneirotopia - which they share. One dream may be close to or distant from another. Winchester, the North, outer space, a golf course outside Leicester with the German army advancing across it, the battlements of a castle thronged with Chinese tourists - though their relative positions may not always be clear, yet you can dream your way from one topos to another.