094: The Dreams of Consciousness
"Dreams are imperfections of sleep; even so is consciousness the imperfection of waking. Dreams are imperfections in the circulation of the blood; even so is consciousness a disorder of life."
We are strange monkeys in that we can dream, we can confuse reality with an imagined reality which we entirely construct. There is the age-old Zen-like paradox: is our reality but the dream existence of a slumbering god? Are we but imperfect phantoms made real by the hyperactive imagination of a child deity? Are we the molecules -- combining, dividing, splitting and coming together -- of someone's big toe? Hard to say. Hard to say.
But the dreaming bit. There is no doubt that the function of dream/consciousness -- call it the biochemical awareness and continued percolation of our brains -- is not entirely under the control of our active Id. There's about six people arranged near me on the train right now who are all sleeping. These are twenty minute cat naps on the way to Seattle and they aren't long enough to really engage in deep dream states, but even in their hypnagogic states, their brains are still working. They don't just shut off, reducing activity to a very primal state -- basic survival functions only, thank you -- the mind continues to process, store and collate the data streams.
They -- that elusive "Them" -- always say: You can achieve your dreams. Is this a functional statement that we can shape reality? If I dream that all dogs are blue and shit candy corn, would it become true? Probably not. So, is the "achievement of dreams" a conditional statement? Can I achieve only those things which the remainder of the waking and conscious world agrees upon? Are the limitations of my dreaming existence predicated by the consensual reality we all have created?
If we all became enlightened tomorrow, we would all cease to exist. We would become the Dreaming God and reality would be whatever we imagined.
The cults then -- the hive-mind organizations who have come together because of a shared focus and direction -- want to be the dominant voice in the Dreaming God's head. They want to be the ones who actively direct the formation and realization of reality. They want their reality, made firm and flesh through the collective power of all of our dreaming minds. They don't want our contribution. They just aren't interested in blue dogs that crap candy corn.
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.