A Dream Come True?

Anyone in Science of Living Systems 20: “Psychological Science” could tell you that Freud thought dreams brought up a person’s subconscious issues. A study by Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry J. Allan Hobson, who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1959, postulates that dreams have another purpose. The study says that dreams might actually physiologically help our brains prepare for the mental activities ahead—a sort of mental warm-up. FM thinks up a couple of dreams and what they might be prepping for.   Dream: You’re in a strange land surrounded by books and drool, and guards are laughing at you as the sun rises. Oh...wait...damn...again? Predictions: You will subsist for the next six hours on coffee.  You will pass out briefly in a random, uncomfortable locale that is NOT your or anyone else’s bed, most likely in lecture. You will subsist for the following six hours on Red Bull. Rinse. Repeat.   Dream: You’re sitting around a dinner table, eating caviar with Mankiw and Pinker, intelligently discussing the Prisoner’s Dilemma and its implications.   Predictions:  You’re that kid in section. You will be obnoxious and everyone will glare at you. Please be quiet. On the plus side, you’ll probably ace that final. Dream: The wind is whipping around your cold, questionably dressed self as you trudge along forever and ever, never seeming to reach your final destination.   Prediction:  Best case scenario: shuttle of shame. What will probably happen: the shuttle won’t come in time, and you’ll have to make the walk of shame from the quad, themed outfit and all. Oh, and you’ll probably run into your professor on the way.   Dream: You go on a wild quest to find the queen. After much toil and trauma, you are finally granted an audience, only to become mute as you are finally introduced. Prediction: You will make a fool out of yourself in front of Drew Gilpin Faust.   Dream: You make friends with leprechauns and some of the guys from “Where the Wild Things Are”, lots of random people show up, and you make a speech in a foreign language you don’t take. Then you all go for ice cream and play ring around the rosie.   Prediction: Let’s be honest, this means absolutely nothing, dream research or no.