Dreams

[Rusk is my hero]

My wife – the sainted one – is currently on medication for a condition she is suffering. This seems to be working but one of the side effects is vivid dreams. She said tonight in passing that it would be nice if you get to programme in the dreams you wanted. Hers would be lazing on a tropical island. Mine (although I didn’t reveal this to her) would involve stockings, neckties, scarves and sexily dressed women in various situations with only one ending.

Why aren’t scientists working on this? And what would your dreams be?

[Arthur]

I'm sorry to hear about the suffering of your wife. My mother died many years ago after a long fight with cancer, so I may understand some of what you are experiencing.

I once took a course on philosophy that addressed questions of value. The professor posed a "thought experiment", where he asked what if it were possible to exist as a brain without a body where you can experience good feelings without the pain and suffering that goes along with having a body. He asked the class to choose between experiencing good feelings in a dream state or to experience the real world with all of the suffering and joy that goes with having a body.

His answer was to have the body and to experience suffering as well as joy, because it was real, and the value that he finds in life comes from experiencing what is real.

In the real experience of, say, playing a piano, you can feel the sensation of your fingers on the keyboard and the sensual sounds made by the instrument, rather than experiencing it as an illusion. It is better to embrace life with all of its hardships than to experience illusions.

Isn't it better to experience the lasting value of real love with all of its joys and hardships than to dwell on the illusions of a dream state?

Perhaps this point of view is not right for you. That's up to you to decide. Different strokes for different folks. I'm simply suggesting it as one way of dealing with long term suffering.

Arthur

[Nightposter]

Several years ago, before the last major medical procedure, I think I may have been on the drug you describe.
Major full color 3D Sensurround style dreaming! touch, smell and taste...
More than once I was shocked/disappointed to wake from a dream to discover - yes, it was just a dream...

I don't know of any efforts to create a drug that enables a person to 'program" their dreams, but that said I discovered that if I went to sleep thinking of at least the subject matter I wanted to dream about, more often than not, I did dream about it...not always the way I wanted it to go tho...

I'm no longer on any of the Meds I was on back then, as now, without insurance, I'm getting along on the $10 a month from WalMart drug plan.

I do know what your wife might be going through, the dreams were often vivid, and as a side note, I created the bulk of my drawings back then...

[smudger]

Don't tell the Government about it! As soon as they learn people may be enjoying themselves, you can bet a roll of gold-plated toilet paper that the drug will get banned.

[elsullo]

You are speaking of opium. Heroin is the derivitive, but it is too potent for guided dreaming. Plain 'ol opium is the captain of the dreamship, whether smoked or eaten (causes constipation.) You can easily steer your dreaming, and remember much of it. It is possible for a physician to prescribe it. Elderly people from Southeast Asia often have a source too, as it is a cultural thing for their old folks to use to forget aches and pains..................elsullo

[elsullo]

If you want vivid, sweaty BAD dreams just take a double shot of Nyquill without first shaking the bottle! It's better to shake that bottle..................elsullo