March 2, 2001

What’s in a dream?

It is a curious knowledge we develop. From birth to adulthood, we learn and teach and learn from ourselves. So much is hidden away in our bank of knowledge and yet we hardly stop to question any of it. Yet we are molded by even our most insignificant of knowledge. We judge ourselves and the world around us according to this knowledge, and we imagine. So powerful and real, our imagination dominates even our simplest ideas. But what is most significant about our imagination is the formation of our aspirations. Whether we aspire to attend a lecture in the following day, or we aspire to become someone famous, we imagine what it would be like to do all this. But how exactly are we affected by our aspirations; surely none of us benefit from our aspirations in the same way, simply because we all bring along with us our previously attained knowledge, a knowledge that determines our perception of the world.

It is intriguing how we perceive time: as past, present, and future. However, we do understand that there exists no real present or future, which we look forward to. In effect, the future exists not at all since it is altered by our every choice. In other words, we live by our past and in the transient present only to see the effects of the future, which eventually lead back to the origin of this circular process. To clarify, let us take an example. The knowledge, which I have acquired about sports by my experiences, in either watching or playing, leads me to either participate in the sport or stay away from it- this is the decision we make in the present. The future is fully dependent on our past as independent as we imagine it to be. The way in which we determine our future is by our imagination. And however undetermined the future may be, we believe in the outcomes we imagine and decide accordingly. To refer back to the previous example, I will decide to take part in sport or other related activities based on my experiences from the past. If I am left with a gratifying feeling after participating, then I believe that all future sport related activities will prove to be equally if not more gratifying. It is interesting to see how we perceive the future according to the past. Do we build it up to be more than it really is going to be? And if so, are we disappointed if we do not get the same gratifying feeling in our future participations? The answer to this question is nothing concrete. People may in fact be upset if their aspirations are too high and others may be overwhelmed if their aspirations are not very high. This is simply a measure of our personal understanding and not a universal issue.

To better examine the links between our past experiences and our perception of the future lets look at the perception of unfamiliar situations. If I have never been to a football game and plan to attend one in the future, am I unable to perceive this situation? Perhaps, I do have an understanding of large crowds gathered in the name of a sporting event. If so, then it would not be hard to imagine the future. However, if my only understanding of such a scene is from reading a magazine which explains the peculiar nature of such a gathering, then it would be more difficult to imagine such an event. However we dream to be best prepared for the future, as poor as our imaginations may be. We can also look at the example familiar to so many freshman college students: starting over a life. When coming to college, as obvious as it is that I have never had an experience like it in the past to draw from, many different scenarios ran through my head as I thought about starting over at college. Because I had no concrete ideas about the transition, I drew from whatever experience I did have that allowed me to start over or take part in an activity that was foreign to me. These experiences and the knowledge that I drew from them, formed the basis of my ideas. And however wrong I was about the college experience as a whole, I still had a fairly good idea of the emotions that accompanied it.

Aspirations, or our future expectations, play a large role in Damasio’s explanation of decision-making. I find the most fascinating what can be classified as risk decisions. By this I mean those decisions, which we make knowing there is a minor or a major involvement of risk in. Some can interestingly be simultaneously life threatening and involuntary or a split second choice. Let us first look at the role which imagination plays in decision making and then conclude how this role is significant in risk decision-making.

Because the choices that we make only involve actions taking place in the relative future, all of our choices are rooted in our ability to imagine the future and hence ultimately in our acquired knowledge from the past- I assume it is true that the elder may in fact be the wiser. We, as Damasio argues, make decisions in two manners: high reason (common sense) and by instinct or based on emotions. The high reason method involves putting aside all emotions about a given topic and rule out the negative choices, choosing the most beneficial one through a process of ruling out all possible negative outcomes. Obviously this is a far too complicated process to make rationally while timely decisions in "real" life. For this reason, it is beneficial to be able to make rational decisions quickly. It is our constantly running imagination that aides us in this fashion; before even making a decision we have an understanding of the choice leading to negative outcomes- Damasio suggests that there exists a "gut feeling" or instinctive knowing of the poor choices. In this method of reasonably making the best choice, imagination is a key factor. Our ability to imagine the future outcomes is what gives way to our so-called "instinctive feeling" about a certain choice. The mystery lies here: how is it possible for our brain to make split-second decisions without a process of conscious reasoning? I suggest that the reason behind this is that we have constantly running images of the future in out minds without our conscious understanding of them; we imagine the a range of scenarios that can possible happen in the near future and prepare ourselves for the worst if it should be the case. As for the high/pure reason method, there is no real choice that does not involve our emotional input. To ask our body to separate the emotions and knowledge and to disconnect the link at which they intertwine is to ask to divide the brain itself.

In taking a look at the possible reasoning behind the split second choices we make, in the light of these two methods of reasoning, it is easy to see the importance of of imagination in our general existence. It is because we are ever-ready for any outcome, we manage to survive what seems to be the impossible. How else would Fox® have any of those "amazing survival shows?" The example of a mother (or father) risking her for her child may not be, as many have thought, an automated response of a mother. But in fact it is a clearly derived decision. As Damasio suggests, in rationally making the choice to risk her life for her child, a mother has imagined the worst case scenario that may occur to the child and made the choice that it would be easier risking herself in the transient present, than to deal with the consequences of not responding.

So what’s in a dream? Well, perhaps our individual survival- perhaps not. Although much of what we imagine of our future is subconscious, much of what we dare to dream is the very inspiration for our success. Yet another reminder if our inconceivable delicacy, our ability to imagine, dream, and aspire play a very real role in our everyday lives as well as their inevitable effect in our future.