Miranda's Dream Theory

I had a dream (a literal one--the type you get when under REM sleep) just now when I took a what--four hour nap in the late afternoon? (I only woke up at 10 p.m.)

Here are the fragments I can recall, along with my usual dream analysis.

Now, this is as scientific as I can get: I have a theory (well, one out of millions) about what dreams are.

The brain compiles recent memories--images, sound, movement, anything we can see, hear, and feel--and processes them in our dreams. These memories and senses might have made a particularly strong impression/impact on us--but not necessarily. Anyway, this is what I call the Dream Theory. (Or should I call it the Miranda Theory? like those scientists we always hear about in science class...) Don't get it? I'll illustrate further:

For example--(I'm using a real-life example): one day in math class, I accidentally dropped my eraser (because I was bouncing it around on my desk), so it landed beside this kid who sat in front of me. I barely know the kid, and I always thought he was kind of a jerk (he was in my gym class the year before and would snicker at some classmates), but he picked it up and said something nice. Or something like that. That night--I had a dream, and for some strange reason, he was in it.

I think the Dream/Miranda Theory also satisfies the question of why sometimes completely random people show up in our dreams. Haven't you ever wondered how they ended up there? Often, I find that it's because those random people that showed up in my dreams did something in real life recently that I took note of, even if it wasn't that significant at the time. I believe that the brain often tends to just take in certain phenomenons and processes them in our dreams if they caught our attention in any way whatsoever. 

Here's the actual dream I had earlier in the evening. I'll be doing dream analysis in italics. (That's one of my favorite things to do).


The setting of my dream was an uptown-like place. Kind of reminds me of Paris, or what I imagine of it. In my dream, it appeared that I was already out of college and actually working. What kind of career, I couldn't quite identify. All I know is that the building/office (UGH, right? but then again, it actually looked quite awesome for an office--very upscale) I worked in was located on and overlooking a corner of an intersection where the sidewalk only stretched a few feet away. It was raining when I was in the office.
Here, we see that water is once again a recurring theme in all my dreams. Also, perhaps it was raining because the past few days have been rainy? That's only a conjecture, though. In this dream, and in most of my dreams, I am extremely attentive to nature. My dreams tend to have a cinematic quality to them--my perspective and the 'camera angle' often changes multiple times in dreams. For example--at first, I was viewing my office and the street below it from a third person perspective--I could see my figure in the dream. But then, when I was outside of the building, on the sidewalk, I was suddenly in a first-person perspective: I was viewing my dream from my eyes and I couldn't see my figure anymore, if that makes any sense. Anyway. I took note of the details of the brick sidewalk and an extremely large puddle in the middle of a road with a huge pothole. I can't remember if I could see my reflection in the puddle, but I did notice tiny specks floating in it, and I did see the reflection of my building in the brackish green/brown water.

I dressed like a businesswoman. I've always liked business suits, and it just so happens that today/yesterday, I was looking at photographs of people in business suits. And I was playing LBP and thought it'd be nice if I could garb my character in a tweed blazer or a pantsuit or something.

For some strange reason, my dream transforms into a different setting. Well, I'm still at the office, but it seems that there's an office-party being held. It also seems that time has not changed since the previous scene (the puddle scene) and it's still the afternoon. I'm inside the office, I vaguely remember seeing my colleagues (I guess?) toasting thin wine glasses with each other, and I'm in my black power suit (blazer, skirt, heels) when I notice that my aunt (I don't know why she was in my office, but I can guess why she was in my dream--she is always in my mind) is hurriedly exiting. I decide to follow her since it seems that she looks very troubled, and I can see that she's chasing after my cousin and his girlfriend (wtf?). My cousin and his girlfriend would be categorized as the random people in this dream, I suppose. I rarely ever see this cousin, but I have a feeling I know why he was in my dream. read on.

We arrive at an indoor parking lot, and I notice my cousin and his girlfriend hopping on his motorcycle. They put on their helmets and are about to drive away when my aunt says, "Stop! I'm getting on with you guys." And I'm just standing there, staring at the motorcycle and my aunt skeptically. She repeats what she was saying, so I said, "But you can only seat two people on a motorcycle." My cousin said something that I can't remember and drives away. In a flurry of events/motion (quite literally), I suddenly find myself sitting on a half car/half motorcycle vehicle while my aunt is driving an actual car. How does this relate to real life?

Real-life connection:
On Thursday, during Chemistry class, I was looking through science/technology magazines when my classmate showed me a picture of a red, Transformer-like, three-wheel motorcycle and asked if I thought it was cool. I snorted and told her that I didn't find it cool though she seemed quite enthusiastic about it.But apparently my brain took note of it and decided to process it in my dream, according to the Miranda/Dream Theory.

Anyway. Here's the rather hilarious part of my dream:
So we're driving out of the parking lot (well, I'm attempting to). Apparently, I haven't learned how to really drive even though I've already graduated out of college and am a working woman in my dream. But anyway, the weird thing is that I'm not stepping on the gas pedal at all, but the motorcycle is moving on its own. I'm confused in my dream because I'm pretty sure I need to step on the gas pedal for the vehicle to move, but I have no time to process that when I reach the opening of the indoor parking garage. It opens out to a busy street like New York City, and before I have any time to fully analyze the functions/how to drive the weird motorcycle, I locate the gas pedal and step on it, and I'm propelled right in the middle of the street and am about to collide into this other car because it's perpendicular to me. I barely manage in the nick of time to grab the uh, handlebars and steer it in the right direction, narrowly avoiding T-boning a silver SUV, lulz. That was pretty exhilarating even though it was a dream. And it was pretty realistic.

Now how does this explain what my cousin/his gf have anything to do with it? Well, I've always had an impression that my cousin has a fascination with motorcycles. For a while, he actually owned one. And he always had posters of motorcycles plastered on the walls of his room.

Back to the dream...

All of the sudden, I'm transported to The Valley. The usual place where I take photographs of nature. You should know it if you go through my Flickr. When I am at The Valley, it's raining rather heavily, but I tear across the muddy, marshy field anyway, to a particularly flooded portion of it. I don't know why all of the sudden I decide to throw myself on the muddy, swampy ground, but that's what I do. And my head hits something rather firm. But I stay lying on the swampy ground with a side of my head/ear pressed to the ground, just watching the rain fall, hitting tall blades of lush, green grass. Yes--my dreams are that detailed, and yes, in my dream, I literally plopped myself down just to watch the motion of rain falling and touching grass. That's totally me.

It's only then that I hear flapping sounds--the sound of the slapping of water in an unnatural way. It doesn't sound like rain hitting puddles or grass. Then I saw motions. It was a fish--a flounder. Yes, there was a flounder on land (though it was swampy land).

Real-life connection:
Earlier this morning, after I was done with the SAT II, I went to a grocery store I normally don't go to with my aunt. I peered into the tank that held fish--and saw flounder. It was the first time I really looked at one--a live one, nonetheless. Its eyes were so beautiful. So, so beautiful. There was an orange/yellow glow, no joke--it was like a fire in its eyes, and it was surrounded by a blue sheen. It was so ethereal. It was then that I told myself, out loud, "fish eyes are so beautiful." And I meant it. It definitely impressed me enough to appear in my dream. It was the very same flounder I found in the grocery store today. The strangest thing is that, in my dream, I also vaguely recalled seeing the flounder somewhere before. But I just didn't know it was reality. But I had that feeling.

And then... I realized that hard thing that I hit my head on was another flounder. I stood up and realized, all around me in the marshy grass were flounders flapping about. All of the sudden, a Hispanic man appeared. His voice was accented, and he told me, "We're going to fill this pool up."

Where the hell did a random Hispanic dude come in from?

In reality, today, my aunt's neighbor hired a Hispanic man to help fix their roof. So my aunt called him over and asked him if he could take a look at our basement and give an estimate of how much it takes to finish it.

See how my theory works?