Life Itself

For as long as I can Remember - at least once a week - I have experienced a recurring dream.

Not exactly A Nightmare , but nevertheless Something which has confused and troubled me.

I'm Something of a counselling cynic, but when I Heard about a sleep scientist and artist who had teamed up to try and interpret and explain our dreams, I was intrigued to see if they could get to the bottom of my concerns.

Prof Mark Blagrove interviews People about their dreams, and Dr Julia Lockheart, a renowned cartoonist and artist from Swansea Art College, sketches their discussions to provide greater insight into their meaning.

I Am now 44, but in my dream I Am 14 or 15 and transported back To My Boarding School for blind and visually impaired students in Worcester.

As it is 30 years hence, I Am utterly confused as to what lessons I should be attending and where my files and textbooks are.

Nevertheless I possess a superpower: I know everything that will happen in The Next 30 years.

To laughter, I try to explain To My classmates that by 2023 their Mobile phones will be several times more powerful than our entire school network.

I know who will win that year's FA Cup Final , who will win The General election and which horse will succeed in the Grand National .

I Am desperately trying to put bets on with a bookie or call my partner Sarah, who I did not meet until 2013.

However, everything on which I try to make a phone call is anything but a Mobile - a pocket calculator, a TV Remote Control … nothing can connect me to The Present day.

As Prof Blagrove explains I have fears about getting my ideas across to Other People - Something of a problem for a BBC feature Writer - Dr Lockheart creates an uncanny visual caricature. She had no previous knowledge of The School where I grew up.

Her pictures are drawn on pages of Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams.

She explained: " The text has many linked words which are like The Surrealist idea of object trouvé, or found objects, which I make into found poetry. An example of this is in the pointing finger in your hand which is dialling numbers on the TV remote, held tightly in your other hand.

" The Sentence 'I was working principally on My Own ' is highlighted. It runs down the pointing digit which is punching the numbers in to make an impossible phone call.

" We have been given permission from the publishers of Freud for me to deface his writing and tear it out of The Book to create a piece of psychological art. "

Prof Blagrove said This Was where art becomes science.

" Julia's paintings bring our dreams to life.

" We know through our empirical research that People who share their dreams have more empathy with each other, and seeing a visual interpretation only facilitates that process. "

He added while there were many schools of thought about the nature and purpose of dreams, theirs was the only scientifically-proven research.

" There is a big body of consensus that dreaming has a biological function in terms of sorting and analysing thoughts from short-term to long-term memory.

" I don't necessarily disagree with that, but it's an unproven theory.

" What we can categorically Say - through double blind controlled experiments - is that People who share their dreams and have seen Julia's imagining of them have greater empathy for each other than People who have met for the First Time . "

Prof Blagrove argues that this sort of discussion of our dreams leads to better social cohesion.

Dr Lockheart concurred, saying sharing dreams through art was as old as Life Itself .

" From prehistoric cave art to Native Americans , there has been a Shamanistic connection with People sharing their dreams. "

Many of the dreams shared by Nhs Professionals during the pandemic followed my pattern.

Dr Lockheart said: " Especially during the early days, nurses were telling us that they knew what was to come, and how it would impact on humanity.

" It's a bit like your dream, insofar as they have information that no-one else does, but they're powerless to control The Situation .

" They described horribly disfigured trees, and even one when a cat was sat on their face smothering them. "

Prof Blagrove and Dr Lockheart have just released a book based on their seven-year research findings called The Science and Art of Dreaming.

They are about to undertake a European and American tour of their Dream Analysis , including a residency at the Hay Book Festival in May.

Source of news: bbc.com