I have to say, for all my acceptance of the reality of this stuff both the shoe one and even more so now the accommodation/black man one - both in the same week - did startle even me, as there is no involvement of symbolism or association or trying to explain back stories in order to make any one else see a connection. In fact this morning's has the sheen of something even more profound, given i placed myself in the dream where i really was, in my own bed with my eyes closed, silently eavesdropping on a private conversation on the other side of the planet. (Or at least on the memory of that conversation, perhaps?)
Pause for some analysis.
Claim: when you dream of x, and they are dreaming or daydreaming too at that moment, information is passed between you at the level of some shared unconscious.
The friend in this morning's dream is someone ive not seen in about 20 years, we converse online only occassionally, bordering on rarely. So why him, why last night, and why so much more impressive in accuracy? It would certainly seem to undermine the natural assumption that the greater personal or emotional bond produces the greater or more likely effect. Perhaps psychic events between siblings, parent and child, spouses and best friends only occur more often, and are reported more often, because those people are inevitably thinking of each other more often. Perhaps when you dream about a celebrity or movie star you are just as much picking up on that stranger's private thoughts or activities.. you just have no reason or means to ever find out.
And then, what of the dead? Many report their deceased loved ones visiting them in their dreams. But the rest of us perhaps, like me, see them in our dreams only as stock characters in the story...no reference is made to their deceased state...So is it conceivable that dreaming of my dead relatives i am just as much picking up details of their continuing lives and thoughts in some post mortem realm as i am picking up details of the life and thoughts of a friend in Australia?
Finally, what's the use of it? Or what use could be made of it? I've surely collected enough incidents to convince myself its really happening. And just as much to you as to me. So now what? It's not like it can be used as some superpower...it's not even a practical means for spying on anyone. The only practical application i can hypothesise - assuming the mind to mind process is both universal and a two way street - is to wonder if a person could affect the thoughts or behaviour of another. Could one sit up at night and project images into the presumably sleeping mind of a target causing nightly dreams of sleeping with you, hiring you, loving you? And would those dreams, even if forgotten, affect their waking decisions?
(Horrifying thought. Because if that were possible...someone will have worked it out and is probably doing it by now!)