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The things we compose in our sleep.

A long time ago, while nodding off after smoking some stuff, I had an auditory hallucination of someone reading a poem to me, or reading it to myself I suppose, assuming no paranormal intervention.

Rather annoyingly, it ceased as soon as I became consciously aware of it and I coouldn't remember a single thing about it.
 
Oh, I'm always composing music in my sleep. However, I'm not musically talented enough to know if it sucks or not. :p

Just today, I woke from a dream of cleaning the bathtub (glamorous, yes?) while a radio played a version The Who's I'm Free sung by Joe Cocker. Not something I'd ever imagine while awake. Probably for the best. ;)

I do paint or draw things from dreams, which I've posted on the forums before. The thing that really jumps out at me re: the subject of this thread was something I mentioned here
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/the-you-that-might-have-been.61406/

The "other self" I sometimes dream about created a series of graphic novels that look quite interesting. They are about her adventures living in a van, as an itinerant circus performer and artist. I remember some of the stories and drawings clearly, but I'm not competent enough in graphic arts style to recreate them. My son is, though, so I've thought about getting him to help with the art and actually creating this thing.

Not that I've ever lived in a van, and I can't even juggle very well. Still, it might be fun to see how it works out.
 
I woke up a few months back having dreamt a fantastic thriller plot for a film. I had the whole thing sketched out from start to finish. Forgot it completely within seconds of waking up other than knowing that a ship voyage was involved. How can something so seemingly vibrant disappear so quickly?
 
Definitely. Having said that, most of my dreams are fragmentary bits & pieces & not worth remembering..
 
I think someone else on this thread has mentioned those 'composing the greatest piece of music ever' dreams - the meisterwerk in question either entirely eluding the memory on waking, or being partly recalled but disappointingly not quite as sublime as it seemed. I've done this a few times and it is as annoying as fuck, Macca McCartney and 'Scrambled Eggs' notwithstanding.
 
Coleridge claimed that the opium inspired Xanadu would have been 100 pp long, if not interrupted by that annoying bill collector from Porlock. Doubtful, but at least he composed a great, evocative poem.

Some have touched on the phenomenon mentioned by Gary Lachman in his writing on Hypnagogic states, " We may feel we have suddenly grasped the answer to the riddle of the Universe." This is familiar to most of us - we understand it all, resolve to remember it, but we know that we could never forget such a brilliant insight that will change the world...until the next morning. This can happen in other altered states - I have a friend who experienced this while smoking pot, but unfortunately he wrote down his insights, and the next day read things like "cantaloupes are larger than grapes."

Is there a name for this phenomenon? There should be a snappy deja vu/Capgras delusion label for this common experience.
 
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