…or so the popular saying goes and yet dreams follow you. 

Actual dreams with which we are intimately tangled throughout our lives yet we barely notice them and when we do, we have little to no idea of what they’re all about. We often forget them as our heads get filled with the day ahead and, when we can’t put them out of our minds, we reach for hasty explanations with which we might feel comfortable. 

We are more likely to attribute them some alternate meaning, to think that we are communicating with higher forces or dismiss them as random outbursts and meaningless spam, which is the most common belief regarding dreams. 

Dreams are still widely disregarded as having some important function or that they are useful in any way. For this reason, dreams are still seen by some as a childish preoccupation and, for some researchers, the thought that dreams might have a coherent meaning is a nightmare in itself. 

Dreams still evade an accurate and straightforward definition because they cover many facets of ourselves and our relation with our surroundings. We are accustomed to thinking of dreams as we think of ourselves, as being individually disconnected from the world around us, yet, our dreams make no such harsh distinctions. In fact, dreams often describe us blended into our surroundings.  We make ourselves the measure of all things, and dreams make all things the measure of ourselves. 

What dreams mean exactly is intimately tied to the dreamer. Dream dictionaries and other similar materials are most likely to lead astray a person looking for an explanation, mainly because they propose meanings that are not consistent with the hyperconcepts we encounter in our dreams. Even more elaborate models, like those proposed by Freud or Jung, although pioneering in untangling some psychological phenomenon, are flawed to varied degrees. Their conclusions regarding the subject of dreams are not generally applicable but can be only in some remote cases and this error can often produce misinterpretations. 

When we talk about beliefs, be it ideological, religious or mundane, we unknowingly employ the language of dreams. Dreams are a raw form of language made entirely out of hyperconcepts. They describe our interaction with reality in a very profound way that largely makes use of abstractions and sometimes go beyond what can be accurately described in formal language. Unlike written or spoken language that is partly formed from concepts, of notions that developed in agreement between two parties, dream language forms autonomously without any preestablished conventions. For this reason, sometimes, dreams can come off as awfully confusing, as we reach to decipher them by conventional means we omit their highly unconventional structure. The hyperconcepts we encounter in our dreams might have little to nothing to do with the external cues from which it takes its resources. 

Many years ago, as these thoughts started forming in my head, I found myself immensely fascinated with the subject. Understanding the mechanics behind the language of dreams came parallel to developing my artworks. Visual language was very useful in exploring dream language and so, the two complemented each other. 

When I finally reached more polished thoughts, I wrote the Hyperconcept book that, beyond the various topics it travels, it looks towards the language of dreams and how hyperconcepts make their way into describing the fringes of our reality.

In our market driven popular culture, through savvy marketing and crafty advertising campaigns, you are called to “follow your dreams”, to “dream that you can be whatever you want to be” and many other such catchy phrases. To follow false dreams and look away from your actual dreams as we might get a glimpse of our true self. Only when you can see yourself as you are and not how you want to be, or how others want you to be, only then you can start to bring about a meaningful change.

There’s a lot to be said about dreams and how they play a crucial role in shaping our lives but, if you were to truly follow your dreams and not your designer wishes, they would probably lead you somewhere else entirely. Somewhere you have never thought of going.