“The function of the mind is to dream twenty-four hours a day. The waking dream has a material structure. In sleep, the dream also seems to have a structure. While awake, our mind is affected by cycles of energy through the day as the light changes, and this rhythm gives the mind a notion of time and space. During sleep, we do not perceive energy from outside ourselves, but the mind dreams images including an image of our own body. We can talk, see and even fly in a dream. We do not notice that we are asleep when we are dreaming. . . something makes the connection between the inner dream and the outer dream. That something is reason. . .Reason gives us the illusion that the dream is real as long as the dream has a material framework.” (Ruiz, Beyond Fear, 112) If reason in the neocortex interprets the sleeping dreams in the amygdala and the waking dreams in the prefrontal cortex, then a whole-brain approach to life seems to be necessary to continue with purpose and intention in whichever dream we’re in. What dream and framework are you holding onto today? If you altered the framework just a little, what new information would your waking dream give you? Where can you soften the rigid structure of how you perceive the world?
