Last night (the eve of my 19th wedding anniversary by the way, an auspicious occasion indeed) I dreamt that the Dems would pick up 12 seats in the 2006 election for the House of Representatives. Disappointing, no? We need 15 for a majority. But what if my dream actually meant the Democratic caucus would win 12 seats in the United States Senate? Dare to dream with me...
Full disclosure: I believe in the power of dreams to affect reality. I have personally experienced dreams foreshadowing actual events twice before(more about this later in the post). I am currently living out my dreams, having ditched a 19-year career in a straight job to become a songwriter. So if this is all sounds just a bit too wacky for you, drop out now. But if you're interested, read on, fellow traveler.
We know very little about the unconscious process that produces dreams. What we DO know is that during the REM periods of our sleep cycle each night, our unconscious mind produces vivid, movie-like experiences called dreams. We know that deprived of REM sleep, and thus dreaming, human beings die in a few short days. Dreaming is apparently every bit as crucial to human life as breathing, eating, etc, etc.
Neuropsychologists think that our consciousness is simply an interface through which we interpret the universe. They further suggest it is completely subjective, and thus far from the only possible interface. The many scientists who frequent this site can talk with greater authority than I on the subject of "reality", but I think anyone with an education and an open mind should seriously consider the possibility that time is a dimension that, like space, can be traversed in different directions.
The river is an analogy often cited by artists, writers and physicists when discussing the dimension of time. We swim in the river in one place, but the entirity of the river exists in the present, even though we perceive parts of it as being in front of us (in the "future") or behind us (in the "past").
An interesting sidebar: the Chinese language has no tenses for its' verbs. All action takes place in the present tense. Time words must be added to events occuring not in the present. I think the Chinese understand the true nature of time better than Westerners do.
So let's suppose that the unconscious mind, less tethered to Western traditions of "reality", swims more freely in the river of time than the conscious mind. Dreams have been recorded, interpreted and regarded as windows into the future since the beginning of recorded history. Dreams are deeply ingrained into all major and minor religions. A good example among thousands is Joseph's interpretation of the Pharoah's dream in the book of Exodus. So there is ample precendent for taking dreams seriously as a predictor of future events.
Although I think of myself as an athiest, my dreams have foreshadowed two major historical events in New York City, where I live: 9/11 and the Staten Island Ferry disaster. Those two experiences, among many others, have taught me to listen to my dreams.
Back to today's dream. Since the idea of 12 seats in the House was too dispiriting to accept, I imagined the dream was really referring to the U.S. Senate. (Dreams never talk to us in simple, declaratory sentences.) So going to Wikipedia, I looked up the 2006 Senate Elections. Could we really win 12 seats?
In a Democratic wave, three of the four retiring senators' seats (Sarbanes, Dayton, and Jeffords) are sure wins; only Frist's seat in Tennessee would even be competitive. Retaining all of our competitive seats (Menendez, Cantwell, and Ben Nelson) should be easy; we need to find eight more. Well, Santorum, Kyl, Dewine, Burns, Talent, Chafee, Ensign and Allen could all conceivably be swept away by the Democratic tsunami of '06. This scenario, while wildly optimistic, is nonetheless plausible with a President whose approval ratings are in the 20's.
We can't win 'em all. (Hey, somebody's said that before...) If Virginia, Nevada or maybe Tennessee resists the wave and we only win 11, we could still get to 12 if Ned Lamont knocks out Joementum. And if we get all 12 Thugs and Joe, it's a bakers dozen.
Dare to Dream!