Saturday, January 20, 2018

A Complicated Dream



A Complicated Dream

I am convinced that the universe is a very complicated dream. In order to create it and keep it going, God the Dreamer dreams a multitude of lesser dreamers. Each of these lesser dreamers, or gods, is in charge of dreaming up one part of the world. For example, the stone god has a long dream that brings the stones into being, and when the rain god dreams of showers, the rains fall. Their dreams overlap, and the stones get wet.

Human beings are like gods – we ourselves are dreamers. As time goes on, we live more and more within our own dreams and less and less within the dream of nature. This is hard to see. The fish does not see the water, and the Los Angeleno does not see the smog. Nevertheless, it is very important that we come to know the difference between the human dream and the dream of nature, or else we will never understand medicine.

One of the foundations of modern life is the dream of time as a mechanical procession of discreet, uniform units. In the dream, seconds click by in single file from an unknowable future through a fleeting present into the jaws of an irretrievable past. Virtually all humankind has agreed on this view (consensus), making possible a regimentation of human effort that was unthinkable before hours, minutes, and seconds were dreamed up. Clock time makes factories possible.

Plant Spirit Medicine
Elliot Cowan

No comments:

Post a Comment