Showing posts with label phobia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phobia. Show all posts

Friday, 6 September 2013

Impian Stories: Dreaming of a new way

Dream control
Long ago, Impian realised the potency of dreams, dreams being events he quite vividly remembers when he wakes up, he almost always analyses what he has dreamt about as a playback to appreciate and understand what has been going on in his quite fertile imagination.
Besides this, after watching a film about using scientific methods to enter the dreams of others, he somehow took away from that experience, the ability to control to some extent the plot in his dreams like getting himself out of danger, knowing when he was dreaming, in a trance or experiencing reality and having the ability to break out of a dream waking up spontaneously to extricate himself out of a sticky situation.
I guess everyone knows if you flick a switch in a dream and the lights do not come on, you are in a dream, the funny thing is his mind will inform him in him dream that he is dreaming, the lights will not come on, and if the lights are requirement for that setting, rather than roam in the dark to experience lurking wonders, the self-preservation and failsafe facility kicks in, he will most likely wake up.
Closed up dreams
One area of he dreams he was yet to master was the one to do with enclosed spaces, whilst he had already found coping mechanisms for conscious claustrophobia, his subconscious claustrophobia had gotten worse, he always found him in a maze, unable to retrace his steps and caught in a tight place with no means of escape – very scary.
Houses all seemed to end up like rooms on a spiral stairs with ever-decreasing room to manoeuvre until a point that the space was literally too tight to get the body through, almost like a well-built house had suffered some structural damage after he gained entry that he was in need of a rescue – this was becoming unreasonable because houses are not build like that and why is it that the most interesting rooms were always at the other side of a constricted passage that claustrophobia kept him from exploring.
Rethinking the dream
Then, he had this dream, where the spiral staircase of rooms became an impediment and hindrance, he woke and reasoned, the spiral staircase was a fiction of the mind, houses are not built into a conundrum of impassable passages unless to anyone but those who could slither through like serpents, these were built by human-beings for the use of human-beings and the rooms regardless of how they are laid out will always be properly accessible.
He fell asleep again and picked up the dream where it had left off, only this time, the rooms were all accessible, he had deal with the subconscious claustrophobia by rationalisation and reason, this might well have opened up a neural pathway to exploring other abilities underdeveloped by reason of that impediment.
Methinks, Impian is on a new journey of discovery having opened up a new channel for adventure in his dreams.

Friday, 13 February 2009

Caught between Paraskavedekatriaphobia and Cryophobia

Not Friday the 13th

Somehow, we all suffer from various degrees of paraskavedekatriaphobia [1] and for people who have computers, we have been told to fear the worst and keep our computers switched off – the reach of superstition cannot be ignored no matter how much technology we have around us.

33 years ago when Friday the 13th was in February, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed [2] the Head of State of Nigeria was assassinated, he was only 37, in a bloody coup that failed and gave rise to first tenure in office of General Olusegun Obasanjo [3].

I knew exactly where I was on that day, I was down South in Sagamu living with my great aunt’s family as I prepared for common entrance examinations into secondary school – we were at play outside when someone came round to announce the event – we had no television then and heard it all on the radio.

I can live with history as well as contemporary events, but I think we have run into an outrageous celebration in the Netherlands.

No jumpers for cold hearts

The Carbon “Nazis” have hijacked the 13th of February 2009 and named it Warme Truiendag [4] this translates to Warm Pullover Day.

It is 0ºC in Amsterdam and -1ºC in Arnhem [It is snowing, in fact] where I am working today and some smart climate change advocate has come up with the idea that I should wear something warmer so that the office can be converted into mini tundra.

Really, if I wanted live in Scandinavia and cavort with Santa Claus and his reindeers, I would go up there to freeze my crown jewels but spare me the Eskimo fashion in the Netherlands.

Indeed, we all have to do our bit for climate change but not at the risk of hypothermia that shivers my timbers to the point that life is stilled as if I were in cryogenic repose.

It is national cooling

So the email that came with this announcement encourages us to do our part by wearing a pullover, lowering the thermostat which saves 7% energy per degree Centigrade and we should eke out an economical day.

So, our participatory and enthusiastic management have turned down the thermostat by 2 degrees for today and asked what suggestions and plans we have to help keep our jumpers, cardigans and pullovers from looking like granny had a colour rush knitting the mittens, we might even win a pair of woollen earplugs.

Friday the 13th is definitely going to be a cold day – Brrgh!

Sources

[1] Friday the 13th - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Murtala Mohammed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Olusegun Obasanjo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] warme truiendag

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