Doors and Dreams

Over the last year or so I've noticed that when I sleep I tend to have more dreams (or at least remember more dreams) when I leave the bedroom door open. I'm saying door, my bedroom's in the attic, so it's more the door/lid above the stairs than a door in the traditional sense, either way it seemed worth making note of.

I've read that in Feng Shui windows and doorways are seen as portals or gateways for energy and that this in turn affects sleep and dreams. I'm not really sure I can buy into that but it's interesting non the less. The relationship between leaving the door open and remembering my dreams seems fairly well established to me from a personal point of view, as I've observed the correlation far too often for it to be mere chance (although Bayes' Theorem may have something to say about that). It's certainly happened often enough to arouse my interest anyway.

When it comes to dreams and nightmares, of course, there's always the tendency to look for supernatural explanations. However, the real explanation may be something much more prosaic. Maybe leaving the door open is creating a draught that's affecting my sleep, maybe it's simply the fact that leaving the door open is allowing more noise to enter my room. Then again, maybe it's the amount of light getting in the room that's affecting my sleep and dreams. Who knows? I guess I'll just have to watch and see if the correlation continues.

Swifts, Swallows (?) Flying Back and Forth

Just arrived home after a longish walk. Was cutting across a field when I noticed a low-flying, swooping bird that kept flying back and forth in front of me - always about 5 metres in front. I think it was a swift or maybe a swallow - I'm not too au fait with birds. Either way it had pointy features and kept swooping close to the ground. This is about the third or forth time I've experienced this sort of behaviour with these birds and I thought it was something worth making note of. It definitely seemed to be deliberately flying in relation to me, almost circling me at times. Why I don't know. A brief internet search turned up nothing. I live in North Yorkshire by the way if that helps with the birds identification.

Recently Read: The Celestine Prophecy

Just read The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. I would describe it as a new age Da Vinci Code, although it was released in the 1990's before that book was published. It was an international bestseller so it must have been pretty successful at the time although I wasn't aware of it until I came across it by accident in Waterstones. The book is kind of a spiritual quest and it takes the reader on a journey through the 'nine insights' - insights revealed via a newly discovered ancient manuscript that concern the spiritual evolution of humankind. These insights deal with how humans relate to the universe, the earth and each other. One of the more interesting insights was the idea that coincidence plays a pivotal role in a person's life and that coincidences are not just random events but meaningful happenings with deliberate purpose (strange that I was reading it at a time when coincidence was (is) playing an interesting game in my own life). Anyway, it was a really good, thought-provoking book. A little bit wishy-washy and new-agey at times, but overall I'm really glad to have read it. Definitely a lot of food for thought. Recommended.