Dream learning

I have two recurring themes in my dreams: houses/architecture and flying. I'm glad I dream these things with some regularity since I rarely want them to end.

Last night I had one of the flying dreams. In it, I was helping some federal law enforcement friends deal with a nasty spurt of organized gang violence. Somehow the flying skills made me especially helpful, though I couldn't tell you what exactly I did that was useful in this situation.*

The gangsters figured out I was helping the cops, and they weren't too pleased. I went to the top of their take-down list. For a few hours I flew around some unknown city (I think it was Manhattan), trying to hide from these guys. I wasn't scared; rather I felt the excitement of flying coupled with some slight but tolerable worry. I later discovered I knew some people in the gang, in fact had been friends with them at some point, which made the entire situation a little more dicey. Ultimately the dream ended as I went to this tiny boutique spa where I met up with Jana and we each bought a pair of these cute pink slippers.

Anyway, the point is that while I was flying around Manhattan, weaving around skyscrapers and trying to find alcoves where I couldn't be seen by the gangsters in hot pursuit (in cars, on the ground...?), I was actually noticeably better at flying than in previous dreams. Usually during the dreams, I do fine until about 3 or 4 stories up, at which point the height makes me a little anxious and I bring it down a little bit. However, this time I was way above 4 stories, and my height anxiety didn't factor until at least 50 floors up.

Fascinating. Has my sub-conscious been "learning" how to fly and practicing with all these dreams, or was it just a fluke and next time I'll be back to the jitters once I'm several hundred feet in the air? Maybe this is my brain's way of demonstrating a kind of plasticity since we've been talking about it in class and in the lab lately. I don't know, but I hope I get more flight time soon to find out!

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*Ray: "Wow, it's like I married a superhero!"

Me: "Except that I wasn't doing anything hero-like."

Ray: "Yeah, but you were helping out the cops with your superpowers."

Me: "I don't even think I was helping them. I think I was more just like their super friend."

Ray: "Ah-ha, you're a Superfriend!"