Yume Nikki

The unconscious

You are eyeing at me.

Your silence startles me.

“W-What’s wrong?”

While I am still in my suspicion, you slowly open your small red umbrella, as if you want to block my view.

“Woagh.”

Your abruptness shocked me, throwing me to the floor.

And at the same time, despite being in a room, it started to rain. This is inconceivable, but I cannot be freaked out by any aberrance in a dream. Raindrops fall on my face. Afraid of letting the book I have opened become wet, I quickly close it.

And then I look up at you.

“In reality, you open an umbrella when it rains. That is the world of the conscious. But here, it rains because you open an umbrella. Cause and effect are reversed. This is like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the love-letter-like story Lewis Carroll wrote to the young girl Alice. It contains important revelations, for Alice’s adventures are stories of dreams.”

When logic is overturned, and when cause and effect are reversed.

It is a dream.

You can argue that it is logical though, for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland agrees with Jung’s psychological point of view.

“Grumble.”

Suddenly I am unable to move.

I am stunned upon hearing a strange sound.

I can only see you cover your whole body, from head to toe, with that signaler. At the same moment, the rain became heavy, soaking up the entire room. The weight of the rainwater pulled down the picture frame from the wall; the bed is wet; the floor flooded.

Fooling around, you flash that signaler, open and close, as though they meant ‘go’ and ‘stop’.

Because of this, I am intermittently rendered able and unable to move, without a sign of stopping. Even so, in such a condition between paralysis and freedom, I continue talking to you, my speech chopped in bits, “L-Look. Theeffect will affect the dream, sure, but only the details. The signaler means something, you know? Anyone living in a modern society is educated that red means stop, and green go. Is this an expression of your acceptance or denial, or is it common sense the society has gave you?”

During my speech, you put on perfectly white and clean clothes. I name this the girl of snow. It is the symbol (effect) you have just acquired.

In the blink of an eye, the room snowed. The water left have been frozen, the bookshelf and the cupboard covered with a fresh layer of snow. You really are acting according to your pleasure. For once, can’t you just listen to me?

I am shivering in the cold, snivel running down from my nose.

I put all my strength to pull my shoes away off from the frozen floor to walk to you, who have, for no reason, placed your hand on the bed.

Hey, have you really been turning a deaf ear to what I said?

“A bed has significant meaning, but this is my bed, so you cannot sleep on it. I hope you won’t be doing anything as lacking in common sense as snatching someone else’s bed—this too in reality, this too in the conscious. “

In the blizzard that could cause colds, I spit away the snowflakes that have flown into my mouth, and say with all my might.

“But having a dream inside a dream has an even more significant meaning. Well, in this book…oh, for hell’s sake, please stop snowing!”

I want to affirm myself through the book, but the heavy blizzard is in my way.

I can only give up on doing so and put forth an explanation of whatever I can remember.

“Therefore, should you happen to find to bed in your dream, you can try sleeping on it. To dream in a dream may allow you to reach greater depths of dreams. This perhaps is the process of diving from the personal unconsciousto the collective unconscious.”

I speak behind you, while you remain silent.

“The collective unconscious is the foundation of all human beings. Humans observe with their eyes and connect to the world with their limbs. Common characteristics owned or shared by humans are observed as the common unconscious.”

Myths are the most archaic stories.

And these myths in the world, even countries far away, share a shockingly large amount of similarities. The reason is the birth of symbols from the collective unconscious in humans.

Giants, who appear in myths again and again, are the symbol of evil, feared by children; it came about from the concept of fear towards adult’s subjugation. The Great Flood that destroyed the world comes from the displacement between living safely in the mother’s womb and coming out to walk with one’s own legs in our real brutal world. This huge displacement is symbolized by the destruction and creation of the world. Deities, on the other hand, are symbols of respect to nature or the fear to natural disasters.

In every story, all of the emotions mankind would experience—happiness, sorrow, anger, dismay, love, hate, revenge, life and death—are embedded within.

Every human contains the stories the collective unconscious gives birth to.

“This is why we can find such similarities in myths or fairy tales, which led to the discovery of the collective unconscious. Discomfort in the darkness; fear of beasts and enemies; love from parents; love to the opposite gender to give birth to children; all of these biological instincts are also the collective unconscious.”

I approach you, who are standing beside the bed, with a large step.

The bed, having been soaked completely and then frozen, looked miserable.

Is your denial the result of your hate of approaching the truth and the collective unconscious?

“If you are given the chance, you can have a dream again within your dream. The collective unconscious is a rule of the heart, a symbol of significant impact on the psyche. An example would be why so many people are saved only by having faith in their gods. The day would come where you must dive into the collective unconscious and re-evaluate your foundation.”

I see you made no response to anything I said.

“Hey, at least hear what I have to say and face your inner self.”

My head lowered in anxiety, I moan painfully.

“I want to help you to be released from this nightmare.”

It is the honest opinion of the inner self.

Yet you maintain your silence.

I feel immensely deprived of strength.

“Hey, why aren’t you paying me any attention?! I am saying all this for your sake!”

I call you agitatedly, my body trembling not because of the cold, but my impatience. Turning your head around and giving me a look is all I need. I stretch my hands to hold your shoulders.

I hope you can face me.

“What, hey?”

I fail to touch you.

As if there was a transparent film between us, my fingers can’t touch you or feel your warmth. You and I seem to be in a different dimension, with no possible bridge. If this is the case, then why am I in your dream?

You go past me, linger with large steps around the room, as if you can’t see me, or because you have lost interest in me. I am in such a bad mood I am about to turn into a monster.

Monsters are beings formed from past humans.

Suddenly noticing something, you look up.

Your eyes fall on the light switch near the entrance of the room.

Like a bored child, you reach for the switch.

All of a sudden, a fear of my heart being squeezed assails me.

No.

You can’t touch that switch.

“Hey, stop that.”

I beg with my husky voice.

“Please, stop it.”

Click, and the switch is pressed.

You…just wouldn’t pay me attention.

Or you didn’t understand what I said.

The lights in the room are turned off.

The room became pitch black.

As though you closed your eyes, as though you pretended you have seen nothing, as though you denied everything here, you allowed darkness to fill every corner of this dream.