A Major Breakthrough of My Superpower Dream

I've gained the power to float and fly at will. With a small leap, I slowly ascend into the air. I can also accurately control my flight speed in the sky with a classic Superman pose.

I proudly perform my power in front of a group of people at a high-end bar. In their gaze of astonishment, I can feel the ground's pressure against my feet gradually vanish as I float into the air. I walked on the ceiling and did a series of slow-motion backflips in the air. They applaud. As my performance ends, a handful of talent agents emerge from the crowd and rush toward me, eager to sign a deal with me.

I'm now hovering in the sky of my hometown. Below me, I see a large memorial hall and pedestrians scattered around like small dots of ants. As I land, 3 mean little bullies suddenly appear and try to grab me. I lure them to the house of the butcher around the corner, where the head of that evil squad gets captured and spanked while the rest of them run away. "You two don't seem to be a mean soul like him." I say to the two children who got away and let them go. They smile and wave at me as they depart.

I now enter a house filled with my relatives and friends, who await for some sort of celebration dinner to begin. One of my cousins comes up to me and asks me where I got my shirt from. "It's a shirt that I've had a long time ago but I haven't had a chance to wear it until now", I tell him. As the celebration finally begins, I find myself sneaking out from the backdoor and returning to the night sky to practice my flights.

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What makes this dream so special is the fact that I've had similar ones (where I gained some sort of superpower) throughout the past years, but none ended on a positive note until this time. I've had a dream where I rode on a broom like one of those in Harry Potter, but saw it withered because somebody poured a few drops of a poisonous potion on its bristles. I've had a dream where I gained teleportation power, but soon lost that ability when I tried to fight the villain. I've had a dream where I gained telekinesis but failed to demonstrate it when I tried to cast it in front of a classroom of students. I've had a dream where I gained the ability to fly but soon got sucked down by the abyss beneath me. However, last night, I was able to perfectly control my power and respond to the series of scenarios that I encountered. This "milestone" of my dream inspired me to record it in my collection of blogs. I also decided to do some light research on how scientists explain the function of dreaming. Here are a few:

1. Expectation-fulfillment Theory. We are always chasing goals during our waking hours. Some theorists propose dreams are our unresolved desires are fulfilled. Sigmund Freud believes that dreams are where our unconscious desires manifest to us symbolically, and that by analyzing what we dream, we can bring elements of the psyche such as suppressed emotions and trauma into the light. Based on this theory, my dream would possibly mean that I possess the desire to have more control over myself, and perhaps to be more free and acknowledged by people around me.
   

2. Activation-synthesis theory. This neurobiological approach states that dreams themselves don't have any meaning; they are merely noises in the system - pieces of information and images that are randomly pulled from our memories. We only assign meanings to them after we wake up. For example, based on this theory, the elements of my dream would be random shots drawn from my memories of superhero movies and people I've encountered. As an attempt to make sense of those random shots of my past experiences, I created the explanation that the dream represents a positive change in my life because it is different from all my previous ones.
   

3. Threat-simulation theory. This theory states that dreaming is a way for us to rehearse facing problems that we might face in real life. Based on this theory, the purpose of my dream would be to simulate "practice rounds" for encountering challenges such as cultivating a positive public image, resolving interpersonal conflicts, and gaining approval from my relatives. Just as Erik Hoel, a neuroscientist at Tuft University, once said, "It may seem paradoxical, but a dream of flying may actually help you keep your balance running.”.
   

4. Emotion regulation dream theory. Envy, guilt, fear, anger; awe, pride, joy, gratitude. We experience a spectrum of emotions evoked by different contexts every day. The emotion regulation dream theory proposes that dreaming allows us to process and cope with those emotional states we experience during our waking hours. For example, a person who survived a traumatic accident might be filled with guilt and fear. As a result, to process those intense negative emotions, this event might manifest repeatedly in that person's dream as an attempt to gradually resolve that trauma.

The field of science is still in the process of unveiling the mystery behind dreams. However, putting all the existing explanations aside, I think it's interesting to pay attention to my own patterns of dreaming, especially when recurring dreams start to take a different turn. For instance, my superpower dream took a positive turn about a week before I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to start my Ph.D. program. Being admitted to the University of Michigan was a life-changing event and a symbol of redemption for my academic journey. As a result, I told myself that being finally able to use my power in my dream symbolizes me gaining control of my life and being freed from my low sense of self-esteem. This recording and assigning meaning to positive dreams is similar to opening a fortune cookie or picking a fortune stick. By creating self-affirming beliefs from the cinematics that your brain (a powerful machine that is still largely mysterious and unknown) generates, you might start your day or the next chapter of your life with an extra scoop of confidence and assertion. Furthermore, in times of self-doubt, these positive beliefs derived from a force beyond our understanding (our dreams) might also serve as a beacon of hope that we can hold on to!