I’ve come to realize that nothing like this happens. In fact, everything in a dream is put there by YOU. Some strange, very interesting element of your subconscious is going off at night, having a great time messing with your head.

I have no doubt that my dreams come solely from my jittery brain. But look at what that brain can do. Every single element of a dream is put there by you. All the people that appear in your dreams are placed there by you. Even the strangers.

This makes every dream like a short but very complete film. As your dreams unspool, your subconscious shifts to different shots to best affect how the dream tells you its story. You have chosen the sequence of shots and lit them because you are also the Editor and Director of Photography.

And you are an excellent Casting Director. The characters in your dreams are all acting their asses off in every scene. When have you ever doubted someone’s performance in your dreams?

Never. You believe every word—all the words that you have written yourself. That’s why dreams grip us so fiercely. They always seem realer than real. I’ve never had a dream where I’ve said, “Oh, I don’t believe that.” Only if there was pink smoke, weird music, and a dwarf in it.

And when you consider that all of this; the stories, the camera angles, the characters, the lighting, the editing are all being generated by some restless movie freak in our brains every night— well, that’s pretty amazing.