BLACK AND WHITE
I've heard it is fairly common, but I dream in black and white. It doesn't dull the overall experience of the dreams, in fact, it makes them more vivid. Honestly, when I dream, it becomes a hyper-realistic version of what really is. I close my eyes and drift off into the land of nod, and everything finally starts to exist.
It's weird, I know. Most people think of black and white as something that only applies to old movies and television programs. There is an inherent staginess to those productions, a sense of setting and placing that makes those older stories seem somewhat removed from reality. At least from the reality of today.
When I dream in black and white, it is different. I can sense and feel things on a level that is far more profound than when I am wandering the waking realm.
A perfect example:
Last night I dreamed that I was a zebra. Before you ask, no I do not always dream about things that are actually black and white in colour. In this case, I dreamed that I was a zebra in a petting zoo.
The smell of the grass beneath my hooves was overwhelming; the rumble it created in my stomach a deep, vibrating call to feed.
The smell of the dung from surrounding pens was just as ripe in its pungent earthiness. It was not necessarily a bad smell, but it was a primal one that echoed back through the ages.
I could see the children staring in at me from outside the thick fence, could smell their human smells both sour and sweet. When they reached out a tentative hand to stroke my course mane, I could feel the electricity passing between us, the bound of discovery sparking to life. It was an incredible feeling, unlike any I would ever know in the real world.
That was the gist of it. A small, simple dream, but one filled with more sensation and reality that I experience in any given moment. Perhaps it is that heightened realism that causes me to dream in black and white. Maybe I couldn't handle it all in colour...
