Inside My Mind

What my mind thinks my mind looks like.

By Dan Hagen

Sometimes in dreams, it seems to me that my unconscious mind communicates with the conscious me clearly, but mutely and visually.

For example, in a semi-dream last night, I saw myself walking down long — endless, in fact — off-white hallways with some authoritative man who was discussing telepathy. The walls all contained cupboards and shelves covered by small doors. I realized that this was a visual representation of the neural pathways of the brain, and the man was a version of my guided-imagery sage, who is always — don’t laugh — Michael Rennie as Klaatu.

What’s in the cupboards? A yoga mat, a fold-out futon, super-science devices like Buck Rogers’ jumping harnass, anything useful. Many other things I haven’t discovered yet.

Good writing, by the way, can be like telepathy. It is a way to think the thoughts of another person.