What is a dream?
Modern science isn't sure. The general belief runs that dreams are illusions: while we sleep, our brains process recent electrical memory into long-term chemical memory, and our minds try to make sense of all the scraps of image and emotion and impression.
Some people believe that dreams reveal our innermost desires, or our deepest fears. We pay analysts a fortune to interpret them.
Some believe that dreams are visions of the future. They've been known to come true. Some believe that dreams are messages from someone or somewhere beyond our regular senses. Some believe that dreams are glimpses-or even visits-into other realities: the afterlife, or worlds that might have been.
Are dreams real? If they exist, even only in our minds, then how can they not be real?
So, what is a dream?
Here we present one answer, and ten ... dreams, if you will. They were, at least, visions in the minds of the writers. Whether they are real is up to you.