The darkened theatre; a soft, comfortable seat; controlled temperature and humidity; and thousands of shadowy images moving across the screen—these strongly suggest the dream world each of us occupies while sleeping. It is possible to think of cinema as the deliberate manufacture of dreams. Psychological experiments reveal that individuals deprived of dreams—allowed to sleep but awakened when they begin to dream—move into a psychotic state. Clearly, dreaming is a biological and cultural necessity. In some way, our human psychobiological equipment is purged and regenerated while we sleep. Sanity is maintained, it seems, by the curious, illogical flow of images we call dreams. But why do we require dreams during the waking state?
