In der zweiten Lektion habe ich deutsche Notizen verwendet und sinngemäß übersetzt
At first sight it seems obvious, that ‚Alice in wonderland‘ and ‚Trough the looking-glass‘ are about a dozy dreams in the afternoon. They describe very well the state of twisting real sensations to a dream while we are in the so-called REM-state of sleeping. This function is useful to prevent awakening while we are dreaming. In fact this is essential to the quality of sleep as mental recreation. Psychological studies shows a serious impact of mental health, when this state is systematically suppressed for a couple of days.
But the special nature of this written dreams are the characteristic of a journey, provided by the awareness of being different to everyday-perceptions: in different place or in a different shape. The change of size by items found on Alice‘ first journey reflect this feeling in a very ‚physical‘ manner. Additionally the ground-plot of a traveller who deals with items and unique characters to solve some puzzles reminds to the stories of shamans which returns from a journey in trance.
At the very beginning of ‚In the Wonderland‘ Alice finds herself ‚falling into a very deep well‘ after entering the tunnel of a rabbit-hole. This referees Michael Harners description of entering an altered state of consciousness, a shamanistic trance. If dreaming is necessary for mental health it could hardly be quite nonsense. It could be figured out that the function of dreaming is to ‚get the things together‘, combining loose ends of thoughts and subliminal perceptions to clear the mind before awakening. Just like the shaman gets into his altered consciousness to combine things for restoring health in the ‚real world‘ of wake.
Maybe the special power of these stories comes from the fact, that they are in deed not ‚only dreams‘ but an consistent but altered reality in which the bold protagonist can meet his challenges.