I am aware of confirmation bias. Humans tend to be meaning-making. I'm aware of neurological experiments in which areas of the brain known to cause distress were stimulated. The subject knew his brain was being stimulated, yet he provided explanations for his sudden feelings of sadness. Interesting, no? So it could be completely random that shortly after meeting a student named Shams, I have a dream about Rumi, a 13th Century Sufi poet. The main reason that I think my subconscious was trying to alert me to this connection was the powerful feeling of Yes! when I put the puzzle together. When I interpret a dream accurately, I feel a sense of unity between my subconscious and conscious, as in this story and this one. I definitely agree with briandmyers that we like patterns and explanations -- but I also think the brain has more memories than we are aware of, some of which are transformed into symbolic expression in dreams.