There are hopeful signs that the latest investigations into the function of
the brain will help to lift Cinders out of the ashes and demonstrate that
without the Dream Fairy no one will be chosen by the prince of invention.
Before coming to such experimentation I want to relate a most remarkable
tale a recent inventor has to tell. Michael Barnsley, inventor of image
compression, tells it in the documentary called Colours of Infinity. As a
young man, a student of mathematics, he had a recurring nightmare over a
period of twenty (20) years. In it he was face to face with a matrix, a kind
of switchboard whose connecting wires were always in a confused tangle. It
was his task to sort them out and find the correct hole for every one of
these wayward plugs. As much as he tried, he never succeeded and so the
nightmares returned time and time again, confronting him with the same task
on every occasion.
What is especially interesting in his case is the fact that unlike Elias
Howe and Kekule, Michael Barnsley had no desire for inventing anything
whatsoever all through this phase of nocturnal terror until the very end of
it. So he could have had no idea what the apparent 'switchboard' was really
for. All he knew for certain was that the wires of the curious apparatus
were higgledy-piggledy and had to be put in order. Clearly, what was
happening here took place mainly 'below' the level of ordinary waking
awareness, which latter we could, following the computer model, call monitor
consciousness as against hard disk consciousness. The only thing that
managed to rise above the realm of the 'hard disk operations' (the so-called
subconscious processes which upon sharper observation turn out to be
impinging dream memories), was the recollection of a nightmare in which a
certain task, whose purpose remained a dream secret, was to be performed.
And as is customary in the realm of nightmares, they will recur until the
dreamer has grasped the message and initiated appropriate action. That he
couldn't do of course since there was no visible problem or current project
to which it might be applied. Thus Michael Barnsley had no choice but suffer
his regular night terror until twenty years later when it was revealed to
him what the 'switchboard' was really about, what functions it would have
and in what realm it should come into existence.
Sometime after meeting with Benoit Mandelbrot and his revolutionary fractal
mathematics, Michael Barnsley began work on a practical application of
Benoit's discovery of the formula of infinite iterations (Z=Z squared + c).
He speculated that one such practicality could be the construction of a
particular software that allowed the compression, and hence clarification,
of photographic images that were fuzzy, such as those taken from satellites.
It was at this point that the scene of his old nightmare reappeared, but no
longer in its former, terrifying form, but as a eureka experience. Here is
what he said about the crucial time: "the discovery of how to automatically
calculate the collage of an arbitrary picture came to me in a dream. (In it)
I saw how you could straighten out the switchboard, how all the wires would
come untangled and be nicely connected and how you would join all the wires
from big blocks to little blocks in the grid. I woke up in the morning and I
knew I had discovered the total secret to fractal image compression. How to
automatically look at a digital picture and a) how to turn it into a
formula, and b) an entity of infinite resolution. So the goal is now to be
able to capture this fire of Prometheus, this fractal wonder, put it in a
box and being able to make this available to everyone." (From a documentary
film, Colours of Infinity, hosted by Arthur C. Clark.)
There is no better example I know that demonstrates the long arm and guiding
intelligence of the vertical gifts in scientific discoveries and inventions.
As the recurring nightmares, yet still meaningless to the dreamer, reveal,
ideas for inventions or inklings of discoveries may be present in the secret
realms of the carrier's 'hard disk' long before they will show up on his
'monitor' or 'desk top'. The incredibly long gestation of the matrix with
its secret processes not understood by the dreamer, suggest quite
irrefutably, that the task of creating the ultimate image compression
software was not really Michael Barnsley's choice, but the choice of his
nightmares and illuminating final dream. There is only one word for such a
happening: predetermination. This is strengthened by the fact that the
nightmare was resolved at the time when Barnsley actually began to ponder
the idea of image compression. The sense that the dream was here in charge
all the way to the finished product is overwhelming. No less so is the
thought that the dream not only knew in what form and how it was to become
manifest, but also where and when. This is easily established, for image
compression could only have become a reality at the particular point in time
when Barnsley would come in contact with Mandelbrot and his fractal
mathematics, the indispensable ingredient and motivation to the designing of
the invention in question. And let's keep in mind that it obviously knew
this at a time when fractal math had not yet been developed to the point
where it could be forming the basis of image compression. True, a French
mathematician had thought of the theory of fractals long before Barnsley was
born. But the facilities to make it visible and functional for practical
purposes, a suitable computer technology had yet to be developed, and that
became available only towards the end of Barnsley's legendary nightmares.
This case reinforces the notion that the inventor or the discoverer is not
the creator, not the originator, not the instigator of the invention or
discovery, but merely the vehicle, the tool in the hands of the dream,
which, like Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, alone can bring about the marriage
of mind and matter.
The immense gap of twenty years between the first occurrence of Barnsley's
nightmare and his last dream of resolution that fixed the matrix he couldn't
sort out himself, suggests that intelligent dreaming is not an haphazard
process, that dreams are not just coming to the inventor's help when he is
stumped, but that they are an ongoing guide, step by step through his entire
life. It suggests that the 'hard disk' of the inventor and of every person,
determines when and what should appear on the 'monitor screen', which in
turn will signal when and what to do. That this is more likely than not is
underpinned by the experiments undertaken by Benjamin Libet. In an article
in The New Scientist from 14 September 2002 the following paragraph penned
by John Gray demands that we seriously consider this suggestion: "If
cognitive science is right, the picture of humans that philosophers conjure
up when defending ideals of personal autonomy is at least partly a chimera.
Other research supports this conclusion. Work by Benjamin Libet at the
University of California showed that the electrical impulse in the brain
that initiates action occurs up to half a second before we take the decision
to act. Our actions are initiated unconsciously."
The paragraph then continues: "True, Libet allowed that we can veto what the
brain has initiated, but it is unclear how we can even know that we have
deliberately exercised this capacity. For all practical purposes, it might
as well not exist."
A devastating conclusion for all those who, with the Ugly Sisters feel they
can force the hand of the Dream Fairy. In light of Libet's research,
together with Michael Barnsley's experience, choice is an illusion. True it
comes into our mind as a feeling, free will is a feeling, but that's where
it ends.
In view of the fact that dreams are capable of forging ahead not only into
the immediate future as Edison, Howe, Kekule and Mozart have experienced,
but also into the far future as Michael Barnsley would substantiate, gives
us little room for 'self-determination'. My own observations of dreams over
a period of sixty years have convinced me that not even that bit of coveted
'veto' Libet mentions is possible. The classic example for this is a dream
in which you are told that you will make a certain mistake. Then, naturally,
you will do everything in your power to avoid it. You stay alert all day,
watching for the situation with that built-in mistake to occur so you can
forestall it. Suddenly you are distracted and ambushed by the dream's
program. The mistake is made.
Choice is an Ugly Sister word. Accepting the reality of the Dream Fairy's
power alone brings you to the Castle of Clear Vision where the illusion of
personal choice is stripped from you.
Kurt Forrer is the author of DREAMS, Pre-grams of Tomorrow, a Path to a New
World Perspective.
From Kurt:
"My book had been published in 1991. I wrote it twenty-one years after an
experience that shook the foundation of my very existence. I could see from
then on how dreams would translate to waking experiences. One of the most
fascinating things of that experience was that I saw that the Freudian
interpretation was as valid as the Jungian one. Both interpreters have a
point, but where they both miss out is in the fact that dreams are of the
4th dimension and are able to foresee tomorrow and beyond. In my book I show
how this fact can be realised by anyone who can recall their dreams and has
sufficient diligence and stamina to follow my instructions and record their
dreams meticulously and watch for their waking manifestations."
Kurt Forrer
forrerk@bigpond.net.au
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