Tag: Dreaming

Entropy in Information Theory and Dreaming

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

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This from Wikipedia

Entropy { Information Theory}

In information theory, the entropy of a random variable quantifies the average level of uncertainty or information associated with the variable’s potential states or possible outcomes. This measures the expected amount of information needed to describe the state of the variable, considering the distribution of probabilities across all potential states.

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Entropy in information theory is directly analogous to the entropy in statistical thermodynamics. The analogy results when the values of the random variable designate energies of microstates, so Gibbs’s formula for the entropy is formally identical to Shannon’s formula. Entropy has relevance to other areas of mathematics such as combinatorics and machine learning. The definition can be derived from a set of axioms establishing that entropy should be a measure of how informative the average outcome of a variable is. For a continuous random variable, differential entropy is analogous to entropy.

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Introduction

The core idea of information theory is that the “informational value” of a communicated message depends on the degree to which the content of the message is surprising. If a highly likely event occurs, the message carries very little information. On the other hand, if a highly unlikely event occurs, the message is much more informative. For instance, the knowledge that some particular number will not be the winning number of a lottery provides very little information, because any particular chosen number will almost certainly not win. However, knowledge that a particular number will win a lottery has high informational value because it communicates the occurrence of a very low probability event.

The information content, also called the surprisal or self-information, of an event E is a function that increases as the probability of an event p(E) decreases. When p(E) is close to one the surprisal of an event is low, if p(E) is close to zero then the surprisal of an event if it occurs is high.

There is zero surprise when the probability is one.

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Are dreams high entropy?

What happens when p(E) is close to zero?

And do dreams contain information of high informational value?

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On and off over the years I have had “intuitional discomfort” about the notion of quantum superposition states. Is it physics or our description of physics? Are we making an ersatz by making a quantum supposition, a sticking plaster for some deeper physics we do not yet understand. It does look a bit of a hotch-potch.

Quantum physics has a God-like quality which dare not be questioned…

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From Microsoft Quantum

Superposition is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics, describing the condition in which a quantum system can exist in multiple states or configurations simultaneously. Classical bits can exist in two possible states, typically labeled as “0” and “1”. In contrast, because a qubit is a quantum mechanical system, it can exist in the “0” state, the “1” state, or any state that is a linear combination of 0 and 1.

Mathematically, superposition is a linear combination of “0” and “1” and can be written as:

     |ψ⟩ = α|0⟩ + β|1⟩

where |ψ⟩ is the state of the qubit, |0⟩ and |1⟩ are the basis states (or the computational basis states), and α and β are complex numbers called probability amplitudes. The probability amplitudes determine the probability of measuring the qubit in either state when a measurement is made.

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Is the prepared qubit then “natural” or have we imbued it with information which we have decided for it in our labelling. This labelling presupposes no extra physics. A photon might have vertical polarisation, horizontal polarisation or if paired a superposition of both; horizontal and vertical as opposed to horizontal or vertical.

Unless the superposition is somehow aware of our labelling how does it know how we expect it to behave?

If one of a photon pair is measured as horizontal it must communicate that information instantaneously to its erstwhile twin.

Is it physics or information?

A good question.

How much entropy is associated with that information?

If the superposition collapses on measurement then in an idealised physics the probability of the other pair member “knowing” its state is one. It has little informational value as it comes as no surprise.

If eigenfunctions are used to prepare a description of a quantum supposition then they must have a difference in the set of quantum number qualities to be eigenfunctions. They may be energy eigenvalue degenerate in isolation but because of the difference in quantum number that degeneracy must be split, if only slightly under some condition or other, which means that they do not share entirely equal  probability on being prepared into a superposition.

The qubit will have a tiny inherent bias.

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I keep getting this sense of discomfort that there is something we are not getting and that we are happy sitting with an intuitionally uncomfortable quantum superposition description…it just seems cobbled together.

It is a bit of a mind fuck…

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Do dreams bring real world information?

If so is it surprising and of high informational value?

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I have just re-read a dream of mine from 2008 in which I see a Breton landscape and am chatting with an extroverted French man who is the spitting image physically and in behaviour of my recent physiotherapist.

Was this information, coincidence or my confirmation bias retro-fitting a dream to a current observable?

If dreams do indeed carry information then the implications of this are high.

I personally will trust what my dreams say about a situation over and above what a human being may or may not assert. If there is good physical evidence I will trust that over dream…

This notion of surprise as being a component of information {new} is interesting. The concept of information entropy in a world of fake news and a verbose Trumpian professor, is appealing.

Information and opinion are not the same. It is possible to speak for a long time without giving any reliable information which comes as no surprise. Were there to be anything new {and reliable} that would be very surprising and information rich.

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Any description or model must occlude at least partially an occult reality of some kind. Because we do not know the true and extensive nature of that reality we can at best describe it. Such a description must be informative and allow a measure of prediction as to the measurable evolution of events in space-time. We should be honest that our description is not ultimate truth. Behind all known physics there is always something occult, unseen and as yet unknown. History teaches us this

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Jut kicking a few ideas around ….

Nothing may come out of it…

Tarot 16 – Posh Eco-lodge Dream 21-03-2026

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Here is last night’s dreaming

The dream / vision opens with a three dimensional animated view of La Maison Dieu, Tarot 16. The scene is not static it is real and not cartoon. I know that this is Liberation Through the Power of Universal Intent. The universe sends bolt after bolt of lightning striking the tower of man’s self-importance dislodging the crown of self-imagined grandeur from their heads and unseating them without ceremony from their thrones. The universe has had enough. Many self-important people will experience Tarot 16. It is the card in play and will remain so for some time. I feel the brooding intent behind it. Some will be kneeled by the universe.

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The vision fades.

The scene opens in a posh mansion like house in the parlour or sitting room. It is English. I am with a rich family. They have asked me to renovate and modernise a lodge on their property. It has seen better days. They want to turn it into a fully specified eco-lodge. I have budget. I will move into the lodge during the renovations. I am being handled as if I was in an avuncular familial advisor role. When I first move in the wayward son Eddy will help. They joke that Eddy can be my girlfriend in that isolated part of the estate. This is because Eddy is also a hippie and once had long hair. Eddy is not at the gathering.

The scene changes to the inside of the lodge. There is a huge Aga style range in the kitchen, which is used to cook, heat the house and water. There are several log burners throughout the property. The place is a bit of a shit tip with cobwebs and dirty glass. I get busy cleaning the windows and tidying up the kitchen. I check the wood supply. The lodge is in a wide clearing in a massive forest North of the M62 in England. All around are trees. The lodge is accessed by a semi-paved single track road off a local main tarmac one. If you did not already know you would not think a lodge to be there.

The next morning a car pulls up and a scruffy young man comes to the door. He knocks and I answer. I am not expecting anyone. He says hi and that he is Eddy. I invite Eddy in. He brings a hiker’s bed roll and rucksack. I show him to a room in the house for him. We get busy on the plumbing getting the single toilet working, cleaning out the bath and shower. We load logs into the log fired Aga and soon the water is warming and smoke is going up the chimney. The whole place needs to be log fired. I can see a place outside for a solar panel array.

The next day a sport car turns up and out of it get two young women. They are the daughters of the family. They are early twenties very “made in Chelsea” well-spoken and expensively dressed. They are used to people running around after them at beck and call. They come in to the kitchen and greet Eddy effusively. Immediately they get out some glasses and pour themselves what looks to be an expensive single malt whisky. They want to have the country experience of getting boozed up in front of an open fire.

I explain to them that  the nearest shop is a long drive away and that they had better ration the whisky rather than getting bladdered. They think me a spoil sport and tease me like I am a difficult parent or uncle. I say that if they are going to stay they had better make themselves useful.

One of them says that she can sort out the curtains the other says she will investigate the garden and vegetable patch. I show her the greenhouse with loose panes and the compost heap. When they are finished I explain that they will need to use the same bath water or wait a long while.

The next day a technician arrives. He looks like Andrew B. Together we go up into the loft to lag the hot water tank. We install a power management unit to fit the soon arriving solar panels. He has with him a short wave radio receiver and a radio transmitter. Which we put to one side until such time as the electricity is up. There is a lot of wiring to be done.

The next day late in the morning a bright red sports car pulls up. Out of it steps a  young blonde woman in party sparkly trousers and white top. She is lost and disoriented. She saw smoke from the chimney.  I go over to her. She retches a little. I ask her if she needs to use our toilet to be sick in. She says no. She got off her face yesterday at the gig and clearly should not be driving. She apologises for getting lost and turning up. I usher into the kitchen where she is fussed over by the daughters with a hot coffee and toast.

I know that the eco-lodge is also a kind of sanctuary and that the main part of the sanctuary is me. I am protection.

The dreaming ends.

Encounters With the Nagual – Armando Torres

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Three-Pronged Naguals

“The Rule is final, but its design and configuration are in constant evolution. But unlike evolutionists, who view the adaptations of life as a haphazard accumulation of genetic mutations, seers know there is nothing random about the Rule. They see how a command of the Eagle, in the form of a wave of energy, shakes the lineages of power from time to time, producing new stages in sorcery.

“A more exact way of describing it, is to assume that all possible variations of the Rule are contained in a womb of potential, and what changes over time is the degree of knowledge the sorcerers have of that totality, and what emphasis they put on particular portions of it. Such periods of change are recurrent, and they are represented by the number three.”

“Why three?”

“Because the old Toltecs associated the number three with dynamics and renewal. They discovered that ternary formations – formations based on the number three – announce unexpected changes.

“The Rule dictates that, from time to time, a special kind of nagual will appear in the lineages; a nagual whose energy is not divided into four parts, but instead has only three compartments. Seers call them ‘three-pronged naguals.”

I asked him how they were different from the others. He answered:

“Their energy is volatile, they are always moving, and because of that they find it difficult to accumulate power. From the point of view of the lineage, their composition is faulty; they will never be true naguals. In compensation, they lack the timidity and reservation that characterize the classic naguals, and they possess an unusual capacity to improvise and communicate.

“We can say that three-pronged naguals are like the cuckoo birds incubated in other birds’ nests. They are opportunists, but they are necessary. Unlike the naguals of four points, whose freedom it is to pass unnoticed, those of three points are public personalities. They disclose secrets and cause fragmentation of the teachings, but without them, the lineages of power would have been extinguished a long time ago.

“Among the new seers, the Rule is that a nagual leaves a new party as a descendant. Some, due to their enormous energy surpluses, are able to help organizing a second or third generation of seers. For example, the nagual Elias Ulloa lived long enough to create his successor’s party and to have an influence on the following one. But this does not mean a fork in the lineage; all those groups were part of the same transmission line.

“On the other hand, the three-pronged nagual is authorized to transmit his knowledge radially, which does lead to a diversification of lineages. His luminous cocoon has a disintegrating effect on the group, which breaks the lineal structure of transmission and foments a desire for change and action in warriors, and an active disposition to be involved with their fellow men.”

“Was that what happened to you?”

“That’s what happened. Due to my luminous disposition, I don’t have any qualms about leaving kernels of knowledge behind, wherever I go. I know that I need an enormous quantity of energy to fulfill my task, and that I can only obtain it from masses. For that reason I am willing to broadcast the knowledge far and wide, and transform and redefine its paradigms.”

The Portion of the Rule for the Three-Pronged Nagual

The Three-Pronged Nagual

“As you know, my teacher became aware of the Rule for the three-pronged nagual when he tried to analyze certain anomalies in the new group. Apparently, I could not get in tune with the rest of the apprentices. Then he paid me sufficient attention to see that I masked my energy configuration.”

“Do you mean that Don Juan’s seeing had been mistaken?”

“Of course not! What was mistaken was his looking. To see is the final form of perception; there are no appearances, so it is not possible to be deceived. However, due to the pressure that he had exerted on me for years, my energy struggled to mold itself to his. That is common among apprentices. Since he was divided into four compartments, I also began to manifest a similar energetic weight in my actions.

“Once I was able to shake off his influence (it took me almost ten years of arduous work), we discovered something astonishing: My luminosity only had three compartments; it didn’t correspond to an ordinary, modern person, who only has two, nor to a nagual. This discovery caused a great commotion in the group of seers, since they all saw it as a portent of profound change for the lineage.

“Then Don Juan went back to the tradition of his predecessors, and dusted off a forgotten aspect of the Rule. He told me that the election of a nagual cannot in any way be considered as a personal whim, since it is the spirit who chooses the successor of a lineage at all times. Therefore, my energetic anomaly was part of a command. Faced with my urgent questioning, he assured me that a messenger would appear in due time and explain to me the function of my presence as a three-pronged nagual.

“Years later, during a visit to one of the rooms in the National Museum of Anthropology and History, I observed a native dressed in the old-fashioned Tarahumara costume, who seemed to have the most absorbing interest in one of the exhibition pieces. He examined it from all sides and demonstrated such a total concentration that it made me curious, and I went closer to look.

“When he saw me, the man spoke to me and began to explain the meaning of a group of excellent, painstaking drawings sculpted into the stone. Then, while I meditated on what he had told me, I remembered Don Juan’s promise, and realized that this man had been an envoy from the spirit, who had passed on to me the portion of the Rule concerning the three-pronged nagual.”

“And what does that portion say?”

“It affirms that, just as the party has an energy matrix of the number seventeen (two naguals, four female dreamers, four female stalkers, four male warriors, and three scouts), a lineage, which is formed by a succession of parties, also has a structure of power, of the number fifty-two. The Eagle’s command is that every fifty-two generations of four-pointed naguals, there will appear a three- pronged nagual who serves as a cathartic action for the propagation of new four-point lineages.

“The Rule also says that the three-pronged naguals are destructive to the established order, because their nature is neither creative nor nurturing, and they have the tendency to enslave all those who surround them. It adds that, to achieve freedom, these naguals should do it alone, because their energy is not tuned to guide groups of warriors.

“Like everything in the world of energy, the block of fifty-two generations is divided into two parts; the first twenty-six concerning themselves with expansion and the creation of new lines, the rest oriented towards conservation and isolation. This pattern of behavior has been repeating itself millennium after millennium, so sorcerers know that it is part of the Rule. “As a result of the activities of a three-pronged nagual, the knowledge becomes widely known, and new cells of four-point naguals are formed. From that starting point, lineages recapture the tradition of transmitting the teachings in a lineal form.”

“How often do three-point naguals appear?”

“Approximately once per millennium. That is the age of my lineage.”

The Task Of The Seers Of Today

“Upon verifying the Rule of the three-pronged nagual, Don Juan deduced that, inevitably, the time of a new breed of warriors was at hand; I have called them the modern seers.”

“Are there any peculiarities in the luminous composition of those warriors?”

“No. In every era, man’s energy pattern has been very homogeneous, so the organization of the party is the same. However, the warriors of today are experiencing a slide towards green in their luminosity, which means that they are recovering characteristics of the old seers. This is something unforeseen, although it is for sure covered by the Rule.

“The true difference between seers of the past and those of today is in their behavior. At the moment, we are not subjected to the same repressions as in previous eras, and therefore sorcerers have fewer restrictions. Clearly, this has a purpose: Popularization of the teaching.

“I have lived a moment of renewal. My task is to close the lineage of Don Juan with a golden key, and to open up possibilities for those who come later. That is why I have said that I am the last nagual of my lineage, not in an absolute sense, but in the sense of radical change.”

At this point, Carlos took a break in his presentation and reminded me of a conversation we had when we first met.

At that time, I had asked him to tell me tales of power. He replied that he could not refuse what I was asking, but to hand over those stories without any directions would have been to trivialize them.

“I hope what you have seen during these years fulfills your expectations. I did what I could, considering your limitations as well as mine. I know you have already begun to train your dreaming double, and that guarantees that you can continue by yourself; your double won’t leave you alone until you arrive at your totality. The theoretical part is finished, and it is time to give you a last gift.”

Tower – Blue Throne – Biskelion – Ratatouille Dream – 30-03-2026

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Here is this morning’s dream. It is a kind of dream which I have not had for a while.

I am in an open topped sports car with Chris a dreaming Scholar. I am driving. It is right hand drive. The car is almost classic American in scale and is large. We are driving around a light coloured stone town / village on a windy hilly road, in a warm Southern Mediterranean setting on an Island. Think Crete Sicily or Malta. We wind up hill and into a ruins complex where once there were fortifications, a castle even. We come upon an isolated erect stone tower in the ruins it is cylindrical and tens of metres tall. It is 10-15 metres in diameter. There is an open arch come doorway at the foot of the tower. We park up and Chris and I go to look inside the tower.

Suspended above our heads in free space is a large blue chair come throne. It is large enough for two normal backsides. It has pins holding the blue fabric upholstery in place all along the edges of the seat. It has curved carved feet “Louis XIV” and some similar detail on the back. It is a thing of cost and of beauty. It is just sat there suspended in a soft down coming light. It is some kind of throne in a tower which we are looking at.

 Our perspective rotates and we can wee the throne from all angles below and at the same height as the throne.

The scene changes and I can see in full visual field what can be described as a two pronged triskelion. It has two “propeller blades” each with a dog leg. It is a biskelion. The shaft of the “blade” is black the dog leg metallic silver grey. It has to it an inherent sense of rotation, clockwise.

The scene changes and I am alfresco at a stove come worktop under a rough twig roof on a patio of sort. Below downhill I can see the sea. On my tiled workplace I have a chef’s “mis en place” of chopped onions, courgettes, yellow peppers and garlic. There are plump lush dark red Mediterranean plum tomatoes. I slice these into large “paysan” lumps. I have a wide brimmed, well used by its colour, frying pan on the stove. I add a splash of virgin olive oil and allow it to heat and swirl. I can see a small terracotta dish with pine nuts in and another with capers. I am going to be making a tomato rich ratatouille like dish with a pesto twist. There are also some shelled green pistachio nuts.

The dream ends.

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Quarantine the Dreamers!!

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One can view things through many lenses. For example in the start-up I mentioned no investor made any money, some banks got interest payments, some products got sold and used, some people had dinner on the table because of jobs.

If I had not bothered writing patent applications and a business plan I could have saved many people a great deal of time. They could have done other, perhaps better, things. I could have focused on research which got into peer reviewed journals and perhaps been invited to conferences. I might then have gotten promoted and could be still gathering cobwebs in academia.

Shit happens, you learn, no drama.

As things stand the world is no longer at risk from any of my ideas, crazy or otherwise, because I am not in a position to do anything about them. I am quarantined. Nor is there any financial incentive for me to develop any of these notions. My job does not depend upon it. I can “laisser tomber”. All I need to do is have a brief think if there is maybe some mileage and then move on. I do not have to pursue or check beyond initial light bulb.

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Retrospect suggests that I was perhaps bat shit crazy to think we might play a part in the EUV story…

I’ll maintain that a one horse bet, which is what happened to EUV, did not produce the best outcome. It did however work. People will get high NA EUV nano-litho. They can fight the chip technology war until AI kills us all or makes us slaves. See you in the battery plant…

The semiconductor industry needed a solution because of the Moore’s Law mantram.

If you want to control things, be risk averse and safe it is probably best to quarantine the dreamers and when needed silence them. The last thing you need is anyone rocking the boat!!

Sequential safe micro-steps rarely revolutionize. They plod safely.

The thing about dreamers is that a fair portion of their dreams or visions will be fickle and impractical even delusional. It is best to keep them in quarantine…we don’t want people infected with grand ideas above their station…

It raises an interesting question.

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How do you tell ab initio, from the get-go, the difference between delusional and visionary?

Is it only retrospect which can answer accurately?

What stops the visionary?

What enables the delusional?

Who are the arbiters?

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If you want to be safe and sure you need to ensure that all the dreamers are locked up and in secure quarantine for the duration.

My Disappearance – Navalny –  Big Cheese – Cairo – South Kensington Dream – 28-03-2026

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Here is this morning’s dream again with little or no obvious connection to real life here yesterday which we spent wallpapering.

The dream opens in England in and around London. Some kind of missive has gone out, been circulated, concerning my whereabouts. I have gone missing, disappeared and cannot be contacted. Nobody seems to know where I am nor how to get in touch. Tim, Tom and Susan are involved in the search all of whom are “important”. Tim and Sue have made inquiries concerning me but are unsatisfied with the answers. “He just disappeared” does not explain. Other people from the academic clan are involved in the investigation and some of them were known to me. Those involved are mostly of a similar age to me, like Paula, my peer group. Though there are others. The inquiry is largely London based. Although not huge there are questions to be answered that just won’t go away. There is a pendant question of “where did Alan disappear to and why?” There is very mild press and media interest brewing. They, the inquirers, don’t like loose ends. There is a time pressure to solve.

The scene changes and I am in a brightly lit wood / forest with Alexeï Navalny. It is a crisp winter morning and the cold makes dragon’s breath of our breathing. We are sat at a small very basic table on two old-school school chairs. On the table is an open bottle of vodka and two small glass tumblers each of which is partially filled. There is a small plate of gherkins and a large cheese in a round wood circular box like a Camembert. Navalny lifts the lid off the box and places the wax paper wrapped cheese onto a wooden cutting board. He gets a hunting knife out of an ankle scabbard and proceeds to cut the cheese into wedges. He pauses and we take a sip of our vodkas. He is discussing how cheeses can cause problems for other people. All his problems have come from upsetting big cheeses. When you think about it, it is nearly always people who are cheeses that cause problems for others. The reason we are in the wilderness, in exile, is cheese. Navalny reaches down into his knapsack and pulls out a rough-hewn rye bread. He says that he likes vodka, cheese and bread.

The scene changes and I pull up in my car into a very smart posh area of Cairo. The cars in the car park are all expensive and I am driving a black one. I get out and know that this is the posh, upmarket financial centre of Cairo. As yet it is not busy. I go into an upmarket “private” bank usually for high net worth individuals. It is well swish. I go to reception and am ushered off into a side room where I have a meeting with an expensively dressed woman who is wearing a hijab of fine expensive material. She is very classy. She has attached between her subtle noise piercing and ear a fine golden chain. She speaks very good accent free English. She wants to know why I want to open a bank account with them in Cairo. I say that my other bank and utilities have given my information out to others without asking my permission. They have done so at the request of others without checking with me first. This includes my bank in Paris. I am looking for a more personal and reliable service, based on trust. We shift into speaking French. She guides me though the application form which she fills in with a beautiful fountain pen. She says that the bank is very pleased to have me as a customer and that I will always be welcome in Cairo. Outside in the main marble hall of the bank customers are coming in.

The scene changes and I am in a kitchen of a British house. It is my parents’ house only it looks nothing like . The place is a bit of a mess, a shit tip. On the counter top is a Gaggia style coffee espresso machine. I make myself a coffee and one for the wife. She is with me but  I cannot see her. We drink the coffee.

The scene now changes to South Kensington. In a kind of arcade is a coffee shop come café. It is very urban, chic and trendy. Sat around the table are those ~ a decade younger than me. They are gossiping about me. There are Jason Laura and Camilla. They too have been wondering about my disappearance. There has been a lot of gossip and tittle tattle. It is a hot topic.

I walk in with the wife and sit down at the far end of a long table from them They looked surprised. I explain that they have been making a huge to-do about not a lot. I have not disappeared they have just not been aware of where I have been. For instance, we have not long come from South Wales where we have been drinking coffee at my parents’ house. I say that they have turned the whole thing into a massive spy-whodunnit-drama. They are embarrassed. It is well out of proportion.

The dream ends.

Eng – Viking – Fibre Optic Microscope – Chairman Mao – US Security Check Dream – 26-03-2026

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Here is last night’s dreaming sequence. It is a hotch-potch and has no obvious explanation.

The dream opens in a Scandinavian wood. A large man with a deep dark ginger beard wearing a kilt is stood over a huge tree stump.  His chest is bare and his skin is white and hairless. He has tanned and big, freckled forearms. His name is Eng and he is one of the last masters of an ancient Danish martial art of Viking origin.

I greet Eng. I am wearing my usual combat trousers and am barefoot. I too am shirtless. We do some arm wrestling on the tree stump and Eng shows me some grappling moves as we lark about outside his cabin. We pick us some towels and dry off.

We go inside to his lab-workshop. On an optical table is a prototype we are working on it is a novel form of three dimensional imaging microscopy. It is based around an unclad optical fibre which uses the evanescent field to image. The idea is to switch polarisation states of the probe laser in the fibre core. By switching between fibre modes and polarisation we can modulate the external field penetration depth. Any light “outside” the fibre will get absorbed. This is measured as light return optical loss. After the short duration laser pulse has gone the fibre collects any fluorescence. This is a new imaging modality and with data processing offers a way of imaging in vivo tissue. We are trialling it on plants and intend it for brain tissue imaging. It is a way to get accurate chemical and biological data in Alzheimer patients. It is not simply structural. Because the fibre is very narrow diameter it can be inserted directly into living brain tissue without causing too much injury.

The scene changes and Eng and I are now at some research lab. It is an agricultural research lab where new techniques for farming are being developed. Today we are having a visit from  Chairman Mao. He has a deep interest in plant biology and is eager to see our institute and our new results. Mao arrives in a motorcade and is ushered into our lab. We show him around the greenhouse and then get him to look down the binocular eyepiece at images inside a plant stem with water and cells floating by. We project the images up onto a screen and everyone can see the flow of liquid along a living plant stem in real time and with very high optical resolution. Cells are visible.

The scene changes and I am in a car park. I am being stopped by two American security services men in black suits. They ask me what I have in the boot of my car. I say that I have a metal phial of element mass 258. They know I am joking. They get me to open the boot of my car. I show them the black high tech “briefcase” there. It opens to reveal a projector, a lap top, a USB memory stick, some documentation and a giveaway DVD information pack. They thumb through the documentation. It looks OK to them. I say that what is on the DVD is what I submitted to security vetting a week back. I am not going to get technical in the presentation because of the patent situation. The interaction is jocular with the security guys. They wave me on.

The dream ends….

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Mass number 258 corresponds to a transuranic element; Mendelevium has an isotope at this mass as do others.

“Mendelevium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Md (formerly Mv) and atomic number 101. A metallic radioactive transuranium element in the actinide series, it is the first element by atomic number that currently cannot be produced in macroscopic quantities by neutron bombardment of lighter elements. It is the thirteenth actinide, the ninth transuranic element, and the first transfermium; it is named after Dmitri Mendeleev, the father of the periodic table.”

More Dream Data – Enough for a Thesis?

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Taking the dreams so far recorded for 2026.

There were 5213 words in March at an average of 521 words per dream.

There were 9627 words in February at an average of 642 words per dream.

Taken together the average is 594 words per dream.

Using that with the dream total of 137 dreams for 2025 that gives a word total ~ 81,000 words of dreams

This is a lot of dreaming, near thesis length for 2025 alone !!

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From the University of Sheffield web site for thesis length:

Word count

The University does not have any regulatory requirements governing the length of theses, but most faculties have established guidelines:

  • Arts and Humanities: 40,000 words (MPhil); 75,000 words (PhD)
  • Health: 40,000 words (MPhil); 75,000 words (PhD, MD)
  • Science: 40,000 words (MPhil); 80,000 words (PhD)
  • Social Sciences: 40,000 words (MPhil); 75,000-100,000 words (PhD)

The above word counts exclude footnotes, bibliography and appendices. Where there are no guidelines, students should consult the supervisor as to the length of thesis appropriate to the particular topic of research.

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Dream Data 2026 Update.

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Here is my dream frequency data updated.

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The average number of recorded dreams rounds up to 13 per month over this period.

There looks to be a drop off post hip operation {21-11-25}. But February was back with a bang.

March ’26  looks to be heading back towards average dream number.

The overall rate is heading for ~ 140 per year consistent with the 2025 total  but this is by way of a big extrapolation this early on in the year.

So maybe the dreaming is not slowing after all…..