Someone Else’s Mind – Stranger Things

We have recently been watching the fifth series of “Stranger Things”. We have one episode to go. The worlds of Stranger Things and Henry’s mind might seem a bit odd, fanciful and far fetched to many. I joked with the wife this morning that it is pretty tame compared to our dreamworld. The “upside down” outside our fence and garden gate is full of various unpleasantness. Which leaks through via various news broadcasts and on-line newspapers. There is nasty stuff and are nasty people out there. We live in “the right way up”.

If you read and concentrate upon the dreams in the previous post it is likely to do something to your mind. It will perhaps unsettle. To me it is normal, it is slightly more unsettling for the wife. I am more at home with visionary art and spaced out verbal recollections. I can answer University Challenge art questions if the picture is from William Blake or Hieronymus Bosch.

In a sense this blog is a kind of window into what goes on in my mind, my head. It does not however show the “normal” state of my mind. This is largely silent and thought free. It cannot be written down. What occurs here comes only after I have decided to think or verbalize. I live largely in what I term the place before thought.

I am entirely capable of having the kind of dreams, which might knock others off kilter, and without a second thought I can put the coffee on to brew. I know when I am dreaming and when I am so-called awake. I can also differentiate waking dreams or visions. I can function “normally” whilst having a vision. An example being the ability to teach Chemical Reaction Kinetics whilst a vision was resident and “in play”.

We rarely get detailed glimpses direct into the mind of others. This is partially because our minds are so god-dammed noisy with internal dialogue, worries and a list of devoirs. We live in our “own little worlds” and often try to fit others into the rules pertaining to how that world is assembled and assimilated in our own “minds”.  Our assimilations may differ. Our versions of observable reality may diverge from one another. More often than not we insist on our own assimilation and sense making. What makes sense in our “the right way up” may be to others the “upside down”. We may be adamant that everybody else has gotten the wrong end of the stick. Only our rules of perception and assimilation apply. Only our interpretation is correct.

The mind of another may unsettle us because of its unfamiliarity.

In a sense the dreamworld presented in this blog is other. If it is only a dreamworld it has no significance at all in the normal “real” world. The dreamworld, however it is produced and wherever it comes from, need not impinge on/in your reality out there in the “upside down”.

There are few portals or gateways between our “the right way up” and your world. They exist tangentially. Only occasionally do we go through to go to the hospital or supermarket. We usually make it back without being attacked by a Demogorgon or two.

The only potential problem arises is when the dreamworld here has a significance which is more significant that just dreams, just a dreamworld…

Snowed In – Committee – Nigel Farage – CV – Dream 03-02-2026

Here are last night’s dreaming snippets. It seems that the dreaming is changing and there is a reminder that I cannot be prejudiced about what the dreaming brings me and suggests. There was an earlier snippet about organising an event which I cannot recall well.

The dreaming scene opens in a facility, a large log cabin, the central building to a collection of cabins. It is the centre of the facility / park. We have gathered everybody together because we are snowed in and the weather forecast suggests that there is more snow on the way we are going to have to wait it out. Some of the people are disgruntled and unhappy.  We need to organise central catering so as to make best use of the available resources. I get everybody to bring what food they have to the central cabin and put it on the table. Because it is the end of the week and people were getting ready to leave the collection is meagre.

There are pig’s trotters, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, fennel, a chicken, some stock cubes and bags of flour. I know that I can make a big hearty stew which will feed us all for days and that we can make soda-bread and dumplings. I reach for a huge aluminium saucepan. One of the richer women is horrified that I will use pig’s trotters. I explain that they will make the stew taste wonderful. She says that she would prefer to chance the roads in her 4×4. I say to her if she can even get out of the compound I will be surprised.

Most people are happy to hanker down and help with the food prep. All the spare wood has been brought in to run the fire in the central cabin where we will hanker down together to preserve energy.

Later a ranger and I go out to inspect where the creek flows into the lake. It passes under the exit road out. We can see that there has been an accumulation of mud in the tree roots along the creek which will inhibit the flow of the melt water, inundating the road. So we get busy clearing the mud with our walking canes.

I am now in a council meeting chamber. It is like a county council with a distinct flavour of an island council. It feels Jersey-lite. The council is for an affluent area and is English. There are a several of us sat around a table. I am next to Nigel Farage who smells of beer and fags. He is smoking a foul smelling cigar. The meeting is to discuss matters arising. Nigel is putting forward a request for a prohibition order for a mini-festival one of the local pubs wants to hold. He has a vested interest in getting it banned as one of his pals has land near to the pub. He brings up the request. I mention that the mini-festival is good for the island economy and vital for the pub and his staff. Surprisingly Nigel is keen to discuss the request from all angles and at the mention of money is more in favour of it going ahead. He likes the idea of bringing more money to the island. He too is surprised at himself.

The scene shifts and I am filling places in a committee of some unspecified variety and function. In front of me is the CV of Susan S. She played a significant role in the start of the start-up I was involved in. On the CV are her university affiliations and the number of non-executive director roles she has had. Some of which are big cheese like.

On waking I am surprised at why I would be “seeing” her CV and not entirely pleased that Nigel Farage has cropped up. I know that we probably won’t see eye to eye. I think that was a bit odd…

Cunning Ploy Dreaming Snippett – 02-02-2026

One of the recurring themes in my dreams along with “somebody else’s mess” is the “cunning ploy / plan” theme.

This theme arose in the dream last night concerning two people I once knew.

There is a certain kind of person which cannot resist trying to be cunning and using “clever” tricks to manipulate and seek some kind of advantage or gather some information. They have a play book of tricks and methods and a modus operandi which changes little. There is an expectation that these plays or ploys can be relied upon to secure similar results. They often have some kind of negotiation in mind usually of a transactional nature.

In never occurs to them to be open straightforward and honest. Their ploys can be “relied” upon to secure similar results.

I am pretty bored with the whole cunning ploy theme…Yawn…

If you play a cunning ploy delivery with a straight bat it can cause the ploy to go badly awry. No cunning required on my part just play straight.

My mother tried to elicit me to cajole her to come to my second wedding. She said that it was difficult and far for her. I replied that if that was the case then I would understand if she did not come.

Many people try to get some emotional manipulation leverage based upon “rules” to which they imagine others will comply. When it goes pear shaped it can be difficult. I can think of a quite a number of cases when other people’s cunning ploys have gone very badly wrong because  I have played straight and not played their game. These ploy attempts have had major consequences.

Some people simply cannot conceive of being simple and straightforward. It is just beyond their ability.  They do not approach with open hands or open hearts; they are after something.

It is just yawn-some.

For a while I was in “pastoral care” and many students tried to take advantage of the system / me. Unfortunately for them I was in the habit of taking notes and had a good memory. I was prone to repeat their prior narratives to them. Quite a number of schemes failed and the only people who knew were me and them. Confidentiality was important.

Quite why the “cunning ploy” theme is resurfacing again I do not know, but it has been noted by me…

 Yawn…

Martial Arts Dojo – Dreaming Courses – Dream – 31-01-2026

Here is last night’s dream had around 5 AM on a night with unbroken sleep until 6.44 AM.

The dream opens in a large martial arts dojo. It is in a hangar like building which has practice mats of good quality in a light lovat hue. There are many people there, maybe a hundred. We are waiting for the instructor. He comes in with a small entourage. He proceeds to engage the crowd in a manner to whip them up and get them excited. It is almost evangelical. I think to myself that this does not bode well. I am there with the wife and we are both in white aikido-gi. The instructor asks who is ready to rumble and take part. They are to stay on the mat the others are to go to the side. I nod to the wife and she stays. I make my way to the front of the hall where there is an un-matted area.

The instructor notices me and asks why I am not going to stay on the mat. I say that although I have had previous experience with a Japanese trained instructor I cannot not take part until I have had a medical clearance, a medical note because I have just had a replacement hip. He wants to ask who I have trained with but does not do so in case that makes things uncomfortable for him. He turns back to the crowd.

Sat leaning against a table at the front are two women whom I know to be acolytes of his. It is not uncommon in some “martial arts” circles for there to be groupie-like fans. The women are club secretary like “officials”. One is early thirties of Asian Indian background with long jet black hair. The other is blonde and more matronly with a certain girth. She is the boss. I see on the table an excel spreadsheet of upcoming courses for the “Shenji” martial arts academy. I see a number of days blacked out. I ask what they are. The younger woman says that they are for dreaming courses that the teacher wants to give as a part of the martial arts training. I say that I have been doing a dreaming practice for 25 years or so and that I have an interest in dreaming. She suggests that I might learn from their courses. I say thank you for the offer but I think that it is very unlikely that they could teach me anything about dreaming. Rather it is they who could learn from me. The Indian woman is slightly interested. The matronly one is not overly pleased. I say that I could probably run dreaming courses but that it is not something which can be taught, it has to be started and then left free rein. In the dream I note that the notion of dreaming courses has once again risen up in the dream.

The scene changes and the teacher asks me to go up on the roof as there are some kids from the school there who need to be gotten down and admonished. I go up to the roof and call them off. They want to play fight with me. I do this putting a wrist lock on one while picking the other up with one hand. They know they have been “naughty” and we go back towards the dojo. In the entrance hall the instructor is there. He mentions that I could be affiliated. There is simply a question of the joining fee, the licence fee and mat fees. I know that he is solely interested in money and that this is not attractive to me. It is more business than school. It is money which is the priority.

The dream ends and I note that again the theme of dreaming courses has cropped up.  

Wet Memory – Intrinsic and Extrinsic Entropy Dream – 30-01-2026

Here is last night’s dream which is out of the blue and does not relate to the day to day of fence repair after another visit by the wild boars. Where this came from I have no clue.

I am walking through central London, Mayfair Piccadilly. It is a bright sunny day. I notice people converging on an ornate building in light coloured near white stone. It is a hybrid of Burlington House the old Royal Society of Chemistry where I spent many enjoyable hours in the library and of The Royal Society. People are gathering for some kind of scientific meeting. There is a mixture of academics and industry figures. I am not invited to this meeting. Through the doors and in the atrium I can see a reception desk which is being staffed by some women whom I used to know, a generation younger than me.

On a whim I walk in to say hi. They greet me and I ask if there is any chance of a cup of coffee. They get me one and warn me that it is not all that. I see that the conference is on “New Frontiers in Memory”. It has the theme of molecular architectures and memory and is of a think tank type of conjecture meeting. Rob walks in with one of the invited speakers who is a yank around 40. He is some kind of big cheese at the conference. Rob and I recognise each other after all these years. He introduces me to the speaker who is going to talk on protein molecular architectures and memory storage in the brain. He tells me that memory is all about entropy. You have to work against entropy to remember.

Rob invites me upstairs to look around. There are academic posters and a coffee service area. We queue and get a coffee and then stand at a pub style chest height table. In my mind’s eye I can see the way the cheese tries to address a memory array stored in a synthetic gel matrix. It is his way of modelling a wet memory, a mimic of biological memory which he seeks to incorporate into the next generation computers. I say to him that the encoding is of two types and that there are intrinsic and extrinsic entropies. The intrinsic entropy relates to where an individual amino acid is found along a protein chain and the pattern of its neighbour molecules. The extrinsic entropy is related to its local environment, degrees of folding and how space filling it is, how many gaps and voids are incorporated in the macroscopic protein structure. He says that he not previously thought about the molecular location entropy within a given protein strand. It might answer one of the questions he has. I can see in my mind’s eye an address matrix or tensor in mathematical form which defines coordinates for a given amino acid in a 3d protein amongst a wider gel matrix. The intrinsic lack of entropy is how a memory is stored. Memory works my comparing entropy. Anything not expected entropically is a memory. Low entropy is memory.

I say that the coffee is poor and that I hope they enjoy the meeting. I am off in search of a Starbucks, Costa or Caffè Nero.

The dream ends and I think WTF was that…

A Death – Strasbourg – German Police – Dream 24-01-2026

Here is last night’s dream. It is of a different kind, what might be third person observer dreams especially in the last part. It feels like an end of chapter. Where I have tied off whatever current loose ends there are my end concerning other dreams. The dream does not readily fit with any other sequence though it points at a time in life which I might choose to review {again}.

The dream opens with a woman sat on a chair. She is facing a large window in a room with high ceilings. The room is antique ornate but I know it to be present day. Around now. The chair she is sitting on is a wooden dining table chair with a red leather inlaid cushion. There are burnished dark metal tacks holding the leather cover to the cushion. She is sat with her hands in her lap and with a straight back. She has a pose of someone meditating. Though I know that she is dead. She has not long died.

I can see that she is my age or a little older. She is thin with close short curly grey hair. She is wearing a dark dress with a tiny inlaid bright coloured pattern. She is white and untanned. She has on a light grey knitted cardigan which has a small pattern in the knit. The cardigan is open. She has a small golden necklace and the bridge of her nose is accustomed to spectacles. She has died facing the window as she wished. Although dead she is still around and unsurprised to experience me. She is in Strasbourg in a room in a large house which belongs and has belonged to her family. There is wealth and history. She has known of her death for many months and is relieved at its arrival.

The scene changes and I am at arrivals at Strasbourg airport. As I pass through the gates I am met by three colleagues from the German police. There is a woman and two men. She is the senior officer. “I” have come to help them investigate the death. I can see the British policeman and through his eyes but I know that I am not him. We greet and head off into Germany and to the police station where an incident room has been set up. The woman who has died is very wealthy and the will contentious. Around “me” they are speaking a mixture of German and English. I say that provided they speak slowly German is fine by me.

On the table is a large ~ 30 cm lens / mirror it is convex and looks to have tiny fracture lines. They ask me to pick it up and place it on the table to clean. I do this placing it on a large blue plastic cloth. I start to gently rub the optic and it shatters into many pieces. My German colleagues react with a start. I apologise.

We then go back into Strasbourg. I will get some cash out to pay for the optic. Before we get there we pass a nightclub by the river. I say that the last time I was there I went into that club. They suggest that we go there for lunch. The driver pulls up and all four of us go into the club. The inside is not as I remembered. It has become red and a bit garish as opposed to traditional. We take a seat in a booth. The police woman asks me what happened when I was last in Strasbourg. I am unsure as to the timescale of her inquiry.

As the dream fades I am left with a fading image of the dead woman sat on her chair.

Coming to I recall two visits to Strasbourg in this life and know that it was not the train station which I arrived at. The last visit was at a European Semiconductor conference just before I flew from Zurich via Milan and Palermo to a conference in Erice.

Inspecting Budda Relics Dream – 22-01-2026

Here is last night’s dream which finished around 3 AM but which was subsequently revisited on going back to sleep.

The dream starts in a brightly lit room. There is a sense of subterranean of basement and of vault. The overhead light is bright like a fluorescent light but there is no hum. I am sat at a very large  lab-bench like table but which is large boardroom size. I am on the only chair in the room. The table is a work table for inspection of artefacts. It feels forensic and museum like. The air is treated for humidity and is slightly warm but dry.

The door opens and in walks a man and woman. They are younger than me and wearing a dark olive green curators uniform with trousers and short sleeve shirts. The uniforms have been immaculately pressed. They are both wearing white jeweller’s gloves. The woman has curly blonde hair held back in a clip and the man is dark haired. The man places an object in front of me. I know this to be a reliquary containing pieces of Buddha’s body or so the narrative goes. The box is the size of a tissue box. It is on four curved ornate legs which have an animal {query lion} foot finish. The whole thing is made out of an exquisite light yellow gold carved in a motif of India query Sri Lanka. The pattern is exquisite, fine. The box is surprisingly light. I know that it has a mechanism whereby the lid can be rotated to reveal two compartments. One of these is smaller than the other. Without opening the box I know that the compartments have a red “felt” lining. I inspect the box from the outside. The workmanship is impressive. The woman looks at me for permission and then picks the box up and together they leave the room.

They return. This time the woman is carrying a small cloth bundle. It is square shaped with a depth of a couple of inches. The cloth is folded over and over to make a parcel. She handles it with reverence. The cloths are heavy and exquisitely woven with a fine shiny silken thread running through it. There are layers of a purple-ish base fabric cloth and a rich red-magenta cloth. The cloth is luxury.  She places the bundle in font of me on the table. I know that it is Tibetan-Himalayan in origin and that it too contains a relic of the Buddha. I pick the bundle up and inspect it from all sides, paying particular attention to the bottom. I am holding it in both hands just above my head inspecting.

{This relic is “privately” owned and on loan.}

As I do this I see a “wall” to a room or cave. The wall is made of a grey sandy granular sedimentary rock. In my mind’s eye I touch the rock and it starts to crumble and flow away leaving a couple of small pillars about 20 cm tall. There is an opening in the wall about 40 cm wide and 20 cm tall with pillars of a few centimetres thickness and a void or opening behind. There is a sense of a store or a cache behind the wall. In the dream I know that in this space are other relics pertaining to Buddha and his corporeal. I can see that the cache extends to both the left and the right of the opening in the wall.

I return from the vision and place the unwrapped bundle back on the table. The man signals to me and I nod. He picks the bundle up and they leave the room.

They return and this time the man is carrying a clear plastic sample storage drawer. It is around 10 by 10 cm on the front face and has a depth of about 30 cm. There is a catalogue card with number and content written in German. There is an acquisition date and I understand it to be a museum piece kept under preserving conditions and attributed as a Buddha relic considered by some a part of Buddha. They place it on the table in front of me and nestled on a bed of tissue paper and with a moisture absorbing paper silica sack is a small bundle of jet black felt cloth held together with a thin golden drawstring. It is a small bundle.  

The man and the woman, the curators, stand back behind me one on either side of me and against the wall.

The dream ends.