Tag: #dreamyoga

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

——————————————-

Le rasoir d’Ockham ou rasoir d’Occam est un principe de raisonnement philosophique entrant dans les concepts de rationalisme et de nominalisme. Le terme vient de « raser » qui, en philosophie, signifie « éliminer des explications non nécessaires d’un phénomène » et du philosophe du XIVe siècle Guillaume d’Ockham.

Également appelé principe de simplicité, principe d’économie ou principe de parcimonie (en latin « lex parsimoniae »), il dispose d’une ancienne formulation :

    Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate

    (les multiples ne doivent pas être utilisés sans nécessité)

Dans le langage courant, le rasoir d’Ockham pourrait s’exprimer par les phrases : « L’explication la plus simple est généralement la bonne », ou : « Pourquoi faire compliqué quand on peut faire simple ? » Une formulation plus moderne est que « les hypothèses suffisantes les plus simples doivent être préférées (il faut et il suffit) ». C’est un des principes heuristiques fondamentaux en science, mais ce n’est ni un principe de départ ni un résultat scientifique.

Le principe fait appel à une simplicité en termes de nombre d’entités, de concepts ou d’hypothèses utilisés, et non en termes de complexité de leur combinaison, les deux se contredisant généralement : si vous avez une explication d’un phénomène par la combinaison de deux causes séparées, le principe incite à rechercher une cause unique plus profonde qui serait à l’origine des causes préalablement postulées, ce qui donnera finalement, en cas de succès, une construction plus complexe mais avec un nombre plus réduit d’hypothèses.

——————————————-

One of the interesting thoughts for me which pertains slightly to this blog relates to finding an internally consistent and comprehensive explanation as to the nature of the dreams I have had and which are archived in this blog. I would genuinely be interested to hear any explanation from the psychology / psychiatry profession which attempts to explain the scope of them. This specifically so given my prior training as a scientist and current life context as a relatively socially isolated retired person.

Those dreams which appear to point at previous incarnations can be discounted as merely dreams. There is no need to invoke the hypothesis of reincarnation. But saying things are just dreams is a bit of a handwaving dismissal. It is not entirely satisfactory.

Invocation of the single hypothesis of reincarnation renders explanation easier in context and does not require any complicated theorising as to just why or how come I dream about, inter alia, Buddhist themed, dreams. Inherent in this is a difficulty because it suggests that there needs to be some mechanism of transfer of memory between different lives, different incarnations. It raises the question as to what exactly is the nature of the “thing” which not only reincarnates but which is able to carry memory and recollection in the absence of a biological body. The neuroscientist is likely to prefer a brain and perhaps evolving synaptic scaffold construct to explain memory. Such a thing cannot exist beyond the soft wet matter of living humanity. There is no biological or biochemical hypothesis which can account for the notion of memory transfer between lives. The science fiction writer or scientifically inarticulate new-ager might say, “it is all in the DNA”.  If it were, it is not facile to explain how “Buddhist DNA” found its way to a small valley in the foothills of Snowdon. Yes my mother when tanned could pass for an Indian especially if she wore a bindi. But the DNA explanation does not really wash. My dad was ginger.

The easiest explanation is to blame an overactive imagination on my part which somehow breaks though during sleep. Perhaps there is a part of my deep sub-conscious which wants to be “special” and thereby invents some new DSM-5 type nocturnal mental disorder, the classification of which could be career enhancing for some psychologist or other. I have a form of delusional psychopathy which may or may not be common. After all who in their right mind would make dreams like mine public? Best kept secret to avoid public gaze. We can come up with the Whacko McNutjob persona.

The fact of the dreams and their recall are, at least to me, real. My speculation is that they are not “common or garden”.

This does not require the invocation of significance. I am just some bloke who happens to dream a lot. No biggie…

Provided that they are not significant there is no wider problem or issue.

If however we invoke, even tentatively, a putative wider significance, a gamut of implications might surface. A similarity to mystical vision and quasi-religious imagery can be drawn. In some circles that is significant in terms of context and perhaps faith. The follow on question might be, “why does someone who, was for a short while, deep in the UK based science community have such phenomena?”. This community being the self-assigned debunker of myths and pseudoscience. “Bah!!”

One could say that weird stuff happens, end of story. It  / he is just an anomaly.

The easiest hypothesis is that the hundreds of dreams archived here are all “just some shit that I made up”. The follow on to this is that I must therefore have at least some imagination and persistent inventiveness. One could counter with the deep philosophical argument, “you just can’t make shit like this up!” I am not sure as to what the motive might be for this inventiveness though others could speculate freely. Maybe I am simply an attention seeker. Maybe it is all some big game to make people question the extent and wider applicability of their self-diagnosed omniscience.

For me it is just habit. If I have a dream which I can recall and am lucid in, when I get up of a morning,  I type it up in Word.  I sometimes make a short note on a post it before typing. There are close to 100 dreams in 2025.

I personally have no strong need to pick an explanation and have that as a definite. A part of the art of dreaming is to enjoy the unknown and the partially or poorly explained.

I can see multiple implications which will almost certainly never manifest. Life circumstance does not support these weekly possible trajectories. There is nothing I can do about it.

I could say something groovy…

The coalescence of the dreaming onto and into the physical plane is not easy. Surprisingly little, though nascent in dreaming, makes it through into the “agreed” and “shared” physical plane realties.

He is just a feckless dreamer, head in the clouds…

–

–

Each of us make our own versions of reality not all of which are entirely apt.

Socks on – no crutches…

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

———-

It’s a Mystery

–

Somewhere in the distance

Hidden from view

Suspended in the atmosphere

Waiting to come through

–

Toyah

Written by: KEITH HALE

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Downtown Music Publishing, Kassner Associated Publishers Ltd

———————————–

This morning a little after 7 AM I did something that I have not been able to do for many months, I put both my socks on, all by myself. The socks are so-called diabetic socks which means that the elastic is not overly tight. The socks are designed to limit need for amputation and are loose. But I managed it with little or no drama.

Yesterday afternoon less than two weeks after surgery I was walking up and down our living room without any crutches whatsoever. I probably did some 40 metres without any crutch. Now I have to be careful to not learn an accentuated limp.

Not bad for two weeks…everyone seems mildly surprised at just how quickly progress is being made. If you would have asked me to bet on it, walking in two weeks, I would not have made a significant wager.

Long may it continue.

Last night I had a dream with a couple of people from my undergraduate chemistry cohort in. The dream also referred to a very specific date and cross referenced another dream also with a specific date. Why I have eighteenth century dates in dreams has no obvious explanation. It is a bit of a mystery perhaps related to the time-walker thread…

During the night the smoke detector started to beep. I can say that taking a smoke detector off from high on the wall when perched on a spiral staircase and unplugging the battery whilst recovering from hip surgery mildly trolleyed due to codeine is not ideal. New battery now fitted and smoke detector is back in place.

Anyway the guys from the hunt are here and hopefully they will deal with the wild boar situation…

Post Anaesthesia – Insomnia – UK Shenanigans – US Security Services Dream 02-12-2025

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Still struggling to get a decent night’s seep. I am on a protocol of Zopiclone and 500/30 paracetamol codeine before bed. I have long been aware that my per kilogram body mass ability to handle alcohol and cannabis was at the higher end of the spectrum. I can still function when others might not. The attempts to sleep might be hindered by a state of “vigilance” and I am building up a psychological conditioning in which I do not want to try to go to bed. This is not healthy. In the “pharmacy” there are a number of synthetic and non-synthetic “narcotics” which I might use. At the moment the dosage is minimal, a maximum of 60mg codeine a night. This sleeping is clearly the thing I want to ameliorate now.

The morning’s dreams are in two segments. The first I would characterise as very boring and very old hat. Yawn.

The scene opens in UK research council offices. People known to me from the late eighties, the nineties and early two thousands. The people are exclusively London and South East based are conspiring amongst themselves about me. They, whilst pretending to be my friends, are undermining me and otherwise plotting and whispering amongst themselves. They have a fear of being found out and exposed. They are stuck and badly so. At the time they thought that the plotting was clever even cunning. They are now less convinced of this and far less amused by it. They are worried. In the dream they imagine they can interact with me in the same way as they once did. They are arrogant and complacent. They have no idea of the extent to which I have changed. In the dream I am bored that the same old shit is again being presented. I know that what they may deem important is ultra petty and trivial to me.

I awake it is around 6 AM. I have a loo break going back to bed assuming that I will not sleep.

The wife and I are walking through an airport. We have already cleared customs and border check. It is a huge airport in America. {Query Denver} There are shops and food concessions on either side. The wife pops into a shop. I continue along the corridor and a tall woman in dark navy cop like uniform stops me. She has immaculately ironed grey trousers and a paramilitary shirt. She is armed and has her long black hair in a tight pony-tail. She addresses me by name, “Dr Taylor can we have a word with you in private?”

“Yes, what about my wife?”

“My colleague will look after her. You are not being detained, we would just like a word.”

She ushers us off through an identity pass on lanyard secure door and into what looks like a high technology operations room. She ushers me down the corridor into a glass walled cubicle / office. All the while she is chatting with me in an accomplished and highly skilled manner. She is a pleasure to be with. She has a mild west coast accent and is very high functioning. I can tell that they are taking multiple images of me and she asks if I would mind giving a blood sample. I have nothing to hide.

I say that she is not what she at first seems to be and is probably secret service. She agrees that she is. I ask her if I can have a look at my file. She says that she cannot think of a reason why not and pulls up a chair her side of the desk. She shows me image after image of me reaching back decades. There are some from Tokyo some from Santa Clara and even some from Brittany France. I comment that they have been busy. She says with some pride that this is what they do. I ask her if there is anything else she wants to know. No. She looks at my passport and identity card, scans them. She gives me another card which is of US origin. It is for me to use, if needed, during our stay. It is high end official. If in doubt just show this card.

She then ushers me back to the main terminal where the wife is waiting. The wife asks and I say that US secret service have just taken a blood sample and have had me under surveillance for a very long time.

The dream ends and I gingerly role over onto my back. It is a little after 7 AM.

Disruptive Technology – Legal Threat – Entrepreneurship Dream – 29-11-2025

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Here is this morning’s dream had between 6.36 and 7.39 AM. I had changed my pain killer regime to co-codamol and managed to have the first half-decent night’s sleep since the hip operation a week ago. This seems totally out of the blue.

The dream opens in a steeply banked auditorium of a high end spa type posh conference centre. The room is filled with people for an open panel discussion quasi “Chatham House”. The participants are multinational and largely men. There is a mix of suits, entrepreneurs and scientists. The average age  is significantly lower than me, 30-40s. The conference centre is perched on a river valley wall some height up from the river. It is European possibly Scottish, mountainous or hilly. I know that the fishing in the river for salmon is good. On the screen at the front of the hall is a projection with the headline “Disruptive Technologies” and the tag line “Threats and Opportunities”.

I am sat to the back of the auditorium high up near the fire exit on the right hand side when viewing the screen. To the bottom left near the from there is a gaggle of people known to each other. One of them is surveying the audience and taking notes of who is attending. He catches my eye and I his. He does not recognise me and he turns to an older colleague. He too looks at me and they have a brief discussion. The older man recognises me.

As the session finishes the audience files out from the bottom left. A dark haired man with well parted hair comes up towards me. He is wearing a very expensive English tailored overcoat in wool or cashmere. It has black lapels. He is carrying a small leather wallet style brief case. He offers me his card in a posh clipped English accent. It is a small high class card with raised embossed name Lamour or Lamor written upon. In much smaller font is “& associates” together with a central London address. He belongs to a high-end high-net worth client legal practice. I am surprised as to why he has approached me. He says that “we noted you in the audience”. He goes on to inquire as to why I am there, what I am doing and what projects I have in the pipeline. I say that I do not know why I am there and that I have nothing whatsoever going on. He goes on to say that “we” will resist anything you try to do and put obstacles in the way. There is a sense of “establishment” possible government behind him. The “We” is English. I ask him if he is threatening me. He says that it is up to me how I view this but I could choose to view this in that way should I choose.

A bit flummoxed by this I decide to try to find out what is going on. I leave the hotel and note a small incubator business office space perched upon a bridge over the river. I arrange a rent free loan of an office and go down under the bridge. I meet As. I say to him that I need to show him something. Under the bridge and among  the renovation is an old public urinal. I say to As that this is where my grandfather (Harry) told me that he had won the lottery. We go back to rental office. News has gotten around the incubator that I have “rented” office space. The incubator is affiliated to a local university. They ask if they can announce my arrival in their weekly magazine / gazette. I say that I would rather not be public and playing along with the context I say that I would prefer to be submarine for the time being. The facilities manager comes in. She says that they may experience some external pressure. I say that I have already noted an alternate supply of energy and water. I take her down to the under bridge toilet and say that I can tap water and electricity from there. I show her the urinal and say that this is where my grandfather told me he had won the lottery. Despite my asking I can see that my arrival has been leaked in the online gazette.

As is keen to get started and I say first we need a “Photonics Buyer’s Guide” and a  rundown of the latest VC photonics deals. We try to source these and place them on the shelves in the office. I decide to do a background search on the legal firm “Lamour” my guess is that there will be little available. It is a word of mouth kind of outfit.

I am back in an hotel room with the facilities manager and As. Our hotel is more like a hiking bunkhouse and we are all in sleeping bags on one “shelf”. The facilities manger comes over for a hug and then goes back to her bag. As does too and we hug bare chest to bare chest. He draws strength and comfort and says that whatever it is I need him to do he will do it. He is glad to have found me again. He goes back to his sleeping bag and the light in the room fades.

I think to myself that was weird. “Why would a bunch of posh suits be interested in what I am doing?”

The dream ends.

Footnote : the geezer in the overcoat has some similarity to Marc Rubio.

Reset – Peaceful Warrior – Healing Dream 27-11-2025

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Here is this morning’s dream had after a bit of OxyNormORO morphine to help with pain. From around 5 AM. Prior to the dream I have been contemplating on what the post-operative reset might be like. What was going on before the operation is distant and what may lay ahead is unclear. I am half anticipating a complete reset / rescale.

The dream starts with me wandering around Brixton London where I used to live. I bump into Ben G whom I have not seen for more than 25 years. He is dressed in a suit and looks stressed out and busy. I suggest that we go into the pub {Prince of Wales} opposite the Ritzy cinema. {I did in fact bang into him around here many years ago}. We go in and start having a chat. He starts to thank me for the help and caring I gave in the past. He says that some of the things I said to him have stood him in good stead during times of trouble. I say that I have a good idea of the book that will help him now. It is “The Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Milman. * I say that I will meet him for coffee later in the week near where he works in the city and bring the book for him. He is pleased to have re-made acquaintance as am I.

The scene changes and I am heading up Brixton hill to a multiple occupancy building like my old flat. I open the front door and the scene is chaotic with multiple people coming and going there. There are two women reminiscent of people from Science outreach, Melanie and Jody. As usual they are “all over the shop”. They want to show me how they have renovated the building. We go into various flats and I politely say “um, yes that is nice”. We go back into my flat and they want to make an appointment to meet later on. I say that I cannot that I am ill, I think it might be pneumonia. They don’t hear nor understand how ill I am. I shoo them off with a promise to call.

I go back into my “flat” it is largely not unpacked. Stuff is in boxes. In the garden out back there is a pond / open water swimming pool. I meet Russell Crowe there and we are sat chatting in the water. He says that he is struggling with his alcohol problems. I say that I have not drunk in near a year and that is was a never a problem for me in the usual way. For me it was all about boredom. He does not believe me. We sit there for a while enjoying the summer sunset.

I go back to my flat and start to look for the telephone number for the GP. I can’t find my address book. I am pretty sure that the Brixton Hill practice will have a number on line. I am reminded of Dr “Depardieu” who helped me in the mid-90s.  I find the number and call for an appointment. I am resolved to take some time out just for myself and let everybody else deal with their own worries.

The dream ends

* In “The Peaceful Warrior” which was a gateway book for me, Dan an arrogant Berkley gymnast bumps into a spiritual mentor “Socrates” who tries to get him to be real and to “take out the trash”. Dan being a bit of a bellend ends up crashing his motor cycle and badly fracturing his leg. Dan goes through an intensive recovery which tests his mettle and ends up competing at the highest level. Dan has to overcome his self-importance and impatience.

Anaesthetic Recovery Room – Tibetan Temple Dream 21-11-2025

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Here is Friday’s dream had around 14:00 – 15:00 hours CET time as I transferred out of operating theatre after hip replacement surgery and into the post operative recovery room.

I had the distinct sensation of being in a Tibetan style temple at a monastery or other religious centre. The inside of the building consists of a main chamber and a smaller “sanctum” or “sanctuary” at the back. The main building has mats on either side of and aisle leading up towards the sanctum. The floor level in the sanctum is higher than the main building. The ceiling is lower. The “wall” going down from the higher main building ceiling to that of the sanctum is very white. It is decorated in whirling relief design top and bottom. The designs form a row at the top and bottom of the partition. There is a sense that they are or have been golden. The craftsmanship is exquisite. For a Tibetan themed place, it is surprisingly light and airy.

Sat in rows either side of the aisle in the main building are monks in largely magenta robes. There are around twenty of them all special invitees. They are roughly equally spaced either side of the aisle.

In the sanctum there are two raised boxes / benches aligned perpendicular to the monk’s rows. These boxes are higher and decorated in fancy cloths or hangings. Looking into the sanctum are three monastics sat to the left and three people to the right. The one on the right furthest from the main room is me. Everyone else is wearing Buddhist ceremonial hats, yellow. I alone have no headgear. I understand the others to be high lamas. I am dressed in magenta robes.

At the back of the sanctum facing out into the main building is an even higher box / throne upon which is sat a chunky Tibetan man in more yellow / gold robes with the yellow ceremonial Gelug hat. He is younger than me. His robes are brocade and he is Karmapa. I am closest to Karmapa.

There is incense in the air and chanting. I know it to be of Tibetan flavour because of “benza” as in “om benza pani hung”  the chanting also has heart sutra, guru Rinpoche and medicine buddha to go with the Vajrapani. The “Benza” is very distinctive. The medicine buddha is for me.

As I come to, I expect to find myself in the temple but am actually in a high specification operating theatre recovery room with lots of kit and women younger than me in blue scrubs. I am disoriented and genuinely surprised. It takes a while to adjust.

The experience fades into normal post operative routines.

Massive Dreaming Symbol – Omen

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

When the universe attempts to catch your attention it can do so in some unmissable ways. On Friday the wife dropped me off at a new private hospital for my hip operation and returned home to wait. I was due in for ~10:30 AM. It was slightly icy on the outward journey

When she got back to our house there was a big to do and someone had flipped their car over into our drive.

–

–

The downward slope is our drive. This kind of thing is hard to miss. It stands out.

A car is the dreaming symbol for state of awareness (vehicle) . Someone unknown to us had flipped their state of awareness over into our drive. House is the dreaming symbol for view of the world. So just outside or very close to our view of the world someone had rolled over and otherwise flipped their view of the world, turned it on its head, completely.

No one was badly hurt but it made me wonder if other people, perhaps in a plural sense, had had their state of awareness with respect to us {me} flipped on the head.

We may never know…

A dream had while I was coming round from anaesthetic follows.

Land Title – Medical Exam – Fox Island – Bern Dream 19-11-2025

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Here is this morning’s dream.

The dream opens with me sat in an office, part real estate part solicitor. I am sat the other side of the desk to the person whose office it is. He is checking with me if I made inquiries into land titles. He has a mild Aussie accent. I say that yes I made an online inquiry into land to which my father once held title at the Queensland registry office a while back. He says that they are sorry that the search took so long but they are following up on two properties one in the Cairns area and one in Brisbane. He asks to see some identification documents which I show him. He says that he will get back to me soon. He thinks that the Cairns property might still belong to our family.

The scene changes and I am in an ultra modern hospital facility sat in a technical chair. I am with a young male doctor and a young female doctor. They are both wearing lab coats. Together with them is a technician. We are speaking in a mixture of French and English moving between according to our availability of vocabulary. We are in France. They are testing the function of my right lung only. I am being asked to exhale only from that lung and to cough only from that lung. I do this and they are very surprised at the result the lung is functioning way better than they thought. I am coughing up a clear white sputum which they suck with vacuum into a jar. I explain that I have not been coughing much because of the opium painkiller I am taking. They say it is time to take a break for lunch and that they will continue with the left lung later. In the meantime they ask if I will do an ecological survey of the island upon which the hospital finds itself. The hospital is on a hillock reached by a causeway well into a lake. It is a bit like a castle in construction.

I step out of the hospital and into the wooded hillock. They are particularly interested in the fox population. Because I am so quiet I do not disturb the foxes. I come upon one after the other who have demarcated their terrain, their patch, with droppings. I know that they have done this to prevent conflict. I count foxes noting their state of health and big fluffy tails. They are all well. I go down the hillside towards the water and am joined by the ninth fox who trots along by me. He is escorting me off the island and into the water. As I near the water we are charged by a manky tatty old billy goat. I grab him by the horns and lead him into the lake. He continues to try to butt me. But I swim out with the goat by his horns until he is out of his depth. The fox watches on. The goats swims back to land. I swim around the island to where the causeway joins the hospital and there is a small quay and entrance door into the hospital. I am cold from the water and knock the door. A health assistant helps me up and in. She offers me a towel. I come into the building and pick up a brown chocolatey drink from the vending machine. She directs me back to the clinic.

I arrive back and sit in the chair where I am joined by the doctors. They try my drink and like it. I explain that I got it from the vending machine at lake level. I comment that the fox population looks well and healthy. They are now going to start on my left lung. They want to know where to forward the results to. I say that I will be in Switzerland and we can find a Francophone hospital for them to forward my results to. I suggest Fribourg because that is just over the language frontier. There is a CHU (centre hospitalier universitaire) there. I ask them to put Bern into Google maps so that we can look for other French speaking hospitals. I see the large CHU at Bern on the map and say that they will speak French English and German there so there is probably no need to find a specifically French hospital. The young female doctor concurs. She is happy to send her write up to Bern which I can see from the map is quite close to where I live in the city. She says that she had a friend in Geneva and visited Bern a number of times.

The dream ends and I think, “well, the medical theme is not surprising given what is scheduled.”