Complex Subtle Reasoning and Precise Relevant Recollections in a Single Dream

Many believe that dreams are like hallucinations, consisting only of chaotic, random, meaningless content, with themes, characters and locales very rapidly changing. Such an idea about dreams has been contrary to my own experience in the past fifteen months. During those months my dreams seem to have been remarkably non-random, with themes of danger, death and life after death occurring with astonishing frequency.  There has been another theme that has recurred over a hundred times in my dreams during the past year, one I have not publicly mentioned because it involves a private matter. 

Another strange thing about my dreams recently is the occasional occurrence of long, coherent, realistic dreams involving either symbolism or some complex philosophical theme. I will describe an uncanny example that occurred today.  The statements below include only details that I wrote down on a notepad in the middle of the night, immediately after having the dream. 

As the dream began, I found myself as some employee of a company that was going to do some television show on people who think there is evidence of design and purpose in the universe and in biology. In the dream I was put on a team to handle this project, and everyone else thought that such people should be treated very negatively. I started out by saying that there must be balance and fairness in the show, and that the only way to do that is to have long statements from those advocating for and against the position being discussed. 

Finding myself facing those completely hostile to the idea of purpose and teleology in biology, I attempted in the dream to show that my opponents were ignorant on the topic of biological complexity. In the dream I asked each of them whether they knew roughly how many types of protein molecules there are in a human body. None could answer correctly. Recalling accurately, I said in the dream that the answer was roughly 20,000. I then asked each of my opponents whether they could tell how many types of cells are in the human body. None of them could answer correctly. Recalling accurately, I told them in the dream the number was about 200. I suggested their ignorance on such topics proved they knew little on the topic of biological complexity. 

Having completed this series of two related questions, I then in the dream moved on to another series of two related questions. First I asked my opponents the question of whether it is scientific for people to search deep space for evidence of extraterrestrials. One of my opponents answered no, and the rest answered yes. I said in the dream that it is indeed scientific to search in deep space for signs of extraterrestrials, and that many astronomers do this.  

Then in the dream I asked my opponents whether it was scientific to search in nature for signs that nature was designed, or that something in nature was designed. I was drawing a subtle comparison between the activities of two very different groups of people, a comparison that is quite reasonable.  Consider some SETI radio astronomer searching for signs of extraterrestrial radio signals.  Radio waves of many frequencies occur naturally in space. The SETI radio astronomer is someone looking in these products of nature (radio waves), hoping to find something too improbable to have occurred by chance (something such as very modulated radio waves suggesting some intelligent arrangement).  The activity of such a radio astronomer is very similar to some person who scans the products of earthly biology, looking for things that are too improbable to have occurred by chance.  The activity of such a radio astronomer is also very similar to some person studying the physics laws and fundamental constants of nature, looking for lucky fine-tuning that is too improbable to be credibly attributed to chance.  

The motivation behind these two questions was clear. I was attempting to establish that far from engaging in something contrary to the spirit of science, those who look for (and possibly identify) items in nature that look designed by some higher power are very comparable to astronomers looking for signs of intelligent life in distant space.  Just as it is scientific activity to scrutinize radio signals looking for something that looks like the product of willful intention, it is also scientific activity to scrutinize the laws and fundamental constants of nature looking for something that looks like the product of willful intention; and it is also scientific activity to scrutinize the vast organization and very high functional complexity of biological systems looking for something that looks like the product of willful intention.  If some astronomer were to announce that he had found something that he thinks is the product of design by extraterrestrials, he would not suddenly stop acting in a scientific way by making such an announcement. And if some student of our universe's habitability and biological complexity were to announce he was now persuaded he had found evidence of purposeful teleology, he would not suddenly have started thinking unscientifically by making such a claim. 

The point is a debatable one, but beyond doubt such reasoning is an example of very complex subtle reasoning: attempting to draw a procedural similarity between the actions of two very different groups of people (radio astronomers and teleology theorists). Exactly such reasoning seemed to be occurring in my dream.   What is astonishing is the uncanny realism of the conversation that went on in the dream. Somehow in a single dream I managed to show knowledge of all of these things:

• that there are a group of people who think there is design and purpose in the universe and biology;
• that such people are passionately opposed and denounced by certain other people;
• that the correct way to do a fair and balanced TV documentary is to have interviews with the best proponents of conflicting opinions on some topic, quoting their statements at length;
• that the number of different types of protein molecules in the human body is approximately 20,000;
• that the number of different types of cells in the human body is about 200;
• that there are scientists who search for intelligent life in outer space by looking for designed things within nature;
• that a parallel can be drawn between the activity of such scientists and those looking for design in nature by studying the universe and biology.

How such knowledge and subtle complex reasoning could have popped up in a dream is beyond me.  After having a dream like this, a person may have a tendency to think that the dream came from some source beyond his brain. 

Postscript: On June 24, 2022 I had a dream similar to the dream described above. In the dream I was in a biology class. The teacher asked someone to explain the genetic code, and a student explained it. I then asked, "But how did so accidentally unachievable a result arise?" 

The genetic code is a representation code used by all living things, a system by which particular triple combinations of nucleotide base pairs represent particular amino acids. After asking the question above in my dream, I then in my dream started to discuss an analogy. Suppose, I said, there were to be discovered some symbolic system on the moon, by which some little row of three rocks of a particular size stood for one thing, and some other little row or column  of four rocks of a particular size stood for some other thing, and so forth. Suppose there was somehow a large body of knowledge represented according to such a system of representation. Would we not conclude that this was accidentally unachievable, and evidence of design? The analogy (which had never occurred to me before, and which I had never heard anyone state) is an appropriate one. The genetic code used by living things does indeed resemble the system of representations that I imagined someone discovering on the moon.  This was another dream displaying complex subtle reasoning of very considerable philosophical sophistication. 

Post-postscript: On January 2, 2023 I had a dream similar to the dreams described above. I dreamed I was arguing with my brother about whether paranormal phenomena exist and whether the mind can be explained by the brain. In the dream I cited quite a few facts that were pertinent to my argument that the mind must be something beyond explanation by a brain. I mentioned correctly several exact details of one of the most impressive ESP experiments ever run, the Riess remote test described here. I mentioned the low reliability of synaptic signal transmission, and the high turnover rate of synaptic proteins, which have an average lifetime of less than two weeks. The points I was bringing up in the dream were all very pertinent to the case I was making, and the accuracy of my recall was remarkable. Upon awakening from this dream, I saw that the clock on my sound machine was displaying numbers in an abnormally faded away, an anomaly that disappeared when I woke up for the last time in the morning. 

Post-post-postscript: On January 28, 2024 I had a dream similar to the dreams described above.  In the dream I was in a bookstore, telling a child about the evidence for cosmic fine-tuning. I started out by saying that even though each proton has a mass 1836 times greater than the mass of each electron, each proton has a charge that is the very precise opposite of the charge of each electron. I am quite sure I stated this exact statement in my dream.  Then I explained why such an exact balance is necessary.  I explained that the fundamental force of electromagnetism is gigantically greater than the fundamental force of gravitation, so that even a tiny imbalance in our planet's electrical charges would mean our planet would not hold together. While making this point, someone to my side used the term "transcendental numbers." 

I had a very similar dream on March 27, 2024.  In the dream I was telling my brother about the evidence for cosmic fine-tuning. I mentioned that the charge on every proton is the exact opposite of the charge on every electron. 

Post-post-post-postscript: On August 27, 2024 I had another dream involving complex subtle reasoning and precise relevant recall. I dreamed I was called in to talk to some university professor. We stood in front of a blackboard. I started making an argument for the idea that the brain is not the source of the mind. First I mentioned the unreliability of synaptic transmission. I mentioned that signals pass across synapses with a reliability of only 50%, which is a fact of neuroscience. I said this unreliable synaptic transmission is incompatible with the ability of humans to recall with perfect accuracy large bodies of information. As an example of such an ability, I mentioned the ability of some Moslem scholars to recall the entire Quran, a work of more than 6000 verses. In the dream I correctly recalled that the Quran has more than 6000 verses. 

Post-post-post-post-postscript: On September 23, 2024, I had a dream that displayed precise and accurate recall of three facts.  In my dream I stood before Steve Jobs (the co-founder of Apple), and I stated something very much like this:

"I have a vision of the future. You will become incredibly rich. You will develop a new type of computer and a new type of operating system."

If you interpret the dream as being set around 1975, the vision of the future is precisely accurate. Jobs did become incredibly rich. Jobs did develop two new types of computers (the original Apple and the Macintosh), and both had its own new type of operating system. 

https://futureandcosmos.blogspot.com/2022/07/120types-of-paranormal-or-anomalous.html