Notable dreams throughout history

On several occasions throughout history dreams have been credited for causing very important events. This includes problem solving, decision making, and apparent Precognition while dreaming. This phenomena has been variously interpreted.

Notable dreams

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was inspired by a dream:"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous Creator of the world."ref|shel

The sewing machine

Elias Howe invented the sewing machine in 1845. He had the idea of a machine with a needle which would go through a piece of cloth but he couldn't figure out exactly how it would work. Cannibals were preparing to cook him and they were dancing around the fire waving their spears. Howe noticed at the head of each spear there was a small hole through the shaft and the up and down motion of the spears and the hole remained with him when he woke. The idea of passing the thread through the needle close to the point, not at the other end was a major innovation in making mechanical sewing possible. ref|sew

Descartes' new science

Descartes claimed that the dreams that he had on November 10, 1619, revealed to him the basis of a new philosophy, the scientific method.ref|des

Benzene

The scientist Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the seemingly impossible chemical structure of benzene (C₆H₆) when he had a dream of a group of snakes swallowing their tails.ref|kekul

DNA

James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) because of a dream Watson had imagining a series of spiral staircases.

Explanations

As Divination
A way of understanding this phenomenon is that some dreams are messages from a god, or the future. This belief has been held by many military leaders (such as Hannibal) who planned battles from dreams, and Descartes, who changed the course of his life after his scientific dream. According to Carl Jung [Jung, C.G., “On the Nature of the Psyche” , Princeton University Press, 1960] , psychic energy might be operative.

An early -and perhaps the first formal- inquiry into this phenomenon was done by Aristotle in his On Divination in Sleep. His criticism of these claims appeals to the fact that "the sender of such dreams should be God", and "the fact that those to whom he sends them are not the best and wisest, but merely commonplace persons." Thus "Most [so-called prophetic] dreams are, however, to be classed as mere coincidences".ref|aris

Subconscious
The psychological role that dreams play is not fully understood. These events have been interpreted as evidence that dreams play some sort of organizing function, sorting out thoughts had during the day. This theory suggests that dreaming is an “unlearning process" in which our brains bring up material to be thrown out like a computer attempting to clean itself of things we do not need to remember.That is, the subconscious organizes things, solves these problems, and then communicates them to the individual via a dream. (see Dream interpretation)The hypnagogic state is sometimes proposed as a specific explanation of experiences such as alien abduction, apparitions, or visions.

As coincidence
Another way to describe this phenomenon is to claim that dreams are random, but the individuals have been lucky enough to interpret their dreams in an allegorical way relevant to a problem they need to solve.Dream researcher Ernest Hartman comments on current dream theories proposed by biologists. One such theory suggests that dreams are basically random nonsense and are the product of a poorly functioning brain during sleep. If there is any meaning to dreams, it is added on later as our brains try to make the best of a bad job.

Thus the predictive value of dreams is moot. [Hartman, Ernest, MD, “Biology of Dreaming”, Charles C. Thomas Publications Ltd, 1997] [Hartman, Ernest, MD, “Boundaries In The Mind” New York, Basic Books, 2002]

Dreams which appear to be precognitive may in fact be the result of the "Law of Large Numbers". Robert Todd Carroll, author of "The Skeptic's Dictionary" put it this way::"Say the odds are a million to one that when a person has a dream of an airplane crash, there is an airplane crash the next day. With 6 billion people having an average of 250 dream themes each per night, there should be about 1.5 million people a day who have dreams that seem clairvoyant." [ [http://skepdic.com/lawofnumbers.html Law of Truly Large Numbers ] ] In his book "The Interpretation of Dreams", first published at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not and devoid of psychic content. In his discussions with Carl Jung, he referred to parapsychology and precognition as “nonsensical.”

ee also

*Tetris effect

References

* Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, from her introduction to "Frankenstein"
* A Popular History of American Invention. (Waldemar Kaempffert, ed.) Vol II, New York Scribner's Sons, 1924
* [http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=AOP.014.0163A http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=AOP.014.0163A]
* cite journal| author=F. A. Kekulé| title= Benzolfest: Rede|journal =Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft|volume = 23| year=1890| pages=1302–11| url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k90720c/f1304.chemindefer
* [http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/prophesying.html On Divination in Sleep]
* [http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/famous-dreams.htm]