The ultimate prompt
In his First Meditation, René Descartes—considered the first modern philosopher and scientist—argues that there is no verifiable difference between dreams and reality, yet critics point out that a sleeper cannot credibly claim so; this classic problem could be resolved by asking Dreamprompter any of these questions: “Am I dreaming?”, “Please show me that I am awake”, “How can I prove dreams are real—or that reality is a dream?” The challenge is explored in Philosophical Essays on Dreaming, edited by Charles E. M. Dunlop, Cornell University Press, 1977. If your experiment provides interesting answers, please let us know!
A sonorous dream
Walking along an empty street—no road, but not urban—a greeting rings out from behind one of its low courtyard walls, “Hallo, restif!” Uncertain which language but guessing “restless” (rather apropos), I peer over the stone blocks and see a man lying in mud, who says, “This is an ancient practice” . . . all accompanied by the apocalyptic “O Fortuna”, from Carl Orff’s cantata, Carmina Burana, regrettably unheard by me for at least six decades.
Forensic somnolence
What confounding curiosities sleep offers! Scarcely one for such a question, my deceased father asks: “What do your dreams omit?” Unsure if he means a literal list—flamingoes, another planet, rebirth—I wake quite surprised: is anything defined by presocratic antithesis, a reverse Rorschach, or absolute inclusiveness . . . the existential it? Anyway, we were overjoyed to see each other as if long apart (sadly true); tonight, full alert!
Reflections on dreaming
Whatever my early sleepscapes, all that linger are typical childhood nightmare effects—infrequent but their impact frightful, doubtless threat simulation theory’s emergent proof as an innate defense mechanism. But imaginative exposure to fairy tales and especially the John Tenniel engravings for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (O, Jabberwock!) figured prominently, as did W. W. Denslow’s Wizard of Oz sketches (airborne Dorothy!), perhaps influence for my young philatelic obsession (artworks in miniature, forecast of global travel), painterly efforts, the lifetime inventive output—written or otherwise.
By teenage an occasional precognitive episode astonished—phrases and images appearing days after dreamt—yet vivid recall of felt drama in intricate detail soon told me to take the night’s vivid narratives as if real . . . an aberrant perspective among moderns; intermittent research over decades lent fact to fancy: quantum physics was more and more consonant (if pricier) with paleolithic, presocratic, and remnant tribal cultures . . . science nigh art, a heartheaded homecoming here, richer dreams resultant.
In 2000, years of notes and natters came together, an interactive dream theory then piloted to product, that process now incarnate in Dreamprompter, my sleep further benefiting; yours can, too . . .
