dreaming

When we lose our dreams we lose our self
"Unclose your mind.
You are not a prisoner.
You are a bird in flight, searching the skies for dreams."
Haruki Murakami (Hard-boiled wonderland and THE END OF THE WORLD)

We dream 24 hours a day. Only during our waking hours we push them aside. A dream is perhaps the most powerful motivation man has. Dreams can be an ideal one tries to realize. Dreams are also our most impressive connection with the unconscious. Dreams relate to happenings occurred and tell us how we dealt with them; what was good, what was bad. They give us information about our patterns and habits and therefore also foretell things to happen. Many of the things we do 'consciously' are motivated by 'unconscious' dreams. When we have had a bad dream our day starts badly. The Old Testament gives ample proof of the power of dreams and man's tendency to deny them.
The magazine New Scientist once asked some 2000 scientists if they ever solved problems in their sleep. Over 80% replied that they often went 'to sleep' on a problem. The solution came to them directly or indirectly in the morning. Our brains continue to work during our sleep and many people realize that when they go 'to sleep' on a problem, the solution is with them in the morning.

In dreams begin responsibilities....
W.B. Yeats

So it is with our dreams. After collecting information consciously our brain continues to work on them and 'reports' to us in our dreams. The difficulty is to 'read' the reports. Some experience can be gained by trying it out with day-dreaming. It means just letting one's thoughts go without any conscious effort (cf. imagining). Quite often visual pictures about any problems consciously stored and at the time being studied may be seen from different angles and very uncommon associations may come about.
The Bailey bridge was designed by an army general walking in the woods when his attention was drawn to ants crossing a ditch. He had the particular situation 'at the back of his mind' and then his attention was drawn and the association made.
Dreaming can be a form of wishful thinking, helping to make the wish come true. By the way, nature gives much help for anyone looking at it. Both caterpillar and spider have given man examples of how to move and how to construct, respectively. A theme worked out by Gyorgy Doczi in his illuminating book The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art and Architecture. He coined the new term 'Dinergy' from the Greek dia - meaning 'across, through, opposite', and energeia - energy. Dinergy or dinergic energy is the 'creative energy of organic growth'. It relates to the dynamic and synergetic union of opposites, which is an essential characteristic of the pattern-forming process found in the development and structure of all life forms. In his book Doczi brilliantly documents the pattern-forming process as it occurs in nature. And how nature is reflected in art, architecture and even lifestyles.

creativity > using nature as a catalyst