Is Dreaming an Encryption Procedure?

[Michael McMahon]

"Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories (memories of situations or events) before the age of two to four years, as well as the period before the age of ten of which some older adults retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time. The development of a cognitive self is also thought by some to have an effect on encoding and storing early memories."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia

If we can't remember a section of our life then our decisions can't be mentally determined by it. It might be possible to still be physically deterministic like the brain were a computer but the example does show that we can't be currently deterministic relative to the contents of our younger conscious and subconscious. We're like an entirely different person than our younger selves. I'm not aged 80 but I imagine they must feel like a new person relative to their 20-year-old self. They say time gets faster when we get older but we could also interpret that sensation to mean our sense of self changes faster. When I was a young teenager I probably felt emotionally very similar as a 15 year old to when I was 10; not in the sense of my knowledge but in the sense of a continuous progression of my education and life goals. When I was 15 I still had a lot of memory of my 10-year old self simply because school is so time-consuming and educationally challenging such that it becomes memorable and indelible. Contrastingly at 25 I felt even more different to myself as a 20 year old even though I'd similar knowledge and emotional skills. I don't have the same sense of continuity seeing as I can't fully remember much of what happened when I was 20 unless I slowly scrutinised my memory and looked at photos. We can't recall 365 days of previous years and our immediate memory of such a huge extent of time might at best be the equivalent to 20 minutes worth of imagery in our mind's eye. I wasn't as challenged as a 20 year old compared to me as a 10 year old because my skill-level increased proportionately more than the extent of difficulties between the ages in order to meet the demands of life. The challenges were still objectively harder at 20 but I was simply more efficient at dealing with them compared to when I was 10 where I was more uncertain of myself. My objectives at 25 feels dissimilar and more diverse to when I was 20 because I'm not pursuing a standardised path in terms of work and distance education compared to when I was 10 to 15 where the goal was always to eventually complete and finish school. As adults our self-awareness still linearly increases like it did as a child but not always in the forward direction. It also changes in different tangents and directions such that our personality diversifies to become more broad-minded or our spiritual views might increase and change more often.

[Michael McMahon]

As we grow through childhood the aim is to keep learning new information. When we go from young adults to older adults the trend is to keep assimilating and forming as many connections as possible between all the different types of knowledge we already have.

[Michael McMahon]

Does the unconscious mind know what the unconscious mind is? Does the subconscious know what the subconscious is itself? Is a dream as clueless as we are about what a dream is? I'm so used to having vivid dreams that I notice in the past I was a bit hesitant once or twice. I was in a little argument one time and afterwards I was thinking things over. I was briefly angry at myself that I might not feel angry if it happened again; that I temporarily distrusted my own emotions. Meta-angriness! It was only an illusory and fleeting sensation though that didn't repeat. Another time I momentarily tried to refer to myself in my thoughts through the third-person and found it relatively easy. It was merely an experiment and it wasn't that I had to or wasn't self-aware but simply that it was easy to do when you try to think quickly. It was as if I was ordering myself what to do!

[Michael McMahon]

Waxy flexibility is a psychomotor symptom of catatonia as associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or other mental disorders which leads to a decreased response to stimuli and a tendency to remain in an immobile posture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waxy_flexibility

It was mentioned about a flight or fight theory of dreams and one potential threat either through genetics, accident or old age is physical disability. Although when you think about it we can never consciously prepare or practice ourselves for the pain of paralysis or possible immobility of some kind. We can practice self-defence and and emotional regulation in defensive situations to avoid harm but not we can't actually simulate the injury itself. Even though sleep is easy we are nonetheless paralysed during the REM section. If we never became unconscious during sleep and had to rest ourselves for 8 hours in a paralysed position we might initially feel relaxed but after a while it would become extremely difficult and frustrating if not scary. It's often mentioned how much psychological strength and resilience people who are permanently disabled have. People might occasionally experience temporary sleep paralysis and find it terrifying yet we can't forget that some people in hospital are always paralysed. Maybe the way momentary sleep paralysis and some mental illnesses might lead to temporary immobility might be the subconscious mind's way of trying to simulate and extract some of the inherent strength and mental focus found in what would otherwise be incurable conditions.

[Michael McMahon]

https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-f ... phecy.html

How could a self-fulfilling prophecy work in the context of dreams? A dream could be approximated as a storyline written in the second person where the narrative uses a "you" standpoint and the dream character is a dissociated. Then our own emotional reward system will be dependent on our interpretation of our life's worth of dreams. So if you go along with a dream in real life you'll feel happier once the objective is completed and stressed if it is broken. Although (for legal reasons) not in a spellbound or possessed type of way; only that your intuition might change. We have the option of voluntary forgoing happiness or embracing more stress.This is compatible with one of the many varieties of free-won't. For instance another type of free won't is just to lazily ignore and avoid acting on a thought.

[yid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PnuXelvWA[/yid]
Relax - Zoolander - Brainwash

[yid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rL5fQNuo3Y[/yid]
Sleeping Beauty (1959) - Arrival of Maleficent / Burning of Spindles

(As per Data Protection Act and Consumer Protection Acts you've a right to create a spell to end another spell subject to a 10 day grace period.)

[Michael McMahon]

Maybe believing in self-fulfilling prophecies will itself be a self-fulfilling prophecy for any future prophecies! Don't believe in self-fulfilling prophecies and maybe you won't experience many self-fulfilling prophecies. Believe a dream is real and they'll become real and if don't they won't.

[Michael McMahon]

"Stress is functional when it helps us perform better by challenging and motivating us to meet objectives. We all perform best under some pressure. When deadlines approach and the clock is ticking, our adrenaline flows, and we often rise to the occasion with better-than-usual performance. The operative word here is some: some pressure, but not too much. As you may know, you can overtrain or compete and burn out, which results in lower athletic performance.
Think of stress as existing on a bell-shaped curve. On one side, when you have too little stress, performance is lower; optimum stress (called eustress) is at the peak of the curve in the middle; too much stress moves you to the other side of the curve, which lowers your performance.173 Or, think of a race car “stress-o-meter.” In low gear you go slow; when the gauge is in the yellow zone, it's at its peak (time to shift), but going into the red can burn out the engine."
https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/exce ... s-in-sport

When you pay a lot of attention to your dreams you might feel ever so slightly dazed or tired in the morning. We usually label stress as negative when its in excess but a small, tolerable bit of stress can keep us focused. What would happen if we were unable to feel any functional stress? We wouldn't necessarily feel happy even though removing the negativity of stress might lead one to suspect that such a person would be blissfully carefree. This is because stress is necessary to avoid complacency so not feeling stressed in the short-term might lead to more of a headache in the long-term. This is analogous to how not preparing in time for an exam means that you've to hectically cram the night before. Moreover a numbing lack of stress might result in mental fatigue and disorientation. This is one reason why a high of a drug is often often short-lived where it might eventually lead to a hangover or uncertainty and worry. When it comes to mental illness stress is quite a general term to describe a plethora of different sensations and difficulties. For example people with schizophrenia have extremely diverse and unique symptoms where some might engage in repetitive motor activities. What would the state of mind be of someone performing such a tedious movement? One way is to say that it might be a form of stress relief for the patient. Alternatively we could look at it from the opposite end of the stress spectrum and speculate that in fact a lack of stress means they can't regulate their behaviour properly such that they're unable to stop themselves and in the long-term it's causing them more pain. Therefore a stress deficiency might be as troublesome as a stress overload. Soldiers marching into battle might temporarily feel fearless in order to concentrate while performing their dangerous duty but a permanent lack of fear might conceivably result in confusion, apathy, dissociation or recklessness.


"Stressful situations affect the brain and body differently in people with schizophrenia compared to people without the mental illness or individuals at high risk for developing psychosis, a new study shows. The relationship between two chemicals released when people experienced stress -- one released in the brain and the other in saliva -- differs in people with schizophrenia. The discovery may provide clues into how to act early to prevent schizophrenia."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 131151.htm

[Michael McMahon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJO5HU_7_1w
(Eminem - The Real Slim Shady)

A singer spends far more time composing the song than they do on the music video. Nevertheless a music video can help guide along our thoughts while we're analysing the music. The discordant and random nature of some music videos can expand our ideas when we try to interpret the meaning of a song. For example the TV image of the dancing frog in the video above is a sign of absurdity and cathartic anarchy in the song above. In a dream we use the visual content to understand our thoughts better.


"Music videos are a focal point of what the artist hopes to express through their music, and it forms a substantial part of their creative vision. The visual impact of a video can be just as powerful as the music. A video has the ability to connect an artist with their listeners, as it allows fans to get to know the artist and see the world through their eyes for the duration of a song. People feel a bond when they are able to share experiences and emotions, and music videos give the opportunity for this to happen. Music videos do so much more than compliment a song, they also build on it: the content of a video can be the difference between simply enjoying a song and truly understanding the meaning behind it.
Music videos give the opportunity to see the artist’s vision unfold in front of our own eyes. We do not simply hear but we see too. They create a multi-dimensional experience, giving the audience a truly sensational experience. When we watch music videos, we are watching a song’s visual representation, we see what the artist sees when listening to their music."
- redbrick

[Michael McMahon]

Some people try to find some consolation in our powerlessness before death despite the inherent pain of mortality. It makes our current problems seem pale in comparison and it paradoxically serves to reassure us that our losses and failures in life are temporary and will eventually be irrelevant. Perhaps there can be a similar minimising effect in sleep where the backdrop of absurdity puts our daily stress in context and that win or lose there'll always be some degree of strangeness and adventure during the days. Sleep is a like a milder version of a near-death experience. Our curious mindset during dreams can linger on throughout the day. Sleep physically and mentally relaxes us somehow. If we can withstand the doubt and confusion we feel in a dream then we can better deal with later uncertainty.

[Michael McMahon]

"In a new exercise by a California organization that studies lucid dreaming, volunteers have been conditioned to dream near-death experiences, including the classic scenario of flying toward a light at the end of a tunnel. The researchers say their experiment demonstrates that these heavenly visions must be products of the human mind rather than supernatural phenomena."
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46760759

The above statement could also be inferred to elevate the power of emotional sensations lucid dreaming rather than downplay the mysticism of ultimate death.

[Michael McMahon]

Funnily enough the immediate surprise and bafflement I felt when I wake up in a lucid dream meant that one or two times I heard myself automatically and unthinkingly saying a quick prayer or mantra until I got my bearings and regained focus.

[Michael McMahon]

I'll revisit the concept of open timeline curves. So you've a memory of something that occurred in the past and now it's being vividly replayed in a dream. Except that you as the dream character will have grown and be in possession of relatively more information than you did when you did in the past when the incident actually happened. Therefore the additional knowledge you've acquired since the incident now counts as new information for the dream character. That increase in intelligence serves as a new message in terms of how you relate to yourself in the past. Then the dream will play out how you'd behave if only you'd a different self-awareness during the remembered event. The subconscious will analyse the results and delete the simulation to prevent it confusing you in real life.


"We consider the special case in which there is no interaction inside the CTC, referred to as an open timelike curve (OTC), for which the only local effect is to increase the time elapsed by a clock carried by the system. Remarkably, circuits with access to OTCs are shown to violate Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, allowing perfect state discrimination and perfect cloning of coherent states. The model is extended to wave-packets and smoothly recovers standard quantum mechanics in an appropriate physical limit. The analogy with general relativistic time-dilation suggests that OTCs provide a novel alternative to existing proposals for the behaviour of quantum systems under gravity." (arxiv)

The more dreams we remember the older we'll feel in subjective time. If we're asleep for 1/3 of our life and yet we nevertheless remember half of our dreams, then we're essentially awake for 2/3 of our daily life and (half of a third spent vivid dreaming) = 2/3 + (1/2 multiplied by 1/3) = 2/3 + 1/6 = 5/6. So we're older by 1/6 in terms of subjective mental time.

[Michael McMahon]

The way old dreams metamorphose into new dreams might be similar to the notion of a story within a story. We are always distracted by new events in a dream.

A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes called nested stories. A play may have a brief play within it, such as Shakespeare's play Hamlet; a film may show the characters watching a short film; or a novel may contain a short story within the novel.

[Michael McMahon]

A problem with lucid dreaming is that you might in fact have too much free will where some dreams may have disruptive content.

[Michael McMahon]

Maybe different emotions utilise different types of free will. For example being regretful of something you did is like being angry at yourself. Anger is an emotion that would otherwise incentivises defiance and rebellion. So self-hatred would be like rebelling against yourself and by extension your own mindset. In other words you'd be rejecting your own deterministic lines of thought.