The dream this morning was an odd one in a funny sort of way. I think I am taking my work home in my dream world. I work in a retail store in the waking world doing inventory management. The device shown above is called a "telxon". It functions has an interface device to the inventory computer. The device has too many functions to list here. One example of the many uses is to find a price of an item.
In my dream I see myself at work and I am using a telxon. Santa Claus has a huge order with us. I am tracking and checking prices on all of the goods he has on order. Santa has ordered a pallet full of
canned vegetables and a pallet full of beans. The more I like think about this, the more it makes me laugh! Ha, ha, ha!!! I guess he and the elves need to stock up during the busy holiday season or Santa has someone special on his list in need of a major food order? Maybe there is an orphanage or a soup kitchen somewhere that is in need of these supplies?
Well, I know I am taking this task very seriously, as it is for Santa, the big guy is counting on me to get this right. I am trying like heck to commit to memory all the prices I am checking on the pallets. I discover, however, that my brain is failing me. There are just too many items to try to memorize. I am reduced to trying to remember a few of the most important prices and I eventually fail at committing even these to memory.
There is a curious aspect about dreaming that I find applies in my case and it is that dreaming is very much a left brain dominate experience very often for me. The left brain is creative, intuitive and emotional. The right brain is mathematical, logical, and a deliberate strategist. Many historic scientific discoveries have been made by dreamers, but it is curious how these innovations are often revealed in a descriptive or metaphorical way using imagery rather than equations or blueprints. One of the most famously known examples, in history, of how this happens came in dreams to Friedrich August Kukule von Stradonitz, a German organic chemist. Stradonitz discovered the tetravalent nature of carbon and the circular structure of the benzene molecule. The discoveries were aided by dreams that came to him. This is how he described it in a speech he gave before the German Chemical Society:
You know listening to endless hours of Christmas music, on the job, must be having some affect on me subconsciously as well. I am sure it is feeding into my insecurities. I am not being a good boy I reckon. Maybe I could be a better son or employee? I don't do enough or do it well. If I work harder then maybe I will succeed more often? I feel guilty for my many failures and sins? That damn music does weird things to one's psyche. Music can be used to heal or torture. It is a powerful thing. It is more potent than most people realize. I need to find me some of the healing kind and shut off the guilt trip, sing/song mind chatter. Time to be more compassionate with myself. The big guys: Santa, my dad and my shadow self have tormented me long enough. I need a vacation.
Well, I know I am taking this task very seriously, as it is for Santa, the big guy is counting on me to get this right. I am trying like heck to commit to memory all the prices I am checking on the pallets. I discover, however, that my brain is failing me. There are just too many items to try to memorize. I am reduced to trying to remember a few of the most important prices and I eventually fail at committing even these to memory.
There is a curious aspect about dreaming that I find applies in my case and it is that dreaming is very much a left brain dominate experience very often for me. The left brain is creative, intuitive and emotional. The right brain is mathematical, logical, and a deliberate strategist. Many historic scientific discoveries have been made by dreamers, but it is curious how these innovations are often revealed in a descriptive or metaphorical way using imagery rather than equations or blueprints. One of the most famously known examples, in history, of how this happens came in dreams to Friedrich August Kukule von Stradonitz, a German organic chemist. Stradonitz discovered the tetravalent nature of carbon and the circular structure of the benzene molecule. The discoveries were aided by dreams that came to him. This is how he described it in a speech he gave before the German Chemical Society:
" I fell into a reverie, and lo, the atoms were gamboling before my eyes! Whenever, hitherto, these diminutive beings had appeared to me, they had always been in motion; but up to that time, I had never been able to discern the nature of their motion. Now, however, I saw how, frequently, two smaller atoms united to form a pair; how a larger one embraced the two smaller ones; how still larger ones kept hold of three or even four of the smaller; whilst the whole kept whirling in a giddy dance. I saw how the larger ones formed a chain, dragging the smaller ones after them, but only at the ends of the chain. . . The cry of the conductor: “Clapham Road,” awakened me from my dreaming; but I spent part of the night in putting on paper at least sketches of these dream forms. This was the origin of the Structural Theory."
Notice that Stradonitz witnessed the atoms as something like an animated cartoon and not in their literal physical forms. The atoms were in a symbolic form as living beings. Here we have a scientist whose profession, it would suggest, was probably more right brain oriented than most people. It is very telling that these discoveries should be revealed to him in a symbolic format. It sure would be interesting to talk to an open minded neuroscientist and hear what he or she might think of these observations, and the link between the structure, and functionality of the brain, and it's effect on dreaming.
Now, let's consider what this dream means to me personally. What is my unconscious telling me this time? I can see a link between Santa Claus and my own father. Santa being a representation of my thoughts and feelings toward my father. I was wanting desperately to not fail him and I end up doing it any way. I struggle with my sense of self worth and want some feeling of accomplishment, and come up short, as I so often do. I failed the tasks demanded of me in both sleep and the waking world. Both gents are making a list and checking it twice. Santa gives lumps of coal. My dad, however, only expertly delivers guilt trips.
You know listening to endless hours of Christmas music, on the job, must be having some affect on me subconsciously as well. I am sure it is feeding into my insecurities. I am not being a good boy I reckon. Maybe I could be a better son or employee? I don't do enough or do it well. If I work harder then maybe I will succeed more often? I feel guilty for my many failures and sins? That damn music does weird things to one's psyche. Music can be used to heal or torture. It is a powerful thing. It is more potent than most people realize. I need to find me some of the healing kind and shut off the guilt trip, sing/song mind chatter. Time to be more compassionate with myself. The big guys: Santa, my dad and my shadow self have tormented me long enough. I need a vacation. 
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