Many people have had the experience of waking from a dream, feeling as if they were caught between two worlds. Thinking is more fluid, making leaps from topic to topic, unconstrained by the rules of logic. In fact, some people report that they experience their most creative thoughts in this crack between the two worlds. The H&N filter that focuses our attention on the external world of the senses has not yet been reengaged; dopamine circuits continue to fire unopposed, and ideas flow freely.
Friedrich August Kekulé became famous when he discovered the structure of the benzene molecule, an important industrial chemical of that time. Chemists had established that the molecule was composed of six carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms, which came as a surprise. Usually molecules of this sort have more hydrogen atoms than carbon atoms. It was clear that whatever structure the molecule took, it wasn’t an ordinary one.
The chemists tried to arrange the carbon atoms and the hydrogen atoms in all sorts of ways that wouldn’t violate the rules of chemical bonding. They knew that carbon atoms could be strung together like beads on a string, and there could also be side branches coming off at right angles, but none of the structures they tried were consistent with the known properties of the benzene molecule. The nature of its true shape was a mystery. Kekulé described the moment of insight when he realized what that shape was:
“There I sat and wrote my [chemistry textbook], but it did not proceed well, my mind was elsewhere. I turned the chair to the fireplace and fell half asleep. Again the atoms gamboled before my eyes. Smaller groups this time kept modestly to the background. My mind’s eyes, trained by visions of a similar kind, now distinguished larger formations of various shapes. Long rows, in many ways more densely joined; everything in movement, winding and turning like snakes. And look, what was that? One snake grabbed its own tail, and mockingly the shape whirled before my eyes. As if struck by lightning I awoke.”
The vision of the snake with its tail in its mouth, the ancient ouroboros, led to the insight that the six carbon atoms of the benzene molecule formed a ring. Like the snake with its tail in its mouth—complete in and of itself—dreams are inner representations of inner ideas. Cut off from the senses, dreams allow dopamine to run free, unconstrained by the concrete facts of external reality.
From the book " The molecule of more"
@SpiritualBooks
Friedrich August Kekulé became famous when he discovered the structure of the benzene molecule, an important industrial chemical of that time. Chemists had established that the molecule was composed of six carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms, which came as a surprise. Usually molecules of this sort have more hydrogen atoms than carbon atoms. It was clear that whatever structure the molecule took, it wasn’t an ordinary one.
The chemists tried to arrange the carbon atoms and the hydrogen atoms in all sorts of ways that wouldn’t violate the rules of chemical bonding. They knew that carbon atoms could be strung together like beads on a string, and there could also be side branches coming off at right angles, but none of the structures they tried were consistent with the known properties of the benzene molecule. The nature of its true shape was a mystery. Kekulé described the moment of insight when he realized what that shape was:
“There I sat and wrote my [chemistry textbook], but it did not proceed well, my mind was elsewhere. I turned the chair to the fireplace and fell half asleep. Again the atoms gamboled before my eyes. Smaller groups this time kept modestly to the background. My mind’s eyes, trained by visions of a similar kind, now distinguished larger formations of various shapes. Long rows, in many ways more densely joined; everything in movement, winding and turning like snakes. And look, what was that? One snake grabbed its own tail, and mockingly the shape whirled before my eyes. As if struck by lightning I awoke.”
The vision of the snake with its tail in its mouth, the ancient ouroboros, led to the insight that the six carbon atoms of the benzene molecule formed a ring. Like the snake with its tail in its mouth—complete in and of itself—dreams are inner representations of inner ideas. Cut off from the senses, dreams allow dopamine to run free, unconstrained by the concrete facts of external reality.
From the book " The molecule of more"
@SpiritualBooks