At the beginning of this exploration we charted an initial route plan without a fixed goal. We argued that a preset goal was not required since starting an exploration has its own motivation.

Astronaut Alan Shepard plants an American flag on the moon.

Explorers don’t require a crystal clear objective in mind to start an exploration. Moreover, starting with a preset goal could lessen the explorers’ ability to keep their mind opened to new information (which is the real meaning of learning).

Not a long time ago, I witnessed a very interesting talk about data analysis which showed a good example to avoid.

The talker ran a tape where a record of a famous rock song was played backwards and asked the audience to find subliminal information. The audience could not find anything.

“Are you sure?” asked the talker, “Couldn’t you hear satanic praises hidden in it?” he asked and ran the tape again. This time the audience detected the subliminal praises.

The talker demonstrated that it’s easy to find erroneous data when people are told what to find. Similarly, a preset objective is likely to influence the explorers’ perception which is the most important tool for exploring.

“The good explorer knows not where he comes from. The perfect explorer knows not where he goes to.”

The exploration begins and the explorers start to enthusiastically recollect data (notes, photos, recordings, sketches and more notes).

At some point, the amount of information exceeds its handiness and the risk of getting overwhelmed appears.

This is when explorers must become fiercely selective with the data and eliminate the information that doesn’t direct them towards their goals. Otherwise, the chance to unnecessarily dilute their energy increases.

For the best use of the energy reserves, it’s crucial to align actions with goals.

This can be difficult because sometimes you have to dismiss a beautiful picture or a witty note. But explorers can’t avoid being selective if they don’t want to drive the exploration into cloudy woods.

In this particular exploration – exploring the realm of dreams-, the excessive data comes in form of questions.

Following the data recollection and the first incursions in the dreams territory, our need to understand increased – as expected – and more questions appeared.

Both the new questions and the need to understand are good signs for an exploration; without those, learning could not take place. The problem arises when they are too many.

The new questions coming from the incursions in the realm of dreams were notoriously affected by the rediscovering of the fantastic landscapes and vivid environments – all them filled with exotic details – that occur in dreams.

Who makes these epic scenarios? Are they a product of our minds? Many of the dreams in my records presented original places I never saw before. How can our mind create new worlds from old memories?

The quantity of elaborated details makes you wonder: how can our mind create the scenario while it’s simultaneously exploring it?

When you dream, you are the central character. You are the explorer… or are you? Is your mind controlling the exploration process at the same time it crates the exploration subject?

And if your mind creates the environment based on stimuli, where do they come from, our genes?

What happens with your consciousness when you dream you are somebody else?

And so on.

The questions from the data recollection come from the unsolved mysteries where science has not given an answer yet. Some of those questions are:

Why do we all have mainly the same dreams? Why do babies dream twice as much as adults? Why are there phases in our sleep?

Why do our eyes move rapidly when we are dreaming? What is the function of the waves that our brains emit only when we dream?

An intricate mechanism prevents our bodies to move during the dreaming phase and not during the rest of the time we are sleeping. Why is it important for the dreaming that we remain still?

Have you ever dreamed hat someone or something was chasing you and your feet wouldn’t respond accordingly? Have you ever dreamed of being nude in an inconvenient place?

Have you ever dreamed about falling from somewhere high and felt an acute physical sensation in your body like you do when you fall in your waking life? Studies report that most of us have had these kinds of dreams. Is there a reason?

With all those questions, where should we start?

Be part of the Exploration

Explore, Dream, Discover!
Join Doris and me in exploring everything.
Chose one of these three alternatives
for being part of the adventure.

 

....