The old wooden planks creak as you make your way down the old, abandoned hallway. The faces on the portraits seem evil, staring right at you with a crooked smile on their plain faces. Lightning strikes just as a sound erupts down the hall. Maybe it was nothing, just the old mansion struggling to brave the storm. Yet, as you finally clutch the cool doorknob, a hand rests itself upon your shoulder. And at that moment, no amount of courage allows you to look back...
Most nightmares end with you waking up, glad that all the horrors were a mere figment of your imagination. Yet, What if I told you… those dreams were real??
The average person lives up to be 75 years old and sleeps for one-third of that time (Are we talking about me?). Throughout the two- thirds of his life that a person is conscious, he is able to develop his brain, form complex interactions in a social environment, and achieve great marvels of engineering and science. Is there a relationship between our sleep cycles and the limits of our imagination? Are Homo sapiens the only creatures capable of simulating wide ranging scenarios within a conscious mind? Does that very feature make every human unique? Or does it contribute to our limit as a species?
The answer to these questions lies within us (literally). Take spaceships, for example. Before Neil Armstrong ever imprinted his boots on the moon’s barren surface, spaceships dominated the minds of the greatest of aeronautical engineers. Where, however, can we trace the roots of this intricate invention? The idea must have appeared from somewhere. The most probable answer being that it was the manifestation of ‘someone’s dreams’.
Scientifically speaking, the reason why sleep is necessary for the human mind is not that it needs to rest, but that chemical reactions beside the brain clean it of substances that would otherwise hinder its functioning. Surprisingly, brain activity actually increases while we sleep. This raises a truly significant question. Is our subconscious mind actually an uncontrollable form of alternate reality? And dreams figments of that reality that transcend the border based on our emotions? If we connect this with the ideas that our conscious mind generates, then perhaps the brain is the most powerful weapon ever, and we only need unlock its potential.
How does all this relate to a college student?
Most of the research in today’s world occurs in colleges and university. Take Barry Trimmer’s research in understanding caterpillar locomotion and modelling it in robots or the invention of the OLED’s. What do these have in common? A unique and ground-breaking idea. A college student is in the perfect position to channel the limits of his brain in a way to benefit the world around him. He has an opportunity to develop the ideas of his subconscious mind. The only hurdle lies in actually getting those ‘ideas’.
How does one unlock the secrets of his supposed alter state of being? Well, the only method we have is through figments and images that remain after we wake up. So, the real challenge that emerges is to shape our subconscious mind without having any form of direct access to its contents. A bit like controlling the output of a machine without being able to alter it’s functioning in real time. Fortunately, computer science already implements a similar model in the form of declarative programming. Rules and facts are defined within a programming environment and results are directly influenced by the information provided before execution. Dreams have been similarly observed to be linked to the environment in which a person lives, coupled with the emotions that he feels. Happiness usually links to positive experiences while anxiety and depression links to nightmares. Thus, influencing our daily lives, shaping them into something truly unique, diverse, and great may be the only way to utilize our minds to their fullest potential.
We have all been sculpted by the same linear education system within the previous few decades. Since the mind adapts to its environment, it follows that the thought process of an entire generation has been limited by the very methods that were intended to enhance it. Innovation must now stem from our very lives. It must define how we perform our daily routines so that daily subconscious may also follow this trend, and possibly allow us to change the world once again. Following interests, realizing hobbies, and discovering ourselves is the formula for success in college.
Simply put, the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.