Chapter 2: Brain Wiring
Brain wiring is important in determining what types of dreams and nightmares you susceptible to. There are only three classifications that you need to be aware of that distinguishes all the people on earth: left-brained dominants, right brained dominants, and equal brained dominants. Every person uses both lobes of their brains to some extent, but most people specialize themselves whether through biology or lifestyle to use one side of their brain more than the other. The following classifications that I list and their accompanying advantages and disadvantages are not absolute; there are always exceptions.
Left brained dominant people
The left side of the brain is devoted to logical, rational computation and problem solving ability. It is wired to control the right side of the body. This lobe interprets stimulus with a reality based approach. People who are more left brained dominant than right brained dominant are oriented more towards truth.
Disadvantages of being left brained dominant in your dreams
People with a dominance in left brained activity have less creative ability in their dreams, meaning that they are less able to think abstractly subconsciously and unconsciously to solve problems that present themselves in dreams and nightmares. Another problem with being left brained dominant is trying to apply the laws of physics of reality in your dreams. The realm of dreams and nightmares is fantasy and should never be bound by the laws of physics. Still left brained dominants have an instinctual desire to make rational every aspect of dreaming. Another disadvantage is that left brained dominants see themselves only as they are in real life in their dreams, that is if they wish to dream of themselves as a super hero, they will see their face on and not the face of the super hero that they are mimicking. This is a disadvantage when having nightmares because it does not allow flexibility in your actions; left brained dominants will believe that they are bound by their bodies in real life when they dream, and that they cannot mimic other abilities of larger than life characters that are presented in art.
Advantages of being left brained dominant in your dreams
Left brained dominants have the advantage of having more rational dreams, they will see characters and situations as they really are. Their minds will try to interpret the dream in a realistic manner. There is a greater sense of spirituality with being left brained dominant; you are likely to be more inclined to believe in god and belong to a religion. The greatest advantage of left brained dominants is that they are able to interpret symbols in dreams better than right brained dominants that reflect solutions and problems in real life, allowing for increased problem solving ability in real life with the usage of dreams.
Right brained dominant people
Right brained dominant people are more inclined to creative problem solving and interpreting stimulus in a fantasy based manner. Free association is a trait of right brained dominants. Right brained dominants are more inclined towards lying and the reversal of truth. The right lobe controls the left side of the body.
Disadvantages of being right brained dominant in your dreams.
Right brained dominant people are more inclined to irrational dreams. Their abstract thought abilities lends to misinterpreting the real world, and towards an inclination to have nightmares. Chaotic thinking can result if the right lobe is overstimulated. Chaotic thinking can be instigated by biological and environmental factors. Narcotics and alcoholism are environmental factors, so too is trauma to the left side of the brain which overcompensates with an increase in the right side activity.
A biological factor that can instigate chaotic thinking occurs in homosexuality and bisexuality. Excessive hormone stimulation during pregnancy can lead to children with an inclination towards a homosexual or bisexual lifestyle. Hormone stimulation is a result of excessive stress or sexual intercourse. When the mother is stimulated, hormones not only go through the mother’s mind but the fetus’s as well, affecting the brain chemistry and wiring. The key factor in preventing excessive hormone stimulation is to prevent over-exertion and emotional extremities, abstinence during the entire period of pregnancy, and avoidance of harmful chemicals such as alcohol and cigarettes.
There is also a lower sense of spirituality that results from being right brained dominant. Because of the ability of right brained dominants to alter the stimulus of the environment in dreams and in real life, some right brained dominants may have delusions of grander because of their abilities in dreams and a lower respect for god. Some may even believe themselves to be gods in their dreams.
Advantages of being right brained dominant in your dreams
Right brained dominant people enjoy a greater ability in artistic talent. Their creativity is rooted in their instinctual desire to do and see what has never been. This lends itself well in entertainment avenues such as movie making and song writing. Right brained dominants also enjoy a pivotal advantage over left brained dominants, which is the ability to see themselves as different people or characters in whole in their dreams. This role playing ability allows them to look and impersonate other individuals. Carl Jung called this ability “masking†which is to have an outward appearance that differs from the personal, private self. Masking can also be done in dreams when right brained dominants take on the form and functions of other people or characters. Their face in real life is not necessarily the same face that they have in the dream world. They can even make themselves appear as a member of the opposite sex in their dreams.
Types of people who are left and right brained dominant
Professions that involve creativity and public speaking are prime locations for right brained dominants. Right brained people are visible in politics as well as in the movie industry. The easiest way to determine right brained dominants is to see which set of people project their flaws on others, which set of people are more hypocritical in the long run regarding what they say and what they do, and which set of people have a loose sense of values.
Professions that involve reality based physical work and logical thinking are more inclined to be populated with left brained dominant individuals. Politics is also populated with such people, for without rational thought in government decisions and legislation, anarchy would ensue. You can see which set of people exemplify this quality by their actions, usually left brained dominant people in politics have a greater sense of integrity, hold on to traditional values, and are respectful of religions and god. Sports is also populated with left brained dominant individuals, because sports as well as other jobs are where reality based computation and hand-eye coordination come into play.
The majority of people on the planet are left brained dominant because we have to function and move in the real world. We only sleep six to eight hours a day, but we are awake for the other sixteen to eighteen hours.
To determine which people are of a dominant type, one must look at a person’s body language. Ask yourselves what type of body language distinguishes a homosexual and bisexual from a heterosexual, what types of body language distinguishes a basketball player from an art director or cinematographer?
Equal brained dominant people
Equal brained dominant individuals are undoubtably the next stage in human evolution. Their brain chemistry and wiring allows for better communication and self-learning with both sides of the brain. Equal usage of both lobes allows for better ambidextrous functionality with physical and mental abilities on both sides of the brain and body.
The key component in allowing for both lobes to be balanced is the physical connection between them that relays signals, the Corpus Callosum. The Corpus Callosum is a thick layer of neurons that acts as a connector between the left and right lobe of the brain. It is possible with evolution that there will be a vertical growth and expansion of this part of the brain that will allow for better communication between both lobes. The end result being that what is separate will be united.
Integrity reinforcement of mental components such as speech and rote memory may be done by having the brain copy the same functionality of one component from one lobe to the opposite lobe. All the advantages of the left and right brained dominants would be carried over as traits of equal brained dominant individuals, though with fewer disadvantages. Improved energy consumption of the brain is a possibility since the brain would be able to determine better which component is most capable of handling the task at hand in the real and dream world. It is also likely that with balanced usage of both lobes, equal brained dominant individuals can control their dreams better than right or left brained dominants.
Neural Integrity
Neural integrity is accomplished by performing daily mental task, by using logic, reasoning, free association, using your imagination, recalling memories, and speaking in your mind with thoughts. The grey matter of the brain in a sense is a muscle but instead of flexing this gray matter with movements, we flex it with thoughts. Thoughts are memories and fictitious ideas as well as verbal communication with yourself on a mental level. In order to continually exercise your mind you must speak with your thoughts to increase your rote memory and stimulate other areas of the brain. Earworms are an instinctual method of doing this.
The role of earworms
Earworms are songs that are played in your mind, sometimes controlled by you and sometimes not. You hear the music in your head by way of your rote memory, which is the memory used to remember and repeat phrases. The rote memory component of your mind is situated near the top of your brain and in front of the center of your skull. The reason that they have this name is that the majority of people do not know how to control the singing in their heads. Some people try to listen to the music being played to have it stopped, while others try to listen to other music. The key to terminating uncontrollable earworms is willing yourself to listen to a song or melody of your conscious choosing in your mind. Uncontrollable earworms are symbolic of the control that nightmares wish to take from your mind to attack you, while natural earworms that are willed by you when you do not experience stress are the instinctual desire to exercise portions of the mind to keep it from atrophying.
Music’s role in stimulating the mind
The Mozart effect has been well documented in psychology. It involves the neural stimulation of the brain by way of music without lyrics. To amplify the effect that occurs from this, one must visualize their mind in the same way that you would visualize the lighted buttons on the electronic game Simon Says. With each different button a different tone is heard. Using the same analogy you can imagine different areas of your brain being lighted up by different melodies and notes that you hear. After you consciously make an effort to imagine this happening to your mind, your subconscious and all lower levels of your psyche will be able to take over the task automatically.
Other forms of mental stimulation
Other ways that you can stimulate the mind are by recalling memories whether visual or audible, using free association and direct association. Free association stimulates the right side of the brain, while direct association stimulates the left side. Memory recollection is best achieved by remembering what excites the mind; memorable scenes and quotes from art create the greatest stimulus because they entertain us. Using memories that give the greatest emotional response allows for more than one area of the brain to be stimulated. Once you have done this exercise voluntarily, your mind will eventually be able to do it automatically.
Free association is accomplished by going on a tangent of thought, meaning holding on to one aspect, idea or word that you were currently thinking of and remembering something related to that one aspect. Direct association is remembering something that directly corresponds to the entire thought. For auditory recollection this direct link may be a phrase that though awkward in tone, sounds like an appropriate response to your current thought. In direct association it is not important the context or tone of the speech, but more importantly what is said in the speech that you recall that makes it a direct association. For free association it is otherwise; the tone and context of the speech are important. The quote “Its not what you say but how you say it†comes to mind when summing up auditory recollection using free and direct association; “what you say†refers to direct association, while “how you say it†refers to free association.
For visual recollection, free association is used to recall memories from art, where as direct visual association is accomplished by remembering actions from one’s experiences.
Free association example: “I hope the car is all right.†-> Remembering scenes from
movies where car flies or
escapes danger. (The Last Starfighter, Back to the Future)
Direct association example: “I hope the car is all right.†-> Remembering that the engine
needs maintaince.
Using direct quotations from
art that correctly reflect the
situation.