Dream Draws from Life's Unseen Mathematical Properties to Ma

Dream Draws from Life\'s Unseen Mathematical Properties to Make Point bout Dreams

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980205 (THE DREAM OF FEBRUARY 5, 1998)


In my cousin\'s dream, he observed from directly over the stadium a
Yankees-Red Sox game. The Sox were batting in the bottom of the 9th,
and with 2 out a batter by the name of Daniel stepped to the plate
with a full count and the bases full, vying to break a 2-2 tie.
Ishben surprised the Yankees by hitting a nubber up the center of the
infield, trickling beneath the pitcher\'s 2 legs and between the 2
confused infielders on either side of the 2nd base bag. Two runs
scored, including the runner who had occupied 2nd base, bringing the
game to an abrupt end.


I\'d like to impress upon you the dream\'s unique mathematical
properties. Around the time my cousin experienced this baseball
dream, I was mindful of some other peculiarity in his impressive
dream diary around the time of the dream: the use of a variety of
former residences as dream settings. He dreamed of his childhood
home. He dreamed of his current home. He even dreamed of the
residence he occupied just prior to this one. Some hunch compelled me
to examine whether the numbers associated with these addresses could
be mapped on the baseball diamond, with its 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base
and, yes, it\'s "home" plate, point of both ORIGIN and DESTINATION in
the pastoral sport of baseball.


It occurred to me that his childhood home - featured prominently in
these dreams - may correspond in some way to home plate in the
baseball dream. The address of his childhood home -- 121. How
could "121" fit the baseball diamond? Well, if you are a batter
standing at home plate, 3rd base is 1 unit of distance away, second
base is 2 units of distance away, and 1st base is 1 unit of distance
away. "121" is an expression of the view of the infield from home
plate.


I was inspired at this time to consider my cousin\'s residence at the
time of the dream, which was 210. If I were viewing the infield from
3rd base, 2nd base is immediately to my left, followed by 1st base,
and then home plate, to which we can assign a 0 because it is not a
base and cannot be occupied, and yet comes before first base, i.e.
before 1. 2 - 1 - 0. Little did my cousin know at the time he would
be moving to a city where he\'d actually put down roots nearly as deep
as those he put down as a child. By symbolizing his current residence
as 3rd base, this drream is communicating that he will soon begin the
next meaningful chapter in his life, bringing him full circle from a
HOME OF ORIGIN to the HOME OF HIS MAKING.


Now if I plot the numbers on the bases, "121" from Home Plate plots 1
on 3B, 2 on 2B, and 1 on 1B. "210" from 3B also plots the 2 on 2B,
also plots the 1 on 1B, and plots a 0 on home plate (which makes
sense since home plate is not really a base but a point of origin
that precedes 1B). These two addresses then give us numerical
assignments for all four bases.


[DIAGRAM ON WEB SITE]


Home plate = 0
1B = 1
2B = 2
3B = 1


And then I took up the address just prior to his current address,
which is 2025. Just how does the four-digit address "2025" express
the view of the infield from 2nd base?


If we read the bases from the vantage point of 2B (and this is the
same whether we read clockwise or counterclockwise), we read 1-0-1-2.
If we double this number, we end up with 2-0-2-4, just one digit shy
of the "2025" address! We do not have to just double 1-0-1-2 willy
nilly without an explanation. There may be meaning in the fact 2024
(an approximation of the "2025" address) is derived from a doubling
of 1-0-1-2. Unlike the other bases, 2B stares directly into that
special place on the diamond that cannot be occupied and that serves
as both point of origin and destination. (I am also reminded of the
statement from Jung that one cannot directly see or know the
Unconscious source of oneself, but only infer it indirectly, much
like one only sees oneself in a mirror or much like astronomers have
to infer black holes from its pull on nearby stars). So what does one
see when one looks home from 2B? The four digits suggests that the
view of 2B is included among the diamond viewed. This suggests self-
awareness. At this point, I am inspired to think of the diamond as a
representation of the human psyche, the structure and dynamics of
which preoccupied us intellectually in a late-evening discussion.
Then it occurred to me. This conversation may have still been on his
mind as he slept. Many theorists equate dreaming to a form of sleep
thinking. The dream may have picked up where we left off in our pre-
sleep reflections. In this dream may be the answer to some important
questions, or at least a useful perspective.


[DIAGRAM ON WEB SITE]


Human development, at both the micro (day-to-day dynamics) and macro
(individuation across life span) levels, can be conceptualized as
movement along the basepaths. At the point of origin, all thoughts
originate from outside our awareness. Home plate refers to the
spontaneous origin of psychological products in the Unconscious. The
batter symbolizes the hidden roots of all creative inspiration -- to
the nascent ideas and personal qualities that are left at our
doorstep and that we may choose to take in, raise, reify, and refine.
The batter Daniel Ishben in the dream supports this interpretation,
as "Ich bin" is German for "I am." If I trace back the evolution of
all my thinking, I end up with a dimly perceived or spontaneous
hunch, vision, or feeling. As we take control of the thought,
subjecting it to our consciousness, it is refined to the point where
we begin to think of it as our own product (1B, 2B). At some point,
we may even identify with it, or if we\'re talking about our identity,
we may become so foreclosed on our identity as to deny ourselves the
freedom and flexibility necessary for further growth or adjustment.
We are said at this point to be stuck on 2B, stranded on our own
island to tend to our self-awareness. We may pride ourselves on our
distance from our sources, developing a prejudice that causes us to
frown on all things intuitive, spontaneous, undeveloped, or outside
our control. (Actually, I have indicted the whole field of Psychology
as being so stuck).


Now around the time my cousin experienced this baseball dream – and
indeed over his entire lifespan – he\'s dreamt of tornadoes. A tornado
is this basic development structure – this coil – expressed in the
substance of wind. The winds inside a tornado move in the same
direction in which the runners round the bases – that is,
counterclockwise – and debris that ascends in the funnel can be said
to repeatedly visit all points but at a higher elevation. Even more
coincidentally, scientists believe that inside the funnel – at its
center – at its eye (or "I") -- is a stillness – a space in which air
travels calmly in a direct vertical path up into the atmosphere. This
fact has its counterpart in the baseball dream, when Ishben ("I am")
hits a nubber (a slow roller) directly up the center of the diamond
inside a "whirlwind" of confused and crowded infielders. The
connection between these two motifs, the baseball diamond and the
tornado – may have been alluded to in 990110 – when he dreamed that a
tornado raked over rocks in a dark room, transforming coal
instantaneously into perfectly cut and polished diamonds. The tornado
also halved a penny – a powerful image akin to splitting the atom.
The penny is the indivisible unit of value in our economic system and
its halving may refer to Ishben\'s grounder, which halved the baseball
diamond into two triangles. The triangle on the right containing the
vertices HOME-1B-2B would form the symbolic equivalent of
progression, while the triangle on the left containing 2B-3B-HOME
would form the symbolic equivalent of regression. Both progression
and regression form an indivisible unit of value in the sense that
one without the other compromises development. I will revisit this
issue later when I take up the pitfalls of psychological development.

Wyatt Ehrenfels, Ph.D.
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