Hello, TheCusp, and everyone else in this thread! I think this subject is so interesting, and I like the name suggested for the type dream, "The Timaeus". Great idea!
It took me two whole days to read through this thread, because I kept looking up all of the agreed upon features of The Timaeus, as everyone posting here described them. It started because I was reminded of articles I had previously seen, and snowballed from there. Consequently, this is a very, very long post, but I’ve tried to boldface the dream features I was looking for in the links, so if you’re busy, hopefully you can just scroll to anything of interest.
I thought maybe these links would be mostly of interest to anyone looking for physiological explanations?
If you don’t care about any of that, and you’re solely interested in a spiritual or metaphysical explanation for The Timaeus, you might skip this post, because it’s extensive, and probably boring.
I also want to add that there are some words in my descriptions which are medical and came from the pages I've linked to, like parts of the brain, which I don't completely understand myself, so it probably won't help you to ask me about them. I'm just someone who's interested in dreams!
First, I've always had an interest in art. One of my main interests has always been ancient rock art . . . cave paintings and stone carvings, that sort of thing. A while back, I came across some articles that discussed the possible connection of geometric motifs in rock art being related to the biology of hallucinations, rather than being symbolic of anything in ‘waking’ life.
The idea is that ancient people saw these images, either after ingesting hallucinogens, in a feverish condition, while closing their eyes in the sunlight, or in blindness, and felt that the images were sacred/powerful specifically because they were hallucinations, and so made a permanent record of them in their rock art.
This article is 3 pages long, and particularly good:
The 'Meaning' of Symbols - Motifs & the Human Nervous System
If anyone is interested in reading more about the biology of hallucinations in blindness, and personal accounts of what that's like, here is a really good link:
Charles Bonnet Syndrome Foundation - Personal Stories
And a further link from a quick internet search for “Charles Bonnet Syndrome inspired art”:
https://www.google.com/search?q=char...w=1113&bih=593
If you're wondering what blindness has to do with febrile hallucinations, first follow this link to an image showing how the optic nerve sits just below the hypothalamus:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedh...2387/?figure=2
And next look at this page, describing the function of the hypothalamus, including body temperature regulation, fluid balance, secretions of the gut, and sleep cycles. If there is inflammation in this area of the brain, it could explain some of the experiences The Timaeus dreamers mentioned in this thread like, dry tongue, fever, nausea, vivid dreams, and hallucinations:
https://www.endocrineweb.com/endocri...w-hypothalamus
The next links connect to articles discussing how the eyes and ears send signals to the amygdala (which rests very near the hypothalamus) to interpret, and if it (along with other structures, I think) perceives danger, it prompts the hypothalamus to initiate the “fight or flight” response. This could help to explain why objects and sounds in The Timaeus hallucinations and dreams often seem to be described as impossible, and horrible:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/li...tions/fear.htm
https://www.health.harvard.edu/stayi...tress-response
The amygdala is the focus of the article in the next link, too. This article says the amygdala isn’t only associated with fear, but also the perception of importance, and attention, which might affect decision making, and motivation. I’m including it because multiple dreamers have mentioned the experience of encountering an impossible task, an object which seems perfect, seems to impart a sense of ecstasy, or a feeling unable to look away from an object in The Timaeus dreams and hallucinations. Also, there’s some good information about the pupil dilating automatically, which could help to account for the eye pain, and headache many dreamers experience during The Timaeus:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3811090/
Because some dreamers have mentioned the shared experience of dreaming or hallucinating about numbers, which often feel unpleasant, here’s an article describing how scientists discovered that the temporal inferior gyrus (seems to be located near the base - beneath the hypothalamus, amygdala, and optic nerve - and outer cortex of the brain . . . near your ears) specializes in processing numerals. Interestingly, it says that the same area of the brain is already known for processing visual information:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-ne...cognition.html
Also possibly (?) related to numerals, expanses of space, and grid lines is this article I found about the hippocampus, something called the entorhinal cortex, and how they create maps or graphs of triangular grid lines[/B], not only of the environment, but also of relationships between things that are abstract[/B], or two dimensional. I don’t understand it, but there is something in the article, too, about a predictive map, and rapid computation of values which might make sense to people who understand mathematics. The part about rapid computation of values reminded me of dreamers who mentioned waking up from The Timaeus with computations running uncontrollably through their minds. (Note: there should be images on this page. If you can’t see them, click on the link that says, “side by side”, and then “figures”) I have no idea why the grid pattern in the brain is triangular, but as a wild guess, I was thinking it might be partly because we have two eyes with binocular vision? And it made me think of the multiple images depicting mountains, or pyramids Timaeus dreamers reported. The second link is probably better for people who don’t understand a lot about math and science, and specifically mentions the role of sleep in consolidation of these memories, but doesn’t include images:
https://elifesciences.org/articles/17086
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315184.php?sr
I noticed, too, while reading dreamers descriptions, the colors described are all very similar. I recall mention of red/burgundy, brown/black/silver, blue, green, and yellow/gold. I’ve grouped them together in that way because as someone who’s interested in art, it got me to thinking about color wheels, and how there’s a different color wheel for mixing paint, etc. then there is for mixing light (as on a television screen). I was wondering if these colors were related to how the eye/brain deciphers the mixing of light, and that’s why the colors are recurring so regularly. The subtractive color wheel, or CMYK model, shows how mixing red, green, and blue (which first have to be made by mixing yellow, cyan, and magenta) results in an imperfect black, which might be interpreted as brown, or possibly even silver (IMO) by the brain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model
There are a lot of references to hands in these descriptions, and it reminds me of the homunculus brain/body map. A lot of the brain is devoted to hands:
https://mycerebellarstrokerecovery.c...12/homunculus/
Here’s one about cognitive dissonance. It looks like this part of the brain is sort of in front of the hypothalamus. I was interested in the part that explained how this dissonance can help us determine what is “wrong”. I was thinking maybe it could help explain why The Timaeus contradictions feel so unpleasant:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...e-dissonance1/
Juxtapositions of size seem like an exceptionally prominent feature of The Timaeus. I got to thinking about how in terms of evolution, a lot of threats people probably faced out there in the wilderness were either very small (like venomous spiders), or very large (like charging mammoths), and I found a link that explains that impending collision influences the perceived size of an object. In other words, if a tiny bug flies straight toward your eye, you react as if to avoid impact by jumping backward. If you don’t feel much like reading, scroll to the “Discussion” section, which includes some very interesting details. For example, visual stimulus paired with white noise can initiate automatic attention, the response doesn’t have to be conscious, and the amygdala and subcortical visual pathway seem to be involved:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5133426/
Because some dreamers mentioned feelings of horror, disgust, or nausea brought about by these images and juxtapositions, I’ve got a link about the neuropsychology of disgust:
https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/8/2/121/1625713
The following detailed article explores temporal perception (the perception of time) in the brain, and specifically examines the hurdles the brain has to overcome on the best of days regarding visual and auditory perception of time. I think this is especially relevant to dreamers who are interested in the common feature of excruciatingly slow moving objects, or The Grinds, they dream or hallucinate:
http://www.eagleman.com/blog/brain-time
And here’s an interesting link which explains how capillaries dilate, releasing plasma proteins into the surrounding tissue as a fever develops and peaks. That causes swelling in the tissues, probably including the optic nerve, and hypothalamus. And another link showing drawings of plasma proteins, just because I was wondering if these might look like some of the geometric shapes you've seen? (not all the drawings on that page are of plasma proteins, I don't think!):
Inflammation and the Pathophysiology of Fever
https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=%22..._source=ft_web
Here is a link from an internet search for, “feverish dream inspired art”. I noticed pillars, eyes, geometric shapes, some images seeming to depict vast landscapes, and ominous themes:
https://www.google.com/search?q=feve...w=1113&bih=593
For comparison, an internet search for “near death experience inspired art”. I feel like there are a lot more thin lines, and grid patterns on this page, but I didn’t count:
https://www.google.com/search?q=near...w=1113&bih=593
One dreamer mentioned experiencing The Timaeus while at the top of a large mountain range. This next link is brief, and shows the symptoms of a condition called, “High Altitude Cerebral Edema”, which also involves swelling within the brain tissues. Notice that nausea, hallucinations, and blindness are all listed as symptoms. It doesn’t say so on the page I’m linking to, but a low fever is also a symptom of altitude sickness:
High Altitude Cerebral Edema « Climbing High
And here’s one that gives some firsthand accounts of hallucinatory experiences of high altitude climbers which I thought was relevant because it discusses hallucinations involving strange bodily sensations, and strange distortions of perception regarding the size of objects or of the body. Some of the dreamers commenting on this thread have mentioned similar experiences:
http://anesthesiaweb.org/images/hypo...ugger-1999.pdf
Here’s another link which discusses Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and how pressure on the optic chiasm (the place where the two optic nerves cross in the brain to form an X shape) can cause visual hallucinations combined with a feeling of fear. I'm including these links not because I think anyone here is going blind, or has tumors, but because there is inflammation during fever, and that could possibly account for additional pressure on the optic nerves which could offer an explanation for these Timaeus hallucinations, coupled with a feeling of fear, dread, or horror:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...nnet-syndrome/
The next link is a very good link which lists the numerous sensory experiences people have related to migraine aura, with or without subsequent migraine. I’m including this because, like the report of the high altitude climbers, it mentions strange bodily sensations and distortions of perceptions of size. It also mentions de ja vu’ and sensation of extreme fear, or dread which have been mentioned by dreamers in this thread:
https://migrainetalkblog.wordpress.c...f-think-again/
And here’s one regarding migraine as an inflammatory disorder:
Migraine as an inflammatory disorder
Finally, there's this informative page reviewing Tinnitus, a condition which could help to explain the rushing sound, or deafening silence dreamers hear along with the visual hallucinations/dreams of The Timaeus. Specifically of interest is the section "Types of Tinnitus" as it describes "Objective Tinnitus", which can be heard by another person, using a stethoscope. Tinnitus can be associated with headache, infection, anxiety, and dehydration. In the section, “Causes of tinnitus”, both ear infection and tooth abscess are mentioned. Although it doesn’t specifically mention fever, the second link does say that tinnitus can be associated with fever:
Tinnitus: Causes and Treatment
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC546075/
I’m not implying that the hallucinations or dream content of The Timaeus are insignificant, or solely a manifestation of a person’s physical condition. I think that the spiritual significance is personal, relevant, and probably influenced by the way each dreamer actually feels during the experience, and how they come to view the experience, afterward. The reason I’m offering up all of these links pointing to a physical source for The Timaeus, is because lots of the posts in this thread ask why so many people have similar experiences, and I was reminded of the articles I had seen in the past about the rock art, the tinnitus, hallucinations in blindness, and high altitude cerebral edema. So I started doing the internet search thing, and found a lot of other links to share.
I agree that there has to be something - that it can’t be coincidence! I think part of it might be biology/physiology . . . I don’t know the proper way to say it.
TheCusp, if the theory about the rock art geometric imagery is right, then your suspicion that these hallucinations/dreams are very old is correct. And The Timaeus might be a fairly modern title for them, oddly enough!
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