First project:

Dream analysis and memory processing

I am relating dream production and long-term memory  formation via collecting and discerning patterns and regularities in dream symbols which recur over time spans ranging from short (24-72 hours) to long (months and years).

Through database dream documentation and running big data analysis on symbols, associations and frequency, I have found that I am able to trace memory formation and how new learnings are cross referenced and incorporated with our existing memories and into our stream of experience on subsequent days.

Findings to date include: nine dream types; a sequence of at least three dreams levels of abstraction per night; and the presence of at least three possible meanings for each symbol that occurs in any specific dream.

The nine types of dreams discerned to date are:

• rehearsal
• diagnosis (includes discovery and projection)
• learning
• understanding
• postulation of future scenarios
• strategic planning
• predictive
• decision-making

While it could be argued that nightmares should get their own type, interestingly enough, these may be seen as strong emotional versions of one of the above types.

I found that each night consisted of a sequence of three kinds of dreams. The first and earliest dreams of the night often just consist of words. For me this meant reading words off a document or a page of text as if I had typed them myself. The second stage dreams were short vignettes as if playing out some of the words as symbols. These two stages happened in the first two hours of sleep. Subsequently during  the rest of the night, more movie-like dreams occurred in two hour intervals. The easiest dreams to remember were the long narratives that played out during the final two hours of nine hour sleep periods, and these dreams offered the culmination of the night’s symbols.

In the narrative kind of dreams, each of the symbols appear to have at least three associative meanings.

 

Second research project:

Putting it all together: developing a set of practices

“Unsticking” things in life that don’t make sense by applying a custom computational model of memory, learnings on memory formation, and dream analysis.

As a Philosophical Consultant I presuppose that everyone’s worldview is true for them at any given time. We all get stuck when things don’t make sense or “don’t compute”. These stuck bits are like knots in the memory process and can be untangled and combed through by using the techniques and practices I’ve developed as a Philosophical Consultant. This set of over 30 practices have proved invaluable for clients in gaining an understanding of their particular worldview and choosing how they want to move forward.

About Me

My PhD dissertation was on the Philosophy of Mind, more specifically Extended Mind and Philosophy of Memory. My Computational Model of Memory (CMM) depicts the mind’s memory processing at the conceptual level as well as mechanisms in which these processes could be constituted by way of multiple realizability. The model shows how external stores can constitute part of memory, and can be used to explore the benefits or detriments of our reliance on external memory.

My thesis can be found here: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/35096

As a Philosopher of Memory, and an Information Technology professional, I have been able to keep a running database of my dream contents, which I use to as a research base to run data analysis. In just over 60 months, I have documented approximately 3,400 dreams.  Results to date are providing evidence of the effects of psychological priming, learning, memory production, and associative connection which are occurring during regular sleep periods which will impact emotional reactions in subsequent daily encounters.