Can we dream about death?

Recently on YouTube, I watched a very interesting discussion on whether we can dream about one’s own death. It was a part of a TV show in Korean, in which several scientists from different areas chat about the topics that everyone on earth might be curious about. Although I felt sometimes the show stretched a bit more than what it is (I understand that this would be necessary for attracting the attention from general public, as long as it is not a lie), I liked the show very much. Anyway, the consensus on the possibility of dreaming about one’s own death from the show was “impossible” because the dream is made of what one has experienced in life. The neuroscientist in the show said, the essential role of dreaming is re-organization of the events that happend throughout the day. Thus, if somebody had dreamed about dying, it must be from one’s own imagination and is likely to be nothing to do with reality. In fact, I dreamed about my own deaths several times, and like often discussed, I flew out of my body and saw myself and people around me! It’s not the main point though.

In doing research, imagination is very important. Without imagination, one would simply poducing the knowledge that are already known. From time to time, I also feel that my thinking process works a bit like dreaming. After watching the TV show, I started to think, “Can we really predict an entirely new phenomenon by imagination?”. This is usually not easy. Most of the predictions have certain level of similarity with the existing knowledge. This is quite similar to the way why we cannot dream about things that we have not experienced. But one may still wonder if the analogy between the dream during sleeping and the imagination in research is yet fine, or there is something more.

In physical science, we have a very rigorous language — mathematics — that enables us to explore abstract worlds without losing orientation. We have to follow the rules of mathematics and trust them, hoping that oneday we will arrive at the equation that implies a new discovery. Also, with math, one can develop a “mathematical intuition”, like dreaming about equations. Thus, I think the answer to my previous question is not that simple. Sometimes a magic happens in our brain, which mixes formal stuffs and imaginative ideas in a funny way. This is probably a Eureka moment. In general, I think any expertise in various areas (music, language, wine making, meditation, movie, photography …), which all have their own formalities and rules while requiring creative mindset, one’s imagination may be unlimited. I am amazed quite often when realizing how our mind works and what our brains can achieve.