{"id":985,"date":"2021-10-15T14:10:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T13:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hb5.50e.myftpupload.com\/?p=985"},"modified":"2026-06-13T06:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:58:09","slug":"heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/2021\/10\/15\/heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arbeit macht Brei<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have been dreaming of ‘heaven’ on and off for the past two years, and it’s been the inspiration of much writing. I have been observing the activities of the characters in these dreams and recording my observations. They have a society! It is consistent across dreams and much more sensical than our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many dreams were written as entries in The Salt Island Diaries<\/a> immediately upon awakening. As such, they inherited religious vocabulary, like ‘heaven,’ which were not part of the dreams. Those dreams were rather ordinary-looking, other than their vividness. I summarised the key ideas in blog entries such as the Poles of Attraction<\/a> and the Management of Similarity<\/a> essays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, I either did not dream or dreamt ordinarily. Then, unexpectedly, I slept 22 hours on Monday, and again on Tuesday. The last two days, twelve hours each. Last night, I finally dreamt of Heaven again, and only that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, I want to introduce new vocabulary. ‘Heaven’ in no way describes my personal experience, but I have no better word for it. What I’m talking about is the opposite of nightmares, a concept which does not exist in English. A little research shows that mare<\/em> is an old English word for a female evil spirit, and later, the resultant dreams. Turning to Old English again, I see that bli\u00f0s<\/em> is spiritual joy, perfect felicity, or the joy of heaven. I propose ‘dreamblith.’ I keep the edd (\u00f0) and drop the s<\/em> to avoid the interpretation of ‘night bliss,’ which could be any pleasant nocturnal experience. This instead shares the root of ‘blithe.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the observations I made last night: In dreambliths, people are very friendly and even playful, but coldly goal-oriented. It seems the insight is, there is no definition of happiness that involves no goals. Lying around without goals does not bring happiness. Having all your achievements behind you does not bring happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are either conceiving your goals or working toward your goals. Each of these is a reason to rejoice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I observed how dreamblith characters work together during the construction of a house foundation. A group of twenty or so women sang the plan in the attic of a colonial house. (They communicated primarily through song.) It seemed here that they had a singing jam session, and when they had a good song, they had a good plan. I was a child observing this, but because I could not sing or understand what they were singing, I grew bored. I noticed that the chimney was on the side of the house; half its heat would be radiated outside; it had better to be in the center. And the house had better in an octagonal shape, as this would reduce the surface area to volume of the house. I thought out many of the details, then suddenly found myself in a sunny meadow with the others. I could see from the octagonal foundation wall that was being built that we had all imagined the same thing, or that I had understood their song at some level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was most amazing was not magical: each person set about to build the house on her own. However, each person was also evaluating what the others were doing, and adjusting her own work to benefit maximally from it. If someone was making a wall on the south side, the next person would on the north side, making sure to build an equal length. She might have to redo something not done to her tastes, but here there is no conflict. She is merely working on her own in an area where others are coincidentally working. She seeks to take advantage of compatible work but expects nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other thing I saw was the degree to which they are networked. They are in constant communication with each other about what they are doing, in the form of song. They are constantly seeking advice, and each query is passed along. As a result, there is a kind of group mind, in which information flows quickly to the point where it is acted on. Furthermore, by knowing what their colleagues are doing, they may adjust their own work to maximize their ‘cheating’ potential, that is, to get a free ride from whatever the others are doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their priorities were fluid. If one person has the following priorities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. buy a watch
2. eat a snack
3. paint a wall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and he sees that someone has left a full paint bucket by the wall, he will boost number three to the number one position. His priorities are shifting to take advantage of the actions of others. In this sense, they are like a true flock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That, for me is the most mind-blowing aspect is that all the dreamers were aware they were dreaming. It was the experience of building a house that was sought, not the house. In waking life, we prioritize material acquisition, even if it requires compromises that make our lives shabby. Not so in dreambliths. Because material acquisition is an obvious illusion, the only acquisition can be experiences \u2014 interesting, challenging, and joyful experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everything in a dreamblith is frictionless. Problems arise. But the difficulty is either insurmountable or it gives the task worth. After all, no one plays a game that can be won with the press of a single button. In a dreamblith, you either are able to deal with a given problem \u2014 and surmounting problems is joyful \u2014 or you are putting your attention on a problem you can deal with. What heaven there is, is the heaven you insist on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I dream of a heaven. Not the religious kind. This one is excellent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[108],"tags":[118],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5255,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/5255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}