EUREKA! (November 22, 2015)
I dreamt that I was talking with a friend about the similarity, and perhaps even identity, in great moments of revelation reached by both reason and intuition. As I argued in my dream, I had experiences with both. In my scientific work, which was based on mathematics, I experienced sudden revelations that felt almost physical. The same applied to my spiritual life. For example, all my brushes with enlightenment felt rather similar. In both cases I felt like following Archimedes: “Eureka!” “I have found it,” that is. I remember hypothesizing that this had to do with how the human brain worked. A sudden reconnection between different parts of the brain would feel electrifying. It would be almost physical. When I woke up, I could not remember who it was that I was talking to. But the dream felt like yet another revelation. When I checked the World Wide Web, I discovered that Archimedes reportedly exclaimed it twice: “Eureka! Eureka!” For some reason, that sounds right this morning. The excitement of revelation is too great for a single exclamation. Anyhow, the similarity, and perhaps even identity, between revelations reached by reason and intuition needs further thought, but I am onto something for true.