“The dream is a small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul.†– Carl Jung.
Recently, I was relaxing in a recliner watching a Golden State Warriors basketball game. Unfortunately, the commentator’s voice was so irritating that I turned the audio off. I watched in silence for a while, then dozed off into a deep sleep. So much so that later I was unaware that my wife had spread a blanket over me, turned off the TV and living room lights.
I must have arrived at “stage 3 REM sleep,†and I found myself in a traffic court where I had the option of paying a parking fine or pleading my case. I informed the judge that I intentionally parked my car facing the wrong way on our street as a form of civil disobedience.
“You see your honor,†I said, “I teach high school biology and the chapter on the origin of life states that all life on Earth began when a lightning bolt struck a tide pool. The theory not only lacks common sense, it lacks scientific credibility.
Typically, lightning bolts generate more than 300 million volts of electricity and temperatures over 50,000 degrees F. Extremes like these tend to atomize most things contacted and would make it impossible to organize highly complex molecules. Therefore, the odds of a DNA molecule forming spontaneously (without a controlling factor) are statistically impossible and have a probability value of zero.
Each human chromosome contains a single very long, linear DNA molecule. In the smallest human chromosomes this DNA molecule is composed of about 50 million nucleotide pairs; the largest chromosomes contain some 250 million nucleotide pairs.
Even if the first DNA molecule were miraculously created, it could not survive without surrounding cytoplasm, Messenger RNA and T-RNA to support it. Typically, in a few brief paragraphs, most biology textbooks glibly ignore or misrepresent one of the greatest miracles on planet Earth, the origin of life.
Your honor, I submit that an overwhelming number of US biology teachers have tacitly agreed to perpetuate the myth of the lightning-bolt-in-the-tide pool. This is a huge disservice to our youth and not only disingenuous, but scientifically irresponsible.â€
The judge smiled and said, “I find your argument persuasive, but haven’t most societies been built on myths and legends along with the prevailing knowledge? However, in the spirit of transparency, I am dismissing your fine, but perhaps, for the sake of law and order, you could start parking your car in the right direction?â€
Understandably, the dream awakened me and I tried to process its meaning. While lying in contemplation, suddenly a breeze wafted over me. I pinched myself to be sure that I was awake, but the mysterious breeze continued. There were no windows or doors open, yet I felt like I was sleeping outside. This lasted about 30 seconds, subsided and then a feeling of warmth and comfort washed over me.
Robert Frost posited that no poem can withstand dissection and perhaps the same can be said about mystical events. Therefore, I will not attempt to explain the breeze event, but it reminded me of an experience I shared with a small group of students deep within Grand Canyon.
We were standing at Plateau Point gazing 1,800 feet down to the Colorado River. Suddenly, two ravens approached us at eye-level, about 50 feet out over the inner gorge. At the exact moment they passed us, they performed perfectly synchronized “snap rolls,†offered their salutatory croaks; and silently glissaded down into the cavernous abyss.
We stood in stunned silence and I had a serious case of goosebumps all over my body. We either could not or did not choose to speak or move. After a long pause, the young man next to me whispered, “I think I just had a religious experience.â€
And then, I experienced my own Jungian revelation; the breeze was a perfect metaphor for life. We are all cosmic travelers on a journey and we have no idea where we came from or where we are going. However, each of us has been blessed with the God-given-gift of free will, which means we have the choice of lamenting our existence or celebrating the “once-in-a-universe mystery†that we are.