There are real clues as to how the mind works here...if we just knew how to unravel them. Dreams, daydreams, hallucinations...they are all interrelated.
I actually solved a thorny problem in image processing algorithm design once in a dream. Fortunately, I had a pad and pencil near my bed and I was able to flowchart it enough to take it to work and code it up. But it actually worked, so I know I'm not fooling myself.
Supposedly, the chemist who came up with the molecular structure of benzene stumbled on it in a dream. He knew the chemical formula, C6H6, but no one could figure out how the atoms hooked up. He dreamt of a snake eating its own tail,
Lately, I've noticed I can extend my dreams into the waking state for a few minutes, as a daydream, although I quickly lose control of them.
I've only had two hallucinations in my life, neither of them drug-induced. One was olfactory, the other auditory, and both were associatted with the dream/waking interface.
Space/Science » in reply to Mental manipulation of ideas, concepts, situations.`
The Doors of Perception