Mozart's Magic Flute -or- The German Age of Enlightenment
The Philosophical Dream of Reason -or- Enlightened Inquiry
My life writing in my notebooks focuses on the rational inquiry and understanding of dreams. This inquiry always pointed to the epistemological (knowledge) need to comprehend the concept known as human "reason". The dreams in my notebooks show a pedagogic epistemological pattern, that reason and clear thought is a way of thinking, a "methodology" that must be learned. In this philosophical sense, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates and his inquiry into life via the oracular use of dreams has been a guiding light for me. The IIDR interpretation Socrates on Death Row pays homage to Socrates and his dream. Unbeknownst to most, Socrates and the Socratic method, are still at work and in use in our everyday discourse and dreams.
Later my notebooks began to show my curiosity, interest and attention turning to ideas concerning "symbolic logic". Having taken a course in quantum statistics at the University of Zürich, I quickly learned about the enormous differences in perceiving the world through the optics of classical versus quantum symbolic logic. These conceptual ideas and tools of classical and quantum logic can provide an understanding of the literary patterns of symbolic logic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_logic found in dreams. Future postings of, "Field Notes of a Dream Researcher", will be furnished by the quantum mystical dreams of the physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Read theIIDR interpretation; "The Dreams of Wolfgang Pauli" .
In "The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Rennaissance" Anthony Gottlieb traces the philosophical path of the dream of reason and philosophers rational inquiry following it from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance. Gottlieb in his introduction tells his reading audience that; "A second volume will continue the tale from Descartes to the present day". As far as I have been able to ascertain the second volume has never been published (or written?). The second volume, would likely show the importance of the "Cartesian method", Kant's philosophy and positivism. The Cartesian method was discovered in three dreams that Rene Descartes had. He had these dreams on November 10-11, 1619 and he meditated on them. Descartes meditations led to his rationalist methodology and his dream of reason, which can be found and seen in everyday life. It is one of the dominant organizing principles and methodology for our thought and behaviour.
Stock market graphs that you can see on the computer or the newspaper are Cartesian. The Bell curve is a Cartesian graphic. The everyday social analytic geometry of thought, thinking and scientific methodology in the Western world when it involves classical physics (vs. quantum physics) is Cartesian. As Thomas Kuhn Structure of Scientific Revolutions might observe, Descartes work would create an epistemological "paradigmatic shift" in Western society. One could argue that Descartes dreams laid the meditative foundation for this cultural paradigmatic shift towards a rational modern philosophy. This Cartesian paradigm of classical physics philosophically continues to work and operate in our modern thinking and dreaming. Physics was not the only place that the dream of reason was at work. We can also find the age of the enlightenment and dream of reason in the musical work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, more specifically in The Magic Flute. It is the same Mozart's Magic Flute that appears in a dream Charlotte Beradt Third Reich of Dreams collected from ordinary Germans from 1933-39.
Here is the dream;
"I am sitting in a box at the opera, dressed in a new gown, and with my hair beautifully done. It was a huge opera house with many, many tiers and I was enjoying considerable attention. They were presenting my favorite opera, "The Magic Flute". When it came to the line "that is the devil certainly" a squad of policemen came stomping in and marched directly up to me. A machine had registered the fact that I had thought of Hitler on hearing the word "devil". I imploringly searched the festive crowd for some sign of help, but they all just sat there staring straight ahead, silent and expressionless, not one showing even pity. The old gentleman in an adjoining box looked kind and distinguished, but when I tried to catch his eye he spat at me."
Mozart, Masonry and Music -or- The Enlightenment and the Dream of Reason
Why does Mozart's "The Magic Flute" appear in an ordinary German woman's dream?
The age of the Enlightenment (or the age of Reason), was a guiding cultural movement, which was dedicated to the power of reason to promote social reform. Since before Descartes' three dreams, and until ca 1800 the Enlightenment became the prominent cultural movement and road for philosophical inquiry. As a social reaction to the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, the cultural movement of Romanticism began to take shape towards the end of the 18th century, it would emphasize the role of emotion over thought and logic, and thereby create a counter-force, a counter-enlightenment and a counter-movement.
Rock me Amadeus -or- Goebbels Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791. Mozart could be considered the first modern Western musical "rock star". Beethoven's early musical work was done in the shadow of Mozart's showmanship. Mozart was a Freemason, and "The Magic Flute" pays homage to Masonry and the Enlightenment.
The reason that Mozart's "Magic Flute" is found in the dream above, is simple to understand. Dr. Joseph Goebbels was the head of the Nazi "Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda". The principle of the true enlightenment ran counter to Hitler's "Triumph of the Will" and the will to power. Hitler and the Nazi's propaganda machine were influencing public opinion through the use of all media channels and the German culture industries. Beradt's collection of dreams shows us the media effects of Nazi propaganda on the dreams of ordinary Germans. These collective effects of Nazi ideology, ran counter to the dream of reason and logic that the "Magic Flute" sought to pay tribute to. The inquiry into "Inside the Third Reich of Dreams" (read IIDR interpretation) uncovers the influence of the ruthless totalitarian Nazi logic of "mind contol" of a people. The Third Reich of Dreams stands as a monument to the media effects of the psychological terror of the Nazi's and their totalitarian Aryan ideology.
From a popular culture perspective the film Amadeus provides the viewer with insight into the life and times of Mozart. As well Falco's Rock me Amadeus (see music video) affirms Mozart's iconic status in Hollywood's dream factory history.