- #1
laura001
- 24
- 0
Is there any difference?
I guess i should say why I'm interested in this question. I've often had what is called 'lucid dreams' in which i realize I'm dreaming while I'm dreaming... it doesn't happen often, but I've defeinetely experienced it. For example, in the middle of a dream, i'll suddenly realize that I'm actually asleep in bed, in the town where i live on planet Earth etc... but apart from this insight I'm still completely experiencing the 'dream reality'. That's lucidity.
That experience made me wonder about the nature of reality. Ask yourself, why do people usually not realize they are dreaming, while they are dreaming? Isn't it odd that no matter what happens in a dream, no matter how bizzare, you don't question whether what is happening is 'real' or not? Likewise, when you're 'awake' you never question wether what is happening is real or not. There's two important points here that I'm trying to make. The first point is that you accept each, the dream and waking realities, with complete conviction while your experiencing each. The second point i'd like to make is that, we never question the 'validity' or 'realness' of a reality unless we are looking back on that reality from a difference reality. Here's a thought experiment: imagine that a baby is born but in a coma, and never experiences this reality... but the baby does dream and experiences the dream reality. The baby would never be able to question the validity of the dream without experiencing this waking life... i.e we need some kind of frame of reference.
There's another point i'd like to make. We are always trying to understand the 'universe', to define it using maths and physical laws. But no matter how perfectly we refine our equations and theories, no matter how exactly they describe how the universe functions or was formed etc, you'd never be able to actually turn a piece of paper with equations written on it into a world. So the equations would basically describe something which we are powerless to recreate. However, our own mind does this creation process every night when we go to sleep. A dream isn't just images that flash across your mind. Having had many lucid dreams i can assure you that everything in dreams is as real and as absorbing as this world. You can experience pain, objects have hardness, weight, you have an identity as being an individual self...in essence all of your senses function normally. The only difference i can think of between dream and waking reality, is that in dream there doesn't seem to be any constant laws of physics. For example, gravity can behave in any way you want it to behave (you can fly etc).
I'm just curious as to why there isn't more interest in dreams. Every night we actually create realities which i would argue are every bit as 'real' as this reality. Only when we wake up and compare the two realities are we able to dismiss the dream as being unreal. I think it's wrong to dismiss dreaming as just being chemical/electrical processes in the brain... I'm not saying that that isn't what dreams are, but those processes are more than just processes in that they create new perception, reality etc.
I guess i should say why I'm interested in this question. I've often had what is called 'lucid dreams' in which i realize I'm dreaming while I'm dreaming... it doesn't happen often, but I've defeinetely experienced it. For example, in the middle of a dream, i'll suddenly realize that I'm actually asleep in bed, in the town where i live on planet Earth etc... but apart from this insight I'm still completely experiencing the 'dream reality'. That's lucidity.
That experience made me wonder about the nature of reality. Ask yourself, why do people usually not realize they are dreaming, while they are dreaming? Isn't it odd that no matter what happens in a dream, no matter how bizzare, you don't question whether what is happening is 'real' or not? Likewise, when you're 'awake' you never question wether what is happening is real or not. There's two important points here that I'm trying to make. The first point is that you accept each, the dream and waking realities, with complete conviction while your experiencing each. The second point i'd like to make is that, we never question the 'validity' or 'realness' of a reality unless we are looking back on that reality from a difference reality. Here's a thought experiment: imagine that a baby is born but in a coma, and never experiences this reality... but the baby does dream and experiences the dream reality. The baby would never be able to question the validity of the dream without experiencing this waking life... i.e we need some kind of frame of reference.
There's another point i'd like to make. We are always trying to understand the 'universe', to define it using maths and physical laws. But no matter how perfectly we refine our equations and theories, no matter how exactly they describe how the universe functions or was formed etc, you'd never be able to actually turn a piece of paper with equations written on it into a world. So the equations would basically describe something which we are powerless to recreate. However, our own mind does this creation process every night when we go to sleep. A dream isn't just images that flash across your mind. Having had many lucid dreams i can assure you that everything in dreams is as real and as absorbing as this world. You can experience pain, objects have hardness, weight, you have an identity as being an individual self...in essence all of your senses function normally. The only difference i can think of between dream and waking reality, is that in dream there doesn't seem to be any constant laws of physics. For example, gravity can behave in any way you want it to behave (you can fly etc).
I'm just curious as to why there isn't more interest in dreams. Every night we actually create realities which i would argue are every bit as 'real' as this reality. Only when we wake up and compare the two realities are we able to dismiss the dream as being unreal. I think it's wrong to dismiss dreaming as just being chemical/electrical processes in the brain... I'm not saying that that isn't what dreams are, but those processes are more than just processes in that they create new perception, reality etc.
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