What if this is a dream?

[fatcatcog]

Have you ever thought really hard about everything around you, thought really hard about your existance and how strange it is - it seems to work alot better when you are having fun or it is dark. You start to feel strange, then very strange; you stop taking everything for granted and think of everything as intensely unusual even though you see these things evey day. Its interesting to think this hard. You also begin to think how dreamlike everything is and become very puzzled over how other people can live a seperate life and keep their thoughts to themselves. What if 'life' was a dream? What if we figured out this is just a dream? How is a dream different to real life apart from the fact its more vivid? If you cannot answer these questions then maybe all of this is just a dream. It sounds diabolical but when you think really hard about it it doesnt seem so ridiculous. Now, this bit really is a little odd. If we figured out this was a dream could we become lucid in 'real' life? Obviously this idea is somewhat insane, nonetheless i'd like to hear some of your opinions. Thanks for reading.

[zebrah]

If this is all a dream how can you trust me? Think on that.

[fatcatcog]

Well that would bring up the question 'If this is a dream am I the only being here or is everyone in one big dream?' If this is a dream and I am the only one here then I cannot trust you, but if we are sharing this dream I may be able to trust you.

[elucid]

Dont be surprised if it is fatcatcog, it is a very popular theory in fact. You should read the book, "The Holographic Universe", this theory is stated in there. Second, this is the belief in Buddhism and Hinduism. In my opinion, this is just one large stabilized dream. If you practice enough, you can get the dream powers you have in this life. There are stories of people with fire immunity, levitation, invisibility, diving through the ground as though it is water, etc. All of these make sense if we think of this life as a dream. And yes, you can become "lucid" in this life. Basically, your awareness increases and you will start to see the dreamlike structure of life, you "wake up". Also think about this, if this life is a dream or not, it does not really matter because they both practically work the same way, so who cares what you call it.

[fatcatcog]

In my opinion, this is just one large stabilized dream. Your theory seems to be becoming more likely to me. Do you believe that our big stabilized dream is in our heads or somewhere else?

[elucid]

Your theory seems to be becoming more likely to me. Do you believe that our big stabilized dream is in our heads or somewhere else? Well one of the theory is that this whole dream is in God's head and we are in his dream. That is one of the theory. So basically this whole thing is just one person, then in the dream split up into many, like the DC characters in your dream. When you are in your dream, you are basically the god. Second theory is that this whole thing is in our "mind" and our mind is not the brain, so it is in a immaterial form so it is not necessarily taking place in a physical place, thus this raises the question, if it is in a immaterial form, then it filling up zero amount of space? It can get real hectic, the theories.

[gdyhduyg]

i dont think this is a dream but i do believe there's something wrong with this reality. i know i'm not from this place. its miserable.

[fatcatcog]

It can get real hectic, the theories. Yeah I know what you mean. As much as these theorys are difficult to accept I would much rather belieive in them. I dont like the idea of going to nothingness when I die.

[fatcatcog]

i dont think this is a dream but i do believe there's something wrong with this reality. i know i'm not from this place. its miserable. I disadvise thinking like that. While I know what you mean you could take advantage over this 'fault'. Positive thinking can go a long way.

[whole]

lucidity in reality is bit different from lucidity in dreaming. Vadim Zeland's book trilogy Transurfing affords some answers.

[linz2d]

Well we don't actually see with our eyes, hear with our ears, touch with our skin, that is all done by the brain, all the brain does is interpret signals from these receptors and transform them in what we perceive as reality. For example the eye only sends signals to a certain part of the brain and then the brain uses these signals to create vision. It is better said that the brain uses the eye to see and not that we see with our eyes. Reality for the individual is only made up in the mind from what we perceive with our senses. When when we dream, we encounter a different form of reality because reality itself is only in the mind. In normal waking reality we are constantly bombarded by things we don't see or feel, a good example are radio waves. They are part of reality but our brains do not have the receptors or ability to receive such signals, to us without a radio we are not aware of the existence of radio waves. Just because the sky is blue does not mean that the stars aren't shining. So we have two forms of reality, the reality of the individual generated by the mind and a the reality of the universe, this reality has so many levels and dimensions that it is beyond our comprehension. Yet we are limited to experience it with only our 5 senses, then again who is to say that we only have 5 senses but even so what we perceive as an individuals reality is only a tiny part of reality as a whole. So I do not believe that this is a dream, I would rather say that dreaming is just another form of an individuals reality... blah

[fatcatcog]

About the idea of having more than 5 senses - have you noticed how it pretty much impossible to think of another sense that isnt based on another sense? Try it - it will definately link back to one of the senses we have. I would like to find out if we had other senses, becasue they are genuinely unimaginable.

[linz2d]

fatcatcog, I have no reason to doubt that the senses complement one another and sometimes overlap. Hearing a familiar sounds can sometimes generate familiar smells, all the senses can work closely together to give us a better under understanding of a situation, and the senses can also give us false info and make us believe and perceive things that aren't there. But I am a believer that human beings can and do receive information from sources other than the 5 senses. Now we could start a whole new level of conversation when we start to go beyond the 5 senses, usually it goes into psychic phenomena, but I suggest keeping it simple while referring to something non-human and very small. Homing Pigeons have been used for thousands of years because the little buggers can find their way back home. There are lots of theories as to why, one is that they build mental maps in their head when they get transported from point A to B, well that one goes out the window because during WWI and II they where transported in trucks and probably didn't get to see much of the scenery. Another suggestion is that they travel using the sun and moon as a guide. In the UK the sun and the moon is a myth, but the pigeons still manage fly back home. Then there is the theory that they have a built in compass or they are able to interpret the electromagnet fields of the earth. I am more in favor to believe these explanation because one it sounds logical and two it would mean the birds have a sense beyond the 5 senses. Even if its a good sense of direction, it is still an extra sense, keep that in mind and it is not impossible for humans to have an extra sense. I read once that the amount of sensory information that the human brain takes in at once is phenomenal that includes not only our 5 senses but also information from other things like our organs, but the brain only uses a fraction of that information, to assure our survival. Even now you may not be aware of it but you are listening to everything within your range, and the brain decides what is important and what is not, what to focus on and what to discard. If it is not essential for survival then it is not important, and I believe that goes for extrasensory perception, human beings may have these latent abilities but the brain does not use them because they are not essential for survival. Science knows that animals can sense danger, they don't know how but it has been studied and documented enough. We may also have such an ability and it may not even be dormant, the problem is we humans are to smart for our own good, because we usually choose our logic over instinct. Another interesting point to make is how would these extra senses manifest themselves, would it be through our normal senses, odd behavior or fear. I'll have to work on mine and I'll let you know

[fatcatcog]

I completely agree with you - that pigeon stuff is really odd. Did you know that when you watch a film there is a massive amount of music you do not notice because your brain isnt finding it nessacary to take it in? We also seem to get used to sounds and other senses so much we dont hear them any more. There was a game I used to play on when I was younger, and there was a constant sound of bees. I thought the sound had stopped and after listening really hard I noticed it had been there all the time but my brain hadn't payed any attention to it. So maybe there are other senses we dont know about because we are so used to them. After that the possibilities are pretty much endless - there could be a multitude of senses we have been ignoring because we dont require them to survive. Exciting! But how would you find these missing senses? I reckon it will just take some extreme concentration