Thread: Our life just a dream?

I see that notion mentioned on dreamviews all the time.

No, life isn't a dream.

No, life is entirely canon and it's not a cop-out. At least I hope so, or I'll be pissed and write a letter.

Why "just" a dream?

Some believe that all realities are dreamed realities, it is not a new belief by any means.

Why call life a dream if we don't even know what dreams are? Illusion is a much better word.

Yea, an illusion. Some one is pulling the wool over our eyes. But how can we prove it? Maybe aliens are the puppetmasters. That's my thought.

I dont claim it to be a new belief at all, it was just a thought that i pondered for a long time now.

im suprised that id be the first one to mention the matrix films. off all things to watch before you go to bed the matrix films or the animatrix films are the best to induce lucidity.
iv all of a sudden gotten really interested in those films as it was only after reading about lucid dreaming a couple of weeks ago that i figured thats what the matrix is all about, it seems so obvious now

Originally Posted by boo1030

Has anyone had the thought that, your entire life up to this point, has been a dream, just one night and it suddenly ended, and you woke up to be a 1 day old baby.

Something to that sort, I know its weird, but yeah.

It is a dream..a nightmare I would like to wake up from. Unfortunately this lucid dreaming notion is the only way to get a glimpse of what life is....

IMJ

or there is the whole paralell universe thing. dreams could be a way to enter paralell universes

Originally Posted by pond weed

or there is the whole paralell universe thing. dreams could be a way to enter paralell universes

If by parallel you mean coexistant to consensus reality and by universe you mean a reality defined by its limitations, then I would say yes.

Originally Posted by gigaschatten

If by parallel you mean coexistant to consensus reality and by universe you mean a reality defined by its limitations, then I would say yes.

Dreams are not defined by the limitations of reality. That's why they're so crazy and wonderful. Some things we could never possibly imagine on our own consciousness appear in our dreams.

If life is a dream, then what would a dream be?
I have definetly thought about things like this before. I am usually high when this runs through my mind though.

Well then there's this to consider -

When you dream, you create a whole world of your own in which to exist. Not necessarily consciously. And this world is very real - because it has been created out of what you believe to be real.

There are between 6.7 and 7 billion people on Earth. That's a LOT of willpower. You could say, based on the above, that it is enough to generate and sustain an entire universe. What if the entirety of waking life exists simply because we believe that it does; the collective willpower of the human race creating the world in which we think we live?


Discuss.

If life is a dream... I'm having a really boring FA, at least there are dreams whiting the FA to have fun lol
And reality being collective toughts of all humans on earth? I wonder... how did the humans won the idea of that ideal/real world?

i think one of the coolest things about dreams (aside from lucidity) is that it really digs deeper into the brain.
i cant remember exactly but we use a ridiculously small part of our brain.
things that we see every day are locked away in our brain supposedly forgoten, and dreams are LOADS of peices of memory mixed up to make new crazy experiences

Originally Posted by pond weed

i cant remember exactly but we use a ridiculously small part of our brain

Haven't heard that in a while. I thought that myth would be dead by now. Here, get some education: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

haha, that is interesting. how did i not know that, when i think back, i have never heard about the 10% thing from any teacher or acountable source.

There are between 6.7 and 7 billion people on Earth. That's a LOT of willpower. You could say, based on the above, that it is enough to generate and sustain an entire universe. What if the entirety of waking life exists simply because we believe that it does; the collective willpower of the human race creating the world in which we think we live?

If you turn a question into a statement - I agree entirely. Reading from some different sources I came across an idea that the difference between dream and 'reality' is the density of the matter. Therefore while the dream realm reflects your thoughts with ease the 'reality' does it as well but with much more resistance and it takes a time. It's like comparing sculpting in clay and chunk of steel. Also there is a question if this is your mind who shapes the reality or something deeper, less conscious. I found somewhere else another idea that your future is more or less decided by your higher self and step by step it leads you there while your mind thinks that it rules. The thing is that our understanding what is the best for us is 0. We tend to assess our happiness by: money, social status, influence on others, sex, relations and many other mortal things that for our higher selves just don't matter.

Originally Posted by pond weed

haha, that is interesting. how did i not know that, when i think back, i have never heard about the 10% thing from any teacher or acountable source.

Knowing now that you use all your brain and being aware of your own limitations, you still think dreams are a byproduct of it?

but, dont we have loads of memories locked away in our brain. and our dreams are a sign that those memories are still there. a mixture of all these memories

so the fact that we cant access all these memories when ever we want is a sign that we dont use all of our brain, because if we did we could access all these memories on cue

isnt there that thing were, when people are about to die, thier life flashes before thier eyes, and that this is all thier memories of thier life stored away are suddenly being released /access by the brain.

Originally Posted by pond weed

but, dont we have loads of memories locked away in our brain.

How do you know it's stored in the brain?

Originally Posted by pond weed

and our dreams are a sign that those memories are still there. a mixture of all these memories

Then why are those memories so radically distorted in dreams even if we can recall them clearly?

Originally Posted by pond weed

so the fact that we cant access all these memories when ever we want is a sign that we dont use all of our brain, because if we did we could access all these memories on cue

*sigh* Seems like everyone is a neuroscientist today.

Originally Posted by pond weed

isnt there that thing were, when people are about to die, thier life flashes before thier eyes, and that this is all thier memories of thier life stored away are suddenly being released /access by the brain.

Yes, that's what movies show. Why should "the brain" do that when it's about to die? Is it flushing?

If life is just a dream, then it seems there's not much we can do to wake ourselves up.

Originally Posted by pond weed

but, dont we have loads of memories locked away in our brain. and our dreams are a sign that those memories are still there. a mixture of all these memories

so the fact that we cant access all these memories when ever we want is a sign that we dont use all of our brain, because if we did we could access all these memories on cue

Not necessarily. The human body is not a computer where you can simply store information indefinitely and pull it up at will. I'm personally of a mind that each person remembers things differently and while some people tend to more easily remember feelings and emotions, other people more easily remember facts and specific details. I don't know.

isnt there that thing were, when people are about to die, thier life flashes before thier eyes, and that this is all thier memories of thier life stored away are suddenly being released /access by the brain.

I'm sure some people recall memories of certain people or events when faced with a dangerous situation, but they don't relive all of their memories. I've yet to hear of someone who almost died who was able to recall everything they saw after having "their life flash before their eyes." Evidence simply doesn't point to this being a real occurrence. However, I'm not denying the slim possibility.

I have thought about these things, though. A more interesting question might be this: what if we're a part of someone else's dream? If so, what will happen when they wake up?

Originally Posted by Amethyst Star

I have thought about these things, though. A more interesting question might be this: what if we're a part of someone else's dream? If so, what will happen when they wake up?

Better hope they don't get lucid. They might start messing around.