Thread: What is reality?

there are 2 parts to the video

Ah yes, just saw the entire second part.

I follow all his points, but from what I can see they are all based on the point of view of perception. And I do agree that when it comes to perception, it is hard to differentiate between dreams and waking life, from what I can see there actually isn't any difference at all; like he says in the video and that we've come to agree upon during the discussion in this thread. Dreams and waking life are either just as real or just as unreal, based on how we define the word "real", but ultimately they are equal experiences, one is not of lesser rank than the other. I've had lucid dreams that were so vivid and colorful that I got this weird sense of feeling more "real" than my wakening life, if that makes sense. Perhaps you have tried something similar? It's like all your senses increases, making you feel more alive than ever before. Your vision becomes more colorful and sharp, your emotions reach such a high that it's like you can feel yourself being alive at the time. It's hard to explain really, hope it makes sense

Though I do feel like he's missing one important aspect since all he does is talk from the view of perception, and that is as I've already mentioned stability. Something external from your perception. Let me explain it a littler clearer.

Let's say you lose a close relative like your mom. If this happened in a dream, you would wake up from it and have a clear memory of this sad event taking place right there in your dream, yet when you get up from bed and go to say good morning, she will be right there, alive and well. While dreaming, this might have given you extreme emotions of sadness and loss. The feelings we perceive in the dream is equal to those we will experience in waking life, no doubt about that, we all agree there, one is not less "real" than the other. But the state of your dreaming world and the state of your waking world is clearly two different things. Your mom died in your dream, though she is alive when you awaken.

When you go to sleep again at night, you can then again have a lucid dream where your mom is alive, even though she died in your previous dream and you clearly recall this.

If you instead lost your mom in our wakening life, it would affect you in an entirely different way and more serious way. It could have serious psychological consequences for you, and also the fact that unless your dream world, your mom won't come back in this one. So here there is clearly some form of difference between the two worlds. Losing your mom in a dream, you are able to wake up and simply brush it off, saying "ah, it was nothing but a dream". On the other hand, lose her in wakening life, and it is suddenly not that simple.

Why is it that this huge difference exists? And one answer I could use here was simply state.

I'm not saying this is a way of differentiating between what should be considered real or not, as we all clearly have different ideas of what real is supposed to mean. My point is simply that if we look away from perception and try to define reality using other means, there clearly exists differences between dreaming worlds and our wakening world in the form of state, where the state of our wakening world seems to be constant, while the state of our dream world does not.

This was just one interesting thing I was thinking about. Using this you could make a definition which said that: Reality is a constant state. Using this specific definition, dreams, then, would not be real while our waking life would be.

This is just one way of defining reality, I'm not saying it's more correct than other ways of saying it, another definition could also be, as we've already discussed: Reality is what we perceive with our senses, that is, perception is reality. In this case, dreams and wakening life are both as real.

I agree that when it comes to perception, everything simply is. Nothing is more real than the other.

There is so many ways in which you can define reality depending on what perspective you choose to take. I'm not sure if it does any good, then, to come up with any one specific definition. Man, after this discussion I will be careful to use such a loosely defined word again

[EDIT]

On closer thought I also do realize that if you want to use state as any definition, it might become hard to say what constant state is supposed to mean. If we imagined that we had some sort of device which could bring molecules back together again in the exact same way which they were before (like a piece of paper getting ripped apart and then put together again), you would then run into trouble where our wakening life would no be real anymore Anyways the main point was just that there, for some reason, seems to exist an emotional priority between our waking life and dreaming life. Things which happen in wakening life seems to be perceived as way more serious. Where to go from there I'm not sure yet, it was just a thought I had been playing around with

Originally Posted by SomeDreamer

Your vision becomes more colorful and sharp, your emotions reach such a high that it's like you can feel yourself being alive at the time. It's hard to explain really, hope it makes sense

iv been to diffrent places and seen many beautiful places, to this day the most beautiful places iv seen has been in my dream, absoloutly breath taking, places i had never seen or imagined before, that by it self says something.

you can always sharpen your senses and make dreams more vivid by commands. E.g "increase vividness", "increase my senses"

Originally Posted by SomeDreamer

Let's say you lose a close relative like your mom. If this happened in a dream, you would wake up from it and have a clear memory of this sad event taking place right there in your dream, yet when you get up from bed and go to say good morning, she will be right there, alive and well. While dreaming, this might have given you extreme emotions of sadness and loss. The feelings we perceive in the dream is equal to those we will experience in waking life, no doubt about that, we all agree there, one is not less "real" than the other. But the state of your dreaming world and the state of your waking world is clearly two different things. Your mom died in your dream, though she is alive when you awaken If you instead lost your mom in our wakening life, it would affect you in an entirely different way and more serious way. It could have serious psychological consequences for you, and also the fact that unless your dream world, your mom won't come back in this one. So here there is clearly some form of difference between the two worlds. Losing your mom in a dream, you are able to wake up and simply brush it off, saying "ah, it was nothing but a dream". On the other hand, lose her in wakening life, and it is suddenly not that simple.

well there is alot we dont know or undrestand but The basic principle is that in one reality were eternal and in this one its temporarely, so we have to think why this could be the case.. My opinion so far is that we obviously in this reality temporarely, like when you go on a holiday. I also believe your here to exprience diffrent emotions, and learn common sense and logic, things that you dont get tought in a dream state, so when you come and get all this exprience you can take back to where you originally come from. Maybe the reason for this reality is to be able to undrestand the primary reality of other dimensions such as "dream world".

If you never existed in this world then there couldnt be a lucidity, as when you become lucid what you learnt in this reality comes to mind and effect hence it feels like your in heaven. Maybe thats the aim of life to live in heaven (lucidity), to be able to achieve that you need to make a stop in this reality

People get upset over loved ones death because in their mind they believe this to be the only reality, so they believe they have lost somehting for good, those emotions really come from the false ego, of loosing something or not having soemthing regardless of what the reason is.

Originally Posted by SomeDreamer

I'm not saying this is a way of differentiating between what should be considered real or not, as we all clearly have different ideas of what real is supposed to mean. My point is simply that if we look away from perception and try to define reality using other means, there clearly exists differences between dreaming worlds and our wakening world in the form of state, where the state of our wakening world seems to be constant, while the state of our dream world does not.

i disagree on the constant part. When your in a dream is it constant until you wake up and think back on it. It is the same when your dreaming and think about the events of this reality, then this reality doesnt seem constant and your dream world seems like the constant one. Like in the video the guy says when you get drunk and look back on it the next day it doesnt seem constant, but you know it would have had to been, only because you were drunk. But at the time when you were drunk everything seemed constant

Originally Posted by SomeDreamer

There is so many ways in which you can define reality depending on what perspective you choose to take. I'm not sure if it does any good, then, to come up with any one specific definition. Man, after this discussion I will be careful to use such a loosely defined word again .

i think reality is just bieng and what your expriencing in the "now" moment. Only this moment your expriencing is reality, once 1 second passes its no longer reality its a memory. if you read the book "The Power of Now, by eckart tolle" youll undrestand what i mean