Living the dream: happiness in dreams vs life

[rmoss128]

If you were having a lucid dream in which you were completely happy with everything, you could do what you want, have the relationships you want, go where you want, eat what you want, have the life that you want, why wake up? Obviously we need to eat to survive, go to work or school, and manage our waking lives. But let's just say there's a way to get around all that, and remain in that perfect dream. What incentive would there be in returning to waking reality if you could be satisfied and happy in that dream for your entire life?

[ultranova]

If you were having a lucid dream in which you were completely happy with everything, you could do what you want, have the relationships you want, go where you want, eat what you want, have the life that you want, why wake up? Obviously we need to eat to survive, go to work or school, and manage our waking lives. But let's just say there's a way to get around all that, and remain in that perfect dream. What incentive would there be in returning to waking reality if you could be satisfied and happy in that dream for your entire life? That is interesting question but there are many factors that deny it: Well If you could do that you will eventually die in 3-4 days of sleep. First of all you can't sleep for how much you want. Lets say you can : I never heard that someone had a 3 hours long LD...and not to talk Forever long one....You would have to sleep for eternity to make rem cycles become that long. Human body cannot survive without water and food so you would eventually die..

[Speesh]

Depends on the person. Some people might like that, but I know others that prefer this static, shared reality to the self-created one of dreams.

[Kuhnada29]

Well that would defeat the purpose of being here, you can't just be happy all the time, you have to experience trials and tribulations with ourselves and each other in waking life for it to balance out. Part of duality. There is no happiness without sorrow and vice versa. Both sides need each other. I think us being here experiencing these trials and tribulations are a test of faith. I don't really believe in us being here on a "cosmic accident".

[tekkendreams]

if i had a chance to stay lucid forever i would say yes without even thinking and say goodbye to real life , i think you would be able to create the perfect world and after a few years your skills would be un imaginable and probably recreate your real life world into your dream but you have powers and can do what ever you want .

[Dream scientist]

The only thing I would miss is stability. For instance, you could have a long, rewarding chat w/ a loved one, only to find that they remember nothing of it later. However, seeing as it is a lucid dream, perhaps you could train your mind to keep the dream stable unless you wished otherwise

[rmoss128]

That is interesting question but there are many factors that deny it: Well If you could do that you will eventually die in 3-4 days of sleep. First of all you can't sleep for how much you want. Lets say you can : I never heard that someone had a 3 hours long LD...and not to talk Forever long one....You would have to sleep for eternity to make rem cycles become that long. Human body cannot survive without water and food so you would eventually die.. Very true, this is definitely not possible. I raise the question in more of a philosophical context rather than about our physical capacity to pull this off. If a perma-dream like this was possible, what would it mean philosophically to chose to live in a dream? Well that would defeat the purpose of being here, you can't just be happy all the time, you have to experience trials and tribulations with ourselves and each other in waking life for it to balance out. Part of duality. There is no happiness without sorrow and vice versa. Both sides need each other. I think us being here experiencing these trials and tribulations are a test of faith. I don't really believe in us being here on a "cosmic accident". Agreed. Even if happiness could exist without sorrow and the dream could truly be perfect, the people in the dream would not have emotions of their own, even though they would behave as if they did. The results of any of ones actions would only truly affect oneself. There would be nothing to achieve except personal happiness, which is pretty narcissistic.

[InvisibleMan]

I had a fruend that mentioned something like this. I guess you could say this is the real "american dream." If this were possible, I would have to say, it would be very interesting and fun.