I don't think we are all plugged into some matrix, but there is a scientific theory which says we might all live in an extremely advanced computer simulation of the world being ran. In which case, we have no real bodies and we are not even living being but computer code. I don't really believe that to be the case, however it is at least theoretically possible and is within the realm of plausibility. Which puts it above other religions that are just blatantly and provably false.
However, if that was the case then dreaming isn't any different than being awake. Your dreams are just simulated computer code, like your normal waking life. In fact, if we were in a computer simulation, it seems extremely unlikely that the one controlling it would let us 'escape', as that would interfere with the simulation.
There is one hopeful upside to such a theory though. If the advanced people who made the simulation sees the computer simulated people as real people, then at the moment if your death they might not want you to die and instead allow you to continue living on. After all your death is just simulated as well, so they can easily remove your character and put you into another simulation if they so wanted.
Super advanced people might not really see us as being all that much so might not go to that effort to let us live longer, but even today there are a lot of people who would consider advanced AI to be a living being if it became complex enough to develop consciousness. So there is a real possibility they might see AI as living creatures worthy of life.
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