Is life a dream?

Originally posted by fiftyfifty
If the reality we perceive is a dream, then there must be an actual reality somewhere that exists for real? If this is a dream then do you not exist?

What does "real" mean anyway? Even if we're not created by an external mechanism, it makes our experiences no less real. Even if dream is as real as it gets, it doesn't change who we are, what we've learned, felt, accomplished.

Originally posted by fiftyfifty
Am I here in my home manifested by my mind talking to people that has been made up by my consciousness?

Perhaps! This already came up though and I gave my thoughts on it above... see this post.

I'll check out your thread too. Nice to see that others have similar interests.

Originally posted by ohhhh well
what do you class as a deam though, if your classing life as a dream then whats a deam?

Everything

"Anything you can imagine is real"
~Picasso

Interest; I was about to post my own thread on the question "Is Life A Dream" when I was notified a thread already existed.

So okay, I have read all of your comments and it appears most either think it is or that it is possible. I am not sure if there is anyway to know and tell but, I do believe there is a soul or some part of us that is not physical but has weight.

I am talking about the fact that a person loses approximately 3/4 of an ounce in weight moments after death. It studies have been done where they weighed a person near death and again moments after death and they lose weight...something leaves and it's not breath or fluid.

Anyway, for the moment I am pasting this series What the bleep do we know? Down the rabbit hole and Holographic Universe (Part 1 of 2 ) its all illusion and would welcome any insights or directions to further answering this question.

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To paraphrase the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu:

"If I could be a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, How do I know I'm not really a butterfly dreaming I am a man?"

The book Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy: Simon Blackburn may be of interest here.

An excerpt is available for reading here the relevant part being page 15, Chapter One - Knowledge.

Perhaps the most unsettling thought many of us have, often quite early on in childhood, is that the whole world might be a dream; that the ordinary scenes and objects of everyday life might be fantasies. The reality we live in may be a virtual reality, spun out of our own minds, or perhaps injected into our minds by some sinister Other. Of course, such thoughts come, and then go. Most of us shake them off. But why are we right to do so? How can we know that the world is as we take it to be, is the world as it is? How do we begin to think about the relation between appearance and reality: things as we take them to be as opposed to things as they are?

Losing the World

We might say: it all began on 10 November 1619

On that date, in the southern German town of Ulm, the French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) shut himself away in a room heated by a stove, and had a vision followed by dreams, which he took to show him his life's work: the unfolding of the one true way to find knowledge. The true path required sweeping away all that he had previously taken for granted, and starting from the foundations upwards.

Continued at source

Jak

Hello Kruel, I would like to say that I have often thought the same thought. I don't know about you but I personally have extremely vivid dreams at night that seem so real that it causes me to wonder if this is just a dream I fall into when I fall asleep in the "Dream world"

However I can say that I have experimented with some pretty "Colourful" medicine and I would have to say thats a mind expanding experience in itself. Once the peak effect is reached you honestly feel one with the universe and understand every single thing there is to understand. However the truly cruel part of the experience is that since we are only human we cannot express the knowledge thrust upon us at that point.

So the trick is to enjoy it while it lasts and go on knowing you understand the fundamentals of the universe. Of course since you can think about 40 - 50 times faster than you can speak, and hundreds to thousands of times faster than you can record, Most of the knowledge thrust upon you is lost in the attempt of telling others. Theres so much information it causes you to have a literal information traffic jam.

I have come to the conclusion that a) speech is useless at those points, b) Life is really a lot simpler than most think c) the meaning of life is to make use of your time and leave something behind.

However to answer your question, Life truly may be a dream that we constantly plug into on a daily basis.

P.S. - I do not endorse the use of any unprescribed medication, or illicit drugs. If you choose to partake in the use of any that is your sole choice.

The big question to this theory is:
What decides which possibility becomes the one "true" possibility?

The subconscious? How?
Ourselves? Then why do many decisions that only a few are aware of, always go the way they don't want them to go.

Do we transfer the possibility checklist to other people in a subconscious telepathic way? And do their own ''ethic solvers'' then choose the proper decision and let the votes decide?

If you ask me there's a few flaws with this theory, or at least holes that need to be filled.

Because as it is now, it is way more primitive than the ''Dream World" In which you truly are king.

I'm sorry to reveal this to you all but it is a very very very very ancient secret that we are all living in the same lucid dream.

en.wikipedia.org...

We ARE aware that we are dreaming while the dream is in process. Those that are not aware, become controlled by the dream.

The only thing that is real, is everything that we collectively agree on. This is why the fear, hate and other negative forces are becoming so common. We people are getting forced to constantly think about these things, and hence when we ALL think about the same thing at the same time, it becomes reality.

This is why TV is so dangerous. Especially when millions of people are watching the same thing at the same time. Put the same thought into everyone's minds, and its like tuning 100000000's of radios to the same station and playing them all loudly. It's like going to every radio broadcasting station and playing the same song on every station known to man. These signals being sent out to the universe are ACTION, they are CAUSE. Just wait for the reaction and effect. It only takes time and energy.

Imagine, the Earth manifested a tree over a long period of years. Time. This took so long because of the very subtle smooth effortless energy in that spot where the tree grew. The energy was just enough to make it grow tall over the years. If that energy was stronger, it would grow larger over a smaller amount of time.

Think of an orange tree. Where did that orange come from? Did it grow from outside of the tree? NO. The orange came from inside of the tree. At one point, time and time before, the orange was in the seed.


[edit on 8-4-2008 by ALLis0NE]

Originally posted by -0mega-
The big question to this theory is:
What decides which possibility becomes the one "true" possibility?

The answer to that is, what you focus on the most... Or, what the people you surround yourself with focus on the most, as those you surround yourself with are co-creators of your existence.

Originally posted by -0mega-
Because as it is now, it is way more primitive than the ''Dream World" In which you truly are king.

If we're king of our dreams, why do we sometimes have nightmares? There must be a part of us that wants to experience the darker aspects of existence, whether we realize it or not.

Some of this thinking is based on the law of attraction... so I might as well plug SkyFloating's thread about it here. Though the law of attraction wasn't the basis of this theory, it does go hand-in-hand.

Its been proven that matter iteself is a wave. They did an experiment where they shot electrons through a slit and made 2 lines of impact on a sensory wall behind the slit. When introducing a 2nd wall with 2 slits, there were then 3 lines of impact, showing that matter moved in a wave.We are literally nothing but energy waves on the same plan of existence interacting with other energy waves. This doesn't mean we can all fly, and manifest whatever we want. But it does tell us that thoughts have a great deal more to do with reality than we thought. = )
and that our conciousness lives forever... (cant leave that out)

Eventually it would be nice if we could all manifest what is good within us, all around us. No need for frustration or misunderstanding ever. Just a group of beings living in harmony, actively seeking information, together.

Some say that 2012 is the year of spiritual awakening. The end of the fibinachi sequence. End of the mayan calendar. When humans very rapidly in and around that time will be catapulted towards our perfection. You should study some about mayan predictions, Hopi predictions. Pretty much all major religions have very similiar aspects and prophecies to their base. Interesting why we just thought they were inferior and slaughtered them. Perhaps there has ALWAYS been an esoteric agenda. They exist as the catalyst for the good. As I see it, the bad we see gives us a chance to change, to adapt and make ourselves strong enough to change those we see as bad. Or change ourselves. Life has many possibilities, but only one calling. The rest are mistakes.

[edit on 8-4-2008 by BlakSheep]

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reply to post by BlakSheep


A Wave?

I thought it was proven that matter was both a particle and a wave.

Originally posted by Kruel

If we're king of our dreams, why do we sometimes have nightmares? There must be a part of us that wants to experience the darker aspects of existence, whether we realize it or not.

I think it's more accurate to say... one can, and should strive, to become King of their dreams.

Nightmares feel bad, but that doesn't mean they are bad. Nightmares just like 'good dreams' have much wisdom to offer. Nightmares usually show you all the ugly stuff you try not to look at in waking life.

I'd like to add to the 'King' idea of dreaming. I think you can master the dream world, and thus, ultimately master 'nightmares'. Some of that is mastering dream recall and controll. Also practicing lucid dreaming techniques to induce lucid dreams and maintining prolonged lucidity. But a big part of it is simply 'mastering yourself', just as you would in waking life. that's my .02

Originally posted by ALLis0NE
I'm sorry to reveal this to you all but it is a very very very very ancient secret that we are all living in the same lucid dream.

Why be sorry? hehe. I think it's great! As for the revealing part. I did say this earlier in the thread:

My personal belief is that we are all apart of Gods dream. Characters within a bigger dream. I think it's what the aboriginals meant when they were describing dreamtime and the 'Big Dream'.

I believe God is dreaming the Universe into existence. As such, I believe we are ultimately illusionary dream characters.

A little shameless self-advertising

So yeah, I agree for the most part

reply to post by Lucid Lunacy


I guess how I see it, if you pick out a point in the wave and imagine you are that point, you wont see the wave. You would be riding it. Everything in that moment wouldn't appear as waves, it would appear as "real". I blanket my beliefs as truths. Because they are, of course. = )

Nice topic. For those who asked the question "who decides whats in the dream?" or stuff to that effect, if you believe the mystical view, there is only One. The idea that there are "many" of us, and that we are individual and separate is also "illusory" or part of the dream. So, like someone else said we are all characters in the dream of God, and in a very roundabout way, we are all the one dreamer.

There is also a really cool philosopher at Oxford that proposes that this is a "simulation." Think a way cool version of World of Warcraft. His name is Nick Bostrum and his theory can be read here;

www.simulation-argument.com...

Derren Brown, who has a show in the UK and who does mental manipulation, does a show where he actually puts someone in a simulation, which is fun to watch. The link to the vid is here;

video.google.com...

Without trying to sound like a complete nutter by bringing ETs into the discussion, i read something recently that initially got me thinking about this whole theory.

Some of the information was received via channeling from "Seth", an extraterrestrial collective intelligence.

"In your system of reality you are learning what mental energy is, and how to use it. You do this by constantly transforming your thoughts and emotions into physical form. You are supposed to get a clear picture of your inner development by perceiving the exterior environment. What seems to be perception, an objective concrete event independent from you, is instead the materialisation of your own inner emotions, energy and mental environment."
Dictated by Seth to Jane Roberts, The Seth Material

The Seth material challenges the very fabric of accepted global thought from which most theories and conclusions are presently drawn, especially the 'law' of cause and effect. According to Seth, we are given the gift of the gods - the gift of creativity. He says there is only one rule of physical existence, and that is the fact that we literally create or individual realities through our thoughts, attitudes and beliefs. Events don't happen to us; we cause them by what we expect to see in our world and our lives. Every event we encounter and participate in is a physical reflection of what we think and feel. The implications of this statement are startling, for if we have created the reality of our individual and global lives then surely we can change what we dont like.

Almost regardless of how the information came about, everything that was written completely opened my eyes that little more to the very possibilty of this theory and really made me think differently about our entire reality... it also reminded of the law of attraction, which has been given heaps of media attention recently with the publishing of the book "The Secret". When i found this thread, the Seth material was the first thing i thought of.

Awesome work OP.

[edit on 14/6/08 by pretty_vacant]

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You know how they say dreams are only as real, as long as they last...
well couldn't the same be said about life?