Could we be in a dream?

reply to post by Def Youth


Freaky as hell? Maybe to you but I find it amazing. There is a huge difference between a "regular" dream and a lucid one. For the people that can't experience it, I feel bad for them. It is better than any sex I have ever had, any drug experience I have ever had, it is a desire that I can't put into terms of any of my 5 senses.

Prolonging a dream is when you really start to feel empowered.

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


I think I have only had a couple of Lucid dreams in my life, but as you say they are amazing, and you experience sensations that almost seem more real then your waking life.

I was wondering is there an appropriate thread where I could post my lucid dream experience, or should I start one? or would anyone be interested in me posting it in this thread?

reply to post by dominicus


very well explained

stars for that

im sure you would agree with my thread linked in my first post

about that the age of enlightment has started
we are indeed waking up

[edit on 8/22/2010 by Ben81]

reply to post by sphinx551


Yea a dream or were like a like a tv series, for some other alien race to watch, and that is why they will not help us, it will mess up the show if they did.

When I realize I'm dreaming, I usually go flying. Feels real. I can see very clearly. Feel the rush of the wind. It's a lot of fun, but when I wake up I realize all the other things I could have experienced when I was dreaming. When I'm awake there are lots of fantasies that I would like to experience. When I'm lucid dreaming, I usually just fly around like Neo. I don't think about the other things.

uuuh, I have been making to myself that question since I was a child. Basically because I've had lucid dreams since forever, and when I was little, and when everyone is, the frontier of what's real or not is thinnier than when we are older.
I have lucid dreams till now, and also, when I discover that's a dream, I leave everything I was doing, say to the people who's with me "kthxbye, brb, need to fly" and start to fly. It's an awesome experience!.

Usually, the more recurrent "reality checks" I do is watching a clock twice (usually the hour changes radically in a glimpse), try to read something, a book, a letter, a car plate (most all of the times I can't understand the words/letters/signs) or... try to fly.

Still, I have no clue if we are or not into a very lucid dream with funny physic laws... Sometimes I think it is, sometimes I deny it... who knows... maybe someday we all will realize what's true and what's not...

reply to post by sphinx551


"How many of you think that we can all just be in a dream right now and the "reality" we perceive in this world is not the "real" reality?"

Absolutley possible. THe people and emmotions you experience are tied to everyone else.

Does this mean we not only affect the dreams of others, we have no free will..? Wierd thought.

reply to post by sphinx551

I believe we could be in a dream, or a dream like state, of some illusion that isn't truly reality but rather our perception of reality. I don't know if we'll ever know if we're actually dreaming. Let's assume we are currently living a dream and wake up from it. Does that prove that we've woken up to reality or could it be a different state of mind that we perceive to be reality solely because it's different from the state we were previously in?

Originally posted by adjensen

 

I did, however, find one reason that made it seem unlikely. The reason is detail. Everything that you look at, everything that you read, see on tv, hear when you talk to people... they are all crammed full of details. If this is a dream, my brain is not only providing those details, it is doing so in an incredibly imaginative fashion. You may fashion yourself a writer, or an actor, or a painter, but in this dream world, you are not only all of those different things, but you are every writer, every actor, every painter

Aren't you only able to say that because of how you perceive detail in what you consider dreams and how you perceive details in what you consider reality? I question if you can base your argument on the fact that there are more details in reality than in a dream when the argument is questioning what reality is in the first place. What if our perceived notion of reality is a dream within an illusion and what we perceive as dreams are dreams within a dream?

edited to add as it's a little puzzling.

[edit on 8/22/2010 by Three_moons]

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


Don't get me wrong. I loved it. Just that I'm still new to lucid dreaming. My problem is keeping myself asleep. It's like I get so excited that I'm lucid that I wake up. How do you get past that part?

Originally posted by Three_moons

Originally posted by adjensen

 

I did, however, find one reason that made it seem unlikely. The reason is detail. Everything that you look at, everything that you read, see on tv, hear when you talk to people... they are all crammed full of details. If this is a dream, my brain is not only providing those details, it is doing so in an incredibly imaginative fashion. You may fashion yourself a writer, or an actor, or a painter, but in this dream world, you are not only all of those different things, but you are every writer, every actor, every painter

Aren't you only able to say that because of how you perceive detail in what you consider dreams and how you perceive details in what you consider reality? I question if you can base your argument on the fact that there are more details in reality than in a dream when the argument is questioning what reality is in the first place. What if our perceived notion of reality is a dream within an illusion and what we perceive as dreams are dreams within a dream?

edited to add

as it's a little puzzling.

You're right, that is a little puzzling :-)

Look at it this way -- if I am dreaming this reality and I pick up a copy of The Brothers Karamazov and begin to read, either in whatever reality is not a dream, I have memorized the whole of the book, or I am Dostoyevsky in this dream world. If you watch a movie, either you have complete recall from having seen it in the other reality, or you are inventing it in this dream world, as it runs.

It is not impossible, but it seems highly unlikely that, in that other reality, I would have read literally every book ever written, seen every movie, tv program and play, and so on, and have perfect recall of them all.

I am not a lucid dreamer, hadn't really even heard of it until recently, but I'd be curious to hear what would happen in this experiment.

1) Buy a book, doesn't matter what it is, just a book that you never intend to read
2) Don't open it, simply put in on a shelf in your room
3) If you are able to, during a lucid dream, go to the shelf, get the book and read the first page
4) Upon waking, write down what was on that first page
5) Go get the real book off the shelf and compare the two

That, I think, would be a good example of what I'm talking about. It seems an impossibility that the two pages would be even remotely similar, therefore, you were the author of whatever you read in your dream, even though it seemed quite rational. Extend that out to every book, every painting, every conversation, and that's what would have to be going on if this were simply a dream.

reply to post by Def Youth


That was the difficult part for me as well. There should be something that works for you personally, I cannot gauge what that could be, the trick that I use is I touch the ground or floor when I feel it fading away. The minute the dream starts to break down, I touch the ground and everything returns instantaneously. I dont believe it will happen right away for you. its like a building process, learn with each dream and build upon it. You'll eventually find how to do it.

Recently watched inception, and two things struck me from the film that made me think life could be a dream.

1. You can never remember how you arrive to a certain point in a dream.

- we can't remember how we got here on earth. we just suddenly awoke in this strange place.

2. Dreams seem perfectly normal while we are in them, its only when we realise something is not right that we realise we are in a dream.

- the fact that it is impossible to understand how everything started supposedly from nothing and why there is existence doesn't make sense. this is illogical so could we just be dreaming?

reply to post by falige


I'd say it's possible that you don't have enough information about the laws of physics.

Of course, you are probably right as well. The point is: we can't know for sure, and when we pretend we do, we are usually wrong.

reply to post by sphinx551


I posted this in the dream section a few months back....

I awoke, went through my normal routine....bathroom "I'm older"....then a ciggy....then a coke, and my meds...waiting for ATS to boot up....


Then whammmmo....I really woke up, so yeah ...am I gonna wake agin?....made me think...and still does.

reply to post by sphinx551


not a single day passes by without me thinking that all this is an imagination....ATS and the world..and everyone in it...i think itd be possible if you die then you wake up? the irony eh?

I think that we are not meant to know. However the fact that some people can dream so deeply might be a good thing. On to enlightenment.

I'v been lucid dreaming alot latley. I tell the person I'll talking to that I'm not realy there. Ether they ignore me and we continue on. Or they say something to the effect of so what ? Ether they or I say or think,"Might as well enjoy it."
They keep getting more "real". I'm almost to the point of where I can have more control in my dreams. Like I'm breaking through some sort of wall or something. However I'm stuck in what ever place and "play or scene" that my dream is.

I should also state that I'm on medications for mental illness. However whether or not I have taken my medication dose NOT have an effect on my dreams.

As to whether or not this is all a dream ? I think that anything is possible. Maby when we die we "wake up". Maby this "dream" is meant to prepare us for "the next great adventure"-Albus Dumbledore Harry Potter by JK Rowling
To get us ready for what comes next. Maby it's waking up. Or it could be something completly different.

As for now. I'm gonna try to deal with this life. Try to live it one day at a time. Also hope that my dreams keep getting more lucid.

side note: My doctor who gives me my meds. Even belives in lucid dreaming. Cool.

I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place. It seemed relivant. -RandomxData

Where it gets really interesting is when reality is weirder than your dreams. I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, my husband and I were on the road near Boston (he was a long-haul truck driver back then and sometimes I'd take a trip with him). We had parked near a diner during the night, and when we woke up and switched on the radio, we heard Howard Stern breathlessly talking about the WTC attacks. It was the strangest thing I'd ever heard.

We walked to the diner and everyone in there was glued to the TV. After breakfast, we went back to the truck and I felt I needed to sleep some more. In my dream we just rode in the truck and went about our day, delivering cars... a normal day like any other. Then I really woke up and said to my husband: "You won't believe the crazy dream I had -- I dreamed that planes were flying into the World Trade Center."

It took me awhile to realize that THAT was actually the reality and the "normal," uneventful day had been the dream. For a long time after waking up, I felt completely disoriented, like I was in two worlds at once. It was totally surreal.

I've had lucid and other realistic dreams before, but that one topped them all. Ever since that day, I'm not entirely sure I woke up in the right reality.

no we're not in a dream. this is real. i am real you are real. seriously considering that this is all a dream is a step towards psychosis. have a drink man..dont waste your time and make this life count

Dream(noun), 1. a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
4. an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.
-dictionary.com

The definition of a "dream" sounds like it could be used interchangeably with the word "reality" to me.

Originally posted by christianpatrick
When I realize I'm dreaming, I usually go flying. Feels real. I can see very clearly. Feel the rush of the wind. It's a lot of fun, but when I wake up I realize all the other things I could have experienced when I was dreaming. When I'm awake there are lots of fantasies that I would like to experience. When I'm lucid dreaming, I usually just fly around like Neo. I don't think about the other things.

Yeah you feel the g force too, If you focus on it. By the way if someone has a problem flying, just imagine the wind is helping you float, works great for me.

And yes for some reason I like to fly too, I think we relate flying to freedom, and once we get lucid we sort of feel free, so we fly.