This question was posted to me by my friend Dan the other day and this was my response:
Honestly, I haven't really figured dreams out yet. Well, I think that I may have them figured out, but the answer is not a very comfortable one. What if everything is right now, with no real context except for the imaginary context we give it when drifting away from the present moment? What if our current life is really no different from our dreams when we sleep. How do we know that the life we know isn't the result of being a part of just another dream? How do we know when we wake up that we aren't experiencing just another dream?
In our dreams, we are thrust into an experience with all of the context that a "real life" has. We accept the situation as real and we just go with the dream in any direction that it takes us. There are people in our dreams and they all have context to our lives. We may have never seen the person in the dream before, but in the context or "script" of the dream we accept and know the history of this person and why they came to be in the present experience.
How do we know that this is happening to us right now? How do I know that there really is a Dan out there? What is it that convinces me that you and I have history together or that I have even written a book which would justify this present electronic conversation? How do I know there is even a thing such as "the Internet" to which this message will be sent? All of the context of these things do not exist in the present moment, therefore, by definition, they are a figment of my own imagination. They become real only when I choose to make it real by pushing the send button with absolute faith that there is an internet system which will deliver this message and that there is a Dan who will receive it.
I'm not comfortable with this either and I welcome any other thoughts you might have.
Monday, November 23, 2009
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8 comments:
When I was 13 my brother was struck by a car. He was in a "semi-coma" the doctors told us. At the time I began to wonder if I was really in a state like a semi-coma and was experiencing all of my reality as a dream. For a long time I have always felt that this is not real. That it is like a video game and when it is over (death) I will awaken to find out that it was all a dream.
I even propose the question to friends, what if when you die, you wake up and find out that you are actually someone else and was just playing a game.
This is why movies like Vanilla Sky and the Matrix hit me so hard when I saw them. Those movies really touched me in a way I cannot describe. Vanilla Sky, I have watched numerous times. I don't know why it appeals to me.
Makes me wonder.....what is real?
Ok, after I wrote the above comment yesterday, I finished up doing my work online. I decided to turn on Last.fm on Xbox and jam to some tunes while I cleaned up. I chose the tag "The Beatles". By doing this, I listen to anything that is similar to the Beatles and solo music from the members of the band. Well I turned it on and guess what the first song was that played......"Vanilla Sky" by Paul McCartney.
Now is it a coincidence that after I was talking about the movie in the above comment that I turn on radio and its the first song I hear or is someone trying to tell me what I feel is correct about my reality?
Carl Jung, the pioneer of the collective consciousness theory, says that recognizing synchronicity and serendipitous events as something more than just coincidence, is the foundation to true enlightenment. First one has to be willing to admit that there is something mysterious about reality, something deeper than what appears to be on the surface in order to take the first steps towards manipulating it. Until that day comes, free will is merely an illusion.
I would have to mention prophetic dreams here. I have had at least one dream with someone I didn't know and that I had not created a reality for. Maybe that is why I so disctinctly remembered him in the dream. It was not for several months that he appeared in this realm. Could I have previously seen him and placed him in the dream? No. He didn't live here until I saw him. To me, this is a statement that these "dreams" are more closely connected than we may be aware of. In my younger years, prophetic dreams were my dominant dream type. Was I creating my reality to mirror the dreams? Was I tapped into the superconscious and living it before I'd lived it? It would be fascinating to think that I'd created this guy into this world from a dream...
I think we are creating people all of the time. Yesterday I went to the store and there was a guy behind me with a bunch of really wild tattoos. I had never met him before, there was no context for him to appear in my reality, other than the fact that he was a fellow shopper to complete the illusion of a crowded mall. What I'm saying, and as uncomfortable as this may sound, nobody has any more context in my life than the stranger at the mall. All of the context for anyone or anything comes into existence the moment I start to think about it, or "imagine" it.
In truth I think everyone is a stranger, and every experience is entirely new. This would be the only way to think about a timeless reality.
with all of that being said, why do I "feel" a stronger connection to some people than I do others. Why do I love my wife and not a stranger on the street. What is that connection between persons that evokes the feeling of love, trust and endearment?
Ford, you know the answer to your own question....it is you. That is why you love them. They are you.
Shannon, usually when I dream of someone I know, I see them the next day. Every time.....never missed it once. Many have heard me say, "I had a dream about you last night." Their reply is usually "What am I doing in your dreams?" lol
Perspective, perhaps? Don't we seek people who "get us"? We seek to get close to people who understand our perspective. We seek people who are in a perspective we seek to achieve. Love feels akin to longing and striving. Perhaps we create them for self-evaluation, for motivation and for guidance.
Yes, I think you hit the nail on the proverbial head, Shannon. If everyone fulfilled that criteria, we would still need "others" to challenge us and to create drama. Without drama, it wouldn't be much of a script.
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