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What if life was one big lucid dream?

K

Khain

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Consider the question about if people and existence around us are real or just an imagination played in our heads somewhere. The idea of nothing really existing with everything we sense in our lives just playing in your head is a scary and lonely one. However, as you are an individual person, it would logically follow that there are other people out there who are playing a dream in their own head too. It does not necessarily have to correspond with the dream that you are playing however, maybe each world is under slightly different circumstances from your world. Maybe theirs is completely different with different physics, dimensions, or other aspects that define these dreams. What if life was one big lucid dream?

Where would we be when we woke up?

Why are there such things as a peach, a rock, water, or even protons and electrons? Why does anything exist? Could everything be just a figment of an imagination somewhere on a level different from objects and space as we know it? Imagine our souls existing on this level. These could be the ones having this lucid dream. This is one of an infinite number of guesses. Delving far into considering what existence really is, is like trying to understand the concept of infinity.

I’ve spent too much time wondering about this, and honestly it sketches me out to think that we might not really exist. But if that’s true than I’m not really typing this message to anyone, however, I do it in hopes that this it is not the case. You can never truly understand it, and therefore you can safely take existence is real for granted. Do what you can with what tools you have in the time that you’re given to make a better place of the dream you’re in now. There is a life after death and when that time comes you’ll learn of that life too and the process will be repeated for eternity.
 
Indeed. What if we are the dreams of something larger than ourselves? Eg Gaia/God/what-have-you.

What if, in turn, our dreams are conscious beings themselves, wondering whether *their* lives are actually real?

What if, after n iterations, it comes back to you? You could be your own great-great-grand-dream!

And would any of these count as being "real"?
 
I've had this exact same thought for as long as I can remember. I once had a dream, as a teenager, that I went to a video arcade, put on a sensory immersion helmet, and stepped into a game so realistic and absorbing that I forgot I had a life outside of it, and came to believe that I had no existence apart from this game. In this 'game' I lived and loved deeply, tried and failed, tried and succeeded, and really had the time of my life. Then at the end, I suddenly remembered that I was standing in a video arcade with a helmet on my head, and at that very moment, I woke up from my dream. It was a dream that stuck with me vividly for some time, for its possible implications on the reality I woke up to -- could God be a master computer programmer?

The possible virtuality of the world we live in now is definitely a good thing to keep in mind whenever you're in danger of taking life too seriously -- this could all be just a dream, a test, a game, a virtual world, with little or no relevance to what we'll 'wake up' to once it's over. There's a certain levity towards life that can set in once you've acknowledged this possibility. At the same time, I don't think the possibility that this reality isn't the ultimate reality takes away from the opportunity to explore and enjoy it on its own terms, the way you might replay a beloved video game looking for all the little secrets.

Good reading on this topic: the Hindu notion of Maya (illusion).
 
Indeed. I have thought about this and it has scared me thinking I could be all alone in a white room thinking up this life. Perhaps we are asleep and this is all a dream, and when we die we will wake up and live.

Related film: Waking Life
 
sometimes i get a strong sensation that i am being beaten to a pulp elsewhere and that i will awake to intense pain... or that I am some kind of indigenous person in the distant past on a kind of spirit jouney and will cleanse the universe of its evil by throwing it all up...

but these thoughts are a waste of time.

row row row your boat
.....




meh, it's real enough. the game is on, might as well keep playing. the movie has started, might as well see how it finishes. you're on the rollercoaster, no getting off til it's done.
etcetera etcetera
 
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Thanks for the replies. Raw, I only considered the possibility of this life being a dream, never did I go the other way and consider that the 'me' in my dream could be a conscious being itself wondering the same thing I am right now. That's a very interesting perspective.

techno thanks for the link that was some good reading!

Doors, I know completely what you mean about the levity towards life once you've explored the possibilities. It was such a dark realization, which I immediately tried to dismantle with logic because of the emotions it brought with it. There is no logical way to figure this out however, and I can only hope that we will find the answer when we die (or maybe we shouldn't: ignorance is bliss). I fully agree also that this realization shouldn't take away from what we perceive as life, and we should enjoy it for what it is and not be so concerned with how it is, if that makes any sense.

Damaged, it scared the hell out of me too. But just like it's hard to believe that we are the only planet with intelligent life in the universe, even if reality is a figment of our imaginations, it is hard to believe that I am the only imagination conjuring up this or another world. Another possibility is that if the universe is infinitely large, each imagination could constitute a different world of intelligent beings. I can't convince myself this is true as much as the rest of this discussion, but still an interesting take.

8L4N3, if that's the case, that post is pointless since it only exists within you!

Impacto Profundo said:
meh, it's real enough. the game is on, might as well keep playing. the movie has started, might as well see how it finishes. you're on the rollercoaster, no getting off til it's done.
etcetera etcetera
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well said.
 
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This is pretty much the thought that inspired Descartes and sparked modern philosophy. Have a look at Meditations on first philosophy.
 
everything is in a state of impermanance except the mind when its still, if it can't maintained then its not 'real.' But it excists. And therefore it is. And the collection of our thoughts and actions are collective in the progression of this world or dimension we excist in so theirs purpose to everything we do whether it is 'real' or not. If you were dreaming and you woke up, would your actions in your dream not effect your embodiment of the wakeing self?
 
Maybe we're actually aliens and "human" is a really drug that tricks us into thinking we have this physical life. Or it might be some weird game or virtual reality or something that is super-realistic.

Half the time I feel like if I pass some magic test then I'll wake up from "reality" and go back to real reality.

I do know when I was young and wasting time going to church and doing religious crap all I kept thinking about all the time is "why does existence exist, that doesn't make any sense!". Like how could "something" come from "nothing". One day nothing was bored not existing and decided somehow to exist and now bam consciousness and physical reality are here?

people say "God is and always has been", but then where did the God come from then?

LOL I don't think this sort of stuff can really be made sense of.
 
girlygrrl said:
Half the time I feel like if I pass some magic test then I'll wake up from "reality" and go back to real reality.
Click to expand...

When i was practicing intensive meditation a little while back now, i got myself into a very 'psychotic' mind-state that persisted for weeks.. not really in a negative way.. but i was very unattached to reality to the point of nothing having any value or meaning anymore, my dreams were some of the most intense I've ever had.. they somehow felt unrelated to 'me'. And i would often wake-up forgetting who 'i' was and wondering why 'i' was back here again.

I wish i could explore that awareness further, but it's impossible to function when you have basic responsibilities.
 
malakaix said:
I wish i could explore that awareness further, but it's impossible to function when you have basic responsibilities.
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Yeah I hear you, exploring the spirit realms takes a lot out of you and requires a lot of time and dedication and most people don't "get" it.

But it is one of the reasons why I have been focused on financial independence so that I have the luxury of exploring such things further.
 
malakaix said:
I wish i could explore that awareness further, but it's impossible to function when you have basic responsibilities.
Click to expand...
very true. if we were always enlightened to the real truth of the universe, we would see no reason to get anything done because it doesn't matter anyway. this is why the ego exists.

the only god that you can be certain that exists is yourself. you are everything and everything is you. anything that anybody else has ever said to you was just you telling yourself.
 
don't "reach for the secret too soon". life is in the living.

btw: OP, this thread triggered one of my subtle bad turns which lasted a few days. thanks for the minor discomfort and panic! ... don't worry, my reaction is entirely my own fault.
 
^^^^
Glad to hear you're now out-of-it / back-into-it.
...
Pedantically, if life is a dream, it couldn't truly be lucid, as we aren't aware that we're dreaming.

ebola
 
This is what I think about everytime I trip. I scare myself sometimes, by how deep I can get into it. There is no distinction between external and internal. I feel like I am the universe with all of it's infinite demensions, but that I this is also a dream.
It's a complete mindfuck, you're asking what the meaning of life and the nature of existance is. It's not going to be easy finding the answer you want to hear.
 
i think about this kind of thing quite often. its fascinating. the older i get the more i feel like life is just one big pointless game
 
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