Are you dreaming?

[Flappycat]

Originally Posted by jgallandt

Why does it have to be useful? Why can't something just be fun to think about?

That's what I said.

And what does religion, or lack of have anything to do with it?

Agnosticism has nothing directly to do with religion. I was using the word in its appropriate context. I was serious.

[jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Flappycat

That's what I said.

Agnosticism has nothing directly to do with religion. I was using the word in its appropriate context. I was serious.

The post had nothing to with religion, or a lack of. Everyone else understood it for what it was... I think I must be dreaming.

[Mike182]

Originally Posted by jgallandt

How do you know that at this moment in time, that you are not dreaming? That your not really reading this post, and that in reality, I don't exist? When you are dreaming, you are usually not aware of it being a dream....

hehehehehe, whenever i think like this, i sit and read descartes i know, im a nerd, but im a well-read nerd

[Seyorni]

This is hardly a novel question. Half the world believes exactly this.That we are dreaming our world, that our reality is entirely subjective is the core belief underlying the "eastern" religions.
The goal of most Hindus or Buddhists is not an idealized afterdeath paradise, but to wake up.

[jeffrey]

There are 2 aspects to view this as. One, as everything is a dream, or, when you go so sleep, you sometimes dream, and are you dreaming right now in your bed?

[YmirGF]

Originally Posted by Seyorni

This is hardly a novel question. Half the world believes exactly this.That we are dreaming our world, that our reality is entirely subjective is the core belief underlying the "eastern" religions.
The goal of most Hindus or Buddhists is not an idealized afterdeath paradise, but to wake up.

ahh, the voice of reason.

[jeffrey]

Have you ever had a dream that seemed real? My wife told me tonight, while discussing this thread, that when she was young, she used to have the same dream over and over again, where someone handed her something.... She would wake with her fist clinched, afraid to open her hand... But when she did, her hand was empty.

[FFH]

I have a recurring dream in which I am breathing under water. Maybe even cooler than a recurring flying dream. Usually in both cases faith is involved. Maybe I have an aqua lung. I wonder where Aqualung borrowed this name from.

[Seyorni]

Originally Posted by jgallandt

There are 2 aspects to view this as. One, as everything is a dream, or, when you go so sleep, you sometimes dream, and are you dreaming right now in your bed?

The seemingly whimsical notion that we all may be dreaming is actually one of supreme philosophical import, as it constitutes the essential divide between the Eastern and Western religions.

We "ordinary people" experience three levels of consciousness: 1 -- Deep sleep, 2 -- REM (dreaming) sleep and 3 -- waking state.
2 and 3 are subjective, dream states. Both are physically impossible, ie: violate the known laws of physics. Our ordinary consciousness really is a dream. Matrix-like, we are dreaming our world.
Reality is perceived only in the "higher" states of consciousness -- 5th, 6th and 7th, when we wake up from 3rd state and experience the real, multidimensional, objective universe.

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

There was a time when I frequently dreamed of reading posts and sometimes had to come to the keyboard to see that it was indeed a dream or needed an answer or mod action.