Is this a dream?

Question

Have you ever felt / do you feel like you are in a dream, even when you are awake and living your life? Not just daydreaming but that existence as we know it is a dream? Comments and answers very welcome, especially more than a sentence!

And yes, I did watch The Matrix years ago. Remember though that story came from human consciousness too.

And hitting my hand with a hammer would be part of the dream, along with the pain.

So, how can we know it isn't a dream? I am not asking for help, just interested.

Answer 1

When people awaken from a dream, straightaway they realize what they experienced was a dream, but never question what they call "real life," beginning with the "waking scene." They never consider that for some reason, it might possibly be a dream itself. We perceive what we call "real life'" identically as we do our dreams: Both are visions of the mind. As long as we are not awakened from a dream, we're not aware that it is one. Only on awakening can we say, "Ah, it was only a dream."

How can you ascertain that what you're seeing now is not a dream? Couldn't you be considering this moment as real simply because you haven't yet woken up? It's very possible that one day, we'll waken up following a longer dream than usual and have to face up to this reality. We have no evidence to the contrary!

Answer 2

All that's happened is a memory- all that's to come is a dream,
and we're here on the cutting edge... the cutting edge between.

Some believe that time is just an illusion based on the position of the perceiver, and that's why we can dream of things that later happen- we were just peeking forwards.

I have dreamed things which later came true, undeniably- not important things, but I had a clear experience which I cannot contest, or have contested.

I think that there may be borders where the sleeping world and the waking world fuse, but I hesitate to probe at where the boundaries are. I am here, experiencing my life, and that's enough. The dreams are real, the reality is real, the dreams are dreams, the reality is a dream. Yet both statements must be true, because everything is one...

We sense it in the stillness, reach a hand out for the fizz...
though it passes with a hiss, we leave it where the beauty is.

Answer 3

This question has been asked, many times before. I have had dreams in which months seemed to go by, with me repeatedly going to work, school, home, going to sleep, waking up, etc. and dreaming that the phone rang and woke me up and I answered it, but it was all still part of the same dream.

Later, when I was going through a stage of life where events similar to those in my dream were actually happening, I woke up when the phone rang and the question of the caller was so strangely similar to my dream that I thought I was having the same dream again! It was quite a while before I was certain that I was not having the dream again.

I'm not saying I have an answer, just pointing out that nobody may yet have found one. In Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, the three girls sing:

Comes a train of little ladies
From scholastic trammels free.
Each a little bit afraid is
Wond'ring what the world can be.

Is it but a world of trouble...
Sadness, set to song..?
Is its beauty but a bubble...
Bound to break ere long...?

Are its palaces and pleasures
Fantasies that fade...?
And the glory of its treasures
Shadow of a shade...?

Shadow of a shade...

Schoolgirls, we, eighteen and under
From scholastic trammels free.
And we wonder, oh, we wonder,
We wonder, how we wonder

What on Earth the world can be...

What on Earth the world can be...?

Gilbert and Sulliven's music is so beautiful, it is the best expression of this particular philosophical question that I have yet found.

Answer 4

i wouldnt say i feel like that all the time but yes once or twice i have i think at a point of every bodys life they feel the same to on more then one occasion. its just like u do some think and it dosent seem really i dont no if this make scense but when u say u feel ur dreaming even when ur awake do u relise the feeling more when u have been throu the day then went asleep and woke up think that that day be for was a dream in the night.

Answer 5

sometimes when i'm dreaming i feel like i am for real, and my "awake" mode was my dream.

did you just get done watching the matrix?

sometimes i wonder if the reflection i see in the puddle is the "real me," and i am just a reflection of said "person." but, if that were true, wouldn't i just disappear when the "person" moved away?...

what if when we die, nothing happens? what if it's like a video game, and we just kinda "restart." would we get to do things differently? and would we remember our "past life"

and what if we just kind of "disappear?" no more cherry cola, strawberry cheesecake, dancing in the rain, watching old movies, making out in a car, making paper snowflakes, razor burn, etc. etc. etc.

so then why are we here now? there has to be a God, or something, because if we are here for no reason other than to die, i'd assume that we are here for the amusement of SOMETHING...

and maybe it's not that we don't have the answers... maybe there's something/someone keeping it from us... i bet that wise old guy atop of mt. everest has the answers. he has the book... yeah that book

Answer 6

They are just phases in the ages and stages of existance.

Each form goes through a similar experience no matter how far apart they be in that relative reality of life.

For some it's the waking, for some the falling, for others the time of their being.

Something seems to get switched off inside you when you enter that twilight sense of passage and you reflect upon the truth of yourself.

As though you are dreaming of that first spark and awaiting that cascadation of scintillating enlightenment or excitement where everything seems fresh and new again.

I'd attempt to define that feeling by saying its the time of your mind in the motion of the ocean.

Enjoy it.

Answer 7

Many times for many reasons. Sometimes I'm tired or not feeling well and things will seem distant. Also, this could be a symptom of some underlying issue that needs to be addressed but either is not noticed or is not accepted. Is there anything in your life that you want to get away from right now? Maybe someone/something who/that makes you unhappy or dissatisfied?

Answer 8

Yeah, I have felt like this many times, esp when out in a crowded place. For a moment or two nothing seems real, sorta got used to having this feeling or whatever you would call it, even quite like it now.

I understand that cannabis can also create this feeling and I have even been told it is classified as a slight mental disorder in some people, don't know why!!

Answer 9

yes i felt this and i best describe it as feeling numb, functioning and moving doin same things as normal but oblivious to any 1 or any thing around me.....was when i lost my mum 11 yrs ago today....and as i was her carer, i felt lost, alone, and confused to what purpose i now had... was to last for over 2 months this dream like feeling...and it always makes me remember that day....and the months that followed....was the wierdest feeling yet it was calming... maybe i was dreaming....but i wasnt even capable of telling, was a zombie and every thing went in slow motion.... but it was no dream... life is never a dream....

Answer 10

Test to see if life is a dream:
Step one: Put your hand flat on a table, palm down
Step two: Grab a large hammer with your opposite hand
Step three: Hit hand number one as hard as you can with the hammer.