Are you dreaming?

Question

When you are in a dream you may not realise it. You may even perform little tests in your dream to see if you are awake (and, of course, you pass them). When you wake up you realise it was obviously a dream. How do you know you are awake now, is this not just a more vivid dream? How can we ever know if we are awake?

Answer 1

I think this is a valid question and a good one, it could fall in with the 'Matrix theory' which quite a few believe, though not I, but I do find it very philosophically interesting.

we all have vivid dreams, whether about death or whether about life, but when we are embroiled in such dreams it sounds and feels real as real. the body is made up of senses, your 5 senses tell us what is real and what is not real, we only know by the feelings that our senses pick up on. How do we now we look the way we do? the light gathered in our eyes could be playing tricks on us, and we look different to how we are perceived, just look in a mirror, the reflection of yourself is different to the one that people perceive of you. this is put down to distortions of the mirror, but what if it is a distortion of the eyes. the dreamworld is made up of what you feel, subconscious tell your brain that what you are perceiving is real, it is said that if you fall and die in your dream you will die in real life, this is because your brain/senses perceive what is happening as real and your heart panics and you have a heart attack, why do you wake up screaming? how do we know that what we percieve as real, is not just images played by our brain and that we are not in a coma? we use our eyes, touch, smell and so on, to pull the facts together to come to the conclusion that what we percieve is real, but our senses could be wrong! we are what our brain tells us we are, we see what our brain tells us we are seeing, the brain isa complex thing, we are reported toonly use between 10%-15% of its mass. how do we know that if could tap into the other 85%, we would not see the earth and our surroundings on a different level of perception. what if there were life forms within this plane of existence that we can not perceive due to the limited use of our brain, we could be sharing this planet with life forces that we have noway of seeing, this question throws out more questions than answers the fun is in th philosophy. its great to try and answer but our limited knowledge ofour own brain is what keeps us in the dark.

the answer is, we just don't know!
thanx for making me think this morning

Answer 2

Yes.. I had a dream before in which I had deja vu about the same dream. In the dream I suddenly felt like I had dreamed it before and then I became aware I was dreaming which was even more insane! I still went through the dream but I knew everything that was going to happen before it did because I could remember dreaming it before.. then I thought I woke up but I wasn't awake really I was still sleeping, I just stopped being aware.. and I dreamed that I was thinking about my dream deja vu, and dreams within dreams and what I would do when I woke up.. then I really woke up and I was confused... lol

Answer 3

I don't know if anyone here has done it, but I have. Only once mind you, but I have. I regained consciousness while still in a dream. Crazy but true. My mom knew a Zen teacher for a while, and he told me (I was about eleven) that if I could just stop, while in a dream and look at my hand, I would have control over my dream. I did it, and WOW. I controlled every aspect. I haven't been able to do it again regrettably. Too many worries and burdens of everyday life now. Maybe I should have taken the red pill.

Answer 4

If I am dreaming, will someone kindly wake me up. I'm dreaming I'm at work, when in fact I should really be at work. Still, I expect I'll dream I get paid and go out tonight. Question is: when I dream I'm asleep later on, will I in fact be awake?

Answer 5

I beleive you have described what is called a "lucid dream".

but, even in those dreams one is aware that they are actually awake. The point is that one can actually control a spiritual event..... The matter is based on faith.... If one does not believe, that which one seeks to acheive ((flying etc...)) will not happen because they do not believe they will get off the ground.



your sister,
Ginger,
((dream interpreter for over 20 years))

Answer 6

The dream is real to the dreamer until they become aware they are dreaming!
If you become aware of dreaming & choose to continue as such you will experience lucid dreaming!
It all depends on where your attention is focused which is your responsibility & can be chosen by you if you wish!
Being concious of dreaming is exactly the same as being concious of feeling awake!
The awareness of reality is the same process in both states of mind!
Our very perception of being alive is a product of our mind & our mind is all we have to enable us to discover the true nature of our state of being!
The mind is non physical in nature therefore we are non physical beings!

Answer 7

i can't tell the difference if the dream is really lucid. only when i notice something amiss will i realize it. sometimes after that, idon't even wake up. i'll just think i did by transporting to a different location.

but this isn't a dream as i've never dreamed about YA, fortunately.

Answer 8

*Points to his profile*

Zhuangzi put it better.
Honestly though... "awake" is meaningless when you put it that way. There is no way to judge whether there is a more valid layer of existence than this one.... nor even whether this is more or less valid than the perceived dream itself.

People just like to make arbitrary decisions about it and then leave it at that. It prevents headaches.

Answer 9

When the mind is able to control the body at your command you are awake.When the unconsious part of you controls the sensory perception you are dreaming

Answer 10

We probably won't ever know. Are we even living? Is it possible that we are all existing (in the current) through things that have already happened seconds/minutes/years/milennia before they HAPPEN to our knowledge? Are we just memories floating through space and time? What are space and time? Who knows if we'll ever know such things.