What if all of this didn't really exist?

Question

What if our entire world was simply the product of our own or someone elses imaginations? What if this was only a dream, for our "lives", we were simply dreaming? The main point is what if? so dont start with a bias, give me your thoughts.

Answer 1

Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t SOME reality. If all this is a product of our imaginations, a dream of ours, then we are still real, right? We exist. I dream, or I imagine, therefore I am. But where are we? Who are we? What is our reality? We must have a reality somewhere, to which we will awaken when the dream is over.

The question you raise comes from the philosophical position known as "rationalism". It holds that the most basic level of reality is mind. Matter doesn't really exist. This is not a position that holds water. The most basic level of reality is neither mind nor matter, but the field of consciousness, which is comprise of mind, matter, and that which connects them--experience.

We can say, therefore, that, yes, all of this "doesn't really exist"--and what that means is that matter doesn't exist outside of the field of consciousness. Neither does mind.

Funny thing about the word "dreaming" is that it can have two opposite meanings. "Dreaming" is used to refer to that which is most real and also that which is least real.

When dreaming occurs in the conscious mind, or at least the shallowest portions of it, we call it unreal. We call it daydreaming. If a person frequently substitutes fantasy for real experience, we say his life lacks reality. Shallower = less real.

Dreams that come from the unconscious are frequently held to be of great significance. Many believe that they show what is most real in a person's life, that they are more real in a way than one’s conscious awareness, because they have their source in the depths of the mind. Deeper = more real.

So from this we can see that there are different levels of "dreaming", some being more real than others. The deeper the level, the more real it seems. So this shows that dreaming is not "simple". It is multi-leveled. The same applies to experience. Experiences have different depths, and some experiences seem more real than others. The deeper something is, the closer it is to pure consciousness, the most basic level of existence. So pure consciousness is the ultimate reality.

To the extent that a person's reality is a product of his isolated imagination, to that extent we say the person is insane. Such a person is not grounded in the field of consciousness.

Answer 2

Firstly, let me say that this is a very interesting and thought provoking question.

Anyways, if all of our surroundings was all an illusion, then we will continue living our delusional lives within someones imagination.For instance, unlike a normal dream, you can't wake up from it. because if all of our lives are illusions, then it's most likely not the parts of our imagination; it's the part of someone else's. All of our beliefs, actions, our personalities, and even our lives in general would be part of someones creative imagination, and we would be like Barbie dolls in a doll's house in a way. And consider when that person stops daydreaming, life wouldn't exist anymore. However, when he or she daydreams again, life in general has begun for the second time.

So, in other words, if life was an illusion, then technically, we wouldn't really exist. We would only be a bunch of people in someone else's mind.

Answer 3

The miraculous and the tragic. The enchanted and the fool hearty. The hateful and the saintly. The rich and the poor. The greedy and the giving. The violent and the peaceful. I don't see where imagination has anything to do with it but to answer you question of what if I would say that whoever's imagination this world is based on is a confused, conflicted, irrational war mongering people manipulating egotistically operating selfish sob.

Answer 4

A philosopher in the 1950s proposed that our waking awareness was as a dream, and our clearer dreams were as reflections of a genuine waking experience.

"Life is but a dream...."

It is considered that our waking subconscious becomes our dreaming consciousness.

Buddhist teaching indicates "suchness" and "thusness" are beyond 5-sense data stream beta wave mentation--Buddha teaching from the Atman re the "neti, neti" of neither psyche, nor physis conditioning is aught but a kind of suppositious dream or illusion.

Conjecture and experience are generally two distinct modes.

To move into experience or realization, the following authors:

Ann Ree Colton, "Men in White Apparel," "Watch Your Dreams," and "Kundalini West;"

Mark Prophet, "Climb the Highest Mountain" and "The Masters and Their Retreats;"

Olga Kharitidi, M.D., "Entering the Circle" and "The Master of Lucid Dreams;"

O. M. Aivanhov, "Light Is a Living Spirit" and "Looking into the Invisible;"

Free and Wilcock, "The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", http://www.divinecosmos.com

Tanabe, "Philosophy as Metanoetics;"

Dr. Elizabeth Mayer, "Extraordinary Knowing;"

Morihei Ueshiba, "Essence of Aikido;"

Mother Meera, "Answers;"

Yogananda, "Autobiography of a Yogi," http://www.yogananda-srf.org

Dr. William A. Tiller, "Psychoenergetic Science," http://www.tiller.org

Lizelle Reymond, "To Live Within;"

Salim Michael, "The Way of Inner Vigilance."

Answer 5

Then tomorrow, when we wake up, I'll be interested in the strange dream I had last night.

You can't live life thinking it's pointless, because you'll start to believe that, and that's just not healthy. The answer to everyone, "what if?" is "it doesn't matter. Reality is this world. That's the only way we can rationally define it, and deduce a course of action from that reasoning. The course of action is to continue living your life.

Answer 6

Science tells us that our eyes
see only the the light that is
reflected from the objects that
we perceive to exist as
interpreted by our brain
as reality
(ie >colors may not be what we think they are!) .
Seen the MATRIX lately?
When in Rome, do as the Romans.
(then you do'nt look like a tourist)
even though you may walk like an Egyptian.
and when you think everyone is nuts
make peanut butter (krunchy, I think)
In the words of the great philosopher
Dr. Frankenfurter (Rocky Horror)
"Don't Dream It > Be IT!"
The mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Objects may appear
to be closer than
they really are
in the mirror (of life)
Our reality is probably in
a tiny locket on
Orion's Belt.
PS> Where do you think Hollywood came from anyway?
and todays "DEEP THOUGHT...."
are reality shows really reality?
and what if God really was
that guy standing next to you
on the subway?

Answer 7

all of what?

i cannot see above my eyebrows, so i will, and my neck it knows what I will and affords me a new view
a new view
and i am not surprised at what i see
though it were not
merely years ago
merely days
merely moments away
a new thing will be experienced
the only familiarity being my perception
my emotional response, my intellectual rationalization, my physical state governing my assessments but not adding any explanations; leaving it entirely to the randomness of my thought processes to make sense of the constant stream of information...

does that information exist?
Given: there is an observer who seems to correlate its observations directly to a reference point.

assumption: the reference point is "me"

if the assumption is correct, that there is a "me" who is referenced when the body "I" inhabit makes observations/receives information, than the information is as real as the "me" that perceives it.

just as real, or both are just as unreal.

the information becomes the perceptions, the perceptions become the affirmation that something has happened to "me"

'me' as information perceiving my self in the state of receiving such information as perceiving my self is the central hub of the experience of existence, the relative existence spiraling out from there, proving you, proving them, proving cosmos...

Answer 8

If all of this doesn't really exist then none of this really matters.

But apparently all of this does exist or you would not be able to ask a question on the Internet and receive answers.

The point is existence. Real or imaginary.

Existence is the point.

Of course, if you want to go to a higher level then you must ask a different question.

But the point is.

Answer 9

Our realities are kind of created in our own minds. My reality is different from yours and from anyone else's. Sometimes I do prefer to be dreaming than being awake, but in your hypothetic, what happens when we wake up? Usually waking up is familiar, we recognize what's around us, but if none of this existed, then what is existence?

Answer 10

So what? Would it change the way you live your life in any way? You can still be hurt, go to jail, starve, etc... So you still need to act as you always have. That thought experiment is a total waste of time.