Is life just a deep dream?

[Scepcop]

Interesting thoughts.

http://socraticsociety.wordpress.com/20 ... am-theory/

Cut the Crap…The Dream Theory
Posted on May 26, 2009 by unswsocrates | 3 Comments

By Albert Russell

When I was asked to present a topic, I felt like a person in the middle of a hot and dry desert who suddenly heard the sound of water, and found hope of reaching the water.

I wanted to talk about Arthur Schopenhauer’s book “On the suffering of the world”, but then I thought it might be better to talk about some fundamental questions: “Who am I?”, “Where am I coming from?”, “Where am I going to?’’ and “Do I really exist?”

I have been thinking about the answers to these questions for a long time. As a result, I have come to develop a theory which provides me with satisfactory answers. The theory is that the whole universe is nothing more than a deep dream. And time and space are the factors which make this dream deeper, making it easier to believe it as reality. Since an object has both time and space dimensions, then it will experience past, present and future in one direction. If the same object exists in a realm in which there is no time and space, then there is no past, present and future concerning the object. In other words that object knows about past, present and future at the same moment.

If we assume that this world we live in is a dream containing time and space dimensions, and the waking world is the world with no time and space dimensions, then when we wake up those questions will become meaningless, since there is no past, present and future in the waking world. These questions only belong to the dreaming world.

But this theory leads me to some other questions. “Regarding this theory, do the definitions of religion, science and philosophy change from the dreaming realm to the waking one?”, “Are we free in this dreaming world?”, “Did we choose to be a part of this dream?”

When I read the book “On the suffering of the world” by Schopenhauer, I came to believe even more firmly in my dreaming theory, as I felt a deep connection between my ideas and his. Here is a passage from his book:

“Life can be regarded as a dream and death as the awakening from it: but it must be remembered that the personality, the individual, belongs to the dreaming and not to the awakened consciousness, which is why death appears to the individual as annihilation. In any event, death is not, from this point of view, to be considered a transition to a state completely new and foreign to us, but rather a return to one originally our own from which life has been only a brief absence.”

[Freethinker84]

Wow. I have had those exact same thoughts. This is the first time I've seen another person discussing it.

[Craig Browning]

It's actually a very ancient concept and can be loosely seen in certain Buddhist and Hindu teachings as well as those of various indigenous people around the globe. There's even a short story that was popular in the mid-70s about some guy having a day-dream. The punch-line being at the end of the story when you realize it's "God" that's doing the dreaming. . .

[Craig Browning]

[Arouet]

Putting aside what is obviously a spammer , Craig, college = university is a US thing. In Ontario we have colleges and universities. The colleges are more technically oriented and things like nursing, paralegals, as well. Certain courses you choose can limit your track to college or university, depending on if you do the right prerequisites.

[ProfWag]

[Craig Browning]

I've never thought about it that way but can kind of make sense of it given my ties to the University of California and the different campus settings of that same institution I've taken classes at on various topics; same parental blanket but different physical aspect thereof.

It's a clarification I've never heard of before, then again the UK seems to bastardize the English language and how we normal folk understand it

[angelitaB]

No. Life is what God had given us to enjoy. Its not a dream.

[Craig Browning]