"have you ever hads a dream that you thought was so real; what if you were unable to wake from that dream. how would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

a popular quote from the matrix. whcih arrouses an important philosiphical point. are we really here. is this just an illusion??

This is quite strange bbecause if this is an illusion then what is a dream. It would be an illusion within anillusion.

What tell us at the very least that when we are dreaming it is not "real" is that we can wake up and seperate ourselves from it.

And also the term "real" is only set by our definitions, and under those we are real because it is the criteria that we set.

If we were not actually here then what would be happening to us? Would we just be a machine, then what would be controlling the machines?

All of this is getting to beyond what we can accept as a fact and once again delving into the realms of belief. The only way we could not be "real" is if we believed that we were not. In which case we would be redefining the word and once again we would be real.

Three easy ways to tell "reality" from dreams.

1) you cant read or comprehend numbers in dreams. That is something your conscience mind controls.

2) you can not control light levels in dreams. Try flicking a light switch in a dream and see what happens.

3) you can not feel pain in a dream. yet another thing your conscience mind regulates.

how do u know that the dream world isnt actually the reality and the reallity the dream. what if the subconcious is reli the concious and the concious the subconcious. how do u know that wen u go to sleep ur really waking up and and wen u wake up ur really going 2 sleep. my point is that all in all we know NOTHING!

[This message has been edited by icantthinkofaname (edited 06-29-2003).]

^ Makes alotta sense ^ (not meant sarcastically)

In a dream you still know what your life was like outside of it from past experiences.

Also why would it matter if a dream was reality, and reality was the dream? We call a dream a dream because it's what happens when you go to sleep. You don't go to sleep when you're awake. You can't wake from up reality when you go to sleep (if it was a dream).

I am a butterfly.



...I'd make a more meaningful post, but I can't remember the Chinese philosopher that came up with it.

Easy answer: you don't.

The best you can do is assume what you experience is real.

All you people talking about doing stuff in your dreams - man, your dreams must be infinitely more vivid than mine. I couldn't tell you whether or not I feel pain in my dreams.

humans seem to have an afinity to see only what is before them, what they have been told or can see with their eyes. i am 14 and i can quite easily accept that everything we know and feel could be bullshit, although i do love philosiphy and physics. all you must do is open your eyes and look past the so called "fact" that aparantly blinds the whole of the human race.

I dunno. I had a dream that I fell off a cliff and smacked rock bottom and it hurt like hell.

It was some wierd different form of pain though. It was like a really intense yet dull pain. It hurt pretty bad, but when I woke up, it went away. I think it's all mental. I expected to feel pain when i hit bottom, so my mind generated some virtual pain while I was subconscious.