Dream argument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The dream argument is the postulation that the act of dreaming provides preliminary evidence that the senses we trust to distinguish reality from illusion should not be fully trusted, and therefore any state that is dependent on our senses should at the very least be carefully examined and rigorously tested to determine whether it is in fact reality.
Contents:
1 Synopsis
2 Simulated reality
3 Recent discussion
4 In popular culture
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
Synopsis:
While people dream, they usually do not realize they are dreaming (if they do, it is called a lucid dream). This has led philosophers to wonder whether one could actually be dreaming constantly, instead of being in waking reality (or at least that one cannot be certain, at any given point in time, that one is not dreaming). In the West, this philosophical puzzle was referred to by Plato (Theaetetus 158b-d) and Aristotle (Metaphysics 1011a6). Having received serious attention in René Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, the dream argument has become one of the most prominent skeptical hypotheses.
In the East, this type of argument is well known as "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly" (莊周夢蝶 Zhuāngzhōu mèng dié).
One night, Zhuangzi (369 BC) dreamed that he was a carefree butterfly, flying happily. After he woke up, he wondered how he could determine whether he was Zhuangzi who had just finished dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who had just started dreaming he was Zhuangzi. This was a metaphor for what he referred to as a "great dream":
He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; he who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is dreaming he does not know it is a dream, and in his dream he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know it was a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman ‑ how dense! Confucius and you are both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle. Yet, after ten thousand generations, a great sage may appear who will know their meaning, and it will still be as though he appeared with astonishing speed.
Some schools of thought in Buddhism (e.g., Dzogchen), consider perceived reality literally unreal. As a prominent contemporary teacher, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, puts it: "In a real sense, all the visions that we see in our lifetime are like a big dream [...]".[2] In this context, the term 'visions' denotes not only visual perceptions, but appearances perceived through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations, and operations on received mental objects.
Simulated reality
See also: Simulated reality and Simulation hypothesis
Dreaming provides a springboard for those who question whether our own reality may be an illusion. The ability of the mind to be tricked into believing a mentally generated world is the "real world" means at least one variety of simulated reality is a common, even nightly event.
Those who argue that the world is not simulated must concede that the mind, at least the sleeping mind, is not itself an entirely reliable mechanism for attempting to differentiate reality from illusion.
“Whatever I have accepted until now as most true has come to me through my senses. But occasionally I have found that they have deceived me, and it is unwise to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.”
—René Descartes.
Recent discussion.
Many contemporary philosophers have attempted to refute dream skepticism in detail (see, e.g., Stone (1984)). Perhaps most notably, Ernest Sosa (2007) has devoted a chapter of a recent monograph to the topic. There, Sosa presents a new theory of dreaming and argues that his theory raises a new argument for skepticism, which he attempts to refute. Jonathan Ichikawa (2008) and Nathan Ballantyne & Ian Evans (2010) have offered critiques of Sosa's proposed solution.
In popular culture.
In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Alice finds the Red King asleep in the grass; Tweedledum and Tweedledee tell her that the Red King is dreaming about her, and that if he were to wake up she would "go out—bang!—just like a candle." A similar theme is explored in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, told from the perspective of the dreamer in his own realm of dreams.
In the 1999 movie The Matrix, machines imprison the human race and plug them into "the Matrix", an enormous machine system that uses human bioelectricity and body heat as a biological battery to power the machines. Connected to the Matrix, the humans are kept in a dream-like state, in which they dream of being in the world as it is today; they have no reason to suspect that it is anything other than the real world. Certain people sense the innate artificiality of the illusion and, through various means, "wake up", breaking free of the Matrix. The overall theme of the series is the "waking dream" scenario, and speculations on which reality is preferable. This concept is further explored during the second Matrix film where one of the main characters appears to be able to utilize abilities usually used in the "dream" in what the character currently believes is "reality", leaving the viewer to question if the character is in fact in reality, or if they are still inside the dream.
In the original television series The Twilight Zone, the episode Shadow Play (written by Charles Beaumont, originally aired May 5, 1961, Season 2, Episode 26) concerns a man trapped in a recurring nightmare in which he dreams he is a prison inmate sentenced to death and to be executed; he tries to convince the characters in his dream that they are only figments of his imagination and that they will cease to exist if the execution is carried out.
Richard Linklater's Waking Life deals mostly with this subject, revolving around a man being aware of having been trapped inside his own dream.
Christopher Nolan's movie Inception deals with the fictional science of shared dreaming. The characters enter others' minds, to steal ideas, or in the rare case of inception itself, plant them while the target is unaware they are dreaming. Once in a dream, the characters can enter other layers or dreams within dreams. In the movie, characters can distinguish a dream by using totems which are unique items weighted or otherwise distinguishable to help the user determine reality. In the end, the film leaves open the question of whether the protagonist is himself dreaming.
Films such as Total Recall and Blade Runner, which are both based on stories by Philip K. Dick, also hinge upon the idea that what you remember and perceive is not always real.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty greatly explores the protagonist's Raiden's (and by extension, the player's) diminished sense of reality, and that what you perceive may not be what is truly reality.
Ted Dekker's Circle Series protagonist wakes up in an alternate reality every time he goes to sleep.
In the ninth episode of the fourth series of the science fiction television series Doctor Who, "Forest of the Dead", the Doctor's companion Donna is "saved" into the Library's hardrive and begins to live out an imaginary and fake reality, she is oblivious to the reality she is living is an illusion, until a disfigured woman who had been killed in the 'real' world and respectively submitted into the hardrive convinces her that her life is not real.
See also.
Consensus reality
Evil demon
False awakening
Maya (illusion)
Meta-universe
Reality in Buddhism
Simulated reality
Social simulation
Solipsism
Friday, October 19, 2012
Dream Argument
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Cosmic Womb
The tree lives in you
the beautiful music lives in you
the greenery lives in you
and that is why they live outside of you
The air lives in you
that is why it lives outside of you
sustains you every second
it will never go away
even if you do not thank it
because that's its job.
Life's job is to keep you alive
and it will.
An interesting question asked in a Philosophy Group I participate in sometimes.
"Why do we breathe?"
I believe breathing is a manifestation of a very deep, seamless connection we have with our environment. A living connection. It keeps us alive.
In fact, from what can be referred to as the LIVING PERSPECTIVE, it may not be wrong to compare "a human living on earth", with "a child in the womb".
If phrases like 'deep interconnectedness' and 'sustainability' are used as the guiding perspectives, then it is easy to see the above mentioned parallel.
The unborn child emerges from the material of the womb, and lives in a state of deep connectedness with the womb. Gets blood, oxygen, nutrition from it, which is the unborn child's complete universe.
The unborn child's connection with its environment is a living connection.
The earth sustains us in the same way. Breath, food, shelter from extreme forces, pressures, temperatures and killer radiation that lie beyond the earth's atmosphere.
Our connection with our environment is a living connection.
Some hindus hold the perspective that the entire cosmos is a womb.
And when the human becomes sufficiently developed, he exits the earth-womb, but only to enter a different womb.
Perhaps what we perceive as death is childbirth into something newer. Death of the caterpillar is birth of the butterfly. The paradigm shifts. The environment changes.
This unborn child represents the next stage in human evolution. And by putting him in outer space, Kubrick is trying to instill the cosmic womb perspective.
__________________________
Question: So why use the word 'WOMB' in place of the word 'environment'. What use is it?
Answer: The word 'environment' is a detached, clinical viewpoint. It's not wrong, but it's not sufficient to explain life.
'WOMB' is a word that points to the existence of deep feelings of nurture. And since life cannot be founded on anything except feelings, the word 'WOMB' instills the living perspective.
the beautiful music lives in you
the wind lives in you
the thunder lives in you
the greenery lives in you
food shelter drinking water
nurture, air
all live in you
and that is why they live around you
Attached images:
1. Painting by artist Sonali Chaudhari of Feminine Creations
2. StarChild image from Stanley Kubrick's 'A Space Odyssey'(1967).
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Memory Lane - Part I
They were neighbours and wonderful friends. They also attended the same school. She was one year his senior.
One day as they were sitting and talking, after school hours, he could not help but notice how exceptionally erotic she looked that day.
She's continuous erotica, he thought to himself, as they continued their conversation. She was telling him what someone at school had said to her, but he could barely focus on what she was saying. His mind was saturated. Obsessed.
He'd been madly in lust with her for three years now. But he never mentioned it to her. Felt pretty awkward. He didn't want to come across as stupid. Or some desperate freak.
He was sure she had noticed his feelings, but pretended as if she had no clue.
Their talk very rarely involved comments of a personal nature. Their talk revolved around events at school. Things going on in the neighbourhood, etc.
So she never saw it coming.
Suddenly he said, "Listen, there's something I want to say...but...am afraid that if I do, you might never want to speak to me again."
"What?! Don't Understand!" , She said.
He looked straight at her for a couple of seconds, almost staring.
"Not really easy to say what I want to."
"Why?" She asked. He could see that her expression was serious. Dead serious.
"Let it be. I changed my mind. I gotta go, see you later." He said.
And he left. And as he walked way, he was wondering what she was thinking about. He knew her mind had hit 'Red Alert' instantly....and that made him nervous.
He knew she knew he was in lust with her. Over the years, he had done many strange things in her presence, without wanting to. Like stare at her breasts. Her legs. Her arms...lips..On many occasions he had ended up trying to look up her skirt. Or down her blouse.
So he was sure she knew. But she never let it show. She never made him feel uncomfortable. Never ignored him, was never rude. Suddenly he felt grateful for the way she had been treating him. Because he felt vulnerable. His lust for her made him vulnerable.
And as he walked, he started fantasising about a situation in which he walks up to her and just blurts it out. No bullshit. No vague, cute things. Just blurts it out....'I WANT TO FUCK YOUR BRAINS OUT.'
"What if I did it?" He asked himself. "We have been friends for many years. If she hates me for expressing my lust for her openly, I'll apologise. She might not break the friendship. She likes my company."
But he wasn't ready yet. It was so damn awkward..... :-/
CHAPTER 2 --
School was off for summer, and he was glad. Because he just didn't want to run into her, not for a long time.
But since she lived in the neighbourhood, it was going to be difficult to not run into her.
He was afraid he might blurt it all out prematurely...because offlate he had been spending hours and hours every day, fantasising about her. Sometimes in her school skirt, sometimes in her tennis skirt. Sometimes in her tight jeans, heels, and the sheer, almost see-thru, sleeveless tops that she used to wear, in summer.
To be continued....
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Positive Thinking
Experiments and exercises in becoming a blasphemously reverent, lustfully compassionate, eternally changing Master of Transgressive Beauty.
1. Take inventory of the extent to which your "No" reflex dominates your life.
Notice for 24 hours (even in your dreams) how often you say or think:
"No."
Then retrain yourself to say "YES" at least 51 percent of the time. Start the transformation by saying "YES" aloud 22 times right now.
Don't wait for inspiration. Go after it with a butterfly net, lasso, sweet treats, fishing rod, beguiling smells, and sincere flattery.
(Slightly modified Rob Brezsny passage.)
___________________
Watch out for FALSE statements like the following and oppose them when you are able to spot them emerge in your mind:
• "I fear they will not do my work."
• "My future is doomed."
• "Something or the other is going to destroy me soon."
• "This life is not worth living."
• "I am worthless."
• "I keep making the same mistakes over and over."
________________________
PASSAGE 2:
When the spell is broken, you will be able to tap into resources you've been cut off from. When the spell is broken, you will finally notice the big, beautiful secrets that have been lying in plain sight.
When the spell is broken, you will slip down off a clean, lofty perch where it has been hard to relax and arrive at a low, funky spot where you'll be free to feel things you haven't felt in a long time.
When the spell is broken, it will be because you have decided to break it.
What is that spell?
-- Rob Breszney passage.
_____________________________________________________________
The mind, out of habit says no to everything we want to do. It is its habit to oppose. And it attacks all our vulnerable points.
This is nothing to worry about. Through positive thinking, the mind can be conquered.
A lot of people's thinking turns very negative when thinking about pending issues...
There is nothing to worry about, only an initial hesitation. Once you start getting your work done, your thinking will become more positive.
THROUGH POSITIVE THINKING AND CAREFUL WATCHING OF THE MIND'S RESISTANCE, ANYTHING CAN BE DONE.
Positive thinking is pushing against the mind's negativity on a continuous basis. Like pushing against a dilapidated piece of furniture that resists you but starts moving eventually when sufficient force is applied.
YOU HAVE TO PUSH AGAINST THE MIND'S NEGATIVITY AND RESISTANCE CONTINUOUSLY. IT IS NOT DIFFICULT.
WHY?
Because the energy to push against the mind's negativity comes from nowhere but the mind itself.
It's an enemy that empowers you to overcome it. On a continuous basis.
Fear Vs. Intuition by SacredUproar
Text of the above Audio Clip:
"I wanted to let you know that this is a perfect time for you to learn more about the difference between your fearful fantasies and your authentic, accurate intuitions.
It's always a good time to do that, of course, but even more so right now. This is an exciting turning point, when the future is up for grabs. Worn-out old habits of thought are unraveling. Structures that have kept us enthralled to fake values are crumbling. The coming months and years will be ripe with opportunities for us to lay the foundation for a new world that's actually fit for the human soul.
And in the midst of this grand mutation, it's predictable that so many so-called leaders are trying to fill up our imaginations with scary visions and angry emotions. They want us to buy into their visions that the sky is falling.
In the face of their toxic paranoia, it's wise to remember that we always have the power to turn away from their fear-mongering and tune in to the guidance of the still, small voice within us -- the still, small voice of intuition that will, if we allow it, lead us very capably through every twist and turn of our destiny, even when our destiny brings us right into the thick of our civilization's massive transformations.
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Knowing the difference between your fearful fantasies and your authentic, accurate intuitions is one of the greatest spiritual powers you can possible have. So let's explore what it means: knowing the difference between the frightening, alienating pictures that sometimes pop into your imagination, as opposed the simple, warm, clear direction that is always available from the deepest source within you.
Strangely enough, many people get these two things confused. They are especially prone to believing that the frightening, disempowering images that erupt in their mind's eye are coming from their intuition.
For many people, if they get an image of a scary future possibility popping into their imagination, they worry that it's a prediction of some event that will actually occur in their lives. For instance, they may have a fantasy of themselves getting into an accident, or maybe they dream of losing a loved one, or maybe they internalize the toxic vision of some talking head on TV who slaps them upside the head with a prediction of imminent doom. When these people get images like these stuck in their imagination, they may begin to obsess on the fear that these things are literally going to happen.
Almost every time, scary fantasies like this are not true intuition. Our true intuition is just not very likely to be fueled by fear, and it rarely if ever motivates us to act by making us feel afraid.
No. Our true intuition emerges from the wise, loving core of our being. It blooms in us like a slow-motion fountain of warmth. It reveals the objective truth about a person or situation with lucid compassion. It shows us the big picture.
Fearful fantasies, on the other hand, burn and itch and make us feel like we're coming apart. They drain our energy and cloud our judgment. They fill us with obsessive urges to run and hide or do something desperate and melodramatic.
I don't want to say that true intuition is always calm and emotionally neutral. It isn't, necessarily. But I will say this: The emotions that accompany true intuition are never alienating. They don't make us feel superior to other people or fill us with hatred and terror. They don't disempower us or make us feel helpless.
True intuition may rouse our anger, but if so, it is the kind of invigorating anger that leads to clarity and constructive action, and thus it is an anger that ultimately relaxes us.
True intuition may show us a difficult truth, but it always does so with a suggestion of how to deal gracefully and courageously with that difficult truth. True intuition may reveal imminent changes that could compel us to adjust our behavior, but it always does so in a way that empowers us.
Let me emphasize this point: True intuition may not always reveal that everything will be fine, or that we will be able to continue to live in the ways be have been living -- true intuition is certainly not falsely optimistic -- but if it does alert us to circumstances that are in flux, and how we will have to transform ourselves, it does so with love and poise and clarity, not with fear.
Here's one more thing, *. Just as our true intuition never works by scaring the hell out of us, neither does it flatter us with grandiose suggestions about how superior we are. In fact, it may often gently inform us of some correction that should be made in our attitude. It may tactfully but firmly lead us to the understanding that we have been suffering from some form of ignorance and that we need to wake up and get smarter.
True intuition reveals the story of our lives from our soul's point of view, not our ego's. In my understanding, true intuition is the voice of our own personal inner teacher, which just happens to be the divine part of us. The certainty that true intuition provides us is therefore not loud and puffed up, but rather humble and graceful.
+
This is a perfect moment to think on these things, and to add some insights of your own. It's also an excellent time to flush away the fearful fantasies that may have seeped into your imagination -- and thereby make it possible for you to hear your true intuition better.
One way to facilitate this process, by the way, is to cut way back on the amount of terrifying and disorienting images you allow to flow into your imagination from the TV, Internet, newspapers, movies, and other mass media. In fact, I invite you to consider the possibility of going on a media fast for a while and spending more time in nature than you usually do.
In conclusion, my beloved companions on this beautiful, interesting planet, please get to work on seeing your fearful fantasies for what they are and enhancing your connection to your true intuition."
Prayer for Us by SacredUproar
