Help/Support ► A dreaming reality.

[State]

I have a problem, and it's this one:

The other day I started thinking about the movie Inception and the idea that, reality as we know it, might be a dream. So I started thinking... What if I'm living inside a dream? All of this is a projection generated by my brain?

I got through all this finally, but I can't convince myself that those around me, those I love, are a reality, individuals created by God, not me. I can differentiate my state of dream from my state of waking (in a dream, something improbable happens and my five senses are functioning with limitations). Meanwhile, when I'm "awake", everything is "back-to-normal", as in, it's reality.

The problem here is:

How do I finally convince myself that I'm not dreaming, that it's IMPOSSIBLE for my mind to generate everything around me unless I'm in a state of sleep? That if I'm dreaming, I MUST wake-up at any moment. That one can not dream inside a dream or fall asleep? That I just woke-up at 5 in the morning and am writing this in reality?

Please help.

/edit

It's worth mentioning that I have a knack to assume things that aren't correct and/or it isn't the first time I've questioned myself if I'm dreaming or not (the last time was when I first played Persona and I read the proverb about dreaming about being a butterfly or a human, I just found it interesting and got on with my life in reality, the same applies to Inception, it was recently that I thought of this but knew of the movie's plot a lot of time ago). It's just now that I started questioning myself.

/edit2

And I keep remembering instances in my life where I've crossed thoughts with the dream question (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and the TNT drama Perception). How can I convince myself I'm not dreaming and that all this is a false assumption I'm making?

 

[Orion]

Welcome to solipsism and 12-year-old-level philosophising.

Unless you get into highly technical philosophical ideas or neurology, there's not really a sufficient sort of way to dispel it. Regardless of whichever is true, it probably doesn't make a difference either way. Sometimes it's just best to resign yourself to not knowing in such a way as to give you peace of mind.

Also short-lived dream-within-dream moments aren't exactly rare, but they usually coincide with some other event that occurs in conjunction with sleeping or soon before/after it.

 

[State]

Welcome to solipsism and 12-year-old-level philosophising.

Although it's momentarily that I feel as if everyone else's mind isn't real, assuming there are more individuals that think they're minds are the only ones "true", it comforts me because it means I'm not the only one, meaning I'm not dreaming, but in a reality.

Unless you get into highly technical philosophical ideas or neurology,

Meaning there IS a difference? Surely, the brain MUST HAVE its limitations.

there's not really a sufficient sort of way to dispel it.

In my case, I can dispel both of them, seeing as how I know when I was dreaming with the details I posted, it's just that I was having a hard time to convince myself.

Regardless of whichever is true, it probably doesn't make a difference either way.

It makes a difference because what's the use of loving a hallucination? Although I'm convince I'm on reality, it's an interrogative I asked myself back when I was religiously immature and thought God didn't exist (I also felt the same way; disassociated). A couple of days passed and I finally got through it by convincing myself that God DOES exist and forgetting about it, seeing as how it's depressive (on my end) to think things through and assume.

Thanks for replying, Orion. I'm thinking and thinking and keep convincing myself I'm in reality.

 

[Orion]

It makes a difference because what's the use of loving a hallucination?

It doesn't make a difference in that whether it was all ad ream or all reality, external things would probably behave almost identically to their counterpart.

 

[State]

It doesn't make a difference in that whether it was all ad ream or all reality, external things would probably behave almost identically to their counterpart.

The problem is, I'm assuming EVERYTHING in my "dream" is a fabrication made from zero, EVERYTHING. Like a tree. One day, it doesn't have apples, the other day it has, I'm "that must be my mind fabricating". That's why I'm saying that the brain MUST HAVE its limitations when hallucinating. Not everything can be a fabrication (of not, all can't be one).

/edit

Another example would be that you're a part of my brain that's in denial, like the Ash Ketchum coma argument (which I've read and put aside, even though it's interesting, but now I'm questioning myself about these things, when in the past, I've forgotten about, meaning I'm convinced that it's just me assuming things that hurt me and isn't the first time).

/edit2

I've convinced myself I'm living a reality, seeing as how I'm eating right now and that can't be a hallucination. But I'll keep discussing, seeing as how it never hurts to have this kind of information in case a think of the same situation in a future or someone close to me.

 

[Bukkake Sensei]

Welcome to solipsism and 12-year-old-level philosophising.

 

[State]

12-year-old referring to the mind of a 12-year-old preteen or 12-year-old research subject?

 

[Silh]

What if I'm living inside a dream? All of this is a projection generated by my brain?

I guess the jig's up, fellas.

150 years ago, your face was disfigured in a terrible car accident. Your hot Spanish girlfriend left you not long afterwards and you attempted to kill yourself. But the good news is, instead of dying we put you in a state of cryonic sleep and everything for you since then has been one huge lucid dream!

 

[Passion]

stop lying. he's actually in recall right now.

 

[king_mickey rule]

You're not dreaming, that's rubbish... But you are on television. Everyone's watching your life.

 

[State]

Thanks for all the responses, guys/girls. I feel much better now that I've convinced myself that it's impossible to be living in a dream. The thought was based on the movie Inception, which a scholar on the philosophy of dreams expresses that the author got a lot of parts wrong and the fact that movies take things to the extreme. Other than that, it's just me assuming baseless conjecture is actually true when, in fact, it's the opposite and it's hurting me (like I've done on several occasions). I'm not dreaming, and I know it since this morning (since I woke up where I slept and did so for three or four times in a row when I had a couple of dreams). I never slept or wake in any of those dreams, but rather, I slept on my bed, had a dream and woke on it, meaning I am NOT dreaming, but thinking about the impossible.

In summation:

I'm awake, not the only thing left to do is forget about this sad moment.

Again, thanks for all your responses.

 

[inasuma]

Welcome to solipsism and 12-year-old-level philosophising.

Pretty much sums up my feelings on this topic.

"I feel pain and a functioning consciousness, I must not be dreaming. Oh no, maybe I actually am dreaming just because I think it's possible." The topic is very dry and makes for a boring discussion unless very drunk or high, and even then, I'd rather just go to bed.