Our dream reality is a "real" reality
A few hours ago, I read a post from SnakeTurbanHead (STH) on the website, Skeptiko.com. It is post #34 on this page. In the post, STH wrote of a lucid dream where he was causing indiscriminate mayhem. In the dream, it didn’t matter because it was just a dream. Meanwhile, his awareness of that fact gave him license to do things he wouldn’t normally do. At least, that is how his lucid dream started. This is how it ended:
Suddenly, I was approached by this being that told me to stop doing this. He told me that this dream world is just as real as waking life, and there would be karmic consequences for my actions. I told him that he isn't real. That he is a creation of my mind. Nevertheless, he insisted that he was real, and that he had his own mind. He also told me that we would meet again.
I was surprised to see the post because something very similar occured in one of my dreams, from August 11, 1990. Like STH, I had figured out I was dreaming. I came to the conclusion I could do anything I wanted without consequence because “it’s just a dream”. Then, the dream got interesting.
From the journal, 8/11/1990
[First, I realize I am dreaming. Then, I see some pretty girls and decide to make out with one of them. Then, I am forcibly yanked out of the scene…]
In a room overlooking an unclean river. The purpose is a ghost "trial" for mentally making out with the girl earlier. There wasn't any punishment to speak of, but these other spirits kept talking about what I'd done until I understood that my thoughts are quite real and that imagining making out with that girl was the same as if I'd done it while awake. After realizing this, I decided to be more careful in the future. I then went outside, conscious of the fact that I was sleeping, entered the river's waters, crossed to the other side, then returned [to the dream].
Comment
This dream has a low word count but was vivid. I remember it well today and have thought of it often during the intervening 30 years. The power of the dream is that it asserts primacy of thought. Our thoughts are actions. It also reveals that we are as responsible for our thoughts as our actions. This is an alien concept to modern westerners but it makes sense if our thoughts are actions.
Reading SHT’s comment this morning brought this dream to mind again, sending a chill up my spine. I never doubted the message in my dream but reading the same message in someone else’s dream is a strong reinforcement. It also suggests independence of the “agents” who appeared in our respective dreams to deliver their messages. That is, they are not a construct of our imagination.