I think the problem is that folks are assuming that the only way you can tell whether you are awake or dreaming is by sensory input limited physical senses, ie., 5 senses.
If one pays attention, one can be aware of a number of senses that are not quantified by popular understanding. One of these is the awareness of the passage of time. One can remember *typically* which memories come before or after another. Not always, but a sense of temporal organization exists for most people within the ability to manipulate memories. Another more difficult *burried sense* is one that allows to ask the question: where do our words come from? If one concentrates, one can be somewhat aware of the flow of words from the depths of their consciousness as they *feel* a meaning, and turn that meaning into the spoken word. How is that one has the ability to explore this awareness? Is it a journey through some kind of n-space? Is focus something that can be moved? How does one point to an abstract space? I've just explained how one might explore the *where do my words come from* thing. But how do you locate this space? I've not provided the address, just a description of how one might concentrate in a way to illustrate this concept. Another would be minds-eye thinking. How one visualizes something. How do we do this? How do we even know we can do it? One could argue the ability just apeared and we found some kind of tag/button we could toggle to manipulate this space. How does one know the difference between visualization and physical seeing? There are some that can visualize things so powerfully they are more real than what we would call *real*. So what kind of tag or label do we have to tell which space we're in? All of these things I mention illustrate or point to what I would call buried-senses. They seem to be abstract senses we can form as we wish. We can create new one as we can create new burried features of thinking. All of these and many more I don't even know how to go about describing would form a composite that would grant us situational-awareness. This situational awareness is how one tells when one is in dream space. At some point you'd have to ask yourself, what's more real?, that which I see through physical eyes, or things I create and put my own rules and senses on. We have a common ground for which we interact. We see other people and things and can model their behavior well enough that we can be confident that these rules will hold as long as we choose to participate. We have a sense of what is *us* and what is not. Is this learned? Or is it built in? The question of animals morphing to other things is only meaningfull statistically. We've grown up in a world where things like that don't happen. Not many people claim to have seen such things, so we accept that as a-typical behavior. It does'nt fit our model of *reality*. I submit that if people relied on this kind of defintion of reality that they set themselves up for a kind of weirding-out, lost feeling when life then throws us a curve. If one day rabbits do develop the ability to morph, I think most science types could be found wandering around in a stupor and babbling meaningless phrases. To get an idea of this, one might recall a movie or experience like culture-shock that caused a person to feel out of place and lost. For me this is easily accomplished with a really strange movie. I saw a program on WWII where an interviewed paratrooper mentioned mentioned that after puting on all his gear, and while waiting to board the aircraft amidst all the noisy aircraft in preperation for the D-Day invation, he felt a kind of disconnected, surreal feeling. I've felt this as well when some time ago on board a small aircraft wearing a headset and voice activated mike. It seems just the loss of something familiar like aural echos and hearing one's own natural voice can be enough to leave one in a dreamlike state. I think just the loss of the ability to model enough of one's sensory input would cause this loss of connection to reality. Robert W. --- George Levy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is a continuation of "Consistency? + Programs > for G, G*, ...+ White Rabbits" > > Some more thoughts about dreaming. > > I wrote: > > > > > To summarize: > > White rabbits are inconsistent by definition. The > issue is "inconsistent with > > respect which frame of reference?" > > If we dream of a real world white rabbit > (inconsistency as seen from the real > > world point of view) then it may be perfectly > consistent in the dream world. If > > it is consistent in the dream world, no problem. > No paradox in the dream world. > > No paradox in the real world.. > > If we dream of a dream world white rabbit > (inconsistency as seen from the dream > > world point of view), then we realize the dream > world is a fake and we wake up. > > No more dream world. No more paradox. > > > > We can resolve the white rabbit paradox if we take > relativity seriously. > > > > George > > Let's say you are dreaming of a nice little pussy > cat. Suddenly the pussy cat morphs > (white rabbit?) into a hungry lion who goes straight > for you with bared fangs and > drooling saliva.with anticipation of a good meal. > > The first consistency test is whether you believe in > the morphin process or you > don't. > > If you do believe that the cat morphed into a lion, > then your world is consistent > and you are having a bad nightmare.The lion will > tear you to pieces and you'll die > in your dream. At that point you meet the second > consistency test. > > Either you believe you are dead and then you must > stop dreaming and therefore stop > believing you are dead... This is impossible. Your > dream world therefore becomes > inconsistent and comes to an end. You either switch > to a deep theta sleep state or > you wake up... unless you go to a dream heaven... > but then you are not really > dead....and the whole pussycat/lion nightmare could > arise again... Death in a dream > leads to infinite heavenly regression or to > inconsistency. > > Now if you don't believe that the cat morphed into a > lion, you realize that your > world is a dream world. You then have two choices. > Either wake up (end of the dream > world) or continue to enjoy your dream with the full > knowledge that it is only a > dream not the reality (end of real dream) and that > no matter what the lion does to > you, it's only a dream and nothing bad could really > happens. So you let the lion eat > you. In fact you are really enjoying the process. > Finding yourself in the stomach of > the lion.... becoming the lion.... what fun!!! A > dream that you know is a dream is > called a lucid dream. Lucid dream are fun! You can > jump from a huge cliff and not > get hurt, stand in front of a speeding locomotive > and see it go right through you. > In a lucid dream, you are immortal. > > Not let's take a step back and look at science in > interpreting our world. The role > of science is to expose inconsistencies and reveal > the old perception of the world > world for the dream it is....Our set of beliefs > affects how we perceive the world. > Way back before Copernicus, we were living in a > dream world where the earth was at > the center of the universe etc... But there were > inconsistencies... Copernicus, > Galileo, Newton, Einstein etc.. resolved the > inconsistencies. They showed us that > the old set of beliefs were just dreams, not > reality. Our horizon has been > expanding. We have been waking up, and waking up > again, and again. We are now faced > with the ultimate expansion of our horizons: the > plenitude. Quantum immortality is > like lucid dream immortality. Yes, our world is a > dream. But what a magnificient > dream! Let's be like the lucid dreamer and enjoy it > to the fullest! > > George > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
