“But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.”
-Rene Descartes, Meditation on First Philosophy
What are dreams? Some people would say that dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. According to this definition dreaming is just the state of mind where we can see pictures or feel some of the emotions we have suppressed in our sub consciousness. But sometimes my dream seems so real, and then I ask myself if that dream is actually my life, and this moment, this day of my life, can be something I have dreamed about.
That brings me to another question. If dreams I have dreamed are my real life, and this life I think I'm living is just a dream, where is the physical body that dreams my life. It would mean that a girl with brown eyes and brown hair exists only in a dream. So if I am a product of someone’s imagination, of someone’s mind that in the state of sleeping created me like this does it mean that I do not exist? Or maybe as a product of my own imagination I dream my life as I would like it to be maybe the real me doesn’t look anything like me.
If my life is a dream it means that all people and objects and the surroundings are just my notion of the world, and they exist only in my mind, and it means that when I wake up, all would be gone, and I might live on some other planet or I can be some other being. But if it happens that this notion of the world I share with other people, that means that they also share the dream with me, and actually we are all in one big dream, which has to be continuous so that we could have a history and memory of the things that happened. It also means that when someone is born he or she just joins our collective dream. There is one more question, if all of us share the same “reality“ there has to be someone who controls our lives and thoughts. Someone who shapes our world and allows us to have dreams like this life. In one word he or she is the creator of our imaginary life we think is real. It can be God according to Descartes or it can be the Great Mind or the Absolute, who is just using us to become aware of itself.
What would happen if we get lost in our dreams. I could fall asleep in my dream and then I will be in a dream of my dream. What will happen if I do not wake up from that dream, will I start living a new life, would that be my second chance to make things right. Maybe then I could make some new choices or even find answers to all the questions I cannot answer now. Aristotle said that a good question is half of our knowledge. Now, all I can do is wonder, maybe in a dream of my imaginary life I would find another half of my knowledge and then have all the answers I need.
The only thing I can do now is try to conceive if I am dreaming or living. Descartes said “I think therefore I am.” I am thinking now, and I think I am. I can only wonder if this “I” is real and not someone else's notion or someone else's dream.
Maybe it can be my own dream I have been dreaming for the past eighteen years...
