Waking Illusion or Dream Reality
Is life as we know it real or some illusionary dream reality? Can we exist in two waking/dream dimensions simultaneously? These are some deeper philosophical questions to ponder, and I don’t hold all the answers, but they certainly intrigue me.
This question always brings to mind a 9-year old client I once treated for seizure disorder. Audra developed nocturnal seizures after a bad vaccination reaction when she was five. At school she was in special education classes for learning disabilities. Her behavior was often slow and lethargic–almost like someone going through life sleepwalking. The epileptic seizures didn’t happen every night and rarely ever happened during the daytime, but the damage had taken its toll in all aspects of her life due to her lack of energy. Her mother brought her into my office for neurofeedback brainwave training to help reduce and regulate her daughter’s sleep onset seizures, which were causing a sleep disorder.
While hooked up to an EEG monitor, Audra’s frontal lobe (the executive function of the brain) displayed high amplitude slow wave theta/delta activity. This is the type of activity our brain makes when drifting off to sleep or in an altered state of consciousness. Audra had an abundance of this activity. Consequently, I had to adjust visual and auditory Neurofeedback training rewards to make it easier for her or frustration would quickly set in and she would give up. It was usually a struggle.
Then one day, while Audra was doing a training session, I suddenly heard faster beeps signaling she was racking up points and doing outstanding. I glanced over at Audra and she was sound asleep in her chair. I looked at the EEG monitor and saw she was making consistent wide-awake beta activity without even trying. I’d never seen this pattern before with her and she was clearly not in the throes of a seizure. Her closed eyelids showed no indication of rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, either. I was perplexed. Most people show faster beta activity while awake, and the slow theta/delta activity while sleeping. Audra was just the opposite. I’d never seen anything like it. Intuition kicked in and I knew I was witnessing an anomaly.
I had the clear thought at the time, however unproven, that Audra’s real waking world might very well be what we call the sleep state. Then when she transitioned upon waking, her brain would slip into what looked like an abnormal dream-like state. I tried to get her to talk about her “dream” experiences while sleeping, but she wouldn’t open up. It was if she had a secret she was not going to share.
Which comes back to the point–what do we understand about reality anyway? Is a dream/wake reversal state even possible? Perhaps. Later, I would learn from researchers studying Alzheimer’s disease, that these patients seem to be able to transverse both dimensional worlds as they deteriorate and become more communicatively unreachable. Some patients were able to later reveal how the other world seemed more real at times than this world. Consequently, they began spending more time in this other world until the body’s life energies eventually withdrew and they exited this plane. This is fascinating stuff.
The closest you can get to understanding this duo-dimensional world is through the practice of lucid dreaming—knowing you’re dreaming while in a dream state. If you’ve ever experienced a lucid dream, then you can probably attest to how real that other world can feel. The trick to staying in a lucid state is to not let yourself get too emotional (i.e. excitement, laughing, fear, etc.) or it will wake you right up. I once tried opening a refrigerator in a lucid dream to see if I could eat veggies while in that state. The second I put the dream carrot in my mouth, I woke right up. It’s hard to master. But perhaps for some it’s not at all. Which leads us right back to where we started—what is the true nature of reality?
Dr. Kathy Forti is a clinical psychologist, inventor, and author of the new book, Fractals of God. amazon.com/author/kathyforti
I totally agree and some individuals are developing the ability to be in both places at once… However doing that gives a tenuous hold on the unreal aspects of each reality, i.e. time and calendars.
I think more children are coming in with a greater awareness of the alternate dimensions and/or realities and thus are not fitting well into our traditional educational system. Moreover many adults are waking up to this connection and finding that traditional institutions serve them less well than they did before.
“I think more children are coming in with a greater awareness of the alternate dimensions and/or realities and thus are not fitting well into our traditional educational system. Moreover many adults are waking up to this connection and finding that traditional institutions serve them less well than they did before.” I do completely agree though, I don’t think there will ever be a civilization that spawns a government so incredibly competent-seemingly omnipotent, that any worldly institution educational or otherwise will ever suffice to what the future of humanity desperately needs. Granted an individuals “Needs” are of course relative to begin with, but that’s literally neither here nor there. Human Constructs are being destroyed, “TIME” “GOD”(Monolithic especially) and “SPACE” being the main 3 i suppose. Pretending to live in a Cosmos composed of 3 dimensions should be considered mind blowing in the 21st century, doesn’t matter how many dimensions any being wants to believe there are, but don’t bind yourself to a number as low as 3 or even worse 2 for “flat-universe’rs”. Being “WOKE” is apparently popular contemporarily, but those people are just scary, they need to go back and relearn from scratch somehow how to sleep properly.
Hi, Linda your not far wrong with your assessment of the phenomenon it does mess with both time and calendars regarding memory. I believe I did develop this umm ability during childhood, but that’s another story. here is one account of the phenomenon, hope it help’s you in some way. It is possible to experience two realities simultaneously as I have done this although I believe it is rare. I went to bed as normal at some point during the night I found myself in a dream there was one other person with me in the dream but nothing else no ground, no sky, just myself and this other person who was a lifelong close friend. As soon as I had recognized who it was and felt a strong connection I awoke/conscious, aware, and in control of my body if I needed to move. I was lying on my back arms by my side and legs straight (i have never awakened in this position before), I remained completely still, focus my thoughts toward what my brain and body were doing. All I could tell was that I got the feeling my brain was working very hard or at least some part of it was and my body felt heavily relaxed at rest. The reason I’m telling you this is because I was still in the dream during the whole time that I was also awake/conscious, separate experience yet the same ME at the same TIME in both dream and awake realities simultaneously. My brain was processing both at the same time, me in the dream experiencing all that was going on in the dream including interacting verbally with my friend, as well as being aware of all that was going on in the real awake world (but felt like it was coming from elsewhere). And it was the same the other way round, me in the awake state was aware of all around me and all in the dream as a separate reality. I somehow knew if I moved my body I would lose the dream so had planned to lift my left arm and roll over when I had had enough. I did at one point open my eyes and looked straight up and slowly scanned from right to left to see if I could see anything, I could not, possibly blind (my room is very dark), and it seemed to affect the dream or connecting with (went laggy or jittery not sure what exactly). This whole experience went on for a minute or so when I began to feel like some part of my brain engaged (became aware of what was happening, I knew that awake was the real reality but something inside was reasoning that if I exist in the dream then that must also be a real place (best way I can explain, hope you understand better than me :-).. ). It started to challenge that the dream was as real a place as this reality, it rose to equal footing, I became concerned by this so lifted my left arm. The dream reality instantly ended. I lied there wondering at what had just happened,5 to 10 seconds or so passed I felt the dream experience quickly being erased and fade from my mind, all I can recall from the dream I have already said except I do vaguely recall also having a conversation with my friend about it being a dream and telling him that I was also awake and what was going on outside.
In the 80’s actress Stephanie Powers hosted a TV special about dreams. I have a copy I often show to people. One of the espisoes was a true story of a woman who learned how to lucid dream. She found she coulld program her favorite resturants and eat all she wanted. She claimed to her it was more real. She could taste and smell the food and eat it so the following day she had no desire for those fattening foods. It was documented that she lost a lot of weight by doing this.
Along the line of which you speak, I recommend the book DANCING IN THE SHADOWS OF THE MOON B Machelle Small Wright founder of The Perelandra Gardens and her outstanding flower Essences. In the book she tells about how when she goes to bed to sleep here everynight she wakes up in another life reality and when she goes to bed there she wakes up in this reality. The entire book is of her many accounts of that. I have since read there are other people who do this. She also is the author of BEHAVING AS IF GOD IN ALL LIFE MATTERED. A very interesting book on her discovering Nature talked to her and how to do the gardens that are on the order of FINDHORN GARDENS in Scotland.
Janie Martin
It is possible to experience two realities simultaneously as I have done this although I believe it is rare. I went to bed as normal at some point during the night I found myself in a dream there was one other person with me in the dream but nothing else no ground, no sky, just myself and this other person who was a lifelong close friend. As soon as I had recognized who it was and felt a strong connection I awoke/conscious, aware, and in control of my body if I needed to move. I was lying on my back arms by my side and legs straight (i have never awakened in this position before), I remained completely still, focus my thoughts toward what my brain and body were doing. All I could tell was that I got the feeling my brain was working very hard or at least some part of it was and my body felt heavy relaxed at rest. The reason I’m telling you this is because I was still in the dream during the whole time that I was also awake/conscious, separate experience yet the same ME at the same TIME in both dream and awake realities simultaneously. My brain was processing both at the same time, me in the dream experiencing all that was going on in the dream including interacting verbally with my friend, as well as being aware of all that was going on in the real awake world (but felt like it was coming from elsewhere). And it was the same the other way round, me in the awake state was aware of all around me and all in the dream as a separate reality. I somehow knew if I moved my body I would lose the dream so had planned to lift my left arm and roll over when I had had enough. I did at one point open my eyes and looked straight up and slowly scanned from right to left to see if I could see anything, I could not, possibly blind (my room is very dark), and it seemed to affect the dream or connecting with (went laggy or jittery not sure what exactly). This whole experience went on for a minute or so when I began to feel like some part of my brain engaged (became aware of what was happening, I knew that awake was the real reality but something inside was reasoning that if I exist in the dream then that must also be a real place (best way I can explain, hope you understand better than me :-).. ). It started to challenge that the dream was as real a place as this reality, it rose to equal footing, I became concerned by this so lifted my left arm. The dream reality instantly ended. I lied there wondering at what had just happened,5 to 10 seconds or so passed I felt the dream experience quickly being erased and fade from my mind, all I can recall from the dream I have already said except I do vaguely recall also having a conversation with my friend about it being a dream and telling him that I was also awake and what was going on outside.
It is possible to experience two realities simultaneously as I have done this although I believe it is rare. I went to bed as normal at some point during the night I found myself in a dream there was one other person with me in the dream but nothing else no ground, no sky, just myself and this other person who was a lifelong close friend. As soon as I had recognized who it was and felt a strong connection I awoke/conscious, aware, and in control of my body if I needed to move. I was lying on my back arms by my side and legs straight (i have never awakened in this position before), I remained completely still, focus my thoughts toward what my brain and body were doing. All I could tell was that I got the feeling my brain was working very hard or at least some part of it was and my body felt heavy relaxed at rest. The reason I’m telling you this is because I was still in the dream during the whole time that I was also awake/conscious, separate experience yet the same ME at the same TIME in both dream and awake realities simultaneously. My brain was processing both at the same time, me in the dream experiencing all that was going on in the dream including interacting verbally with my friend, as well as being aware of all that was going on in the real awake world (but felt like it was coming from elsewhere). And it was the same the other way round, me in the awake state was aware of all around me and all in the dream as a separate reality. I somehow knew if I moved my body I would lose the dream so had planned to lift my left arm and roll over when I had had enough. I did at one point open my eyes and looked straight up and slowly scanned from right to left to see if I could see anything, I could not, possibly blind (my room is very dark), and it seemed to affect the dream or connecting with (went laggy or jittery not sure what exactly). This whole experience went on for a minute or so when I began to feel like some part of my brain engaged (became aware of what was happening, I knew that awake was the real reality but something inside was reasoning that if I exist in the dream then that must also be a real place (best way I can explain, hope you understand better than me :-).. ). It started to challenge that the dream was as real a place as this reality, it rose to equal footing, I became concerned by this so lifted my left arm. The dream reality instantly ended. I lied there wondering at what had just happened,5 to 10 seconds or so passed I felt the dream experience quickly being erased and fade from my mind, all I can recall from the dream I have already said except I do vaguely recall also having a conversation with my friend about it being a dream and telling him that I was also awake and what was going on outside.