RE: Lucid dreams - do we need them? A word of caution to newbie practitioners
When we start experiencing lucid dreams, visions, and other interesting things, we should never assume right away that they are what some people consider Revelations. Not in any religious sense, just revelations of something that can be called "absolute truth". Nope. I wish it was that, but it happens very rarely.
Some good points! And it does seem like a lot of people tend to take dreams or hallucinogenic trips as truth, I've seen that quite a bit.. But this begs a question? What is real? And what is true? I'm not sure this physical world is real or true either.
And that's when I freaked out. The dream was more real than reality (!) and I realized that if I spent more time in it, I could literally forget that I came from somewhere else! And then - never wake up in that other (real?) world. My fear became so strong that I believe it gave a signal to my body to wake up, and I woke up with a fast-beating heart and horrified, for some minutes not knowing where I was and what the real reality was.
That's pretty fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
I am not sure either. I am pretty convinced that it is one of the most elaborate agreements about how to perceive reality. We see what we see because we are born into it (and conditioned by our parents, teachers, language and its structure, TV, culture, society as a whole, etc.). I know that many people argue, "well, you can't deny the reality of pain when you burn your finger or the reality of physical damage when someone falls from a skyscraper..." But there are examples that prove that even these things are not so certain. Like a woman who lifts a car (!) to get her child from under it, or someone who falls from the 9th floor and get only a couple of bruises... Yes, most people would die, and that's the reality we all KNOW and we don't even try to argue with it or practice to change it... But that one person who fell and got up and walked away? Is he any different? Is he god? Is his body made of a different material?
And as for things like "time" and "space" - it gets so weird and complicated and there are so many things that science can't explain (and if it does explain them, some explanations sound like a bunch of crap that even scientists themselves probably can't take seriously) that one can't help but wonder... is there something fishy about all this stuff we call "real"
Some good points there. I'm glad I was mostly brought up in an environment free from indoctrination though even being homeschooled/unschooled I still got a healthy dose of indoctrination from all my friends and family, so.. While I may be more curious or aware than average I'm still half way stuck in the world of predesigned limitations and understandings.
Some of the examples you mentioned make me wonder what reality really is even more? I've heard of them before but you reminding me of them is poignant and fitting for this discussion. It does seem like what many people believe is real is an agreement they never consciously really knew they agreed to. Definitely interesting to think about.