Your imagination at work... reality. If you are open minded, please read.

[MPower420]

Listen to some stuff like Telepopmusic - Breathe, or Midnight in a Perfect World. That trippy, floatty shit. Get baked and read on!!



The five senses make us feel that the world is real. Seeing the solidity of the objects around us, feeling the impact of the senses, it is hard to deny the validity of what we see. Everything looks real and we never stop to question this reality.


The mind is attached to the five senses and accepts everything as real without questioning. When we bump into a table or a wall and we feel pain, it is difficult to say that we are imagining it. When we see with our eyes, hear sounds, smell, or when we feel heat or coldness, we accept these sense impressions as real.


Some say that the world is an illusion; Maya in Eastern terminology. Can we accept this when everything looks so real? Can we regard the "real world" as imagination?


We need the five senses and the mind to be conscious of the world, which means that the world is dependent on them. Without the senses and the mind the world simply ceases to exist for us.


If we say that a real thing is something that always exist with no gaps, then the outside world is not real. There are times besides sleep, when we are so busy that we are not conscious of what is going on around us. When there are no sensory inputs, as while being in a floating tank, or when in deep meditation, we are still conscious, but not of the world. This means that sometimes we are conscious of the world and sometimes we are not.


After we wake up from sleep, or get out of deep meditation and return to ordinary consciousness, we feel that there was a gap in our consciousness of the outside world. There was no world at that time (try salvia, you'll understand completely). If we endeavor to pay attention to our consciousness we will come to the conclusion that the outside world comes and go, while the awareness of our inner consciousness never wavers. It seems to live on for an eternity.



The world exists for us only when the senses and mind are directed towards it, and cease to exist the moment we silence the senses and mind. During deep sleep we do not experience the world because the senses are not active. Can you prove the reality of the world while you are deeply asleep? When you wake up from sleep other people may tell you that the world still existed, but can you prove that these people existed while you were asleep?


After waking up we may invent all kinds of theories to prove the realty of the world. Yet, these are only mental theories. During sleep it was non-existent for us. The world disappeared together with time.


During sleep dreams seem very real, but upon awakening we realize that they were just dreams. Simply fabrications of our imaginations. So it is with this world we call reality. And believe it or not, it is possible to wake from this one too. Sri Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian sage, has said that the difference between a dream while sleeping and the dream we call wakefulness is a matter only of duration, one short and the other long.


Further to the above, each person interprets and relates to other people's behavior, words and attitudes in a different way, according to the contents of his subconscious mind. No one's world is like another. Again, here we can see illusion at work. A world is created, based on our interpretation of what we see hear and sense.



Thoughts arise in the mind and we become aware of them. The same kind of thoughts tend to arise again and again. If we let this process continue, it goes on incessantly. These thoughts make us expect, behave, talk and act in a certain personalized way, and thus cause the people we come in contact with, to treat us and relate to us in a certain manner.


We usually continue with the same way of thinking, and live the same kind of life each day, whether we like it or not. These thoughts shape our circumstances and relationships. It is like watching the same movie over and over again. If we want to watch a different movie we have to change the reel or cassette. This happens by changing our thoughts. This is how creative visualization works, and there is nothing "supernatural" about this.


The world we experience and the life we live, are the reflections of our thoughts. The mind creates a world of illusion. But by simply changing our thoughts, we change the illusion and experience a different reality. We do not create a world, only an illusion that looks real. No unusual power is involved here. We are living in Maya and are changing the Maya.


When we are able to still the mind and the senses, our consciousness seems to shift into a new dimension. Actually it is there all the time, only that the mind makes us think otherwise. When there are no thoughts in the mind, the world we know and believe is real, loses its reality. We become conscious of the world beyond the mind and illusions.


We can wake up completely, understand and become conscious of the illusion of Maya, and live, as we really are, as a pure, formless, beginning-less and endless consciousness. Due to illusion it seems as if we are all separated, having individual selves and each living a different life. Even when we wake up from Maya, it's play may go on. We continue to see and experience it, yet it is of no concern to us anymore. Outwardly we may continue to live our life in the same manner, but now we are actually awake.


It is like a movie show. A person watching a movie gets so involved with the characters and with what happens on the screen. He may become happy or sad with the heroes, and sometimes gets depressed, shouts or laughs.


If at a particular moment he decides to stop watching the screen and manages to withdraw his attention from the movie, he gets snapped out of the illusion the movie creates. The projecting machine will go on projecting images on the screen, but he knows that it is only light projected through the film onto the screen. What is seen on the screen is not real, but yet it is there. He may watch the movie, or he may decide to close his eyes and ears and stop looking at the screen.


Have you ever watched a movie, when at some point the reel got stuck or there was a power failure? What happens to you when you watch an interesting, absorbing film on the television and then suddenly there are commercials? You are snapped out of the illusion to the world around you. When you are sleeping and dreaming, and someone wakes you up, you feel thrown out of one world to a different one. It is the same in the life we call reality. It is possible to wake up from it.


One who has managed to still his mind and senses through proper training, may go on living and acting in the world like the person in the cinema hall, who is no longer interested in the movie. He learns how to get out of the illusion and wake up. If he is no more a slave to illusion and dreams, he is free. He sees everything as it really is. Contrary to what you might think, such a person functions in his daily life in a better way, is stronger, happier, very practical and free from worry.


In the East, metaphors are used in order to demonstrate what illusion is in relation to Reality. A jewel made of gold may be called an earring or a necklace, but actually it is only gold. Before it became a jewel and after it is melted it is only gold. Clay is shaped into vessels such as plates, cups, or vases, but they too are only clay.


Due to convenience of speech we call these objects made of gold or clay by many names, but they are really only clay or gold. Everything in existence is "made" from the Original Substance, and is not a "real" thing standing by itself, exactly as in the above examples.



Nothing has a reality of its own.


A mirage is not real, but yet we see it. A dream taking place while sleeping is not real, yet we experience it during the time of the dream as a reality. A hologram looks 3D, while it is actually flat.


In the East, one of the metaphors of explaining reality and illusion is that of the rope and the snake. In the dark we may see a rope and mistake it for a snake. When there is enough light we realize that it was only a rope, and the snake disappears. It is only due to some kind of illusion that we see the world. Everything is in the mind.


Smoke a bowl and give it a shot.

Free... your... mind.

[D_420]

Since every being perceives reality differently , perception is based on the individual. There's no one point of perception that can perceive everything as it truly is.

[Picklesnshakes]

Plato's got a lot to say on this matter. Movies like The Matrix and the new Bruce Willis movie "Surrogates" play with this idea as well. The Matrix in a very direct way, while Surrogates plays in fringe, but still raises interesting questions.

[.....CAM.....]

Hmm. Interesting but I think objective reality truly exists. What we have here is simply the sum of a great deal of self-organization.

Edit:
I agree entirely on the benefits of detachment. The role of one in one's perception is awesome and liberating!

[brewsky]

Last night I had a dream that I had a dream about something that happened the next day.
It was weird, I was sleeping/dreamin, woke up in the dream.. the first dream came true.. then i woke up again and thought, wtf?
I've had dreams that I've thought were real.. then I'm like ohh that was a dream.
This is all a dream, wake up

[Jakigi]

I absolutely believe there is some truth to this.

Still haven't figured it out....

[livingsoul]

Originally Posted by MPower420

A mirage is not real, but yet we see it. A dream taking place while sleeping is not real, yet we experience it during the time of the dream as a reality. A hologram looks 3D, while it is actually flat.

such is perhaps from your perspective

my first dream I recall
occurred while awake

when it was a dream and I awoke from it I thought and basically felt at the duration "it was a [nice] dream"
when it occurred when I was awake the imagery of the dream seemed to be the same as the awake experience
the feeling was different though because I realized I was experiencing my first dream
it felt other than as nice as it originally felt

this experience has had an affect on my beliefs and actions quite a bit

honesty
this dream took about twenty years to actually occur
I am ignorant if the duration had much to do with it though
I had a not pleasant relationship experience
Due to the experience and many of my other experience I decided to attempt to enter dream because I thought it could be possible
I liked the feeling of dreaming and simply wanted my existence to be a continuation of the feeling of dreaming
I was going to college and it was the recess between autumn and spring semester of 2007
I was unemployed at the duration somewhat due to the relationship thus I had availability to attempt to do it
I basically took many cold - cool showers and slept a lot
The cold shower followed by sleep allowed my dreams to feel more actual
I sometimes I think took more than one cold shower a day and often slept more than once a day
I continued the process for basically the month of January
I had some different dream experiences due to the cold shower process
College began again and I was starting to go away from the process I was doing
After about a week or two I was walking around the place I was renting with a couple people I know
Here is the not very admirable part = \
I decided to put a porno into the television to watch it
It had different segments
The people of one of the segments looked strange to me as and appeared other than attractive
Very fleshy
Then another segment appeared with a girl with a cowboy hat and a dildo
A few moments went by and then it occurred
It was like a flash of awareness
I remembered the girl with the cowboy hat from the dream I had
The cowboy hat stood out
I then remembered when I awoke from my first dream I attempted to remember what the dream was about because I thought it felt nice however I was other than able to remember
When I had the dream I was ignorant the girl had a dildo
Experiencing the dream awake allowed me to comprehend such
The experience was definitely a different feeling of heightened awareness
Basically I did get to enter my dream however in a different way than I was seeking

[GTex]

Once i had a dream inside a dream inside another dream but the first dream was actually 2 one with opposite conclusions but after every dream i woke up in my other dream knowing my last dream was a dream. Very trippy Sh*t

[brewsky]

[rowo87]

The only difference between this world and the Dream World is that this world is defined by Rules. The dream world has no law of Gravity or of relativity. There is no cause and effect in the Dream world.

So when you live in a dream world that can be manipulated at will you have to be a person of quality spirit to create something that can coexist with other peoples dreams.

Learn to coexist in the Real World before you get a shot at doing it in the Spirit world.

[waiting2inhale]

Originally Posted by GTex

Once i had a dream inside a dream inside another dream but the first dream was actually 2 one with opposite conclusions but after every dream i woke up in my other dream knowing my last dream was a dream. Very trippy Sh*t

Wtf, lol. It must've been an experience

[Picklesnshakes]

Originally Posted by waiting2inhale

Wtf, lol. It must've been an experience

My friend apparently had a similar experience. We were younger, and we didn't smoke then, but he told me he had a dream wherein the experience consisted of him constantly "waking up" (in the dream) and seeing something come out of his bathroom.

Best real life analogy that I can think of is a Freddy Krueger movie where the victims think they're in a dream state, dream they wake up in bed, and then get absolutely massacred in some visceral and completely 80's way.

[justawhiteguy]

read couple paragraphs

when i get higher i'll finish.

great so far though!

peace

[brody15]

So the world only exists if we think about it and are conscious about it?

[hardstyleaz]

Nice read. Very true, too.