Monday, January 23, 2012

The Butterfly's Dream


Touching on the last subject a bit more. There's an old idea called The Butterfly's Dream. The concept is that a man was dreaming that he was a butterfly, but when he awoke he was unsure if he was really just dreaming he was a butterfly or if he was in fact a butterfly and is currently dreaming of being a man. A classic scenario where the dream is more real than the reality which leads to questions of which is real, assuming that they're not both real which may very well be possible. What is to say that your dreams are any less real than when you're awake? There are plenty of instances of people that would wake up in strange situations close to their dreams. Logically we determine that the dream was caused by the environment. However some things can't be so easily explained. There are times where you might be drowning, or you hit the ground in a falling dream, that's if it's really a dream, and when you wake up you're actually drowning or your body hurts all over. Our mind makes our dreams a reality. So if our mind makes it real in both worlds, it's understandable to think that both are real.

There have been stranger times for me, in which I've woken up with sand on my feet even though I know there was no sand or reason to be sand on my feet when I went to sleep or nearby. I often have dreams of the future, I sometimes write them down, then fill in dates for when I had the dream and return to it when it happens and right in the date for when it happens. I've listed accurate details of events that haven't occurred yet. In this case it's unclear which reality is the true one. Am I merely dreaming of the past right now, or can I truly see the future? If I'm living the same reality as the one I'm dreaming, how do I distinguish one from another? Perhaps this is all just a dream within yet another dream and I'll wake up thinking wow that was a strange dream indeed.


3 comments:

  1. Curious but I think that the incidents where people predict the future are a bit questionable.

    They probably ignore the instances where they were wrong and focus on the times they were right.

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  2. " They probably ignore the instances where they were wrong and focus on the times they were right."

    i`ve seen this many times and have to agree.
    the brain is a very ( understatement of the year so far ) clever,, but is prone to shock when experiencing something new or unexpected. This is my theory anyways. the brain uses downtime to run possible sequences and solutions to whatever is going on with your life, most elements are so basic and instinctual that the conscious mind will often suppress thought patterns, for whatever reason, and deal with them later. these are your dreams. the more significant ones are when a thread starts, with the subconscious filling in the missing posts with probabilities based on experience.
    only my theory,,

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  3. I agree with crowbloke. That's confirmation bias, I think. Like how when something good happens, God wants you to be happy and you're a good person, but if something bad happens, God is just testing you for...something. Lol.

    But great post as always.

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