What is real? What is illusion?
The other day, I was having a conversation with friend about dreams. My dreams are usually very vivid and I mentioned that my dreams from the previous night had felt so real that all day I kept confusing what was real with what I had dreamed.
My friend said that it is all a dream and I countered that maybe, it’s all real…
I’m not sure what the answer is and, honestly, I don’t need to know. It does makes me wonder, though. What really exists and how do we know if/when something does? Does anything really exist?
I am of the mind that everything is an illusion. That what we perceive is of our own creation. That our brains register what fits within the realm of possibility as defined by our beliefs and filter everything else out.
In his book, Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering out Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth, Dr. Andrew Newburg writes:
Although we have neural receptors for various colours, including those that respond to “blackness” and “whiteness,” there is no neural receptor that distinguishes any gradation of gray. No one knows for sure where the experience of gray occurs, but one theory suggests that it is a concept fabricated in another part of the brain when both the blackness and the whiteness receptors are turned off. Gray, like many other colors we can imagine, is a belief construction within the brain – a form of understanding, a thought.
What does that mean?
Why do we see grey? The above passage suggests that we see it because we believe it is there. I was told what grey was and I believed it to be true. Now when I see it, I identify it as such. Grey.
Grey exists because we believe it exists. Really?
This makes sense to me on some level; I don’t believe in absolutes, which means anything is possible. However, if grey only exists because we believe it exists, then what else only exists in our thoughts?
I think about this kind of stuff all the time. If it wasn’t so fascinating, it would be exhausting. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my thought process (and that you are now as confused and awe-struck as I am).
Does anyone else think of this kind of stuff?
So, who has answers? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Answers? Nope. Thoughts? Tons. What about how we perceive colour? What if my purple is your green? Who knows how other brains process information. I believe some people are more sensitive to what they can/will see. I think kids see so much more than we do. Who knows.
And maybe we’re all in a Matrix-type reality
Exactly. Everything is relative – who is to say what I call grey is what you call grey? I really do believe that children see different things (and more) that we do – so do some adults. Maybe that is because their brains don’t filter it out… that they are open to those things that others aren’t.
I guess there are no answers, but I don’t like just going through life not asking questions and not questioning my beliefs.
Matrix, eh? That’s intriguing! (I actually read a book that suggests we are all players in a human game. So fascinating.)
These are the best discussions! My oldest son thinks these thoughts constantly and he’s my favorite to share philosophies and beliefs with.
Sometimes my thoughts are so complex that I feel as if I’m falling down, down, down the rabbit hole. You know?
Oh, I know! The more I think about things like this the less I seem to know, but the clearer my mind seems to be.
I have these kinds of conversations with my mom. It is really awesome to just delve in!
I do think about a part of what you discuss here quite a bit. I always wonder how my perception of reality differs from others. Literally, how do I see things and how is that different from what others see and how then do we filter it differently. I actually think I think about it too much, but I find the whole idea of reality, vs perspective so important to our own self understanding and our ability to react in the world. I believe we are born with filters that help us cope, and that some of us naturally try to shed those filters.
Interesting discussion Sarah!
Born with filters… that is interesting. I hadn’t really thought too much about that. Then, on top of those we have the filters of our beliefs – things we’ve been conditioned to believe.
So, imagine what our brain would register without those filters? It makes me wonder what my eyes ‘see’ that my brain doesn’t register. The possibilities seem endless, which is exhilarating and a little overwhelming.
I often think about these things. What is this life? Is it real? Is this all just a dream that I will wake up from one day? What about outer space – are there beings out there with a much higher intelligence than us? What happens when we die? Why do we die? What are we here for?
I also think about the whole reality vs. perception. Do other people see things the same way that I do? I don’t think so. That’s why people have such different memories of the exact same moment. It’s strange. And interesting.
Sorry, no answers from me… just a ton more questions!
I once had a friend who only saw the world in black and white. It either was or wasn’t. Is good or bad. Right or wrong. As a result, she was often sad and disappointed with life.
To me that kind of thinking is a little shallow and limiting. Just image all of the possibilities you miss when you don’t see the grey. You would certainly miss out on a lot of life’s little things.
My dreams are not only incredibly vivid, but I remember them and try to tell my husband about them in great detail, which drives him nuts. He says he wishes he had written into our wedding vows that I was not allowed to tell him about my dreams. However, there are a few dreams I’ve had over the years that felt much more real, more like experiences than dreams. Most of my dreams I accept as such, something I saw during sleep. But there have been a few that were not as easily shrugged off. The most real dream I have ever had was when I was 12 and had experienced the most painful loss to date, a colleague of my Dad’s to cancer that I was very close to. I dreamed that I was standing with Dad at work in a hallway when she walked by…and then disappeared. I knew immediately that she was gone and I’d never see her again, and started crying and hitting my Dad, yelling “why didn’t you tell me? I could have said goodbye”. I woke up crying, and 18 years later the thought of that dream still brings tears to my eyes. I also had recurring dreams as a kid of a bad man that would come and try to hurt me. I became convinced he lived in a house near mine and would even think I saw him coming to get me during the day. I was rather terrified. Years later I suddenly realized that the man was part of a pattern on my mom’s rocking chair cushion. Those are the kind of dreams that fascinate me, the ones that are deeply connected to an event in life, or ones that you still feel are real when awake, or you wake up really responding to. I wish I could understand what makes me dream, for the last ten years, of my grandparents dying various and unpleasant deaths, when they are already dead and died in their sleep. What makes the brain think of such things? Why? Obviously this is something I think about a lot…sorry for the lengthy comment!