Dream VS. Reality

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Allan Curry wrote:

>One thread concerns the non-difference between waking states and
>dream states. I'm still not convinced there are not significant
>ontological differences between the two...
>
>For instance:
>
>During lucid dreams I know that I am I and everything else is my dream.
>I am therefore able to act like a god and on occasion do just that.
>There is no corelate of this in the waking state. I think this can be

Certainly there is. It's called day dreaming. One thing I should make clear
here is that the dream state refers to the pure dreaming state and nothing
else. Lucid dreaming, day dreaming etc are all considered waking state and
nothing else.

>explained by the dream being manufactured entirely by the mind whereas
>the waking state (ie. our perception of the physical world) is manufactured
>by the mind using the input data received through the senses from the
>outside world. If the waking state were entirely produced by the mind then
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>lucid dream effects should be possible to anyone in the waking state who
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>can utilise them in the dream state. Such is not the case. Schizophrenics
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I am afraid I don't follow. And what is meant by "utilise"? AFAIK, lucid dreams
are totally worthless, except for getting research grants for people who do
research on them :-).

>produce their own worlds during the waking state but we quite rightly
>judge their worlds as being illusory and our worlds as being more real
>than theirs and more real than our own dream worlds for the same reason.

Why rightly? As far as I can see lucid dreaming is a product of a hyperactive
imagination of some one in the waking state and nothing else.

Ramakrishnan.

PS: Lucid dreams get lot of attention in the popular press, however it seems
that it is not much different from the day-dreams of some one with a
particularly hyperactive imagination. Let's not get into discussions of alpha,
beta waves etc from the brain since Swami Rama clearly showed that these can be
controlled by enough will power.