Some readers have become confused by certain features in the two co-running serial 'adult' internet novels - 'The Story of Gracchus' and 'Club Jaguar'.
The following article, combined with the article, 'Time and Illusion', to be found in 'The Story of Gracchus' may help to cast some light on what is a very difficult subject - a subject, however, that is central to both stories.
Preamble
It is likely that all perceptions, whether 'waking' or 'dreaming' are the result of predictive simulations conducted by the brain in order to anticipate world events/opportunities.
Thus, the brain in 'sleep', or apparent unconsciousness, continues its predictive constructions about anticipated events, except it does so in the absence of incoming sensory information.
'Dreams' and 'Reality'
If I can be utterly convinced that I am awake when in fact I am dreaming, then it follows that my ability to know the 'real' may not be completely reliable.
The legendary Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu, 369-298 BCE) was said to have had a dream that he was flying around as a butterfly and then awoke to find that he was a man, but he had the eerie feeling upon awakening of not knowing whether he was a butterfly dreaming that he was a man, or a man dreaming he was a butterfly.
We wake up from 'dreams', but it seems that we don’t wake up from 'reality'.
But does the dreamed person in our dreams ever wake up from the 'dream' ?
Or does their ‘reality’ just end for them?
One minute they are living inside their reality, and the next it just stops.
We wake up from that 'dream'.
As far as we’re concerned the 'dream' is over.
But what does the 'dream person' experience?
Inside the 'dream' there is a complete universe.
It has the appearance of depth and solidity that we also experience when we are awake.
The laws of physics are sometimes different, and we meet with people who are deceased., however inside the 'dream', these things appear to be totally normal.
We can walk through forests and cities, lie on the beach or make love.
We eat, drink and experience the full gamut of life, so how can we tell that the waking experience is not a 'dream' ?
How do we know for sure that when we sleep, that isn't a waking up experience for another dreamer, the dreamer who is dreaming us ?
Of course, we know that the waking experience is similar to 'dreaming' in many ways.
We know that the world our senses perceive isn't really as it seems.
We know that the objects around us aren't really solid – they are made of atoms, which are themselves composed almost completely of empty space.
The apparent depth and solidity that we perceive are all creations of the mind.
This is, of course, also true of your own body, and those of the people around you.
The supposedly 'real' world is really just a series of concepts and ideas created by our minds.
And, of course, the existence of the mind is itself just a 'dream'.
Seen at an atomic level, there is no brain, no body and no mind, and these are also just ideas.
So called 'dreamers' typically use 'self-critical' and 'self-monitoring' faculties in 'dreams'.
'Dreamers' problem-solve in 'dreams', they can detect deception in other characters.
They can mind-read minds of other characters.
They can reflect on their own emotions, behaviours, actions and responses in 'dreams'.
Yet, despite all of this critical reflectiveness in 'dreams', we still accept 'dream events' as 'real'.
So, if impairment of the 'reality-sense' is not due to impairment in self-monitoring faculties, what causes us to accept as 'real' the events which occur in 'dreams' ?
One possibility, of course, is that the 'dream' events are in fact 'real' in some sense.
That possibility, however, entails a re-evaluation of 'reality' itself.
False Awakenings
'False awakenings' highlight many of the problems surrounding the questions regarding 'reality' and 'dreaming'.
(a false awakening is when you think that you have woken up, when you haven't - and is surprisingly common)
A 'false awakening' usually contains astonishing details from the dreamer's 'waking life' and circumstances.
Because the dream reproduces the daily circumstances of the dreamer with such remarkable accuracy and detail, the unsuspecting 'dreamer' will then perform routine tasks in the 'dream' typically done immediately in those circumstances.
The performance of these routine tasks contributes to the illusion that one is 'awake'.
Despite the existence of these mundane themes in 'false awakenings', the more interesting themes are less mundane.
For example, the dreamer may wake up into a very surreal environment, that nevertheless feels uncannily familiar.
A false awakening may entail waking up in the dreamer's childhood environment, or into utterly new or foreign environment, that has a kind of timeless feel to it.
The 'dreamer' may in some cases feel that he or she is moving in an 'ancient' environment of extreme significance, that is nevertheless strangely familiar.
There may be monuments, buildings or scenes that point to an ancient setting, or civilization.
In yet other 'false awakenings' the subject may develop the uncanny sense of being watched as he moves through the scenes in the 'dream', or the subject believes he is awake and is being watched, or observed, by someone familiar rather than threatening.
Eventually the subject begins to notice anomalies in their experience, and then gradually realizes he is seemingly 'dreaming'.
At that point the subject may panic, and attempt to 'wake up'.
In some cases these 'awakenings' just send the subject into yet another 'false awakening'.
Are 'Dreams', or the 'Waking World' Real ?
While it has been suggested that 'dreams' lack coherence and continuity, most 'dreams' do not typically jump from one scene to another.
On the contrary careful analyses of the narrative structure of 'dream' episodes demonstrate levels of coherence equal to that of 'waking' narratives.
In addition, it has been demonstrated that when you awaken individuals several times a night, and ask for 'dream' reports you will find thematic continuity across 'dreams' over the course of the night.
In addition, there is great continuity of 'dream' themes across nights as well.
Indeed, longitudinal studies of 'dream' content have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt continuity of 'dream' themes can continue for years.
With regard to explicability…because most 'dream' episodes have been found to be typically stable and coherent, 'dream characters' act accordingly.
They anticipate stability, and develop plans within 'dreams', based on past events in 'dreams', and so forth.
If for example, the 'dreamer' is being chased by a monster, and finds that the monster can be slowed down by throwing obstacles in its path, the 'dreamer' will plan accordingly and do so.
For most 'dreams', therefore, we can develop or explicate reasons for why characters do the things they do in the 'dream' scenes.
There is an internal logic to 'dreams'.
With regard to the 'hardness criterion', it is clear that objects, and other characters can, and often do resist the 'dreamer’s' wishes and desires.
That 'dreamer' with the monster chasing him does not desire the monster to do that.
With regard to inclusiveness, the 'dream world'cannot be considered to be 'parasitic' upon the 'waking' world.
'Dreams' draw upon waking experiences extensively to develop their content, but there is also a great novelty in 'dreams', where 'dreamers' sometimes encounter complete strangers, and 'new worlds'.
It simply cannot be argued that the 'dream world' is contained within the 'waking world', while the 'waking world' is not contained within the 'dream world'.
The 'waking world' is often referred to, and remembered in 'dreams'.
The two stories - 'The Story of Gracchus', and 'Club Jaguar' are intertwined within the worlds of 'dreams'.... Where the 'reality' is - if it is anywhere - we leave the reader to decide........
No comments:
Post a Comment