Is it all just a dream?

Are we really here, or is it just a dream?

To perceive and understand the world around us we use our senses. Our five senses; sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell are the only perceptors we have of our so called real world. If you take away any one of these five senses, then our perception of the world is drastically reduced, and our understanding of the world is shifted. We place most importance on the senses of sight and hearing and touch. These are key to our survival, and any loss of these is deemed a disability.

Now can you imagine being without the sense of touch? Existing in a world where you could touch and feel nothing? A world where you may see and hear, but that you could not physically contact with, or feel resistance to and from objects and bodies around you - like watching a movie?

How could you reconcile a world within which, you could not possibly interact with anything at all?

This imaginary world would no longer hold meaning, it would cease to be real at all. You could no longer rely on any of your other senses, because, without a sense of touch, a confirmation of solid, a sense of reality is no longer present. You would be like a ghost or spectre, wandering in a world of illusion. A world of images and sounds, and smells but no substance - a world of dreams, in fact.

There are many who believe exactly this; that the world is but illusion and the misunderstanding is, that our mind is creating a world outside of itself. Indeed, there is still no real proof of this otherwise. There are no real guarantees that what we perceive is real at all, since there is no definitive connection between the mind that perceives and the body that interacts?

We accept without question, what our senses tell us. It is our only means of understanding a world external to us. Yet what if we are being mislead? What if we are misleading ourselves, in the reliance and reliability of these senses?

How do these senses work?

Firstly, we should take a basic look at what senses actually are, and how they work.

These "perceptors" we call senses are transducers. They biologically interpret the phenomena of the physical world around us and convert them into electrical impulses. These signals are then carried to our brain, where they can be analysed. These impulses or signals are processed by the brain, but it is the mind that comprehends them and understands them. The brain is merely another organ of the body, it is the mind within the brain that transforms all, so called, physical events and attributes, into thoughts and ideas. This is an important point to recognise, and we will return to it later in this discussion.

If you break down these electrical nerve impulses from the senses, you find ultimately, electrical energy. This is the same energy that is required for your body to function, or for that matter, any machine in our physical world to function. These electrical impulses spark the brain cells, and trigger synapses across the brain, that open communication links, and the pathways for thought and reason and memory in the mind.

If you go a little further, and break down electrical impulses into classical particle physics or even quantum mechanics, then things become even more weird and unsure. Now these sensual impulses become the transference of energies that are both transient and volatile. Impossible to measure accurately without interference and interaction. It is impossible to measure this interaction of atoms and energies with accuracy. Yet it is precisely these interactions and energies that we hold so much reliance upon. It is precisely these same interactions from our senses, that we utilise for our own, external, scientific experiments and analysis, and to measure their results.

Furthermore, these sensual signals, [energies], are susceptible to cause and effect, and it is impossible to rule out direct interactions between, and interference from anything. From the first nerve ending, in say, your finger tip, to the last brain cell and synapses that triggers from an event; these energies interact with the rest of the body. Whilst our senses are one of the most remarkable tools in evolution, when they are broken down, they are merely no more than fleeting energy, that our mind comprehends and understands, and draws conclusions from.

So to surmise - our senses are composed of transient and volatile, interacting energies, that travel across our brain, which is also made from these same energies and matter. All is interaction, and everything, every movement, is interacting on a biological, and electrical level. There can be no pure sensory communication, without further interaction within the body. There can be no sure guarantee that sensory data is pure and delivered without any corruption.

Is it any wonder that different minds perceive the world in different ways? Have you ever tried to explain the colour Blue to another in terms of words only, without pointing or making simple analogies with the sky and sea? If you err on the side of caution, then you have to draw the conclusion that our senses, especially between individuals, are inaccurate at best.

This may sound surprising and even dis-heartening; yet every interaction we have with the outside world is merely an approximation of reality. Every moment we may exist to analyse the external world to us, we are dealing in estimations and guess work. Yet we have evolved this co-operation between the mind, body and senses to incorporate these degrees of uncertainty and error. We have built into this system of perception, the possibility of inaccuracies, and allowed for them. In other words, without realising it, we make these allowances for error everyday and at every moment, on an almost subconscious level.

Even the computers that we build, are susceptible to these same inaccuracies, and interacting energies of atoms and compounds - this same region of error is an integral part of their construction also, even though we may place great importance and trust in their calculations and functions.

Before we get too smug however, it should be noted that all animals, fish and even insects have evolved to a level where they can accurately manipulate their senses to advantage. An Archer fish can even spit water and knock flies from plants, that is, the fish actually calculates, somehow, the refraction of an image outside of the water - how amazing is that !

So where does this all lead?

Senses are misleading..

So where does this all lead in the pursuit of truth and understanding of reality?

Once more, despite the inaccuracies and approximations that constitute our sense of perception; the real division is between mind and body. Ultimately, despite any perceived inaccuracy from the senses, the mind is still entirely and utterly separated from the external world. At any moment both conscious, and in sleep, the mind is filled with ideas and thoughts. The mind has the responsibility to understand and rationalise these thoughts, and it is this that constitutes reality for us. It is only this.

In short, if we break down everything from first contact, [touch], to the last reaction for an event, you will be left with a thought. A thought that originates in the mind, [not the brain!]. This thought has nothing to do with the actual event, [the touch and feeling]. It is entirely separate from the actual event, and the perception lies within the mind.

Now the mind is just as capable of creating such an event, or imagining an event, as it is capable of analysing one. Take a dream for example. A dream takes form in the subconscious, and can be very real indeed. In fact, dreams are so real, that during sleep our brains actually disconnect our nerve endings at the base of the brains stem, [medulla oblongata]. This is to protect the body during dream sleep, so that you don’t inadvertently cause yourself injury attempting to escape from that giant butterfly, or becoming world karate champion, in your dream, and fall out of bed, and break a limb.

Ultimately it leads back to the primary question; is anything real at all? If all physical phenomena, our senses, and the brain analysing these, can be broken down into the same energies, and quantum cause and effect, [duality]; then we are only left with thoughts, from the mind. Monsters from the Id?

How can we really say what is real and what is not - is the dream at night real, or the world when we are apparently awake real? They are almost too similar to realise any difference between them. It is only logic and reason in the mind that keeps these separate for us. And with sleep deprivation and madness, the mind becomes confused with reality and the dream, and any clear boundaries are lost.

... to be continued

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