Thoughts on the Dream-Like Nature of the World by Lynne Levitan, MD
In writings and workshops,
Dr. LaBerge discusses ways in which you can
use lucid dreaming to improve your life. For some, the ultimate aim of
living is to discover the true nature of reality, existence, or the
"meaning of life." Others with a more scientific orientation endeavor
to discover the objective truth of the world, including how their own
minds work. The study of lucid dreaming sheds light on both of these
goals. Indeed, the existence of lucid dreaming provides a link between
the spiritual notion that "all is a dream," and the growing scientific
understanding that the "reality" we perceive as our world is a wholly
mental construction.
One of the more challenging, but ultimately rewarding, concepts
presented at the Dreaming & Awakening programs is that of "Brain and
Mind as World Builder." In these presentations, Dr. LaBerge describes
and demonstrates how what you see (and hear, feel, etc.) is a "guess"
by the brain as it works to model the "external" or "real" world. The
goal is to show that we do not perceive reality directly, and that the
primary work of the brain is to dream. Dreaming is defined as the
creation of perceived worlds, the simulated worlds we inhabit whether
awake or asleep.
Anyone who has had the experience of lucid dreaming has likely been
astonished to look about the dream world and note how incredibly
"real" everything appears. How can our brains do that? The simplest
explanation is that this is what brains do ALL the time; they create
full, seamless appearing worlds. Whatever our brains present to us is
real to us. When awake, the brain uses input from the "physical"
world, through the sense organs, as clues for constructing a perceived
world that models the "real" world closely enough to serve our
purposes as biological beings. Much philosophical pondering enters
into trying to understand the nature of "physical reality." Is there a
reality outside of the mind? Whose mind? Is there a Mind beyond all
the little minds? Did Mind create the world or vice versa?
For the sake of argument, however, let us assume that something like
"physical reality" exists: gravity, mass, light, energy, etc.
Acknowledging the existence of physical laws, however, in no way
implies that we perceive "physical reality." Our experience is the
brain's composite of infinitesimal fractions of the information
available in the universe. For example, we are capable of seeing only
the wavelengths of light between 380 and 750 nm. The worlds we
perceive are based on what our ancestors down the evolutionary chain
have needed to perceive to ensure their survival. A lot is left out!
Not only are the inputs to brain limited, but the interpretations
assigned to the assemblages of perceptual input are products of brain
mechanisms, some "hard-wired," some learned through experience, but,
for the most part, created unconsciously. The products of these
interpretive brain processes do not come with labels; "Warning: what
you see here is only what you think it is, not what it may be to
someone else." Water, to you, is something to drink; to a fish it is
something to breathe.
Why do dreams appear as real as waking life? Again, no mechanism
exists to label perceptions as wholly mind-created as opposed to
having some relation to a physical reality. In terms of evolutionary
advantages, the best strategy would be to always assume that what is
happening could have an effect on one's survival. However, for
intellectual and emotional growth, we can benefit from learning to
distinguish different types of experience, such as dreaming versus
waking. Many valuable uses of lucid dreaming are based on us knowing
that events in the dream world do not have the same effects as events
in waking. For example, we can practice new skills without risking
injury to the body or to our social standing.
On the other hand, spiritual uses of lucid dreaming emphasize
similarities between dreaming and waking worlds. Spiritual practices,
such as Tibetan Buddhism, using "awakening within the dream" as a
stepping stone to the Awakening of recognizing the illusory nature of
all the worlds in which we live, a necessary step to enlightenment. As
LaBerge writes in his first book, Lucid Dreaming, "Lucid dreams can
plainly show us what it is like to think we are awake and then to
discover we are not." Intriguingly, the multiplicity of reported
transcendental experiences within lucid dreams suggests that the
alteration of brain state that accompanies the onset of lucidity in
dreams is also at least sometimes conducive to a an even greater
expansion of consciousness.
Thus, learning to become lucid in dreams may contribute to spiritual
practice by providing for the mind a template simulating the process
of waking to the "True Reality." In addition, the state of lucid
dreaming provides a means of practicing seeing the "dreamlike nature
of reality." Part of Tibetan Dream Yoga involves careful analysis and
manipulation of the dream world from inside the dream. The seeker is
urged to change everything that appears in the lucid dream to its
opposite. The point is to prove to oneself that, despite its apparent
reality, no aspect of the dream is "real," immutable, unchangeable,
that all is subject to the whims of mind. As previously noted, the
same brain functions are involved in creating our worlds in waking as
in dreaming. Therefore, having observed the illusory nature of all
phenomena in dreams, it is a shorter step to make the same observation
about our waking worlds. A further step involves recognition that the
dreamer is as unreal as the dream. LaBerge leads us through the
reasoning behind this recognition as follows (from his book, Exploring
the World of Lucid Dreaming):
"Ask yourself about the nature of each thing you find in your lucid
dream. For example, you may be sitting at a dream table, with your
feet on the dream floor. And yes, that's a dream shoe, on a dream
foot, part of a dream body, so this must be a dream ME."
Yes, the person you take yourself to be in the dream is a creation of
your mind, who you think you are. You may have noticed that your idea
of yourself in dreams does not always correspond to your concept of
your self when awake. You also may have noticed that your concept of
self changes in waking life. Once you reach an understanding that the
"world" is a set of illusions created by your brain, your
consciousness is then free to see what has always been, though
obscured by the business of living: the Source from which everything
arises. If this makes sense to you,it is because some part of you
knows that there is something else, something unchanging, real and
true. Lucid dreaming is a powerful tool we can use in understanding
our brains and minds and how they create the realities we inhabit
every day (and night) of our lives.
