Consciousness

[SS10]

If reality/life as we typically know it, is just a dream/hallucination why does it seem to be the base reality for all of our other states of consciousness. For instance when we dream at night and we wake up, we return to this "normal" reality. When we take psychedelics and the "high" wears off, we again return to this reality. Does this suggest that there is some substance to this reality that makes it more real  than other types of dreams/hallucinations?

[LastThursday]

There is no returning. It's all the same dream.

The base of reality is consciousness itself. Consciousness doesn't really have states. To use a different analogy it's more of a "flow". 

To say that one "state" of consciousness is more "real" than other, is to make a comparison. But what exactly is making the comparison? Consciousness of course. The circularity should be obvious. In reality no appearance in consciousness is more real than any other.

[hamedsf]

there could be sub-realities inside one reality, just like when you dream of being in the dream. therefore it means that this reality is much denser than other realities that you've mentioned. just like the difference between stone and cotton. 

[zazed]

We are experience in the dream, we are experience in this normal reality, we are experience when engrossed in a movie or book. What changes is only our identification, even a good movie can make us forget the limited self we mostly think we are. Your experience is always constant and always present.It can not be changed by anything. 

Consciousness is not something that you become, it's about realizing it is what you have always been, and rather accepting what you are not. Its about letting go of the thing we want most to defend and immortalize, our mind and human self.  

[Osaid]

 

[Nahm]

It’s weird to think of yourself as a substance, but oddly it inevitably becomes weirder to think of yourself as a person, of even at all. 

[The Lucid Dreamer]

In order to have any sense of reality at all, you must collapse into something that appears consistent and objective.  If everything was always fluid and changing spontaneously, you could not form a solid sense of reality or any logical coherent thought necessary to even ask the question.  It must collapse into this, what we might call “base reality” Because Infinity must necessarily include every finitude.  The completely unlimited must include all limitation, otherwise it wouldn’t be truly unlimited.  

[Someone here]

Ultimately it all (dream.. Waking.. Psychedelic etc) appears within the nothingness of deep sleep.  So nothingness is the most real and rock bottom of all states of being.  

[Forestluv]

@SS10 Because dream/hallucination = real. We create distinctions.

Generally, when a mind is stuck on the 'real' side of duality, we point to show the 'dream/hallucination' side of the duality (because the mind can already see the 'real' side). Then the tendency of the mind is to say "wait a minute if it's dream/hallucination, how can this real part not be real?". The mind tends to operate in opposites - that it must be either dream/hallucination or real. This gives the mind a handle to hold onto and stability. Yet upon enough scrutiny the whole thing deconstructs/collapses to Nothing. Then we can create new constructs about dream/hallucination and realness from scratch. Kinda like a dry erase board. We can create all sorts of images, then erase the board to being blank and then drawing new images.  We can create all sorts of different dream, hallucination, real as well as different degrees of dreamness and realness. This can feel very foreign, uncertain and ungrounded to a mind at first - yet after a while it becomes normal and fun to play with form and formless. 

1 hour ago, Nahm said:

It’s weird to think of yourself as a substance, but oddly it inevitably becomes weirder to think of yourself as a person, of even at all. 

And a 'person' carries around an I.D. card verifying the 'person'. That's next level weird. 

[Fran11]

4 hours ago, Osaid said:

 

Yeah I was asking a very similar question in that thread.

@SS10 I recommend you check it out, I presented some analogies that helped me understand, and there are replies from Leo.

Edited September 29, 2020 by Fran11

[Nahm]

@Forestluv

Indeed. All ID’s are fake ID’s. Lol. In a way, the real crime is the distinction that the one was real. 

[aurum]

@SS10

Interestingly enough, if you study accounts of Near Death Experiences (NDEs), there is almost always a reference to the fact that being dead felt more real than life. A sense that whatever comes once the soul withdraws from the body is actually reality. So maybe things aren't as real as they seem.