There is no reason why people in your dreams cannot be conscious as you are

[Carl-Richard]

People tend to dismiss this as an absurd possibility, but not based on logical argument or scientific evidence. Take the case of a girl with Dissociative Personality Disorder (DID) who experienced some peculiar dreams, where each of her alters seemingly recounted different perspectives of the same dream:

 

Quote

The host personality, Sarah, remembered only that her dream from the previous night involved hearing a girl screaming for help. Alter Annie, age four, remembered a nightmare of being tied down naked and unable to cry out as a man began to cut her vagina. Ann, age nine, dreamed of watching this scene and screaming desperately for help (apparently the voice in the host’s dream). Teenage Jo dreamed of coming upon this scene and clubbing the little girl’s attacker over the head; in her dream he fell to the ground dead and she left. In the dreams of Ann and Annie, the teenager with the club appeared, struck the man to the ground but he arose and renewed his attack again. Four year old Sally dreamed of playing with her dolls happily and nothing else. Both Annie and Ann reported a little girl playing obliviously in the corner of the room in their dreams. Although there was no definite abuser-identified alter manifesting at this time, the presence at times of a hallucinated voice similar to Sarah’s uncle suggested there might be yet another alter experiencing the dream from the attacker’s vantage (Barrett, 1994, p. 171).

 

So, why do people think this is an absurd possibility? Does the thought of the person you killed in your dream last night frighten you? How would you live with yourself knowing you could cause such "needless suffering"? No, in fact, how would God cause such "needless suffering"? Yet that is exactly what is happening within this dream every day. People are causing needless suffering to others and are suffering themselves all the time.

If you're skeptical, here is a challenge: exactly how are your dreams at night fundamentally different from this dream? Why is one appearance more real than the other?

As for people invoking solipsism: consider why you're afraid of causing needless suffering to a dream character. Consider why when you talk to other people and understand how they're feeling, their personal struggles, their joys, etc., you can feel how it's like to be in their shoes. Is this just a sick prank that God is pulling on you? Also, why would it matter?

Edited February 16, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Thought Art]

Reality is a dream anyway. Have you experienced another dream? How does a story of an other prove anything?

[Eternal Unity]

@Carl-Richard Foe real, Leo will read this and dismiss it as mental masturbation. For it to be coming from his senior moderetor, dude, Leo respects you - don't spit in his face. it's possible you'll get warning points. Edit your post with suitable answers. I'm no snitch, I won't tell him. The ball is in your court,

Greg

[Eternal Unity]

8 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

Have you experienced another dream? 

Before the big bang. Experience of Quantum Entanglement.

[Rahra]

I had an experience where I believed I (my mind) imagined everyone and everything, but it was exposed as a falsehood. I also believed I was the only one who existed.

It was a brutal day.

The day solipsism died.

 

[Carl-Richard]

26 minutes ago, Eternal Unity said:

@Carl-Richard Foe real, Leo will read this and dismiss it as mental masturbation. For it to be coming from his senior moderetor, dude, Leo respects you - don't spit in his face. it's possible you'll get warning points. Edit your post with suitable answers. I'm no snitch, I won't tell him. The ball is in your court,

Greg

Leo doesn't use this definition of solipsism. Most people don't understand what Leo means by solipsism.

[Eternal Unity]

@Carl-Richard True. Very true.

[Carl-Richard]

54 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

How does a story of an other prove anything?

Is it a story of another or seeing as another? Because nobody has to tell me a story about how I can feel what somebody else is feeling as if I were them. The real fairy tale is to conclude that your feelings are wrong because of a story you're telling yourself ("I can't prove that you're experiencing anything").

Edited February 16, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[Moksha]

I have stood in a place surrounded by mirrors. When you look at a mirror in front of you, it reflects not only you, but the reflection in the mirror behind you, and so on into a seeming infinity of reflections.

I saw the same as a kid, when I dreamed that I dreamed that I was dreaming.

Creation is the concentric gaze moving outward beyond each reflection, and realization is the eccentric gaze receding from each reflection until it is entirely refocused on itself.