Okay, so today we’re diving into something pretty wild. Yeah. The idea that the reality we experience like every day might not be, you know, as solid as it seems. Yeah. And that our dreams could actually be like glimpses into something much bigger. Yeah, that’s right. The stuff you sent me really gets into this, especially with lucid dreaming and how it might show us deeper parts of reality that we usually miss. Exactly. So in this deep dive, we’re going to explore all that stuff, the nature of dreams, how they connect to when we’re awake and some of the really incredible experiences people have when they realize they’re dreaming. Yeah. So to start, let’s unpack the whole like what even are dreams thing and how they compare to like regular life sure one of the biggest differences is where our experiences come from in dreams everything we see here feel it all comes from inside our own minds unlike when we’re awake where most of what we sense is external right yeah that’s kind of mind-blowing when you think about it you can have these super vivid sensations in a dream yeah but it’s all made up by your brain. And here’s what I find super interesting. Even though dreams come from inside us, our brains still treat them as totally real while they’re happening. Right. What does that tell us, you think? That’s a great question. It shows how much our brains actively construct our sense of reality. Whether we’re asleep or awake, it’s not just passively recording what’s out there. Our brains are constantly building a model based on all sorts of things like past experiences, what we expect to happen, and even how we’re feeling physically or emotionally at that moment. You know, like the material mentions how someone who’s thirsty might have more vivid dreams about water. That’s interesting. So it’s like our brains are always running these internal simulations. Yeah. And what we expect to see actually influences those simulations. The sources talk about these things called schemas. How do those fit into all of this? Like, how do they shape our perceptions, both when we’re awake and when we’re dreaming? Schemas are kind of like the brain’s theories about the world. They’re built from our past experiences, and they help us quickly understand new information. They allow us to go beyond just the raw data our sense has taken. I see. So can you give me an example? Yeah. The Nasruddin shop example from the material is a good one. Right, right. That simple sentence like, Nasruddin walked into a shop and asked. It immediately triggers your shop schema. Even though the sentence doesn’t give many details, your brain fills in a bunch of assumptions. You assume there was a shopkeeper, maybe some goods on display, that the shop had walls and a door, stuff like that. Right. It’s like we automatically add in details based on what we already know. And it sounds like this same kind of expectation shapes our dreams too. Absolutely. When our brains build a dream world, they tend to stick to the basic rules of our waking experience. So that’s why dreams often have things like gravity, a sense of space, time passing normally, and they often feature people, places, and themes from our daily lives. Right, the things we think about a lot. Exactly. And this relates to the idea of day residue that Fred talked about, which suggests that unresolved issues or important events from our day can pop up in our dreams. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. So in a normal dream, even when weird stuff happens, we kind of just go with it. Like we assume we’re awake and try to rationalize the strangeness. Right. But then we have lucid dreaming. Yeah. Which seems to bring a whole other level of awareness. Totally. Lucid dreaming is like waking up inside the dream. You become aware that you’re dreaming while it’s still happening. And the cool thing is it sounds like it’s not just random. People can actually learn to do it. Exactly. There are different techniques people use to try and have lucid dreams, like mnemonic induction of lucid dreams or MAMILD, where you set an intention to remember you’re dreaming before you go to sleep and practice reality checks during the day. So you try to notice things that would make sense if you were dreaming. Exactly. I read about that. And there are even gadgets like the dream light that uses lights during REM sleep to try and trigger lucidity. But the common thread is definitely intention and learning to spot those dream signs, those little things that tell you something’s not quite right, which usually means you’re dreaming. Yeah, like that example in the material where the person noticed the cobblestones outside their house had totally changed overnight. And that’s what made them realize, wait, this is a dream. Yeah, exactly. Once that realization happens, the whole dream experience can change dramatically. I bet. The Tibetan Buddhists have a cool perspective on this. They say that dreams are merely playthings of mind and therefore as unstable as mirages. So basically they’re saying that dreams are super fluid and changeable. Exactly. And many lucid dreamers say that the dream becomes much more responsive to their thoughts, like they can actually control things more consciously. That’s fascinating. Yeah. And I remember reading about how some people say the dream becomes way more vivid and intense as soon as they become lucid. Wow. So that brings us to the really interesting part, the incredible experiences people report having in lucid dreams, the kind of things that hint at a reality beyond our everyday understanding. Right. This is where it gets really exciting. Some lucid dreamers talk about feeling this huge vastness, like they’re perceiving entire galaxies and solar systems, which gives them this deep connection to eternal energy. Whoa. That’s like a whole cosmic perspective shift. Yeah. And others say they intentionally search for answers to big questions like the meaning of the universe and experience this powerful feeling of being connected to everything. Wow. There’s also this thing called the Dance of Shiva experience mentioned in the sources where their normal perception of reality completely dissolves and they feel this deep sense of oneness and timelessness it’s amazing and then there’s the fullness of light phenomenon yeah that one sounds really powerful it is it’s often described as this brilliant all-encompassing light that just appears during the lucid dream and people who experience it often feel like it’s the presence of something greater a feeling of pure joy and transcendence. And what’s really interesting is how much these accounts match descriptions in mystical texts from different religions. So it’s like these aren’t just random brain things. They’re tapping into something that connects with deeper philosophical and spiritual ideas. Which brings us to the bigger question of what all of this means. Right. What are the philosophical implications here? Well, the Tibetan Buddhists say that if we realize all our experiences, both waking and dreaming, are ultimately subjective and like a dream, it can change us for the better. Okay. It can help us loosen our grip on our sense of self, make our problems feel less heavy, and develop a deeper, more constant awareness. That’s a cool idea. The material also says that our waking perception could be as unreal as unreal dreams, which is a pretty mind blowing thought. How do they justify that? It comes down to how our brains create our experience of reality. Both dreaming and waking rely on the same process of building mental models. I see. So both states are ultimately illusions in a way. They’re representations created by our minds, not necessarily a direct reflection of some objective reality out there. It’s like the old saying, the map is not the territory. Right, that makes sense. The sources also talk about Sufi philosophy, right? Yeah, they have this concept of needing to find yourself before you can truly know anything, this concept of needing to find yourself before you can truly know anything which suggests that our usual understanding of the world is often based on superficial opinions shaped by habit and convenience so we need to go deeper than those surface level opinions exactly and lucid dreaming because it gives us more self-awareness in this different state of consciousness could be seen as a unique way to encounter yourself oh that, that’s interesting. I also remember that story about the orb of white light in a dream and the message that came with it about reflecting and turning the light outward. Yes. That experience suggests that our identity might actually extend beyond our individual ego, that we’re connected to something much larger. Wow. Of course, it’s tough to definitively prove these kinds of transcendental experiences using science. They could be profound insights or just elaborate creations of the dreaming mind. It’s important to stay open-minded, to keep these possibilities in mind and acknowledge that there might be more to life than you presently know. Yeah, like we’re getting these little hints from beyond the edge of our normal understanding. That story about the two men and the butterfly really stuck with me. Oh, yeah. What was that about again? One man falls asleep and a butterfly seems to come out of his mouth. Right. And the butterfly has this whole vivid experience flying around, landing on flowers, meeting another butterfly. Okay. landing on flowers meeting another butterfly okay and when the other guy tries to stop the butterfly from going back into the sleeping man’s mouth the sleeping man wakes up I see and he tells this detailed dream about being in a beautiful castle and then traveling to a joyful land the point is that this dream felt completely real to him while it was happening yeah even though it’s just a temporary creation of his mind. It makes you wonder about our own waking experiences, right? Could they also be temporary creations in some way? Totally. And it seems like being able to access and explore these deeper states in lucid dreaming might be tied to something we can develop in our waking lives too. Yeah, the sources mention will and focused attention. Practices like candle concentration are supposed to help us strengthen those abilities. And that could make it easier to have these profound dream experiences. Oh, interesting. So to wrap up, it seems like dreams, especially lucid dreams, give us this unique window into how our brains create our experience of reality. Definitely. The fact that dreams are made internally, the way our expectations and mental frameworks shape them. And the reports of these amazing, almost mystical experiences all suggest that the reality we experience in our waking lives might be a lot more fluid and less absolute than we think. Absolutely. And it all comes back to the amazing material you brought us. It really shows how deeply you’re exploring this topic. Yeah, it’s definitely a fascinating journey. Which brings us to our final thought for you all. If our waking reality is also just a form of mental modeling, not that different from our dreams, what does that mean for the nature of consciousness itself? What possibilities might exist for understanding and even transforming ourselves beyond the limits of our ordinary perceptions? It’s a lot to think about, and hopefully it gives you something to ponder as you continue your own deep dive into these ideas. Thanks for joining us on this exploration.