After the incredibly exciting live stream yesterday, I happened to read these words today, which I would like to share with you. They shed light on the fact that we can only ever perceive representations of subjectively experienced reality from a different perspective. We dream all the time, even now.
„...both states of consciuousness – perception when dreaming and when awake- are very similar, with overlapping networks of correlated brain mechanisms. And both states can potentially be just as clear, just as „awake“.
Another thing that makes waking consciousness similar to the dream state is the almost universilly accepted notion that the qualities of the objects we perceive are „out there“, in the objects themselves. The red of someones's red sweater or the yellow of a passing taxi is assumed to be an innate quality of the sweater or taxi. That assumption generally prevails both in waking consciousness and in nonlucid dreaming. But if we believe this, we are indeed dreaming. In fact, Western science since the time of Descartes has denied this seemingly intuitive assertion. The experienced qualities of external objects are not contained in the objects themselves but as illusory and dreamlike as are the qualities of a fire-breathing dragon experienced in a nightmare. How so?
In a general sense our perception may be „constrained“ by the physical objects we perceive, but the perceived qualities in those objects, such as color, brightness, texture, temperature, odor, taste, and so forth, arise from the interaction of external sensory input, brain functions, and the stream of consciousness. The notion that such qualities are inherent in objects is negated by science. For example, the sun may emit photons (which can be registered by scientific instruments), but it is our perceptual and conceptual organs that experience what we call „light“. The duality of light versus dark is built into us (and other beings that perceive things in this way), but these qualities do not exist „out there“ in the world. The sun, in itself, is not „bright“. Nor is it „hot“. It emits photons and thermal radiation that we perceive as bright and hot. The fields of biology and physics have established this as scientific fact....
So the qualities of the objects we perceive arise in dependence upon our minds and bodies in interaction with the environment – one that pervades both our waking and dreaming consciousness. Seen from this perspective, the effect of conditioning on our perceptions creates a dreamlike reality.“
B. Alan Wallace, Dreaming yourself awake
when Daniel said on this livestream that when we use our finger to tap on the outside of our skull, we are essentially tapping on the actual perimeter of our entire subjective universe like a fish in a fishbowl... 🤯
Thank you for sharing!