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.