I am afraid dreams would fall under the realm of personal subjective experience and while they may seem very "real" to the experiencing individual they can not be objectively verified by anyone else.

That is the beauty of dreams. They are both real to the dreamer and personal. An entirely different experience. Everyone one has them, yet they have not been addressed. Yet, philosophers have over the centuries pre-occupied themselves with the possibility of some objective form that may be beyond our personal senses. It is interesting, isn't it?

Rich

Dreams exist, but what happens in dreams is not real. So, "Dreams are real" may mean, "Dreams exist" and that is true. But, "Dreams are real" may mean, what happens in dreams is real, and that, of course, is false. Just a simple matter of ambiguity, and I have cleared it up by exposing the ambiguity.

A dream is "real" in the sense that it is vividly experienced. But what we dream alone is called unreal, for this society is biased against private experience. Only what the tribe can see is real. And it's this bias against private experience that makes "what is real?" such a good question.

Well, what is real? A materialist might say that whatever we can see/touch/smell/taste/feel (physically), is what's real. But in my honest opinion, we will never know what real is. There are so many different ways this world can be, besides the common perception of it. Let's get matrix-y. It can be a computer program. You, reading this post, can be the only real person in the world, and everyone else can be programed by someone who is also real to talk to you.

We can also be figments of your imagination.

What we consider to be a life time, could be just a dream for our real[/i] selves.

All these abstract ideas wouldn't be suspect to people, for there is no evidence. They also, (although they do extract deep thought) sound pretty silly. Who would like to think that their entire life time is a dream? I mean, with all the hard work we put into life.... So many possibilities are there, and it's hard for me to be certain that anything is real anymore. And when (and if) I find whatever's real, I'll still be the type of person to question it's reality.

This got me thinking. It of course, got me out of the matrix phase, but brought me into a completely new one. "Now, what if our lives are science fiction? What if we're showcased on an episode of twilight zone, where this entire world is just an experiment?" We could be experiments of a little kid, in a world where people are 1,000,000x smarter than us. His first grade experiment would be creating an ever-expanding universe. He's god. Maybe that's the reason he doesn't have time to care for all of us. And the apocalypse is when the teacher decides to take the project off the wall and give it back to the kid, where he takes it home and throws it away. He got a B-, for his universe.

So, then, do you believe your dreams are just as real as your daily life? Or, in other words, how do you differentiate between the two? Or do you even?

What about a real person, as opposed to a cardboard cut-out of a person. Can you differentiate between the two?

What about real diamonds, as opposed to fake diamonds? It seems dealers can differentiate between the two (and charge considerably more for the former).

Today's sci-fi is tomorrow's Christmas present. Just imagine going back to Athens with a helicopter and a couple of ham radios. The Matrix really was a brilliant movie. It touched on so many great themes. Just think of the red pill / blue pill. That's a perfect example of truth and motive. So things a person can only find out by having the courage to look. And some boxes cannot be closed again. When Neo sees the code beneath the "illusion" at the end, this is like Pythagoras. Then of course there's the idea of an illusion being sustained in order to exploit those caught within it. The word "matrix" is tied to the word mother. Jung talks about the "devouring mother" which reappears in myths all over the world. Like the witch who wants to eat Hansel and Gretel. Then there's the female prophet character who is something like Sophia, I suppose you could say. It was a ridiculously exciting movie the first time one saw it. And then many scenes are re-watchable and perhaps more important something to think about. I salute your imagination! I doubt you're the type to lose it in the hustle for success.

Dreams and real life. Dreams have been scientifically proven to be reactions of what our minds take in on a daily basis. I don't take dreams to the next level, because I have an idea of what they are. It's the things I can't know about for sure, that I'm curious about.

Today's sci-fi is tomorrow's Christmas present. Just imagine going back to Athens with a helicopter and a couple of ham radios. The Matrix really was a brilliant movie. It touched on so many great themes. Just think of the red pill / blue pill. That's a perfect example of truth and motive. So things a person can only find out by having the courage to look. And some boxes cannot be closed again. When Neo sees the code beneath the "illusion" at the end, this is like Pythagoras. Then of course there's the idea of an illusion being sustained in order to exploit those caught within it. The word "matrix" is tied to the word mother. Jung talks about the "devouring mother" which reappears in myths all over the world. Like the witch who wants to eat Hansel and Gretel. Then there's the female prophet character who is something like Sophia, I suppose you could say. It was a ridiculously exciting movie the first time one saw it. And then many scenes are re-watchable and perhaps more important something to think about. I salute your imagination! I doubt you're the type to lose it in the hustle for success.

What are you curious about? Say you dream you were a pirate on a pirate ship. Would you wake up and think you had really been a pirate on a pirate ship? I think you would be able to distinguish the dream world from the real world (pending you didn't have any mental illnesses). What do you think?

Even in the Matrix, Neo acknowledged there was a real world. And, in fact, that was what he was fighting to restore.

You wouldn't understand what I'm saying, for it's completely subjective and weird; I think that I live in constant illusion.

True, but that real world was also in a sense created by a choice. Had he taken the other pill, he would have called the matrix the "real" world.

What is this illusion, you think you live, contrasted with? Reality? Surely not, as you don't believe reality exists. Illusion means nothing without the juxtaposition of reality, for illusion are distortions of reality.

True, but that real world was also in a sense created by a choice. Had he taken the other pill, he would have called the matrix the "real" world.

Also, I've just finished writing the Matrix part 4. Turns out the first 3 movies are the dream of a 7 dimensional being with 22 arms. The dream-cartridge responsible for the first three movies was created by an artist on planet Dandruff known as Xenox and inserted into the Pseudo-Experience 7000, something all the seven-dimensional kids were getting for Umpha that year (something like our Christmas, and there years are shorter than ours.).

At the moment I can't think of anything more Divine than the human imagination. But that's just my truth. What is real is anything we take for real. Sometimes it overlaps with what others call real. Sometimes not. But it's foolish to throw something away just because it doesn't get a majority vote as to its existence. Merry Umpha!

I believe that reality is my illusion.

Then what is an illusion in your illusion?

So, why you think Neo would have called the matrix the real world, I don't know.

Another illusion?

Should we not remind ourselves that the "real world" in the movie matrix was itself an illusion of Hollywood? There's really know way to prove we aren't brains in a vat. We could also be seven-dimensional aliens playing a video game that is designed to seem real. Just as we (apparent) humans used to play 2-dimensional video games like pong. These seven dimensional aliens have lifespans of 2000000 years. A human life span is just a little entertainment before dinner, something to chat about over desert. If we deny the possibility we have our reasons. Truth and motive.

. Until we are presented with a reason to believe them plausible, we should not.

I agree, but some "lies" are justified by their results. An army with god on their side is perhaps more likely to survive. A person who just "knows" they are gifted is more likely to manifest giftedness. Tell children that the "truth" about them is that they are inferior, and chances are they will be. Truth and power ride around in the same limousine.