Let us first briefly present Plato’s parable of the cave to the question of dream and reality.
Note: This parable of the cave is written in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and a certain Glaucon.
Socrates describes people who are so tied up in a cave from childhood that they can’t move their heads or bodies. Therefore, they only ever look in one direction. They have light from a fire burning behind them. Between the fire and their backs, people from outside carry pictures and objects around with them. Behind the back of the cavemen is a wall that allows only the shadows of the objects and pictures to be seen, but not the people themselves who carry these pictures and objects around with them. The cavemen can only perceive these shadows of objects as well as their own shadows on the wall before them. When the bearers of the objects speak, the trapped cavemen feel as if the shadows are speaking themselves. Since the world of the trapped cavemen revolves exclusively around these shadows, it seems to them that the shadow beings are real figures.
Socrates now asks Glaukon what would happen if you unleashed a prisoner and then forced him to turn around. Glaukon said: ‘At first, his eyes would be painfully blinded by the fire. The figures would initially appear less real than the shadows on the wall before. The prisoner would want to go back to his usual place where he can see more clearly’.
Socrates then asks what would happen if the freed man were to be brought into sunlight by force. Glaukon: ‘Again, he would be the first to be blinded by the sun and he could see nothing. But as his eyes slowly got used to the sunlight, dark shapes such as shadows and gradually lighter objects up to the sun itself would become recognizable. Ultimately, man would recognize that the formerly seen figures are shadows cast on the wall and not the originals. In this state of knowledge, he is enlightened. Enlightened, he would want to return to the others to report his findings. Since his eyes now have to get used to the darkness again, he cannot initially recognize the shadows and interpret them with the others. But after realizing the truth, he wouldn’t want that anymore. His fellow prisoners would now perceive him as blind and would not believe him’.
The parable of the cave illustrates that non-knowing man lives like in a cave. The things he perceives as real are really only shadows and representations of the true self. The cave in the parable represents our sensually perceptible world. The hard ascent (awakening) of the cave dweller stands for the path of such a person who is looking for his true self, which is symbolized by the sun. At the end of this path, enlightenment is waiting. The parable of the cave prompts us not to concentrate primarily on what is perceptible to the senses, but on what is hidden behind it. See the following Bible-saying:
2 Cor 4,18: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Let’s get back to physics.
As we have heard, the physics cannot really clear up, whether the material world is a real world or an imaginary world. Now we not only have the chance to let speak physics, but also religion and metaphysics. If we merge these two areas of knowledge or belief to a synthesis, we seem to be led to a clear statement. Or does it not seem to be the most logical to say, that the material world is an imaginary world and has something to do with a dream?
If we answer this question with “yes”, we would be in line with the key messages of Eastern religions that see the world as a dream world. Furthermore, we would also be in keeping with the philosophy, as it is represented by Socrates and Plato (see Allegory of the Cave). Similarly, we would also be consistent with the brane-model of physics, according to which the human bodies are shadows (figures) that are thrown from inside the bubble on the brane.
The nature of a dream. A dream has per se the function as follows: On the one hand it is to make us feel that it was real – that it isn’t a dream. On the other hand, it may never leave undoubtedly a feeling that it was indeed real (at least not in the long run). So it has to be recognizable in some form that he is what he is, namely a dream. In this respect, he always leaves sayings like:
- “I think I’m in a movie”, or:
- “I know nothing more” or:
- “I feel like I’m dreaming all of the time” or:
- “This cannot be true!”
Even in a logical viewpoint a dream naturally excludes the possibility of being able to prove its appearances as really real. It always must leave a doubt in the question of whether we correctly perceive or whether we observe properly. And nothing can be really clearly proved or defined in a dream.
Let’s transfer these thoughts on our world in finding indications whether the material world would be real or imaginary. The very fact that physics for describing this world calculates with two ‘times’ (on the one hand with the so-called real time and on the other hand with the so-called imaginary time) and cannot (yet) determine which of these time variables is now the one, with which our world can be described correctly, is a hint for dream. This hint is corroborated by the fact that physics comes to the following conclusion when using the two time variables:
- If physics tries to calculate the universe with the so-called real time, it encounters so-called singularities at the beginning of the universe time that go beyond the laws of physics, which is not the case when physics calculates with the so-called imaginary time.
- According to Stephen W. Hawking, it is also conceivable that the so-called imaginary time could be more fundamental than the so-called real time.
With these two results / prospects, it seems more logical to say that what we have previously considered to be real is imaginary, whereas what we have previously considered to be imaginary is more fundamental – that is, more real. What is the real reality is not yet clear at this point. Because it is quite conceivable that there are different degrees of reality to which we could assign different depths of dream. But I answer this question in my book ‘Psychoenergetik, die Wissenschaft des Lebens’.
Let’s also take a look to our blocks of matter. At a particular time they seem to be at least up to a half smudged entities. At a particular time they can be here and nowhere (at the same time). And as a whole they are not really perceivable or definable. They never have been seen from a human being. Are these properties no indications of illusory phenomena, aren’t they?
If we make the period of observation/ determination smaller than the Planck time, we would be able to make no more statements about the blocks of matter. Within the Planck time, the matter would be dissolved perhaps to nebulous entity (exploded to infinity?). Matter can only appear as a perceivable entity, like we perceive it, if we extend the period of observation to countless of Planck-times, so if we network countless of moments for the observation (like Pixel networking on television or Information networking in the brain). Now, is not the real state of an entity its state from an unexpanded moment, which is far below the Planck time, isn’t it? But just at that moment the material world would not exist. So, don’t we have by that further indications of illusory phenomena regarding this world, don’t we?
The material world seems to be artificially created by our spirit, who uses the networking of countless individual moments. In consistence with the brane-model of physics, this world could be a projection, which is per se not the original world (real world). Thus, the material world would be an artificially-made world of pictures from our spirit, who uses it for his dream.
Finally, we – the dreamer – must be able to recognize at some point that we are dreaming. Otherwise, we might never wake up. So the dream always has to include a hint for a possibility to wake up and to give us the motivation to really can wake up. This hint is given inter alia about the analogies, while the motivation is given inter alia by the longing for what defines us in our true being state. This yearning remains unsatisfied until we have woken up. Let me describe this on detail in my book “Psychoenergetik, die Wissenschaft des Lebens” (= psycho-energetics, the science of life).
All of these previous considerations condense the idea that the material world as it is shown to us is illusory and can therefore be reconciled quite well with the fact that it is a dream world. We who are not bodies but spirits, are as spirits the dreamers who dream of illusions as if they were real.
Accordingly, God could be construed as our all waking consciousness, which explains why we can’t perceive Him in a dream, and that He is our origin and destination. From Him, in Him and by Him everything would have developed in order to live out the idea of the dream. At the end, when we have dreamed enough, we will again feel the impulse to wake up, and God (or: our waking consciousness) would again be the goal.