Skeptomania - Paranormal / UFOs, etc.

Anonymouse · Living impaired

...which would be more real?

I was listening to a lecture on "The Myth of Sisyphus". The lecturer characterized the search for the meaning of life as coming from a fundamental disconnect between our innate expectation of meaning in a blind, apathetic universe. The problem lies not in the universe and not even necessarily in ourselves - reason (or the overreliance on reason) simply isn't a useful tool here, unless you want to be disappointed. We spend most of our lives awake, in a world that is more self-consistent and comprehensive than the dreaming world(s). Real life is more amenable to reason. Imagine that dreams had these qualities or if real life lacked them. What is the thing that we use to categorize one and the other?

Unrelated: Do any of you get a feeling of nostalgia in your dreams? Like you've dreamt of something or a place before but when you wake up you can't recall any recurring elements. Maybe it's just the "nostalgia" parts of your brains firing at random times. What would be the difference?

Zcat

I often find that my dreams are more reasonable than things that happen in my waking state, and certainly I dream of people who are more reasonable than some people I know. And as both states are "real", I can't answer your question.

Yaish · Intel Chief

Well, what is "real"? Does something have to have physical form to be real?
What of us then, since the thing I consider "me" is a non-corporeal amalgam of thoughts.

Thanks man, I just thought myself out of exis...

Zcat

Lol@Yaish

Do any of you get a feeling of nostalgia in your dreams? Like you've dreamt of something or a place before but when you wake up you can't recall any recurring elements. Maybe it's just the "nostalgia" parts of your brains firing at random times. What would be the difference?

I've had extreme feelings of nostalgia in dreams. A few times I dreamed I saw something from my first few years of life, a toy that I had forgotten completely. Of course, I don't know if I really even had that toy, as I can't remember exactly what it was after waking. But I'm guessing the feeling was real. When aren't feelings real?

TheMadHobbit · Subway Tolkien

I can expect to have about half a dozen dreams every year where I relive childhood experiences. Everytime they are positive happy moments, and they tend to revolve around play. Usually by myself in the backyard.

But seriously, who the heck wants REASONABLE dreams?

I want dreams of nekkid pygmy wimmins dancing with leprechauns on the moon while I play lunar, Jumping GolfTM with Benjamin Franklin, Jim Morrison and Fred Rogers, using indestructable neon toads instead of golf balls whilst the scent of lemons and the sound of electric Beethoven fills the air.

But then again, that does closely resemble my day-to-day grind.

Gren · God Of Oreos

G has an old flame he frequently dreams about, thirty years later.

(blush)