Life is a Dream?

[jbseth]

Hi All,

Throughout history there have been many philosophers and other people who've thought that life is just a dream.  There is an ancient, I believe, Taoist, story that goes something like this:

I had a dream that I was a butterfly.  Now, after awakening from this dream I wonder whether I'm a butterfly who is dreaming that I'm a man, or whether I'm a man who dreamed that he was a butterfly.


Much more recently, there is a song written in the 1800's that goes something like this:

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.


Then, just recently, I came across the following quote from Seth 2. This quote, which comes from, "The Early Session", Book 9, Session 446, gives us Seth 2's understanding of this topic.

"As you dream, and have a dream existence while still involved in the physical dimension, so is the physical dimension a dream within another dimension in which your consciousness is far more acute. And as in your dream you set up situations and work out problems, so you do the same in the physical existence."


Is life a dream, what do you think?


jbseth 

[usmaak]

In Dreams, Evolution, and Value Fulfillment, Vol 1, Seth talks about how before the physical world existed, it was a dream.  It was dreamed into existence.  I always thought this was very intriguing and a cool concept.

From session 882:
In certain terms, science and religion are both dealing with the idea of an objectively created universe. Either God "made it," or physical matter, in some unexplained manner, was formed after an initial explosion of energy, and consciousness emerged from that initially dead matter in a way yet to be explained. Instead, consciousness formed matter. As I have said before, each atom and molecule has its own consciousness. Consciousness and matter and energy are one, but consciousness initiates the transformation of energy into matter. In those terms, the "beginning" of your universe was a triumph in the expansion of consciousness, as it learned to translate itself into physical form. The universe emerged into actuality in the same way (underlined), but to a different degree, that any idea emerges from what you think of as subjectivity into physical expression. The consciousness of each reader of this book existed before the universe was formed—in parentheses: (in your terms)—but that consciousness was unmanifest.

Your closest approximation - and it is an approximation only - of the state of being that existed before the universe was formed is the dream state. (Long pause.) In that state before the beginning, your consciousness existed free of space and time, aware of immense probabilities.

The birth of the world represented a divine psychological awakening.  Each consciousness that takes a part in the physical universe dreamed of such a physical existence, in your terms, before the earth was formed.

From session 886:
In the beginning, then, there was a subjective world that became objective. Matter was not yet permanent, in your terms, for consciousness was not yet as stable there. In the beginning, then, there was a dream world, in which consciousness formed a dream of physical reality, and gradually became awake within that world.

Mountains rose and tumbled. Oceans filled. Tidal waves thundered. Islands appeared. The seasons themselves were not stable. In your terms the magnetic fields themselves fluctuated—but all of the species were there at the beginning, though in the same fashion, for as the dream world broke through into physical reality there was all of the tumultuous excitement and confusion with which a mass creative event is achieved. There was much greater plasticity, motion, variety, give-and-take, as consciousness experimented with its own forms. The species and environment together formed themselves in concert, in glorious combination, so that each fulfilled the requirements of its own existence while adding to the fulfillment of all other portions of physical reality (all very intently, and with many gestures).

Chapter 4 - Ancient Dreamers.  The entire chapter is a great read!

[Sena]

The birth of the world represented a divine psychological awakening.  Each consciousness that takes a part in the physical universe dreamed of such a physical existence, in your terms, before the earth was formed.

usmaak,
That's it in a nutshell! Thanks for this. Goodbye to the Adam and Eve story which labels all humans as sinners.

[jbseth]

Hi usmaak, Hi All,

Wow usmaak, what an excellent reply.

I wasn't thinking about the "Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment" books, when I created this topic.

After seeing your response, I went back and took a look at this book once again, and it has a lot of information about how, Seth says, we started out in a dream form, and then gradually developed a physical existence.

I also found the following Seth quote, which I like, in this same book, in Chapter 2, Session 887:


(Long pause.) In the beginning, then, the species did not have the kinds of forms they do now. They had pseudoforms—dream bodies, if you prefer—and they could not physically reproduce themselves. Their experience of time was entirely different, and in the beginning the entire earth operated in a kind of dream time. In your terms, this meant that time could be quickened, or lengthened. It was a kind of psychological time.

Again, forms appeared and disappeared. (Pause.) In your terms of time, however, the dream bodies took on physical forms. Physical reproduction was impossible. That did not happen to all of the species at once, however. For a while, then, the earth had a mixed population of species who had completely taken on physical forms, and species who had not. The forms, however, whether physical or not, were complete in themselves. Birds were birds, and fish fish.

(9:30.) In the beginning there were also species of various other kinds: combinations of man-animal and animal-man, and many other "crossbreed" species, some of fairly long duration in your terms. This applies to all areas. There were dream trees, with dream foliage, that gradually became aware within that dream (with gentle emphasis), turning physical, focusing more and more in physical reality, until their dream seeds finally brought forth physical trees.


jbseth 

[Deb]

Fantastic description of the birth of consciousness and physical reality. Just beautiful. And this:

Your closest approximation - and it is an approximation only - of the state of being that existed before the universe was formed is the dream state. (Long pause.) In that state before the beginning, your consciousness existed free of space and time, aware of immense probabilities.

made me think of a baby in utero. While no one can what say for sure is in a fetus's mind, I've heard it described that they are in a perpetual dream state. Babies are supposedly not fully self-aware until a certain age (15-24 months, before that they are in a Delta/deep sleep state).They are not aware of themselves as separate from their environment. Then they begin waking from the dream—a birth of consciousness that seems to mimic Seth's explanation of creation. As above, so below?