How does one know one is not dreaming?
Different Understanding
This question may assert different understanding:
- First understanding: The question asserts "How can we know that we are not placed on reality that are similar but fake?"
- This understanding asserts condition that generally know as false awakening state. It's where we were thinking on waking life, but actually we were still dreaming about our waking life.
- Second understanding: The question asserts "How can we know that we are not placed on reality that are completely different but fake?"
- This understanding asserts condition that we are living on completely different scenarios of life and we are considering it is a continuation. For example: somehow we were awake and saw anything different and somehow we knew that might be it's because of an earthquake. The question is, are we living now at the same place or at different realm?
- Third understanding: Dream realm is something less real than another realm (that may be considered as real as it should be). Regarding to this understanding, the question may be interpreted as "How does one know one is not placed on environment that less real than what it should be"?
- This understanding gives consequence, that even when we were succeed placed outside dreaming, again, we should ask, whether we are placed on different dream realm or we are now living on reality as it should be.
Continuation as It should be
The key to response these situations by understanding that:
Whether we are living on fake reality or we are living on something that less real as it should be (whether we don't know how for something must be considered as real as it should be), but one thing we have to be sure that there are continuations from our past life (past scenarios) to our current life (current scenarios).
Continuation as it shouldn't be, is the real fake living. Whether we always know that our life are entirely duplications but as long as our continuations are as it should be, then everything are as it should be.
Therefore, asking "how do we know we are not dreaming?" must be interpreted (equal to) as asking "how do we know that this current life is the real continuation from the past life as it should be?"
Different degree of comparison
"How do we know that this current life is the real continuation from the past life as it should be?" "How do we know that this current life is the fake continuation?
The essence is based on how far we can achieve the degree of comparison. This determines how far we can distinguish a fake continuations from the original continuations.
It can be provided by switching our awareness to get possibilities to know (make comparison) whether there are wrong continuations. And this degree of comparison to make comparison can be created through:
Automatic switching awareness by practicing "reality check" by ourselves
If we want to know whether this current life is fake, we must conditioning ourselves to always asking "whether this reality is fake", and when we are sifting to a different reality, our subconscious will remind us (automatic switching quickly) to ask (know, make comparison) whether this reality is fake or not. It will gain our awareness to make a comparison whether there is another reality other than what we are experiencing.
Automatic switching awareness by practicing "reality check" by someone else (expert)
If we want to know whether this current life is fake, we need someone else to sit beside us and ask to see whether there is unusual behaviour to our awareness that may endanger our life (by checking unusual pattern from EEG - ElectroEncephalographym) or whether we are living within dream realm too long enough, and further someone else may force us to awake (automatic switching) and may be it leads us to ask (know, make comparison) whether this reality is fake or not. It will gain our awareness to make a comparison whether there is another reality other than what we are experiencing, or we just simply awake from dream state.
Manual switching by ourselves
We can do manual switching from current operating system to the previous operating system or any kind of operating system by disconnecting our awareness manually from operating system through focus.
Through focus, we can put our awareness at balance point where we can know (make comparison) that there are wrong continuation in this current life compared to unfinished tasks left behind within previous operating system.
Practically, we can focus on something on dreaming, then (if we succeed) something that we are focusing on it, gradually will be changed or morphing and eventually will switch us into the waking state where we can deal with continuation as it should be.
The points are:
We can know whether we are dreaming or not by providing true comparison (not fake comparison) whether we are living with continuation as it should be or not.
- It can be provided by switching our awareness through reality check or
- Focus on something. Practicing meditation will help us to switch (escape) our awareness from current state of realities to different realm or to waking state, where we can deal with our continuation as it should be.
Without these, we may be drawn into fake believe (we believe that we are not dreaming, but actually we don't realize that we are still dreaming).
