With all of the adaptation going on, making things increasingly easier for humans to survive and thrive on earth, why do we require so much sleep? We even require periods of rest while we are active, day dreaming even, unaware we are doing it. The average sleep time per person is about half of our lives.
Where does the mind go while the body is on hold?
Perhaps the body sleeps or rests because it is not in the same dimension as the mind. What if the mind isn’t restricted to the use of the body or the senses? The physical body is bound by mass and gravitational forces, by time, space and many other factors. When the body begins to experience these things, the mind has the freedom to move on to other adventures while the body resets itself through rest and sleep. If the mind is so unrestricted though, why does it usually dwell within the 3D arena of thought?
Which begs the question of where the mind goes when the body dies? Just how dependent is the mind on the body (and visa versa)?
Would it be any less believable a reality to the mind if it didn’t require the senses to validate its existence in this #D world? The five senses in this dimension are what we turn to for evidence and then only if others can agree through their sensual experience, too. What if the body has another mind? What if the senses are what the other mind uses for validating reality?
A most interesting proposition: can I perceive without corroboration from others outside myself?
There are some cultures who rely heavily upon dreams and need to share them with one another to keep other dimensions of their shared reality alive and well.
Do we just dismiss an experience within the mind as a dream or imagination, if not backed with replicable or physical proof?
Our senses may be less of an influence, in determining reality than we may suppose, especially if the higher mind (consciousness) is honored for its special kind of logic.
Humans are always looking for agreement from one another by asking for validation, I would have to say that senses input from others in optional.
Agreeing with someone when we have no definitive evidence or proof that their perspective is a reasonable one, is a huge leap of faith. Faith is like lucid dreaming; accepting a reality that may not be real, at least for me, and therefore I would consider this a level of consciousness. Not sure!
I would say that I generally dismiss dreams as inconsequential – of no specific value or meaning in the “real world”. However, within me dreams do mean something – they represent the workings of my mind – which is busy justifying my emotions experienced during the day that now have no context (no external environment with which to interact) – so I give them context within my dreams (I make up a story in which they can “hang out”).
Further, our senses don’t completely shut down during sleep – visual and auditory cortexes, for example, are active during sleep. Without external input, the impulses generated by these still active brain centers give the psyche something to do – I suggest these sensory brain centers help create dreams by “tricking” the brain into believing there is real sensory input happening. When I have sensory input (whether real or imagined), my mind has to create a “story” or justification to accompany them == thus either real experience in the real world or real experience in the realm of dreams.
Either way, although I dismiss my dreams, I have a real experience within them – every bit as real as in the “real” world “outside” my body.
I’m especially delighted with lucid dreams. Wow! What a thrill ride those can be!
Yet, I cannot tell you with any degree of certainty that I am not now dreaming my experience here.
I wonder how often we feel we have to keep our mind experiences to ourselves, however, if this were really true then why do most of our thoughts that spring from our imagination, have such power in forming our opinions about our world? Our reality may rely more on how we want to experience life than what we are literally experiencing.
For example, when an abstract experience like love is involved, what type of proof is required to validate the belief that love exists? After all, if such a concept is imagined, the validity must supported by some physical evidence such as sensory feedback.
So what feedback from the senses helps prove that love exists? What makes for a real experience? Other concepts may come into play as validating the physical, like repetition, agreement from others, comparing and more. If physical proof only is all that is required with no assuming or use of imagination, perhaps a look, a touch etc. is convincing enough to prove a truth. I doubt it though!
I trust my senses. That’s a blessing and a curse. I like validation from my senses – yet prefer validation from other people’s senses… “Yeah! I saw it, too!” It MUST be true because we BOTH saw it.
Validating abstraction comes at a bit higher price, I figure. Unlike physical sensory evidence, abstraction requires some conniving – energy expended in convincing others. In your example of the abstraction, love, I have my beliefs as to what it means to me. My first inclination is to believe that you understand it as I do – I connive by assumption. Soon, however, I learn that maybe not all of how I believe is shared by you (and others).
So, I go into modes of conniving – maybe I’ll use crusading, in which I gather others to support my belief – forcing you to “join us” over time. Or maybe I’ll use brute force conniving, in which I’ll simply beat you (physically, verbally, emotionally) until you agree with me.
But what if you resist? What happens when your belief is as rigid as mine? Can you spell Thermal Nuclear War?
No matter how you cut it, though, in the end I’m all about the con!
What if what the senses are relaying as feedback to the mind is unacceptable and must be conformed to fit what the mind wants? If this is the case then it would seem that the mind only uses the senses for proof for others when seeking agreement (because are already believing it). The need to be right can be intoxicating and addictive even more so than the need to understand and live by the rules of reality and does anyone really know what those rules are?
Magicians absolutely rely upon the fact that our mind can override sensual input to the contrary. Religions, cults, political parties, and even families can do the very same to large groups of people – cause mind to override sense. It happens all the time.
Our minds hold constructs of complex idea structures of how things should or should not be. These rigid models represent the best and worst scenarios (classic examples) of what is right or wrong. Our minds are not engineered to hold the impossible high standards of exactness found in mathematics, instead our experiences within a multidimensional universe, forcing judgement from our minds in an attempt to create a standard that fits all.
What we consider normal is judgment and we do it well,and feeds the need to feed on; guilt,”If onlys,” “shoulds,” shame, blame, frustration, fear, helplessness, hopelessness, etc.
What if with our judgments we are unconsciously cooking up the feed that inevitably follows conflict, internal or external the feed is the same.
What kind of feed could take place, if any, without conflict?
I agree with you that it’s not the standards or the constructs that create the frustration. As you pointed out so well, the frustration level comes from the level of rigidity of our judgment.
Judgments in and of themselves serve a useful purpose in our day-to-day lives. Without judgments I would not select one path over another – ALL would be selected or NONE would be selected – there would be no standard from which to make a choice – so there would be NO CHOICE.
As I see it, judgment is a necessary aspect for life to exist and continue. One of the cardinal aspects of living organisms is volition – choice. Without judgment there can be no choice – ergo, no life.
So, lets look at rigidity – in which there is a choice – among increasingly few options. Nobody wants to be THE ONLY choice, for example. That’s like saying, “I called on you because I had no other choice…” Ugh! No thank you!
Rather, because my judgments are less restrictive, less rigid, I CHOSE you from several alternatives. I WANT YOU (rather than NEED YOU). I would choose a steak but I need air (no choice there). When judgments get increasingly rigid, options dwindle, and frustration can be the result. As any good escape artist will tell you, there are always options if you just know where to look to find them.
I think you’re on to something about feeding on frustration. Definitely conflict requires judgment. The emotional level of the conflict usually depends on the rigidity of at least one judgment.
Yum, yum, yum!!!
I wonder if the need for so much sleep is an ancient left-over from long before we were human. Many creatures sleep most of their lives away. Some, like us, sleep as much as several months per year.
You’d think that with millions and millions of years of evolution behind us sleep would lose its appeal. Yet here we are, hundreds of millions of years after the first creatures took the first naps each day, likely requiring just as much sleep now as they did then.
Sleep MUST be necessary.
The science of sleep is as yet in its infancy – we know very little about sleep and even less about why we sleep. But one thing keeps coming up –> we do need sleep. Generally speaking, humans do best with about 7 hours of uninterrupted shut-eye. We think better, feel better, emote better, and perform better when we do.
I think it has to do with earth’s environmental cycles. I wonder if perhaps there is some kind of ebb and flow to the earth that entrains life to follow along with it – just as creatures do with ocean tides.
I love this subject.
Are you talking about circadian rhythm? If so I agree that much of the movements and rests of Earth are en-training the thoughts and behaviors of life here. What we call choice may relate to instinct. When I think instinct, I think limited choice.
To me, choice is a conscious act, one based on comparing more than one or two options. Often choice creates options, in a sense, the options can only be recognized or created by a conscious mind.
Sleep cycles are still a mystery to me regardless of what some “specialists” say about their importance or predictable patterns.
Only recently have humans sought to agree on the concept of multiple universes, that overlap or run parallel to our world. There is so much to learn in regard to this concept and dreaming, like; is there some kind of life in those dimensions? Are they sentient beings capable of communicating? Are we perhaps communicating through our dreams? etc.
Maybe our dream time is their awake time… I love the subject of dreams also.
re: “Maybe our dream time is their awake time…”
I’ve read that there are some scientists who contend that the reason gravity is so tiny in comparison to the other fundamental forces (strong and weak atomic forces and electo-magnetism), is because gravity hangs out MOSTLY in other dimensions.
I wonder if we (our consciousnesses), too, hang out most of the time in other dimensions – maybe along with gravity! Who knows?!
re: cycles
It sure does seem to me that everything works on cycles. There is a start, a process, and an end that is the start of yet another cycle.
Within my dreams, I THINK I know what’s going on, but no sooner do I take action based on what I KNOW to be so than something happens to completely blow my knowing apart. But I still go on KNOWING things that can’t be known – in my dreams.
Let’s pretend for a moment that I DO hang out MOST OF THE TIME in other dimensions. Oh, wait! I can’t do that. I’m already doing it – in THIS DIMENSION. Oh, crap! I think I’m confused again!
Dream world – real world = real world – dream world = etc., etc., etc.
Hey! I’ve created another cycle. Oh, wait. I didn’t create it – it was already there! Phooey!