The duality of the mind... (behavior, created, best, about)

[Chango]

I had a dream last night (and no, this isn't gonna get new age wacky ), a dream where I realized I was dreaming. Usually when that happens my dream "breaks" and I wake up, but this time for some unknown reason I stayed conscious yet dreaming for what felt like a long time.

I won't go into details about the dream, since it was really all nonsense but I was really impressed by how little control I had. Even though I was more-or-less fully conscious I was still communicating with various characters in the dream (family members and random dreamscape folks) who seemd to have complete minds of their own.

For example: My wife was in the dream; I actually argued with my subconscious version of her about the fact I was dreaming. "She" argued very convincingly that I wasn't dreaming, but I finally ended the argument by saying "you're not my real wife, you're part of the dream anyway" and walked away.

It got me thinking about the "dual mind" theory of consciousness, which argues we are self-aware because we have two "minds" which are aware of each other operating in our skulls. If that is the case, how *seperate* are they exactly? Are we actually just a combination of another (or even several other) sentiences operating at various levels of consciousness instead of just one?

...and if so, could this be where feelings of "god" or other supernatural beings come from? It is easy for me to see my subconcious as "someone" or even something else after spending lots of time with it with most all my faculties while it's fully active. whatdayathink?

[Djuna]

Oh no, was that a bad hit of acid

[Hueffenhardt]

The most current consensus by scientific researchers into consciousness is that consciousness provides an illusion. The phenomenon of consciousness is real; it is not an illusion; but, consciousness gives us the illusion that we are able to really see the inner workings of our mind such as how we arrived at a certain decision, etc. The current research suggests that we can't really perceive the true process that led to us reaching a decision, but consciousness provides the illusion that we can perceive the process. Basically, consciousness is a sub-routine, that provides a mirage of awareness of the inner workings of the mind.

So, the neural processing that created the behavioral responses of your dream wife is unaccessible to you. And when you became aware of that it left you with a weird amusement. But, the "observer you" who was aware of the dream and disconnected from the dream wife, is not really "you" either. The sense of self is another sub-routine that is produced by a small region of your brain that is known to researchers and, if damaged by stroke or some other way, no longer functions and leaves that person without a sense of self. It is really quite fascinating.

I'd suggest borrowing some books on consciousness from the library written by scientific researchers. You can read the new-agey authors, too, if you want, but I find the clever experiements and case studies of brain damaged people in the scientific books much more insightful and interesting.

[dobeable]

ive had dreams just ike that too,once i even kept waking from my dream(well thought i was awake)and everytime i went into another dream id be longer in it but then realise i was dreaming,wake up and start again,dreamin that is after what felt like hours i actually wke up and i was literally only asleep for about 20 minutes,,,,heres somethin to remember next time you reralise your dreamin,try your best to look at the palm of your hand,its hard and takes alot of concentration but you'll see what happens,actually probly numerous things can happen but one is the whole dream will clear and if your like me you'll just start laughing and fly into space like superman,i woke up after that.ive only ever succsefully did it twice.the first time i was in a room saw meself in the mirror then tryed to look at me hand,fingers were like spaghetti in the wind and everything is blurry,but the room emptyd i felt awake within the dream and knowing me jumped through the glass window and flew off,woke up before i went anywhere descent,but you really do feel like your awake within the dream,but its like not a dream,,,weird.