Awakening to Reality

Am I Dreaming?

They say I am different. They don't know how right they are about that.

My name is Dawn. This is my story. However, I must warn you, don't read it if you are not ready to learn the truth that will turn your whole world upside down.

They say you can tell dreams from reality by your inability to read in your sleep. They claim that letters are all jumbled up and incomprehensible. I disagree.

I've also heard people say they can distinguish between what's real and what's not by the fact that they are unable to use all of their senses while asleep. They claim only sight and hearing are available to them, and that is how they know it's just a very vivid dream.

I'll tell you a little secret. They are wrong.

Not only can I read in my dreams, rather well I might add, but I can also use all of my senses.

I can't count the number of times that I've eaten something delicious or enjoyed a wonderful fragrance in what people have termed 'dream'. But I ask you could I know for sure if I am in a dream or if the dream is the 'real world'.

Perhaps for you with disabled senses, it is a no-brainer, but how do you explain me? I can feel with the same intensity in both worlds, so what makes this world, your 'real world' any different from the 'dream world'?

You might wonder why this universal truth is true for everyone else. You might think that I am the broken one, the one whose mind has a glitch and stopped perceiving reality the way it 'should' be seen. I'll ask you one thing and one thing only.

How can you be so sure that your perception is the right one? What if you are responsible for the world you have created? After all, they say the mind is a powerful thing.

Try imagining, even for a second, that perhaps you have convinced your brain, by the power of your subconscious, of your thoughts that you can't read in your 'dreams'. Did it ever occur to you that what mind believes it can turn into reality?

Crazy? Perhaps but it does make one wonder. What defines our reality as such but our brains, the territory that has never been sufficiently explored, the potential that has never been fully used. So how do we know what we think we know is the ultimate truth?

I know it's confusing but bear with me for a while longer. What if you had it wrong? What if it's the other way around.If this world that we call the waking world is a dream, a nightmare for most of us, that we are dreaming in that other 'dream world'.

What if the real world is a nightmare that we are having while what we see as dream world is reality? Can't you see? Are you so lost in your minds and don't see what I see?

On the other hand, maybe I am one of the rare people who can feel the difference, who sees the absurdity of the real world that is reserved for nightmares.

Isn't it universally believed that dreams are irrational, that they are filled with random images and events which carry symbolic meaning? Then, I wonder how those same people explain the world we live in today, the irrationality of it all?

In this 'real' world, in our 'waking hours' we, rational human beings fully awake according to you keep fighting for peace by killing others, murdering because of prejudice, sacrificing lives for irrelevant things, such as money. Do I even need to go on? Think about it, really think about it and tell me that you don't find it odd.

I don't know the exact reason we believe in the nightmares, but I have my suspicions. What I know for sure is that I am right, that rare few have this ability that I am cursed with, to see what others cannot.

How can I claim that, without a shadow of a doubt, you might be wondering? Well, just listen to what I have to say carefully, and you will agree with me. Admittedly, following what I have to say might be a challenge, but if you stick with me, you will finally open your eyes to what truly is and what is, for lacking a better explanation, real.

Perhaps I can try giving you a few hints. Maybe it could help you figure it out for yourself. Even if that's not the case, I am hoping it would at least make you think. Have we forgotten how to do that, or is there still hope for our species? Please tell me there is hope.

So on to my hint. Have you ever wondered why so many movies have cropped up about people being trapped in the matrix? Coincidence? I think not. Look deep into the dusty shelves of your mind and try to find those answers I have found so long ago.

Nothing? Well, I guess I can't blame you. Not everyone is born with my predisposition to see beyond what we are instructed or trained by our brains.

What if those movie makers truly are people trapped in a matrix? They see this whisper that tickles their brains as imagination, but what if it's so much more than that? If it is their perception of reality trying to shift, but being unable to do so?

Think of those movies as a cry for help by the very people producing them while at the same time being unaware of doing it. Mindblowing, isn't it?

I know what you are thinking, and no, not all movies are based on the true reality you call 'dreamland', but many are. You can't tell me some of these psychological movies haven't made you wonder about life, your perception of it, and the very definition of what is real.

You might say what you can see and touch is real, but I have the same sensations in my 'dreams'. Doesn't that make them as real as 'waking world'? At least to me.

On the other hand, we can't see or touch love and still you know it's real, you can feel it. Then how can you claim that there isn't more out there that you are unable to perceive? This leads to the conclusion that it is also possible there are things that you misperceive. And that, in turn, should help you stay more open mind to what I have to say.

What I've come to realize is those movies are not fiction, but memories from their real lives changed into symbolic language by the dream world which they see as the real world. Confusing, isn't it?

You know how they say some artists are inspired by their dreams. Well, reverse your conception of the 'real world', and you'll get what I mean. If dreams are real, and reality is a dream, then why can't reality inspire the dream, the same way, the dream can inspire reality.

It's complicated to explain or even understand, and that's why many have given up trying. Please don't do the same. Your life may depend on it. The sheer survival of us as human species depends on it. Don't forget that if you die in a dream, you die for real.

Having created this nightmare where murder, mayhem, and war roam freely we have placed ourselves in immense danger without realizing it. Even I who realize the danger cannot escape it.

There is something, someone, I am uncertain, preventing me from finding a way out. Still, that doesn't mean I don't have a few ideas on how we came to be this way.

For now, what I need you to do is ask yourself one fundamental question. One question that will, hopefully, help you form many others. Am I dreaming?