When I was in highschool, I became infatuated with questioning the nature of reality. Once at Wonderland, while waiting for our turn for a roller coaster ride, I had a long conversation with a friend. I questioned him how could we ever know what I saw as the color red was the same as what you saw? Or how could we know that the feeling of fear that I experienced when I was in a roller coaster was the same as yours? Did the color red or the feeling of fear exist objectively, waiting for us to perceive?
Years later I saw the intriguing film Waking Life, in which the main character tried in vain to wake up from his dream. Everytime he thought he has woken up, but the reality was that he was still in his dream. He …
was in a persistent lucid dream-like state. He observed and participated in philosophical discussions that weave together issues such as reality, free will, the relationship of the subject with others, and the meaning of life. Along the way the film touches on other topics including existentialism, Situationist politics, posthumanity, the film theory of André Bazin, and on lucid dreaming itself. — from wikipedia
How then can I tell that whether my so called ‘waking’ state is not simply a dream-state wrapped within another dream at a higher-dimension?
The movie The Matrix explored this idea to a limited extent. As summarized by Wikipedia:
The film describes a future in which reality as perceived by humans is actually the Matrix: a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source.
I couldn’t help while watching The Matrix to question whether the ‘reality’ of machines feeding on human bodies was yet another illusionary world created by yet another reality at a high-dimension. Disappointingly, the movie and its sequels had evolved into typical Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster. [Yet the movie is indeed an illusionary world created by its directors!]
However, I recently read a short story by Argentine writer Borges called ’The Circular Ruins’. What The Matrix had timidly tried but ultimately recoiled from, this short story by Borges had brilliantly explored to the fullest extent. Here is a quick summary of this amazing story:
A wizard retreats from the world to a location that possesses strong mystical powers: the circular ruins. There, the wizard tries to create another human being from his own dreams… After many sleepless nights, the wizard dreams of a heart; vaguely at first, but more and more clearly each night. Years pass and the wizard creates the boy piece by piece, in agonizing detail [through his dreams]. The wizard calls upon the god Fire to bring his creation to life. Fire agrees … and that only Fire and the wizard will be able to tell the creation from a real human. His creation is sent to a distant temple of the god Fire, and becomes famous as, because it is not real, it can walk through fire unharmed. The wizard hears of this, but at length he awakes to find the ruins ablaze. As he ultimately walks into the flaming house of Fire, the wizards notices that his skin does not burn. “With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another.” - from Wikipedia
click here to read full text of the story …
Now, let’s go back to my original question: how can I ever know what I see as the color red is the same as what you see? Does the color red exist objectively somewhere, waiting for me and you to perceive? The answer is I will never know the truth! What I myself perceive is a reality that only I will ever know. I will also never know whether my perception of your existence is not simply my dream making, or you really exist objectively out there.
I will also never know whether my thoughts are not simply the dreams of yet another mind. Perhaps my entire world is an illusion - nothing but a dream.
Descarte said “I think, therefore I am”.
But I can only say “I think”, and nothing more.
