Walking to work this morning, an overwhelming idea occurred to me. Please consider:

Lucid Dreaming is a technique in which one trains oneself to check frequently if one is dreaming, with the aim of eventually being able to realise that one is dreaming during a dream. From this realisation, one can potentially take control of the dream, steering events in whatever direction one desires.

Cartesian Existentialism, loosely, is based around the exercise of systemmatically questioning all aspects of ones perceived reality. Descarte’s own line “I think, therefore I am” is a potential starting point for Cartesian reasoning. Descarte’s Meditations, in which this idea was introduced, compares perceived reality to a dream, and asks how we can know that this reality is not simply a very detailed dream, perhaps one induced by some entity to mislead us. This should be a familiar concept to fans of The Matrix.

Suppose then, that one asks this question: What if the reality all around us is a dream? If it is, can we then change the world around us simply by believing firmly enough that we are dreaming, and willing the change? If you think you’ve tried, what makes you sure that you’ve really believed? Is it even possible to believe such a thing and not be crazy? What are the implications of madness for effective lucid dreaming? …and so on.

Sweet dreams folks!