Alan Watts

[wildflowers1996]

I never understood this:

"So then, let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream, and that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time, or any length of time you wanted to have.

And you would, naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each you would say "Well that was pretty great. But now let's have a surprise, let's have a dream which isn't under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's gonna be."

And you would dig that and would come out of that and you would say "Wow that was a close shave, wasn't it?". Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further- and further-out gambles what you would dream. And finally, you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today."

I don't know why anyone would do this. I would just live pleasurable lives over and over. I wouldn't get bored, because I wouldn't remember that I had lived lots of pleasurable lives before.

 

[Dark Window]

Some people who do psychedelics believe that life is just you aka "God", "Source", "oneness", dreaming up a life.

 

[wildflowers1996]

why would I choose to make myself suffer though?

 

[sserafim]

Some people who do psychedelics believe that life is just you aka "God", "Source", "oneness", dreaming up a life.

Why does God or Source or oneness need so many experiences? People say that we're all just the universe experiencing itself but why does the universe need to experience itself so much? What's the point of that?

 

[Dark Window]

Why does God or Source or oneness need so many experiences? People say that we're all just the universe experiencing itself but why does the universe need to experience itself so much? What's the point of that?

I don't know. Maybe it's all a part of a learning experience.

But in reality I think the reality of all of this, all of life, existence etc is just beyond us to fully understand.

I don't believe in god or the world being a simulation, those are just humans trying to make sense of a reality they probably will never fully understand, and I think we'll just die one day and that will be that.

 

[derpyderpins]

And you would dig that and would come out of that and you would say "Wow that was a close shave, wasn't it?". Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further- and further-out gambles what you would dream. And finally, you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today."

Even accepting the assumptions made to this point, it's absurd to suggest that in a chase for thrilling wild radical gambles that I would dream about sitting in an office for 40 years. My life is not a gamble, it's a slog.