When I'm sleeping...

Honestly, I just hit a bit of a wall myself. I ran straight into a dead end and then kind of lost my mind over some philosophical nonsense.

It’s easy to get trapped behind walls, but it isn't exactly rocket science to step outside and catch some fresh air.

If you've got the time, give David Hume a read.
Check this out too:
http://www.innerlighttheory.com/
One of the core ideas revolves around how we think about dreaming. I found this book strangely captivating. (Though, full disclosure, I read the whole thing staring at a computer screen.)

Nicole Morgan9 said:You put that beautifully. Some people, though... they live in absolute terror of the end.

zzzzzz... looks like it's time to kick the bucket tonight.
👍

And that bit about philosophizing on page one? Not exactly groundbreaking. Philosophy is just thinking. It's a mathematical certainty that you'll spend your entire existence philosophizing in one way or another.

Unless, of course... you're dead.
😉

We die every single night, only to drag ourselves back to work every morning..
The world dissolves every night and reconstructs itself every dawn.😁 😁

This is such an interesting topic... man... I just love philosophy... especially when it gets a little bit unprovable... that’s kind of where the magic is, right? But honestly, answering your question is pretty straightforward... regarding consciousness... first, you have to accept that it isn't some abstract concept floating out there... it's yours. It's just yours. Because if it wasn't, you wouldn't be thinking or remembering anything at all... so, you basically just accept that it belongs to you... okay... Anyway, I know tons of people wonder why we dream sometimes and other times we don't... hmm... I'll give you my own subjective take on that, which is something a good friend of mine—she's a psychologist—totally trashed me for... but let's look at the mind. Let's move away from those untouchable, abstract, absolute truths and talk about stuff that actually feels real to us... say, imagine the brain is a processor... and a freaking fast one at that. Try running three heavy AAA games at once on your PC... any high-end software... everything is going to lag, right? Yeah, exactly. Maybe think of it like this: while you're sleeping, the brain is basically doing its cleanup. Like an antivirus program scanning the system and wiping out junk, using up most of the CPU power. You don't even see what it's scanning. I guess I'm drifting a bit off-topic here, but bear with me... if you try to run more programs at the same time, the antivirus slows down, and suddenly you start seeing more of what it's doing. That's how dreams work for me... I mean, not always, but most of the time... when you're overthinking things... or when you're super stressed... you dream, 100%. Or hey, try eating a massive, heavy meal right before bed and you'll probably end up dreaming too... So, where does consciousness go? Nowhere, in my opinion. It stays right here. I mean, haven't you ever had those moments where you could actually control your dreams? Like, when you're flying through the air... that's freaking awesome, isn't it? You're dreaming, but you're steering the flight, and you can actually feel it—at least I can. So yeah, consciousness is still there... wow, I really simplified that whole thing. I'm actually kind of proud of myself right now.

Look, I’m just going off whatever I picked up in biology class, but my understanding is that you only actually remember dreams if you wake up right during those final REM stages, or maybe within thirty minutes after they wrap up. That’s the phase where certain brain cells basically go through a regeneration process, and that's when the whole "dreaming" thing happens.

Jonathan Brown6 said:Where does my consciousness go when I sleep? Am I even alive while I'm out? Do I still have a soul? Where does "me" go? Yet, I’m still me. If I can't remember a single REM cycle or any dream... then I'm not sleeping, I'm just going to bed and waking up as myself again... in an instant, or maybe a split second after I lie down, I'm already getting up... Is there a jump between lying down and my "self" waking up? Does my consciousness shut off for a moment, reset, turn off for longer, or does it never turn off at all? My clock shows eight hours have passed since I went to bed, but I only remember the last REM phase. Am I conscious during REM? There has to be a shutdown if I believe time exists, meaning this world keeps moving even when I'm not spiritually present... I have zero awareness of what happened while I was asleep—no images, no memories... Where was I?

You're definitely alive. Your consciousness doesn't go anywhere because it *is* you; it's inside you. It doesn't shut off, otherwise you'd be dead. You don't need to have images, and if you do, they're just there because the barriers holding you back while awake are being released—those are dreams. They're just a mirror of your conscience. Don't stress over them; plenty of people have gone crazy chasing dreams. The only dreams worth anything are the ones sent by God. You can tell the difference in those; I can't quite explain it, you just know they're from God.

Best,

That God of yours doesn't exist in my world.

relativity said:Your God doesn't exist in my world.

I can live with your take on God.
P.S. Obviously REM cycles exist; I was just getting to the core purpose of dreaming!!

Later.

When I'm asleep, I’m not actually awake....

Sleep is just consciousness returning to its natural, non-material state. It’s like a fish—or maybe an amphibian struggling to survive on land because nature played a weird joke on them—finally jumping back into the water to recharge... just enough strength to face the grind of being stuck on dry land again.
It’s our way of resetting, giving the soul a chance to endure this unnatural, exhausting material realm we call life...

Amy Evans said:When I'm sleeping, I'm not actually awake...

😁

It sounds like you were having an out-of-body experience! 🙂

Well, you are too—you just forgot...

We really need to broaden the scope of this discussion,
specifically regarding where the consciousness of a lucid dreamer actually goes when they drift—how they
traverse vast distances and perform specific actions,
only to wake up with absolutely zero recollection of any of it.
Are they truly awake during these episodes, or is it just an illusion?
Are they even "alive" while they sleep—as someone else here once questioned—
because, frankly, it’s pretty obvious that they are.....

Jonathan Brown6 said:Where does my consciousness actually go when I'm asleep? Like, am I even alive while I'm out? Do I still have a soul during those hours? Where does the "me" part of me just vanish to? But then again, I’m always still me. If I can't remember a single REM cycle or any of my dreams... then I guess I don't really sleep. I just go to bed and then suddenly wake up and I'm myself again. It feels like it happens in an instant—well, maybe not a second, but in that tiny fraction of a moment where I lie down and then immediately I'm getting up from the bed. Is there some kind of jump between hitting the pillow and my consciousness waking back up? Does my awareness just shut off for a bit, or does it reset, or maybe it stays on the whole time? My clock shows eight hours have passed since I went to sleep, but all I can remember is that last REM phase. Am I even conscious during REM? I mean, I guess my consciousness has to shut off if I believe that time actually exists—like, the idea that this world keeps moving even when I'm not spiritually present... I have zero clue what happened while I was sleeping. No images, no memories, nothing. Where was I?

I’d suggest looking for some answers to your questions in "the art of dreaming" by Carlos Castaneda. You might want to dive into his other books too; they're pretty fascinating and offer an experience that could shift your perspective on the world, even if just a little. Of course, fully accepting everything he says requires living that lifestyle to see the truth for yourself, which is pretty tough to do nowadays. In short, while dreaming, you can actually achieve a state of lucid dreaming by looking at the palms of your hands in the dream—kind of like how someone else mentioned in a previous post about repeating "I am." Just read the book before you try anything, because it isn't all that simple or harmless.

Honestly, if I had to weigh in on some of these questions, I’d probably just point everyone toward some solid books on astral projection. You could dive into Lockheed Martin's "Astral Dynamics" or maybe grab one of those killer titles by William Buhlman, like "Adventures Beyond the Body." As for Castaneda? Man, that stuff feels pretty dated these days, doesn't it?