Page 680 - Atlas of Creation Volume 4

lity of either set of images as we observe them.

Yet we do have proof that dreams are not real.
When we awaken, we say, “It was all just a dre-
am.” So how can we prove that we are not drea-

ming at this very moment?
Allah imparts this truth in His verses:
The Trumpet will be blown and at once they
will be sliding from their graves towards their
Lord. They will say, “Alas for us! Who has raised
us from our resting-place? This is what the All-
Merciful promised us. The Messengers were

telling the truth.” (Qur’an, 37:51-52)
The proof of this at this moment is the scien-
tifically imparted evidence. In this case, the mo-
When we dream of smelling a flower, we enjoy a perfect sensa-
ment that we’ll wake up from the dream will be tion of the unique perfume of that flower. The reason for this is
when we depart from this earthly life. So the that the same processes take place in the brain when we actu-
ally smell a flower or when we only dream we are doing so.
right thing to do is to regard this world as mere
illusion for us, as something we experience in

the mind, and behave accordingly.
Peter Russell compares the realism of dreams to that of the world we inhabit:

Our perception of the world has the very convincing appearance of being “out there” around us, but it is no
more “out there” than are our nightly dreams. In our dreams we are aware of sights, sounds, and sensations
happening around us. We are aware of our bodies. We think and reason. We feel fear, anger, pleasure, and

love. We experience other people as separate individuals, speaking and interacting with us. The dream ap-
pears to be happening “out there” in the world around us. Only when we awaken do we realize that it was
all just a dream—a creation in the mind.

When we say, “It was all just a dream,” we are referring to the fact that the experience was not based on
physical reality. It was created from memories, hopes, fears and other factors. In the waking state, our ima-
ge of the world is based on sensory information drawn from our physical surroundings. This gives our wa-

king experience a consistency and sense of reality not found in dreams. But the truth is, our waking reality
is as much a creation of our minds as are our dreams. 74

Réné Descartes described this as well:

I dream of doing this or that, going here or there; but when I awake I realize that I have done nothing, that I
have been nowhere, but have been lying quietly in bed. Who can guarantee that I am not dreaming now, or
that even my entire life is not a dream? 75

Never, of course, can we guarantee that the people around us, or even the life we are experiencing
at this moment, are not a dream. When we dream, we can touch a piece of ice and perceive its cold wet-

ness and transparency in a perfect form. When we smell a rose, we perceive its unique scent in an equally
flawless manner. The reason is that the same processes take place in our brains when we really smell a
rose or only dream that we are doing so.
That being so, we can never know when we are experiencing the true image and perfume of a rose.

In fact, we never have direct experience of a real rose in either case, and in either event. Neither the ima-
ge nor the perfume of the rose are anywhere in our brains.
Therefore, neither case represents reality, as Gerald O’Brien describes:

Yes, we’re asleep in our beds, our eyes are shut and yet we are having for many people some very vivid vi-
sual experiences. We are in our visual experiences situated in a world populated by people, by things hap-

pening around us and while we’re in the dream state to all the world it appears to us as though we’re actu-

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