Descartes, in his “First Meditations” wrote that he couldn’t tell whether he was dreaming or not. I believe we exist in different places, yet we all inhabit these places at the same time. But we remain highly unaware of this phenomena, our minds could be theoretically protecting themselves from these memories. But how can this happen you may ask, well there’s this theory called “Quantum Physics” which is the theory of photons, electrons,etc existing in two places at once. This theory states that our physical bodies don’t go anywhere but our awareness does. According to this theory we could have two individual sets of memories. Often we find ourselves confused in which set is true or false. Choices by Deborah Lynn Jacobs, is a great example of this theory. Throughout this book, the protagonist, Kathleen, moves within four different time sets;Kathleen, Kay, Kath, and Kathy. Kathleen, on her first time set has her brother, caring parents and an amazing friend, Kay’s time set was chaotic, her mom drinks and dad does even talk to her, she hangs out with a girl named Sunny, who’s a bad influence on her. Kath’s time set is calmer but still has problems with her parent thanks to the car accident her brother was in. Kathy, she has short black hair with a belly button ring, which surprises her, but not in a good way.
The only thing that every time set has in common is this guy named Luke, who’s following her during this realities, that feel like dreams to both of them. Her movement within dimensions started with a tragic event of her brother’s death during a car crash. She kept shifting through every set, she was confused because every time she woke up, Kathleen wasn’t sure who she was, or which version of herself she woke up into. Dreams are real,we have times of deja vu’s when we walk or talk to someone during our daily life, we know that we have seen certain things somewhere but we don’t recall where, maybe we saw that in another dimension but don’t fully understand because we believe it’s all a dream.
In a personal experience, there was this time in which i was walking in the beach, i picked up a shell but it seemed so familiar as if i had previously picked it up. It’s weird having those kinds of experiences because it confused our brain and deceives us to believe it was a dream. Dreams can be real experiences, let’s use the space vs earth analogy. On earth we can all agree that if you try to jump from a bridge or a mountain, with the intentions of flying like a bird with no flying apparatus, you wouldn't really like to know what’s waiting for you at the bottom. We can also agree that on earth it rains water, however you can jump in space from a tall height without quickly falling to your death, because there’s no gravity. On venus, it's believed to rain droplets of sulfuric acid, both of these occurrences are currently non-existent, and theoretically impossible on planet Earth.
On venus and in space, these phenomenons are both very much known to be real on those physical plains. Dreams in a sense are similar, dreaming or being in a dream is a different state of being or existence sort of speak. In this altered state of being,the normal expectations of possibility and laws of physics, aren’t set in stone based on our preconceived expectations that we have here on earth. Another example is The Matrix ,Morpheus, hacks into the Matrix and contacts Neo, telling him: “The world you see is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. . . . Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”
Morpheus then presents Neo with two pills and asks him to make a choice. “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. Take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” This relates to the theory because throughout the movie Neo is consciously awake within this “reality”. He can hear but there’s no emotions shown. He is just there to complete his mission. Neo knows that everything he sees is like a dream but surely enough it can kill him in his consciousness and reality.
The Matrix raises the question of “How do you know whether the things you perceive are real or just an illusion.”. This position is called skepticism, the genuine knowledge in such matters that is unattainable. The Matrix also exploits the fears of Descartes theory “What if all of life is actually a dream”? How do we know that we are awake, rather than merely dreaming? How do we know that our thoughts are not being manipulated, and that our perceptions of reality are accurate? The film involves manipulation of the mind and soul where human actions have no real consequences in a world that exists independently of their own mind. Some dreams are extremely vivid and lucid that one can never be fully positive that what you are experiencing under these conditions is dream or reality. And of course this is the problem – there does not appear to be any sure test to distinguish vivid/lucid dreaming from perceptions received in the 'real' world under normal circumstances. On the other hand we generally have no problem in making the distinction because our dreams have that quality – that 'dream' quality which is sufficiently remote from our waking experience to assure us that what is dreamt is not real. It takes little imagination to conceive of the next possible step of sensory and perceptual manipulation of the kind that lies at the core of 'The Matrix' narrative. Therefore, Descartes was not dreaming, he thought he was because his mind was protecting itself making him believe that everything that happened to him was simply dream. Still today, we haven’t fully understand what this phenomenon can do, or how far it can go. Finally, given to the evidence provided i have supported my theory with several given example that can briefly simplify this theory.