Memory & Dreaming

Title: Memory & Dreaming
Date: 28 November 2011
Category: Outside of Class

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            For a university supplement essay, I had to answer to this prompt: “Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote, “Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.” This prompt was inspired by Jill Hampshire, a student at the university. I answered this question by stating that memory was the third thing. By living, we create memories, which affect what we dream during our sleep. Thinking about this point of view has however, led me to several knowledge issues attacking this claim. How do we know that our real life is not a memory from the past life? Our real-life now, or the memory, both could be déjà vu of our previous life that we have not come to realize. [Knowledge Issue/ Wondering] This idea can be linked with the movie “Inception” where we live in multiple layers of dreams, and the concept of the brains in a vat, in which we create illusions of the world around us, while in reality, we don’t exist; only our brain exists. [Connections]

            I could attempt at explaining the reasons why I don’t believe in this. For instance I could ask why is it that I keep facing the same lifestyle with the same people, same surrounding and the same place for countless times if it was just memories in my head, don’t memories fade over time?  However, this question can be explained by another question: couldn’t it be that you’re constantly living in the memory, never getting out of it? The dreams, the thoughts, the things that you perceive, the process of you falling asleep and waking up, all could all be the components making up the memory. [Wonderings/ Counterclaims] If this was true, then what would be the point of living the “real” life? How do we distinguish reality from memory and dream? Who decides what is what? Does it matter if we don’t know what state we are living in? Does it only matter whether we are living or not? If we were constantly living a memory, would living be equivalent to dreaming and wondering, since we’re not really doing anything active? But wouldn’t dreaming and wondering count as being active in the mind? How will we ever know which state we are in and what “real” life is? [Knowledge Issues/ Wondering]