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Historical Precedents

Is the entire universe a dream in the mind of some higher dimensional being? The idea isn't new. Some of the world's oldest myths and philosophies have been preserved in the Indian Hindu tradition. One of their teachings is that the god Brahma dreamed the universe into existence. That includes you and me. The Gnostics also had similar ideas, in that the universe was said to be an illusionary state created by the Demiurge and that we have been tricked into thinking it is real.

Cosmic Horror

In modern times this idea was picked up by horror author H.P. Lovecraft. His stories all take place within the same fictional universe. Within those stories it is revealed that the universe is a dream in the mind of the "blind idiot god" named Azathoth. This harkens back to the Gnostic idea of the Demiurge, often named Yaldabaoth, who was also described as blind by that tradition. We'll get back to this particular point in a bit.

Implications of Living in a Dream

Let's suppose for a moment that there is some truth in these ideas. What does this mean for us as individuals? First of all, that means each of us is a dream character in that dream. Dream characters, as well as everything else, is a representation of an aspect of the mind having the dream. Therefore each of us is an element of the dreamer's psyche. (For convenience sake we can refer to that dreamer as "God.") In addition, that also means that literally everything you experience, including apparently inanimate objects, is also part of God's psyche. The further implications of this would be that we are all connected. Everyone and every thing is a different aspect of the mind of God.

As Above, So Below

You may have heard the very famous Hermetic axiom, "As Above, So Below." The idea that patterns are scalable and repeat themselves through various dimensions of being. In this case, we can look at the Dreaming Experience to gain insight into the nature of the Waking Experience (and vice versa.) In this sense we can see that when we sleep and dream, our mind is the creator of the dream world and everything in that world is a representation of an aspect of our mind. You are the god of your own dream world, however we only experience it via the avatar of one particular dream character. The individual identifies with the dream character they are experiencing the simulation through. We often get caught up in the narrative and forget the true nature of the experience we are having. These statements are just as true about the asleep-dreaming experience as they are about the so-called waking experience.

Blind Creator

The idea that the creator of this dream of existence is blind can be understood in the same sense that when you personally dream, you don't create that world and its inhabitants consciously. It simply arises, fully formed. For most people, most of the time, we get so caught up in the dream that we forget we are the dreamer! If we take the Hermetic axiom previously mentioned into account, we can understand that the deity who is dreaming our existence didn't necessarily do so with conscious intention. From our own dreaming experiences we also know that sometimes we do become aware of the fact that we are dreaming. This is called a Lucid Dream. What would a Lucid Dream mean in the context of the dream of so-called "waking" experience? I will leave you with that question to ponder.