That part of my brain had knowledge that I did not.
I think it’s more likely that the idea “this is a dream” appeared, in the form of this dream character saying it. It doesn’t really have to be “knowledge” that somehow existed previously to the coach mentioning dreaming. I mean that the coach probably didn’t have any private thoughts, that would be there but hidden from you.
I would agree with you if I’d believed the coach as soon as she told me. I honestly didn’t believe her- it didn’t feel like rationalizing or pretending. It’s possible I’m misremembering that detail, but at the time that’s what shook me up so much.
I mean that the idea “this is a dream” may appear even without you believing it. Kinda like you can think about the idea “God exists” even if you don’t believe it. Or how you can imagine / dream about someone telling you “God exists”.
I agree with you that the whole situation is quite wild. But I don’t think that to explain it we need separate entities in our head, whose thoughts we can’t access. We may simply have just one global workspace / world simulation, and there are parts of it that we experience as “me” and “my thoughts”, and parts that we experience as “not me”. And that “this is a dream” idea appeared in the “not me, not my thought” part + it felt very unlikely so you couldn’t believe it.
It is fascinating though, that even though it felt so unlikely, the idea was somehow still dreamed up. In that sense I guess there was a part of your mind outside of “you” that could notice more than you?
Ah- I agree with you, here. I addressed this in my post “My Weirdest Experience Wasn’t.”
“Catherine presented me with a truth that I did not believe- that I was dreaming, and that my real self lived in a different reality. I rejected this knowledge, even though it was correct, until I tested her claim and awoke. But though it may seem strange that a character in a dream should know something that I did not, I have had similar experiences in my waking life. I’ve often questioned memories that surfaced in my mind- with good reason. Memory is notoriously unreliable. There have been many times when I’ve remembered things and said to myself “wait- that can’t be right.” Sometimes these memories proved to be correct, and sometimes not, but each time, my memory was supplying me with something my conscious mind rejected, similar to my dream. The way the subconscious mind supplies memories does not necessarily indicate the activity of a separate entity within our minds. That claim may be researched further, but my dream does not offer any special evidence. ”
I think it’s more likely that the idea “this is a dream” appeared, in the form of this dream character saying it. It doesn’t really have to be “knowledge” that somehow existed previously to the coach mentioning dreaming. I mean that the coach probably didn’t have any private thoughts, that would be there but hidden from you.
I would agree with you if I’d believed the coach as soon as she told me. I honestly didn’t believe her- it didn’t feel like rationalizing or pretending. It’s possible I’m misremembering that detail, but at the time that’s what shook me up so much.
I mean that the idea “this is a dream” may appear even without you believing it. Kinda like you can think about the idea “God exists” even if you don’t believe it. Or how you can imagine / dream about someone telling you “God exists”.
I agree with you that the whole situation is quite wild. But I don’t think that to explain it we need separate entities in our head, whose thoughts we can’t access. We may simply have just one global workspace / world simulation, and there are parts of it that we experience as “me” and “my thoughts”, and parts that we experience as “not me”. And that “this is a dream” idea appeared in the “not me, not my thought” part + it felt very unlikely so you couldn’t believe it.
It is fascinating though, that even though it felt so unlikely, the idea was somehow still dreamed up. In that sense I guess there was a part of your mind outside of “you” that could notice more than you?
Ah- I agree with you, here. I addressed this in my post “My Weirdest Experience Wasn’t.”
“Catherine presented me with a truth that I did not believe- that I was dreaming, and that my real self lived in a different reality. I rejected this knowledge, even though it was correct, until I tested her claim and awoke. But though it may seem strange that a character in a dream should know something that I did not, I have had similar experiences in my waking life. I’ve often questioned memories that surfaced in my mind- with good reason. Memory is notoriously unreliable. There have been many times when I’ve remembered things and said to myself “wait- that can’t be right.” Sometimes these memories proved to be correct, and sometimes not, but each time, my memory was supplying me with something my conscious mind rejected, similar to my dream. The way the subconscious mind supplies memories does not necessarily indicate the activity of a separate entity within our minds. That claim may be researched further, but my dream does not offer any special evidence. ”