19. Dreams

Subchapter 10c discusses the importance of dreaming to our existence. In fact, a person can survive longer without food and water than they can without sleep. An interesting perspective is to view the implications between consciousness, sleep, and the creation of reality. Without the self-ordering process sleep provides for our brains, we rapidly become psychotic and ultimately perish. You could say at that point, we have ceased to exist in this dimension.

In August 2004, Newsweek magazine featured a cover story on "The Mystery of Dreams." A reader sent a letter to the magazine describing how, a few years earlier, he had set the world record for sleep deprivation as a promotional stunt for a radio station. He stayed awake for 361 hours and 55 minutes to break the old record of 360 hours. The stunt was documented by the local hospital for research. He was taken off the air after seven days because of massive hallucinations, which he said he could still vividly remember. He was told that he was, in effect, dreaming while conscious, a sort of "forced dreaming" that the brain was using for its survival. (Newsweek Aug. 23, 2004, p. 19)