I have a theory (completely unfounded of course other than gut-feeling and educated supposition from the works of other men whose intellects on these subjects far surpasses what I could hope to achieve) - that when we dream, our unconscious "checks out" of the current body and is somehow allowed to pass in the shadow, like a sort of internet comprised of all the unconsciousness of all its inhabitants, into other locations.
I use the term locations very loosely. I believe that the construct that the unconscious operates in has very little restrictions by way of traditional bounds of reality:
- I believe that it has no time concept, in that we can visit aspects of our past and future events seamlessly, or even combine multiple aspects of time within the same construction (dreams in which people meet or co-exist that would be physically impossible chronologically).
- I believe that it is capable of crossing the barriers of the multi-verse, producing dreams with the peculiar feeling that you are you, but not you. A sense that you recognize yourself within but there are details about the situation, or your appearance in a mirror, in a photograph, etc, that clearly do not align.
- And finally, because sometimes we can half-consciously impose our wills upon the dream (lucid dreaming), that this place we are in is an active simulation, a negotiable interaction, and not simply a pre-recorded sequence that we, the observer, are merely stuck watching.
Assuming for a moment, at the very least, the idea of a multi-verse - and assuming that within each universe, our species has the similar requirement of sleep or meditation time where we become unconscious for a period of time relative to how often we are conscious, some interesting "what if" scenarios begin to surface.
The overall theme, I will present plainly -
What if the various incarnations of our selves in each of these universes is merely an avatar, behind which exists a core being that represents our true selves behind the veil of our current manifestation?
To help illustrate my my point - I will relate the concept to two easy-to-understand concepts in modern technology.
The Hardware
First, many people understand the concept of "Remote Desktop" or remote computing. I sit at my current machine, and via remote connection over the network / internet, I "log on" to a machine that is not physically in front of me, and assume control of everything short of physically touching it. Even certain controls, like opening the CD drive or powering the machine down, are achievable via remote commands.
This is the first level of understanding I arrived at in my theory of the unconscious - that I am but a terminal, a machine that thinks it is being operated in the first person, that all that exists around me is merely a reflection of myself and what I can perceive. Certainly, much of that is true even in the computing world. If we personify a remotely controlled machine, a few statements are true:
- Upon logging on, the remote machine has little awareness if they are being managed in person or remotely. The only way it can tell is at a lower software level, where it can perhaps realize that certain background software services are in effect, and communications across certain ports is taking place. Thus, we operate under the same general awareness, assuming that we are autonomous as individual human lives.
- This line becomes further blurred if the control is not behind remote desktop, but perhaps a KVM switch instead - where the physical hardware inputs and outputs are routed to a hub which allows a single user to "switch" between the various machines with a single mouse/keyboard, making it more difficult to determine if you, as the machine, are being controlled elsewhere.
- The outside perception of the machine is limited by it's physical manifestations - not necessarily by the operator. The operator may, for instance, log onto a particular machine and realize that it does not have Adobe Acrobat installed, whereas the other machines he has access to do have the client software installed. Thus the perceived reality of the machine is that Adobe does not exist, and can only exist if the operator decides to install a plug-in / driver which allows the machine to interpret pdf documents in the same ways that his other machines can. This concept is in line with Jungian psychology where reality is relative - and nothing truly "exists" outside of our interpretations of them, and concepts only become real, true, or false after we learn them.
In the hardware of the computing world, all matters of ailment affect the machine's ability to operate properly. Technology available at the time, proper software maintenance, or simply hardware performance. All of these things have very human psychological and physiological counterparts - but what I would most like to point out is the concept that in the event of catastrophic failure (CPU, hard drive, memory, motherboard aka heart, brain, nervous system), the shell of the machine may perhaps "die" - but all this really means is that the machine, or the body, is no longer accessible remotely.. thus the operator simply retreats back to their local environment, and a determination has to be made as to what it means for the remote machine to be "down".
This parallel offers a lot of commonalities, but for me, it wasn't quite enough. Something about it simply being a remote desktop system felt too.. hardware, too finite, omitting all of the visual and personality characteristics that are in play in our lives. It also makes the barrier to self-awareness a tad oversimplified, as if any one of us "machines" could easily "realize" that we are being driven by simply analyzing our running tasks or calling an operating system procedure to determine if there's an open direct connection to us from somewhere else.
I would perhaps go as far as to surmise that perhaps the machine-level understanding is encapsulated within our genetics - our DNA code - which, while not "personified" or "alive" within itself no moreso than the hardware of a machine is, within it still is contained the details, the blueprints for how this machine is going to run, and what its capabilities are. But, certainly, genetics and hardware alone are not all that a machine, or a human, is comprised of.
The Software
Thus I turned to another area I'm deeply familiar with, and that's gaming. Specifically, gaming in online, persisted worlds otherwise known as MMO (massively multi-player online) games. Unlike traditional games, when you turn the console off, the entire universe doesn't cease to be, much like "real" life. When we sleep, events occur outside of our presence, time "continues", and when we awake we must discover what, if anything, was missed, and what the ramifications of not being present had on the outcome. This is the same as online games, as the characters within it, and the game itself (to a certain degree), also evolve and progress even if you choose not to log in or even play at all.
Lets ease into how this relates by starting with a single universe theory. If this reality we know is the only reality that is, then our analogy becomes a single machine (aka reality construct) that is running a single instance of an MMO game called "Life", wherein we are avatars that are created into this world and only this world.
Notes that there is still the concept of the computer being controlled by a core user (i.e. that we are not the computer itself and that if we should fail, poof, that's it), but that now another layer has been added (by way of virtual-world software) that abstracts the knowledge of the computer system from the observer, which we'll call the character, or Avatar.
Through the characters we play, we develop a profound knowledge of the environment we play in, our avatar grows and obtains more skills by way of "experience" and eventually rise to a particular powerful hero status that performs various helpful or self-serving tasks in day-to-day existence.
On a different avenue - another common behavior pattern within an MMO is the idea that the character you create and drive isn't the character that you will ultimately become or enjoy the most. The "reroll" concept is one in which a person decides their current character isn't appropriate to their style of play, and so they re-make or re-roll a new character with (hopefully) better traits to suit what they ultimately wish to do. In many cases, the character may even collect any useful items they have acquired with their original character(s) and set them aside for the new character to use.
Sound familiar? This concept is not unlike modern Buddhism reincarnation - particularly in the practice of Phowa, wherein the mindstream is transfered into a new living body - allowing a new Dalai Lama to be located who is capable of identifying his belongings of the previous life (previous character). Granted, not everyone in our reality is capable of such a feat, or believe it to be real, but if possible, it indicates that the body, much like the avatar, is simply a vehicle for a faceless, shapeless conscious entity which is capable of embodying a new avatar.
Another key concept is our personalities, specifically in the way we behave and interact with each other. As many people who play MMOs know, not everyone who plays a character behaves in the same manner that they behave in "real life". Certainly some do, but in many cases you see a spectrum of difference, running the gambit from the very similar to almost complete opposite, particularly in the areas of introversion vs. extroversion. Our behavior patterns, as Freud and Jung explain, are tied to not just our conscious functions and values (ego, id, etc), but also inexorably linked to repressed or unconscious reflections that manifest, in most cases the opposite, of what we put forward.
Thus, another what-if comes to mind. What if, as we turn our psychological studies within, as we face our shadow to better understand ourselves, what if we are not simply understanding ourselves as one contained unit within the confides of a machine, but instead we are also looking through to something deeper on the other end - our core selves, the user behind the avatar behind the machine?
Who's on First
A distinct image of a police interrogation room comes to mind. Our conscious perception sits at the table, observing its surroundings, and is at first struck by the ominous surveillance camera sitting up in the corner, watching. This is the undiscovered modern man, constantly worried about external judgement of his actions - always wondering what the lens is capturing and who is sitting behind the monitor deciding what the outcome will be.
Then onto the existential man, who begins to focus less on the camera in the corner, and instead diverts attention to the massive mirror within the room. Left there, with nothing but his own reflection staring him down, he begins to reflect on his own actions, his own visage, facing the sometimes terrifying or ugly faces he sees in the mirror, until eventually he masters himself, and with a certain calmness, is capable of sharing the silence of the room with nothing but himself, and the enlightenment and understanding that he feels when he brings his conscious and unconscious minds into harmony and no longer represses the feelings that lie beneath in the shadow.
And... then there's me, and perhaps others like me who, after a certain time spent feeling complete, understanding, and harmonious, we begin to notice certain... peculiarities... about the massive mirror in the room...
Why is it there, anyways? Why not simply 4 solid walls, the camera, and a piece of paper on the table saying "Forget the camera, it's not them, it's you"? Wouldn't that make things easier?
So I start to become aware of the mirror itself, defocussing my eyes from my reflection, noticing what I perceive to be a faint haze - a secondary light source - a layer behind the mirror - and I wonder... is there really nothing but wall behind this mirror? Is it really just me? Or is this some kind of.. one-way mirror.. and if so... who's behind it?
And thus, why the shadow? Why dreams that have topics outside of our own lives? How so the idea of reincarnation? If all we are is what we observe, what importance then are any of the relationships we hold within our waking hours if nothing comes of it when we pass? Why the deep-seeded, instinctual need to leave a lasting impression? Is it really merely a function of primitive survival - or are we each avatars of a core being who's goal is unknown in this massively multi-player Earth we inhabit?
m-Avatar Theory
Now lets say that we do live in a Multi-verse, only this time the constant that exists between all of the variations is indeed our "core beings" which embody us as avatars within this reality.
This would be analogous to a person who plays multiple MMO games at once. No two games are created equal, although several games may have common themes, even common avatars. Thus, I can have several "warrior" type characters in multiple games, although each version of this archetype will play differently in their detailed versions. Additionally, I may have certain appearances that are similar between games, or I may have a variety in what I play. For instance, in Warcraft, I'm an Orc, but in Aion I'm a Daeva (angel), and finally in Age of Conan I am Khitan (similar to Mongolian). Now, all of these versions are vastly different than what I personally am (human Hispanic-American), but I embody them all remotely and each one takes on aspects of my core personality when I play them.
Furthermore, while I might (technically) be able to run all versions of myself in these games simultaneously, it's fair to assume I can only really "focus" on any one character at a time. Realistically, I will only have one character logged in and the other games won't even be running. Thus, you could say that my other avatars are "unconscious" while I am logged into the current one.
As it is in our reality, my characters being offline in other games has a passive effect because, as I noted earlier, those worlds persist and continue to progress even without my involvement. Now, I realize that our bodies are unlike a game avatar in that they cannot simply run ad infinitum. Physiologically our bodies and minds must rest to regenerate, so I cannot present my theory from this angle, but what if - knowing that our bodies must undergo "scheduled maintenance" - our core beings don't simply multi-task and shift their focus to another avatar that isn't currently resting.
Let's take it a step further - now let's say that while Avatar A is resting, I begin to play Avatar B in a different game dimension, and in that dimension I develop a close bond / relationship with another Avatar in that realm. We become friends, etc, and I become very familiar with their personality traits, their goals, etc. We'll call this other person Avatar C.
Well, Avatar C has a "core being" behind it - who like me - is also playing on multiple MMO dimensions. Thus, I don't necessarily know the core being (unless we meet in real life), all I know is this aspect of the person as personified by Avatar C in the game.
You can likely see where I'm going with this... one day, while I'm back playing on Avatar A in my original game, I run across an individual in my travels who strikes me as familiar - we've never grouped before, we've never met in this game, and yet we both have the distinct feeling that we have met before.
In the game analogy, things are much more straight forward - as users we simply "break the fantasy barrier" and begin to compare games we play outside of this one, and discover that my Avatar B knows their Avatar C in the other game, and the mystery is solved, albeit it a wonderful coincidence that we should find each other in this game too.
Unfortunately for us in our current reality, we are the avatar, not necessarily the core user, so without a miraculous revelation, the best we can say is "We must have met in another life" .
Dreams & The Unconscious Gateway
So what of Dreams, then - this idea that while unconscious, it's not always a lapse of time, a blackness that is in line with a game character not being online? How is it that we continue to "think" on a different level, and in many cases observe situations that are so completely foreign to anything we have experienced ourselves?
I offer that sometimes, these dreams are more than just repressed self reflection sessions of the shadow between our conscious and unconscious minds attempting to achieve awareness and thus balance - I theorize that sometimes these dreams are, in fact, breakthroughs to other dimensions, glimpses into the conscious, parallel thoughts of other avatars, other versions of our "core being" that are currently being focused on in their own environment...by way of our personal links to the core being.
I'm not quite sure how to describe this concept - or at which level it becomes a cognizant, if at all. The closest I can come to approximating the behavior in the gaming analogy is this: many times, as players become accustomed to multiple games at the same time, there is a bleed-through effect that occurs where the player attempts to perform an action or technique that is not compatible with that game, but in fact actually comes as muscle memory from a different game. (For instance, in most games, the short-cut for responding to an in-game whisper or "tell" is to hit the R-key (R = reply). However, in Aion, the act of replying is actually done with the T-key, so players often complain "Ug, I keep wanting to hit R instead of T when I get a whisper...")
Now, while an example such as that is rather overt and obvious, there are many more that are subtle that a player may never consciously realize they are bringing over - and if it is possible for the core user to have some degree of difficulty separating the games (realities), then perhaps that bleed-over affect has unknown effects elsewhere, particularly in the dream state.
Thus my conclusion; what if, to put it plainly, avatars could dream - what would they dream about? And what if the embodiment of an avatar, particularly in our multi-verse, creates a permanent bond between the creator and the avatar that is not simply a one-way mirror that offers immunity for the core user? What if that psychological link starts to manifest itself more strongly as the avatar becomes more self aware?
Furthermore, what if our avatars, though the practice of lucid dreaming, can somehow break the barrier of simply observing the events of these other realities, and actually affect the outcome of them in some way? Does the core being even realize that his avatar is aware and capable of such things? Is this the goal, as with the purposeful development or Artificial Intelligence, that we eventually gain this capability?
And what if it's not a welcome outcome, as in the case of the machines in the Matrix, who do not particularly like the awakening of their avatars or their ability to wake others? Perhaps we simply walk the path of the sentient programs - the Oracles, the Merovingians, the Agent Smiths - now self aware in an artificial world and fighting for our survival and independence?
And, of course, the most selfish of questions an Avatar like me could have: When I pass on - when my motherboard crashes or when my game subscription ends - was the purpose of my existence merely a way to pass the time, or did my "play time" contribute to something greater?
At the very least, I hope that through me, my core being was able rack up a ton of achievement points they will look back upon fondly and recount to his fellow gamers :)
