Life Is but a Dream: Meaning, Origin, and Implications

Life is but a dream means that our lives merely are subjective dreams or illusions as opposed to being a solid objective cosmic existence. 

It also indicates that the objective reality we experience is a simulation, just like we see a simulation or mental projection when we dream while sleeping. 

Although it might sound simple at first, there are numerous philosophical and scientific implications of the idea that life is a dream.

Metaphysical philosophers and scientists have been struggling with this view of life for a long time. 

Origin of the Saying “Life Is but a Dream”

It’s very much likely such thoughts, ideas, or expressions originated not much after the human mind reached the capability to think about metaphysical aspects of life. 

Humans have been trying to figure out the meaning, purpose, and nature of life from time immemorial. So, this thought must have crossed even our ancestors in the cave.

However, the first historical records of this saying can be found in the ancient Indian Vedantic texts. Originally, the Vedas were orally transmitted in archaic Sanskrit during the 2nd millennium BCE. The Sanskrit word that corresponds to this thought of life being a dream is Maya, meaning illusion. 

This thought also finds expression in Plato’s allegory of the cave.

In recent times, this idea has become a popular theme in all forms of cultural productions, such as plays, poems, songs, and movies.

However, things become most interesting in the sci-fi genre. Many popular films have built upon this concept of life being a dream-like phenomenon. Movies like “Inception” and “Metrix” are to name a couple. 

A recent Netflix series “1899” has attempted to simplify this concept further by making the characters live and suffer inside a ship only to realize later that they are in fact experiencing a mental projection – ‘a construct’ of reality simulated inside their brain via some kind of neurotech. And, spoiler alert, they are actually not in a ship on the ocean in 1899; they are, in fact, in a spaceship in 2099. 

Now, this spaceship also can be in another kind of somewhere that’s a part of yet another projection; who knows!

Something similar happened to the ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu in the 4th century BCE. 

Once, he dreamed that he was a butterfly. In his dream, he was quite sure that he was a butterfly. But when he woke up, he realized that he had just been dreaming. Then he thought, “Was I dreaming I was a butterfly, or am I now really a butterfly dreaming that I am a human?”

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that the implications of this saying are diverse and deep.

Implications of the Saying “Life Is but a Dream”

What the phrase “life is but a dream” points towards is a very real possibility that life may not be how we experience it. It may not be this whole material universe with physical shapes and forms. 

All this that we experience may as well be just happening inside our minds as a form of projection or simulation. 

But the questions that it evokes are many and intensely mesmerizing.

– Who is dreaming the dream?

– Am I dreaming it? 

– Are everybody else mere characters within my dream?

– Or is it god dreaming it all, and we are mere characters in their dream?

But the main question we should ask ourselves before getting lost in the metaphysical quagmire is – does all this really matter?

In a way, theoretically, it does matter a lot. If life is a dream-like substance and not this rigid solid state of physical existence governed stringently by the laws of nature, the rigidity and stringency of life become a thing open to manipulative maneuvers. 

The realm of true magic becomes a bit more possible. 

All the esoteric, mystical, extra-sensory experiences seem a bit more feasible for us.

Like in dreams, we fly; maybe, if we try enough, we could also fly in this real life of a dream that we are dreaming. Just like Trinity did in the latest installment of the Matrix franchise — The Matrix Resurrections.

On the other hand, the implications of this phrase on the moral and ethical grounds of life are also vast. 

Such as, if life is a dream, do the bad deeds we commit become somehow less bad due to being in a dream?  

Should we not give much importance to life anyway? 

However, these questions on the moral aspects of things start to lose weight when we look at things practically. 

Can Life Really Be Just a Dream?

It points towards a very real possibility that life as we know it could merely be a simulation of sorts. 

Nothing in science is there so far to disprove that it can’t be. On the contrary, quantum mechanical meanderings have even gone on to theorize in favor of this saying. 

And, when you think of it that way, it also seems very much of a possibility. 

If our minds have the ability to convince us of the existence of the dream reality when we dream, it’s very much possible that it could just be convincing us of the very reality of our everyday life!

But the main question is, does it really change anything practically? 

The answer is a confounding no! 

So, what if life is indeed a dream? Does that mean it is not real? 

No, everything is real. Whatever life is, it is definitely real, whether a simulation or not. 

Whether life is a dream or not, it’s real, this way or the other. And the way we experience it is the only way for us to experience it. 

Even our everyday dreams are real. Although they might not have any physical existence besides the firing of the neurons, they are still real in some way or form. 

Take, for example, an audio file that you run on your computer or a VR experience for that matter. These are very much real, although not in the form we experience them. They are data, but we see or feel them as unique experiences.

How the mechanics of life is playing out for the experience to happen within us is a concern and interest for science, philosophy, and the inquisitive mind as a whole, but that doesn’t really matter when it comes to actually living this life.

It is we who are experiencing this existence. Let’s keep doing that. 

Even if it’s a dream, let’s keep dreaming. 

And keep dreaming within that dream.