Doubt and Crises
You are tired, and even your most well-meaning friends have given up trying to guide you back to the path of reason. You probably want to fall asleep – finally sleep again, but even that doesn’t help, because you know you’ll inevitably wake up again.
You wake up and rub the sleep from your eyes – the memories of your last dreams still feel real, almost as if they were reality. But you know: they were just dreams.
Just awakened, you encounter people – people from your dreams.
They go about their business, celebrate, and mourn. Mostly they are in a hurry, not necessarily in a bad mood, but they don’t seem happy either.
Am I awake or dreaming? 8
How do you know you haven’t fallen asleep again and are continuing your dream?
You don’t know – but something feels different. You observe people, and yourself too.
Unlike in a dream, you no longer understand where the hurry comes from and why these people take the world so seriously. You make contact, ask questions, and well-meaning friends explain that life is serious and dangerous. They don’t understand how you distinguish between the dream world and awakening – after all, everyone has to eat and pay their bills.
You agree, knowing full well that you can’t take it with you. You nod because you have no answer – they are right. You are probably the dreamer.
And yet you feel that something is wrong with this world. It becomes alien to you, because one thing you know for sure: You are no longer sleeping.
You clearly see that this game of appearances is nothing more than a world of images, concepts, and stories that have taken on a life of their own – empty, once you see through them.
You seek the truth – but what is truth, and who cares?
You know perfectly well that you are not insane. You have never seen so clearly, and you are sure: You can no longer participate in the game of the dream world.
Game Over
In some moments, it pulls you in.
And even if you sincerely try to play along – perhaps for months, perhaps for years – you knew after just a few minutes: It’s a game. A false game. Like with the shell game players who immediately recognize when your attention wavers for a moment – and then strike.
You are tired – so tired.
Even your dearest friends can no longer bring you back to the path of reason.
You just want to sleep, to escape the pain.
But you know: You will wake up again – and the fear remains.
You feel alone.
You drag yourself through everyday life, trying somehow to meet the demands of the dream world – and yet you’ve known for a long time: It can’t go on like this much longer.
What makes you forget that you are connected to everything?
What did you miss in the dream world that pulls you back to sleep so strongly?
