“We’re In Some Sort Of Shared Hallucination” - Part One

After I had watched what I would describe as a normal Arrow episode, the next episode ended up being another crossover episode titled “Invasion!” I thought this was well-made and shook things up a bit.

Since that time, I have thought about what happened in this episode, and I think it is actually very deep. I think that what the five characters go through is essentially what happens in the ‘real world’.

The Story

The basic gist of this episode - if you haven’t seen it yet and plan to, it might be best not to read any more until you have - is that five characters from Arrow end up being abducted by aliens and held in pods.

On the spaceship, they are in an unconscious state where they are each sharing a simulated reality. In other words, they are not awake in the real world but they are all awake in a false reality.

Its Takes A While

Nonetheless, it takes them a while to realise that their new reality is not real and that its one big dream. John Diggle says that “we’re in some sort of shared hallucination”, and Oliver Queens has “memory flashes” of his real-life calling them “dreams but not dreams.”

After they all become aware of what is going on, they find a way to leave this false reality and to go back to the real world. I have no idea what happens after this as I haven’t seen the next episode.

One Big Dream

Anyway, it could be said that when someone is awake, they will be in the real world, and when they are asleep, they will be in a dream. What they experience via their five senses is what is real and something that they can trust.

However, what if what they experience in their waking life is no more real than what they experience in a  dream? What if both of these experiences are a creation of their own consciousness and are, therefore, not actually different from each other?

No Chance

If someone was to hear this, they could end up dismissing what I’m saying and even believe that this could only be said by someone who is totally deluded. As far as they are concerned, what they experience via their five senses when they are awake will be real and what they experience when they are asleep will be false.

What they believe will most likely be backed up by the people in their life and the society that they live in. The fact that so many people believe what they believe will be seen as proof that this view is the truth.

An Example

If someone doesn’t dismiss this outlook and is open-minded, there is something that they can do to emotionally connect to what I’m talking about. What they can do is think about a moment in their life when their outer world changed after something changed inside them.

Now, if their reality was fixed and they were nothing more than observers of what is going on ‘out there’, meaning that they are not playing a part in their experience, this wouldn’t have taken place. The reason this took place is that their own consciousness changed and, as a result, their life changed.

The Key Difference

With that aside for the moment, if the team hadn’t realised what was going on, they wouldn’t have been able to get back to the real world – to change their life. Ultimately, they were able to wake up from their dream and to see it for what it was.

Likewise, in order for someone to change their life in the so-called real world, they too will need to see it for what it is. If they are too consumed in a dream of their own creation, this won’t be an option.

Two Parts

The outcome of this is that what is going on ‘out there’ will be seen as having control over them and there won’t be much that they can do. Firstly, their ego-mind, along with their eyes, will cause them to see themselves as being separate from what is going on externally, and, secondly, most of what is going on externally will be created by what is going on in their unconscious mind.

For one to ‘wake up’ and to see that they are always dreaming, no matter how real their waking life may seem, they will need to understand how their mind works and to accept that their conscious mind only plays a small part in what their reality is like. Unless this takes place, they will continue to believe that the physical reality is real and be oblivious to the effect that their hidden mind, their unconscious mind, is having on their waking dream and even on the dreams that they have when they are ‘asleep’.

Final Thoughts

The view that human beings are always dreaming, whether they are awake or asleep, is something that has been spoken about for thousands of years. In most societies around the world, societies that are largely an expression of ego-consciousness, this is not something that is considered, let alone accepted.
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One consequence of this is that a lot of people see themselves as victims of circumstances that are out of their control. This means that a lot of people feel disempowered and are unconsciously drawn to situations that will validate their view of themselves as a victim.  

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Oliver JR Cooper