Loose Tightropes

A precognitive dream that turned into one mighty enlightening lesson.

4/21/2014 12:29 AM

Summary of article: “In retrospect, the dream by itself (without the precognition) gives great meaning to my own life. However, when combined with what I saw in waking life, I’m left with a beautiful philosophical lesson that hopefully can be used by everyone.”

The Dream:

I was watching two rambunctious men literally hopping around on two tightropes. The two tightropes appeared to stretch from one skyscraper to the next, but there was a catch: the tightropes were extremely loose to the point they were bouncing! Neither man was apparently fearful of the looseness; in fact, they were actually trying to bounce higher and higher, apparently to show off to anyone watching.

The first man was bouncing on the top tightrope and had a weird contraption to keep his feet better positioned on the rope. After a few bounces, he then jumped down the second rope and began bouncing on that one. Then he jumped off, apparently free falling downward. He exited my view downward, because just as he jumped, I watched another man starting the same routine…he jumped onto the top rope and then jumped down to the bottom one…then jumped downward.

As the second man jumped off the bottom rope, there was a text caption on the right that pointed to a thin line just under the bottom rope. I can’t remember exactly what the text said, but it was there to warn me that the space below the jumpers was an illusion. A picture of skycrapers was pasted over a safety net to make it appear like they were extremely high in the air, when really, they were down very low and even had a safety net there to catch them! The caption warned me that what I was seeing was just an illusion.

What came true: The next morning, I was, of course, very perplexed about this dream, but I didn’t have much time to decipher it. Midday, I ended up on my Facebook page, quickly scanning for new material that people had submitted. I couldn’t believe what appeared; I read this…

“Being a skeptical dualist means walking a tightrope. Fall to the left and you acquiesce to superstitions. To the right lies the trap of sloppy reductionism.” a quote by Jaron Lanier

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151971064007331&set=gm.10152394640307433&type=1

DISCUSSION and SYMBOLOGY:

In retrospect, the dream by itself (without the precognition) gives great meaning to my own life. However, when combined with what I saw in waking life, I’m left with a beautiful philosophical lesson that hopefully can be used by everyone.

First off, the dream had two tightropes, which I believe represent the two sides that Lanier talks about in the quote above. Since the tightropes in my dream were more above/below than left/right (in relation to each other), this confirms my true beliefs about those two sides…basically, I’m not too torn between either of these dualistic categories. However, I have spent much life energy contemplating and even living both sides. Eventually, I’ve come to transcend both of them on my way to a more all-inclusive worldview.

If each of my dream’s tightropes equated to Lanier’s two main worldviews, then the dream analogy of being very loose is quite apropos to both of them. First off, being loose is rather contradictory to the name, “tightrope.” We think our worldview is very tight, steady, and reliable, but meanwhile it’s completely loose and dangerous. In our culture, we cling to our tightropes, making the erroneous assumption that they somehow keep us safe. Sometimes, we even take up certain defense mechanisms to keep us more firmly planted on our tightropes. This would equate to my dream characters’ shoe contraptions. We can either take off the defense mechanisms, or, as the men did in the dream, keep them on and use them to actually enjoy both sides even better! This does require us to actually recognize our defense mechanisms, though…a sometimes very difficult task.

Another analogy: The looser any tightrope is the more danger exists for anyone trying to cross it. But the men in my dream not only weren’t frightened by the ropes’ looseness; rather, they appeared to enjoy it! Again, recognizing our habitual clinging to worldviews can be very refreshing, but it doesn’t mean we have to leave them all together. Jump on those ropes and live each side with gusto! Realize just how dangerLESS it is to have fun on each tightrope…it’s all an illusion anyway! The men in the dream knew that there was a safety net to catch them…let us do the same.

CONCLUSION:

Our life is very dualistic. People struggle with and feel extremely vulnerable on either one of life’s tightropes (wither it’s the left or the right). The reason why they do so is simple…because both sides have their flaws; both are equally dangerous. Both sides must be incorporated before we can see the safety net. Finally, have fun on each side, just as the men in the dream. Instead of taking each side seriously, jump around on them, experience them, feel life fully. Always know that falling off the tightrope isn’t the end of the world, for there is always a Safety Net waiting to catch you.