《意识的简短介绍》这本书已经接近尾声。它讨论了一些常见的意识改变状态,也就是说,我们不总是保持意识的清醒状态。在这种状态之外,还有许多其他的意识状态,其中最常见的自然状态就是做梦。
其实,每个人都会做梦。有些人声称自己从未做过梦,但这往往是因为他们忘记了梦的内容。研究人员让实验者每天早上用纸和笔记录自己的梦境,结果发现,所有人做梦的频率显著增加,能够更好地回忆起梦中的内容。
对梦的记忆通常并不可靠,但这种实验让参与者愿意在梦中探索,记录更多的梦境。梦境的显著特征之一是快速眼动(REM)睡眠阶段。如果观察到一个人在睡眠中有快速眼动的现象,当你唤醒他时,他多半会说自己正在做梦。在梦中,绝大多数人并没有意识到自己在做梦,尽管梦境常常荒诞不经。
醒来后,人们往往不会记得梦的内容。在做梦的状态下,我们的意识非常薄弱。不过,也有少数情况,人们在梦中是清醒的,能够意识到自己在做梦,甚至开始操纵梦境。这样,梦中的人可能会像超人一样飞行,享受梦境的乐趣。
我也有过类似的体验,但操纵梦境并不是一件容易的事。每当我意识到自己在做梦时,通常很快就会醒来。此外,还有一种现象是,在梦中,人的运动神经处于麻痹状态,以避免在梦中做出伤害自己的举动。当你在梦中醒来,而这种麻痹还没有消退时,体验往往令人不快,甚至恐怖,仿佛被某种神秘力量束缚住,无法动弹。
相信鬼神的人容易将这种现象与魔鬼联系在一起,这就是俗称的“鬼压床”或“梦魇”。在许多文化中,都有与此相关的传说。例如,在北欧的传说中,有一个婆婆会坐在睡着的人的身上,让他无法动弹。
尽管我们对梦的研究仍然非常粗浅,但梦确实是一种极其有趣的意识状态。在这种状态下,人的意识暂时脱离现实世界,进入一个更高维度、更混乱的宇宙。这也与漫威电影《奇异博士》中的多元宇宙设定相似:每一个梦境实际上对应着多元宇宙中的一个现实。尽管这纯粹是科幻的想象,但从某种程度上,它反映了人类对意识的探索。
类似于梦境的,还有人类对药物的使用体验。比如,大麻这种轻度致幻的物质,让使用者感到欢快和满足,原因可能与其所含的化学分子相似于人类大脑中的神经递质,如大名鼎鼎的多巴胺。而在六七十年代,美国的新型药物LSD,被认为能够让使用者体验到灵魂出鞘,甚至让现实世界的呈现出完全不同的样貌。比如,一辆快速驶过的汽车,可能在LSD使用者的眼中变成一头喷火的龙。
有时候,这些体验非常美妙,使用者仿佛进入高维空间,看到了现实世界的另一个表象。但有时,LSD所展现的现实却令人恐惧。药物使用者的报告虽然从某种侧面证实了精神世界的存在,但如果药物能够影响意识,这一事实似乎也表明,意识能够脱离肉体而单独存在的想法并不靠谱。
The book "A Brief Introduction to Consciousness" is nearing its end. It discusses some common altered states of consciousness, that is, we do not always maintain a awake state of consciousness. Outside of this state, there are many other states of consciousness, the most common of which is the natural state of dreaming.
In fact, everyone dreams. Some people claim to have never had a dream, but this is often because they have forgotten what the dream was about. The researchers asked participants to record their dreams each morning with pen and paper, and found that all of them dreamed significantly more frequently and were better able to recall the contents of their dreams.
Memory of dreams is often unreliable, but this kind of experiment made participants willing to explore in their dreams and record more dreams. One of the distinguishing features of dreams is the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase. If you observe rapid eye movement in a person's sleep, when you wake him up, he will probably say that he is dreaming. In dreams, most people are not aware that they are dreaming, although the dreams are often absurd.
After waking up, people often don't remember their dreams. In the dreaming state, our consciousness is very weak. However, there are a few cases in which people are awake and aware that they are dreaming and even begin to manipulate their dreams. In this way, the person in the dream may fly like Superman and enjoy the dream.
I had a similar experience, but manipulating dreams is not an easy task. Whenever I realize I'm dreaming, I usually wake up quickly. In addition, there is a phenomenon that in dreams, people's motor nerves are paralyzed in order to avoid harming themselves in the dream. When you wake up in a dream and the paralysis has not subsided, the experience is often unpleasant, even terrifying, as if bound by some mysterious force and unable to move.
People who believe in ghosts and gods easily associate this phenomenon with the devil, which is commonly known as "ghost press" or "nightmare". In many cultures, there are legends related to this. For example, there is a Nordic legend of a mother-in-law who would sit on a sleeping person so that he could not move.
Although our research on dreams is still very superficial, dreams are indeed an extremely interesting state of consciousness. In this state, one's consciousness is temporarily removed from the real world and enters a higher-dimensional, more chaotic universe. This is also similar to the multiverse setting in the Marvel movie Doctor Strange: each dream actually corresponds to a reality in the multiverse. Although this is pure science fiction imagination, to some extent, it reflects the human search for consciousness.
Similar to dreams, there is also the human experience of drug use. For example, the reason marijuana, a mildly hallucinogenic substance, makes users feel happy and satisfied may be that its chemical molecules are similar to neurotransmitters in the human brain, such as the famous dopamine. In the 1960s and 1970s, the new drug LSD in the United States was believed to be able to make users experience the soul out of the sheath, and even make the real world appear completely different. A fast-moving car, for example, may appear to LSD users as a fire-breathing dragon.
Sometimes these experiences are so beautiful that the user seems to enter a higher dimension and see another representation of the real world. But sometimes the reality of LSD is frightening. While the reports of drug users have in some ways confirmed the existence of the mental world, the fact that drugs can affect consciousness also seems to suggest that the idea that consciousness can exist apart from the body is not plausible.
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盗梦空间吗?
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