by John Suler, Ph.D.
The great Zen master Chuang Tzu dreamt that he was a butterfly. When he awoke, he asked himself, "Am I a man who just dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly who now dreams about being a man?"
You sit almost motionless, relaxed, your eyes focused on a glowing screen - the only source of light in an otherwise dark room. Your fingers tap lightly as your mind converges on the words and images that float before you. At times it seems like there is no difference between your thoughts and those images.
At times it seems the distinction between inner and outer worlds almost disappears. At times, time itself evaporates. You are a computer user immersed in cyberspace. All melts into a new reality that transcends the rules of conventional reality. Like a Zen master in meditation, you have become one with with the virtual universe.
Ok... This is not the typical, everyday scenario for the computer user. Most of the time we just hack away at the keyboard to get something done, without slipping into transcendent consciousness. But many experienced computer users can recall moments like this.
Cyberspace is indeed an extension of the mind, which means it can extend all facets of mental life - including hypnotic reveries and other altered states of awareness. Under the right conditions, cyberspace becomes a dream world, not unlike the world which emerges when we sink into sleep.
This doesn't mean that these virtual experiences should be dismissed as whimsical mental meanderings with no value or purpose. Quite the contrary. Psychology clearly has established the necessity of nocturnal dreams for maintaining emotional health and promoting personal growth.
The same may be true of virtual dreaming. Cyberspace is not simply an "information super-highway"; it can offer the human psyche much more than facts. Virtual space can flex the boundaries of conscious and unconscious realities. It can tell us something about the meaning of "real."
In this article I'd like to explore the parallels between cyberspace and altered states of consciousness, especially the states of mind that surface in dreams. Some of these ideas may apply to a variety of environments on the internet, especially MOOs, MUDs, and other virtual "worlds." I will focus specifically on the Palace - a graphical chat environment where people use icons (avatars) to represent themselves while socializing with other users in visual scenes, including indoor rooms and outside settings .
While some of the dreamlike qualities of Palace can be found in other virtual worlds, several of its dreamy features are quite unique. Most important of all, the Palace, like dreams, is so captivating because it is a highly visual experience. As the old saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. Visual experiences are psychologically RICH. Images and symbols are the language of the unconscious.
Facets of Dreaming in Cyberspace
Spontaneous Generation
Loose Self Boundaries
Dreams About Palace
Dream 2: Belonging and Being Understood
Dream 3: The Ideal Haven
Dreams 4 & 5: Fate and the Nature of Reality
Cyberspace as an Alternative to Dreaming
About the author:
John Suler, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Rider University and a practicing clinical psychologist. He has published on psychotherapy, mental imagery, and eastern philosophy. He currently maintains several web sites.
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