Interesting Philosophical Question for those who dare answer

This is an excellent discussion, it reminds me of a discussion I wrote "if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound if no one hears it" and ironically not sure if I know the answer for either .This is because both questions plays upon our interpretation of reality against the background of perception . My answer though is that it is unlikely that it is a dream because from what I know about someone’s dreams ,they are always changing and sometimes randomly.. Like for instance tonight you may dream about cars ,tomorrow it could be games and the next day it is something different .Our lives change but there are something’s that remain constant like the shape of our faces ,the way our furniture is positioned in our homes, the kind of cars we drive .If we were in a dream these would change at will ,sometimes we would have an oval face ,drive a red car and other times we would have a round face and drive a green care depending on the dream of the person. In addition it also means that any changes in our lives would be totally dependent on the dreamer and not you. Consequently there would be times when you would want to change your clothes but the dreamer think you should keep on the clothes you are wearing ,if you are in a dream there would be times when your will would be superseded by his will and you wouldn’t be able to achieve any thing you desire .So you would probably find yourself putting on a green shirt and it wouldn’t go on or putting it on going to bed and waking up in black one ,the one your dreamer desired. Consequently based on the relative uniformity of certain elements of our lives and our input in controlling these elements I would say we were not in someone else's dream

I could not be a part of someone's dream because there is a me that thinks for myself and a body that holds this thinking being, a body that interacts with other beings. Although I cannot prove the real existence of other beings because I could not penetrate their thoughts to prove so, I can, however prove my own existence to myself. If this were a product of my dream, then it would be my dream and not someone else's - then if it were a job interview, I might just go on and say that if this were really my dream then you're going to give me this job.

Ultimately, the only evidence we have of reality comes to us through our senses and is processed by our brain. If I and the rest of the world is the product of a dream, then it has to be my dream because if my experience were the product of someone else's dream then it could not be my own experience, which is the only indication I have of reality. There have been many discussions for and against this concept (and the fact that I am aware of such discussions but do not know them in detail may be some evidence that there are other belief systems which are not mine and, therefore, that there are other dream-entities out there). In fact, it doesn't really matter whether I am dreaming or not. What does matter is that I experience things, some of which I appear to be able to control and others over which I have no control. My experience leads me to believe that these things abide by certain laws which do not change and my belief in reality depends on the predictability of certain things. Regardless of whether it is my dream or not, the important thing is that I believe that my experience relates to real things that exist more or less independently of me and that I act on that belief.

This was a topic in Philosophy 101, back in my college days. We worked on it from a number of angles, and were able to conclude only one thing. Reality is as we perceive it, so we are as real as we think we are.

Your question reminds me of a book I once read, it is called "Sophie's world" and it was written by Jostein Gaarder. The book is a about girl called Sophie and at first we hear about her and her life. A little later it turns out that Sophie isn't real, she a character in a book that another girl, Hilde, is reading. At one point Hilde and her father (who wrote the story about Sophie) are talking about Sophie and he mentions that maybe there is one more layer, and he says to Hilde: "Maybe the same goes for you, maybe you are just a character in a book that someone is reading" and he continues: "Maybe that person (= the person who reads about Hilde) is also a character in a book that someone is reading" In short I am reading about Hilde who reads about Sophie, but how can I know that someone isn't reading about me right now? How can I know that I am not a product of someone's dream or fantasy? I think the book is brilliant, because who knows how many layers there are? When we dream at night it seems real, it is only when we wake up that we realize that it was a dream. My life seems real, but maybe one day I wake up and realize that it was nothing but a dream?