My husband has had prophetic dreams in the past, but this one is very strange. He dreamed he was in an old,antebellum home that we were going to remodel. It was very large, and needed much work. He said that he started to go up the stairs when he grabbed the banister and realized it was covered in wet,white paint. He asked why someone was painting, and then woke up. When he went to take a shower, he noticed a white blotch of something on his hand that had touched the banister. He had taken a shower prior to going to bed and hadn't touched anything since.....he was very shaken. Any one hear of this happening?

I haven't had this happen to me, but it seems possible.  I like Stalagmite's explanation for it.

I know that I've had strange experiences while awake...where something I completely believed I was physically holding wasn't actually physically there at all...so I'm sure that phenomenon works the same for our dreams. 

It makes me think of something interesting to consider.  Kathy, if your husband had thought of scraping off the white blotch, preserving it, and then having it tested to see if it actually was paint, it would truly be impressive.  It makes me wonder...if it really was paint from the dream experience, how long would it have lasted there on his hand had he not washed it off?  My answer is that it would only be visible until he convinced himself it couldn't be possible.  That's not to say that it wasn't "physically" present on his hand, thus only in his mind.  But rather, we take everything we physically experience for granted, fully trusting in the belief of what "physical" should mean, when in actuality physical reality isn't what it seems. 

Vicky

Lucy,

Yes it's a neat conundrum, but I'm of the mind to go with the belief that reality doesn't just exist without there first being something that thought of it.  I don't think reality just exists on its own and then Consciousness just happened to come along and experience it.

As for the checkerboard, I can't tell that the dark squares are having an affect on a grey one causing it to appear to be white until I'm given that information.  And even then, it still appears white.  All I know is that I see a white square.  I'd say that that's my reality, until my perspective or perception is changed.

However, if I could perceive from another perspective, I will likely interpret it differently.  For instance, if I could look at the grey square (1) from the perspective of standing on one of the black squares, or see it by itself, that would give me a different perspective and thus different information.  But since I can only see square #1 from the perspective of having the darker squares surrounding it, that then becomes my limited perception, thus causing what I experience.   

It's a neat illusion.  When she moves the squares and you see it magically change color, it's fascinating but that's what an optical illusion is all about.  And it's even more intruging that no matter how many times you watch it, and you KNOW it is not the color it appears, your eyes still see it as they see it. 

Our interpreter is always working.  I don't think the optical illusion has anything to do with our perceiver-interpreter per se but is a way to fool the brain.  Our interperter, in this case, isn't making a mistake, it's doing exactly what it is designed to do.  Given limited information (the black squares altering perception of the grey one), our interpreter is working in a limited perspective.  It's not until our perception changes that we can see from another perspective. 

How does it relate to imprinting?  I think there's more than one way to create our reality.  Some things are a process, like someone inventing paint that you can buy in a store and bring home to paint your bannister that accidentally gets on someone's hand.  And another is creating an alternate reality where one suddenly wakes up to find paint on his hand.  The bottom line is about experience.  That's our reality.  If we can really make something physically appear just by our thought or belief, then what DOES come first, reality or perception?  Again, I'm going with perception because consciousness creates reality and consciousness does the perceiving.