(Presented at the International Association for the Study of Dreams

34th Annual Dream Conference, Anaheim, California, June 16 – 20, 2017)

Beyond the Matrix: Conscious Realism and Lucid Being

(WORKSHOP ABSTRACT)

by E. W. Kellogg III, Ph.D. © 2017

“The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room.
You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your
television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church,
when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes
to blind you from the truth.” Morpheus in The Matrix (1999)

Today many theorists propose that we actually live in an information

universe that we habitually translate and experience as sight, sound, touch,

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34th Annual Dream Conference, Anaheim, California, June 16 – 20, 2017)

etc. Our computers do something similar when they translate streams of

binary code information - patterns of 0 and 1’s - into animated visual
displays on computer screens. If so, the world we experience in our waking
lives may consist of nothing more than virtual representations of an
underlying reality with little or no similarity to our subjective perceptions of
it. The same process applies equally to how and what we experience in our
dreams, especially as research has confirmed that our dreams, like our
waking physical reality experiences, incorporate consensually validated
intersubjective elements.

In his Simulation Argument using logic alone Oxford philosopher Nick

Bostrum makes a compelling case that we almost certainly live in the
equivalent to a computer simulation. MIT physicist Max Tegmark in his
Mathematical Universe Hypothesis proposes that that while physical reality
exists it does so not as we perceive it, but as an abstract mathematical
structure like a code. More radically, U.C. Irvine cognitive scientist Donald
Hoffman argues in his non-physicalist theory of Conscious Realism that
consciousness seems fundamental, rather than incidental, and that matter
and all of time and space simply appear as perceived representations of
interacting hierarchies of “conscious agents,” entities that he rigorously
defines in mathematical terms. Others have taken similar positions on the
primacy of mind rather than matter, ranging from ancient Hindu sages to
Nobel prize winning physicists such as Max Plank, who wrote: “All matter
originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an
atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom
together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious
and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter".

From a phenomenological perspective, based on direct experience, rather

than on assumptions, the existence of mind seems certain. On the other
hand, the existence of an objective physical world, separate from the
subjective world each of us experiences, remains a theoretical assumption
open to doubt. Phenomenology as a discipline aims at clearly seeing and
rigorously describing the essential structures of one's life-world, which
includes not only what one experiences in ordinary waking consciousness,
but in other states of consciousness as well. We live in a world of full of
delusions and illusions, where assumptions often masquerade as facts.

Phenomenology can help in unmasking such assumptions, in freeing

ourselves from the learned helplessness that results when we confuse
assumed limitations for real ones. And increasing one’s awareness of
assumptions plays an essential role in both lucid dreaming and in lucid
waking as well.

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34th Annual Dream Conference, Anaheim, California, June 16 – 20, 2017)

This workshop will begin by presenting a series of brief overviews of various

theories and concepts that look at reality in different ways than the
materialist reductionist worldview, followed by much longer experiential
exercises designed so that participants can better understand them through
direct experience. The presenter will keep didactic material to a minimum.
In this workshop participants will explore the possibilities of our living in an
information universe through phenomenological exercises, thought
experiments, and guided meditations. (FOR ALL)

Presentation Learning Objectives

1. To give participants an introduction to phenomenological work through an
exploration of some essential processes of consciousness.

2. To briefly touch upon and demonstrate how Nick Bostrum’s Simulation

Argument, Max Tegmark’s Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, and Donald
Hoffman’s theory of Conscious Realism apply to both our waking and
dreaming lives.

3. To provide participants the opportunity to explore the potentialities of

living in an information universe through phenomenological exercises,
thought experiments, and guided meditations.

Selected Presentation References

Nick Bostrom, (2003), Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-
255. http://www.simulation-argument.com/

Max Tegmark, (2008), "The Mathematical Universe", Foundations of Physics

38:101–50. https://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0704/0704.0646v2.pdf

Donald D. Hoffman, (2008), Mind & Matter Vol. 6(1), pp. 87–121.
http://cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/ConsciousRealism2.pdf

Presenter
Ed Kellogg (USA) earned his Ph.D. from Duke University. He has published
papers on his work in fields as diverse as the biochemistry of aging,
bioelectricity, general semantics, lucid dreaming, psi-dreaming, dream
healing, and the phenomenology of consciousness. He created, organized,
and hosted IASD’s online PsiberDreaming Conference from 2002–2005.

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34th Annual Dream Conference, Anaheim, California, June 16 – 20, 2017)

Relevant Publications from Presenter Vitae

6. "Mapping Territories: A Phenomenology of Lucid Dream Reality," E. W.

Kellogg III, Lucidity Letter, 8(2), 81-97 (1989).
https://www.academia.edu/7064603/Mapping_Territories_A_Phenomenolog
y_of_Lucid_Dream_Reality

21. “Lucid Dreaming and the Phenomenological Epoché,” Kellogg III, E. W.,
paper presentation at the Society for Phenomenology and the Human
Sciences conference in Eugene, OR in October, 1999.
https://www.academia.edu/7064171/Lucid_Dreaming_and_the_Phenomenol
ogical_Epoch%C3%A9

34. "Psi-Perception in Dreams: Next Stop - the Twilight Zone" (paper),

presented at ASD’s Second PsiberDreaming Conference, September 21nd -
October 5th, 2003. https://www.academia.edu/30185621/Psi-
Perception_in_Dreams_Next_Stop_-_the_Twilight_Zone

47. “Enter the Matrix: Exploring the Source Code of Dreams” by Ed Kellogg,
Ph.D. Presented at IASD's Fourth PsiberDreaming Conference, September
18 - October 2, 2005.
https://www.academia.edu/24695481/Enter_the_Matrix_Exploring_the_Sou
rce_Code_of_Dreams

52. “Mind-Body Healing through Dreamwork” by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D. ©2007.

Presented at IASD's Sixth PsiberDreaming Conference, September 23 -
October 7, 2007.
https://www.academia.edu/28874847/Mind-
Body_Healing_through_Dreamwork

64. “Lucid Dreaming, Lucid Waking, Lucid Being” by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D. A two
hour workshop at the International Association for the Study of Dreams
conference in Berkeley, California, June 22-26. 2012. (PDC version:
https://www.academia.edu/10682972/Lucid_Dreaming_Lucid_Waking_Lucid
_Being )

72. ““Lucid Dream Alchemy: Making the Philosopher's Stone” by Ed Kellogg

and Mary Ziemer. Presented as a two hour workshop at the International
Association for the Study of Dreams conference in Berkeley, California, June
4-8. 2014. (PDC version:
https://www.academia.edu/18468306/Lucid_Dream_Alchemy_Making_the_P
hilosophers_Stone)

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34th Annual Dream Conference, Anaheim, California, June 16 – 20, 2017)

74. “Out-of-Body Experiences and Lucid Dreams: A Phenomenological

Approach," by Ed Kellogg III. Chapter 3 in Consciousness Beyond The
Body: Evidence and Reflections, pp. 43-55, edited by Alexander De Foe.
Published by the Melbourne Centre for Exceptional Human Potential, 2016.
https://www.academia.edu/21833634/Out-of-
Body_Experiences_and_Lucid_Dreams_A_Phenomenological_Approach