Dreaming?

[rachMiel]

George walks into his philosophy professor's office and says: 

"Professor Haber, I challenge you to refute this claim: I am dreaming right now." 

Does Professor Haber stand a chance at succeeding? How? (No fair asking an AI for help!)  

 

 

[rachMiel]

Thus far I have not been able to find a way for Professor Haber to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that George is or is not dreaming. The end of the (great) movie Inception comes to mind, can we ever really *know*? 

[rachMiel]

 

[The Renaissance Man]

In a way it's the same problem with spiritual teachers. You have no way of knowing if a teacher is enlightened, the same way you can't know if George is dreaming.

[rachMiel]

And intuition only goes so far in terms of knowing, right? I may intuit you are a human, but you might be an AI. 

[The Renaissance Man]

Exactly, same for me.

At the same time, I'm nobody to say what's possible to know. But I see spiritual teachers debating all the time so.... you can probably only speculate about another individual's experience and not have direct experience of it.
It may be possible to have insights into absolute truth, but having proof of another individual's state of consciousness may be at the same level of using psychic powers to create a table out of thin air in front of you.

Edit - I have zero experience with spirituality, that's why I say "it may be". But I still see spiritual debates between "enlightened people".

Edited November 25, 2023 by The Renaissance Man