Memory And The Dream Hypothesis

Upon waking, memories can rush to the forefront of one's consciousness.  Some might wonder if this sudden onslaught of memories is proof that one is awake at a given point in time, since various memories can be dormant while dreaming.  Whereas dreams can be marked by an absence of extended memories of events, information, or even self-awareness, memory is a crucial aspect of waking life.  Yet memory cannot establish that one is awake at a given moment.

There is a reason why the presence of distinct, extensive memories cannot prove that I am awake at a given time: there is nothing logically impossible about reality shifting so that it comes about that I either have no memories of certain events while awake or experience my memories while dreaming.  Memory can prove nothing except that one has memories, meaning it cannot establish on its own if one is either dreaming or awake--memories can certainly reinforce a very strong perception that one is awake, but this strong perception falls short of a proof rooted in logic.

Only the laws of logic remain fixed and constant by necessity.  Scientific laws and sensory perceptions involving sight or sound can never establish that one is awake.  After all, scientific laws could hypothetically shift even in waking life, since there is nothing necessary about them despite there being inherent necessity in logic.  My senses of sight or sound do not have to pertain to any external stimuli, since visual or auditory hallucinations--the seeing or hearing of things that are not there--are logically possible.

The experience of physical sensations alone proves that my consciousness is not gazing within itself, in a dream of its own making, at this moment [1].  Physical sensations require the existence of some kind of matter in the same way that perceptions require a perceiver.  Without a body, even if that body ultimately amounts to a single miniscule particle, a being cannot experience physical sensations--consciousness, like the laws of logic and the dimension of space, is purely immaterial, meaning it is incapable of either generating or receiving physical sensations on its own.  It is these facts and nothing else that grants me absolute certainty that I am awake right now.


[1].  See here:
A.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/dreams-and-consciousness.html
B.  https://thechristianrationalist.blgospot.com/2018/06/distinguishing-dreams-from-waking.html