Brain Malfunctions and Taoism

I saw something on the Science channel that reminded me of something I learned a long time ago - a Taoist quote about a man dreaming he was a butterfly.

That memory was triggered by a documentary I saw about brain malfunctions. The documentary talked about: confabulations, hallucinations, the Capra Syndrome, and the Charles Bonnet Syndrome. The program featured patients who had these problems. One man had confabulations, false memories where he remembered walking with dinosaurs. Another man with brain damage could not name simple objects such as apples, bananas, giraffes, dogs, etc. He couldn't even identify himself when shown his picture. A woman believed her husband and children were substitutes and treated her husband like a stranger. A man losing his eyesight experienced wild hallucinations of floating heads and gigantic horses.

To these people, what they saw or experienced felt real to them. The woman firmly believed her husband and children had been abducted and some other people had taken their place. The man who was losing his eyesight "saw" the fearsome images. The other man had vivid memories of walking with dinosaurs.

I found all of this fascinating. I for one can be very bull headed and believe that I am right about certain things. Well, this program made me pause - these people believed they were right. What I realize is that people's perception of things can vary. We are never really certain of what is REAL.

On the one hand, this is a bit creepy - the idea that I'm not even 100% sure that things around me are real, that the life I'm living is real - for all I know this is just something made up, a dream by some other being. Remember the movie Matrix, where the man is just sitting on a chair but is being mentally stimulated into another reality?

For all we know, we experience our life, only to realize that life is just someone's dream.

As Chuang Tzu said,

"Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly, I awoke, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am now a man."