One of my favorite thought experiments.
Imagine you can control your dreams. The first night, you may decide to dream that you have everything that you have ever wanted. It’s very pleasurable, and you may repeat it for several nights.
Then, maybe you decide to forget that it’s a dream, while you are dreaming it. That makes it more interesting.
You may also decide to include some challenges in the dream, to spice it up. Maybe even some that seem a matter of life and death.
Eventually, you arrive at the life you have now. You have forgotten it’s a dream, and there is a mix of pleasant experiences and challenges.
After some more nights, you may decide to add another wrinkle to your dreams. Within the dream, you add hints that it’s a dream – perhaps through synchronicities or direct glimpses. These may cause you, the dreamer, to be curious about waking up within the dream. You may even actively wish for it, and work at waking up. That becomes another adventure within the dream.
And that too, may be the life you are living right now.