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From: dt4%cs@hub.ucsb.edu (David E. Goggin)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Dreams and out of body incidents
Message-ID: <May.11.02.37.40.1993.28185@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 11 May 93 06:37:40 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Lines: 38
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

hey folks,

I'm fairly new to these groups, tho' some have heard from me before.

I'd like to get your comments on a question that has been on my mind a
lot:  What morals/ethics apply to dreams and out-of-body incidents?
In normal dreams, you can't control anything, so obviously
you aren't morally responsible for your actions.  But if you can contrive
to control the action in dreams or do an OOBE, it seems like a morality applies.

Now, there seem to be 3 alternatives:

1) Dreams and OOBEs are totally mental phenomena.  In this case no morality
applies beyond what might be called 'mental hygiene', that is, not trying
to think about anything evil, or indulgining in overly sexy or violent
thoughts.

2) Dreams and OOBEs have a reality of their own (i.e. are 'another plane')
Evidence for this is that often dreams and OOBEs are sometimes done in
common by more than one person.  A
mark of objective fact is that >1 people report the same objective experience.
In this case, the same interpersonal morality/ethics applies in dreams and
OOBEs as does in waking life.

3) Like (2), but here we assume that though the dreeam and OOBE environs have a
real existence, a different moral/ethics apply there, and no (or maybe 
different) moral laws apply there.

So... There it is.  Is one of these cases the truth, or does anyone know
of another alternative?  respond by post or email.

thanks very much

*dt*

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