How do you know you had a dream last night? Not because someone told you. Not because you think it was real. You know because you saw it on a screen in your mind and because of the felt sense—that subtle, familiar quality of oh right, that happened… but not here, not now, not anymore—it’s gone. But it happened, like a dream.
You can have that same feeling when remembering childhood friends. Or an old neighborhood. Or a long-forgotten moment. There’s a dreamlike texture to it—a soft edge, a floating presence.
Life, from a nondual perspective, is the same. It mirrors that dream-state. And in moments of clarity—spontaneously or through psychotherapy practices—we remember. Not facts, but essence.
Seeing life as a dream isn’t about fantasy. It’s about perception. When you’re in a dream, you’re convinced. But when you wake up, you become the watcher. The dream dissolves into awareness.
And here’s the kicker: that same awareness was there the whole time. Watching.
In nondual teaching, we use this as a pointer. You’re not the one who’s aware—you are the awareness. The person, the identity, the role—those are appearances within awareness.
That’s why Wayne Liquorman talks about the pendulum. You can live at the bottom—swinging in reactions—or at the top, watching it swing. Same life. Different view.
When I sit with clients in EMDR, and they begin to shift into witness consciousness, they’ll often say things like: “It’s weird—it’s like I’m watching it instead of being in it.” That’s not disconnection nor dissociation. That’s awakening.
So how do I know I had a dream? I feel it. And how do I know I’m waking up? I feel that too.
It’s not a belief. It’s a recognition. A remembering. A returning.
And what I return to—is what I’ve always been: Awareness.
And maybe, at the very end—at the moment of passing—Eckhart Tolle suggests the final thought is something simple, something clear: Oh, my life… it was a dream.
What does awakening feel like to you? We’d love to hear your reflections in the comments.
~ Jordan Shafer/nmm