Personally I don't think so, since everything we know, everything we've ever experienced, it's all our brain creating an interpretation of the things we can only assume are actually present.
Think about it like this, if you saw a shadow appear on the ground in front of you, it would give you a rough idea of the thing which is presumably behind you, however you'd only ever know the truth of it if you were to turn your head. Similarly, our sensory tools allow us to form a detailed model of the place in which we reside, however the difference here is, there is no way for you to be certain that your senses are an accurate representation of what is really there. When you reach out your hand and touch a surface, only to pull it back again, when you turn your head a certain direction to glace at something, only to look away, you can never be certain that the things you sensed will be there again if you search for them. In fact you can never be certain that you even sensed anything at all, since your brain is constructing a reality using information obtained by the senses, and we can't know the truth of the information's source. It's actually possible to willfully create phantom physical sensations if you concentrate hard enough, further bringing into question the validity of our sensory information.
The point is, your entire reality is something which you've constructed for yourself, albeit usually unintentionally. The only real difference with dreams is that they exist partitioned away from your waking experiences, and the things that happen to you within them cannot physically damage you, but that's about it. If dreams are real, then so are your mental escapes. For me it's comforting to know that anything I create for myself is no less real to me than anything else, since I'm using the same mechanisms as always, but only with actual intention rather than unconsciously.
Think about it like this, if you saw a shadow appear on the ground in front of you, it would give you a rough idea of the thing which is presumably behind you, however you'd only ever know the truth of it if you were to turn your head. Similarly, our sensory tools allow us to form a detailed model of the place in which we reside, however the difference here is, there is no way for you to be certain that your senses are an accurate representation of what is really there. When you reach out your hand and touch a surface, only to pull it back again, when you turn your head a certain direction to glace at something, only to look away, you can never be certain that the things you sensed will be there again if you search for them. In fact you can never be certain that you even sensed anything at all, since your brain is constructing a reality using information obtained by the senses, and we can't know the truth of the information's source. It's actually possible to willfully create phantom physical sensations if you concentrate hard enough, further bringing into question the validity of our sensory information.
The point is, your entire reality is something which you've constructed for yourself, albeit usually unintentionally. The only real difference with dreams is that they exist partitioned away from your waking experiences, and the things that happen to you within them cannot physically damage you, but that's about it. If dreams are real, then so are your mental escapes. For me it's comforting to know that anything I create for myself is no less real to me than anything else, since I'm using the same mechanisms as always, but only with actual intention rather than unconsciously.
