Are We Dreaming God — or Is God Dreaming Us?
Idealism, Solipsism, and Dream Theory in Light of Christian and Jewish Myth
“Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face…”
— 1 Corinthians 13:12
Have you ever had a dream so vivid, you couldn’t tell it wasn’t real until you woke up?
Now imagine this: What if you haven’t woken up yet?
In philosophy, psychology, and mysticism — both ancient and modern — we find a recurring and unsettling question:
What is reality, really? And who’s dreaming whom?
Let’s explore this mystery through the lenses of Berkeley’s Idealism, Solipsism, and Dream Theory, and see how they echo powerfully through Christian and Jewish mythology. You may be surprised to discover that this rabbit hole runs far deeper than Wonderland.
The Philosophers Speak: Idealism, Solipsism, and the Dream
Let’s briefly define our three guiding ideas:
George Berkeley’s Idealism
“To be is to be perceived.”
Matter doesn’t exist independently. Everything exists as ideas in minds.
A benevolent God perceives everything constantly — ensuring the world’s stability.
Solipsism
“Only my mind exists.”
Other people? Could be illusions. Even the world? Just a projection.
A radical doubt that isolates the thinker — often more of a philosophical caution than a livable worldview.
Dream Theory
“Life may be a dream.”
From Descartes to the Buddha, this idea questions the distinction between waking and dreaming.
What if we’re living in a dream we’ve mistaken for reality?
These three perspectives differ in tone, but they all touch something profound: the unreliability of what we take for real.
In the Beginning Was the Word…
Let’s now turn to Biblical creation. In the Book of Genesis:
“And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.”
God doesn’t build the world — He speaks it into being.
The world, then, is born of thought, of sound, of intention.
It’s not made of bricks but of Word (Logos), echoing Berkeley’s idea that reality is not material but mental — held in divine consciousness.
The New Testament continues this thread:
“In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” — Acts 17:28
“The Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh.” — John 1:1
Idealism, meet theology. In Christian mysticism, we do not live alongside God — we live within God. The dream is His.
Kabbalah: Dreaming in Divine Light
In Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), the world is not fixed and solid — it is an emanation, flowing from the unknowable Ein Sof (Infinite Source).
The idea of Tzimtzum says that God withdrew Himself to make room for creation — a kind of cosmic dream-space. We are not separate from God — we are sparks of that divine light, playing in a dream of separation.
According to this view, the world is a low-frequency echo of higher realms — a bit like a dream distantly reflecting a deeper reality.
Again, we see the dream metaphor: creation is not a hard machine, but a dynamic, spiritual unfolding.
Christian Mystics: Through the Glass Darkly
The Christian tradition, especially its mystical branches, often describes this world as a veil, a test, or a shadow of greater reality.
“Now we see through a glass, darkly…” — 1 Corinthians 13:12
This world is partial. Temporary. Not quite it.
Like the best dreams, it’s meaningful — but not complete.
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” — Ephesians 5:14
Spiritual awakening, in this sense, is literally waking up — not just from sin or error, but from illusion, from mistaking the dream for the real.
This is not so far from Buddhism, which teaches that Maya (illusion) keeps us bound in cycles of suffering — until we wake up to the truth of no-self, interbeing, and emptiness.
Modern Echoes: Simulations and the Self
In our own time, this question wears digital clothing. The Simulation Theory, as argued by philosopher Nick Bostrom, suggests we may be living inside a massive computational simulation created by a future civilization.
It’s a 21st-century spin on dream theory — with God replaced by a programmer and souls by conscious code.
Yet it touches the same ancient questions:
What is real?
Who is watching?
Are we awake?
Jung: The Dreamer Within
Carl Jung, bridging psychology and mysticism, brought the dream metaphor home — to the soul.
He taught that the ego (your waking identity) is just a fragment, a surface. Beneath it lies the Self — vast, mysterious, connected to the archetypes of all humanity.
In this view, your life — and perhaps even the world — is the dream of the deeper Self.
When you begin to individuate, to become whole, you begin to wake up inside that dream.
“Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.” — Carl Jung
So… Who’s Dreaming Whom?
Across all these traditions, a unifying thread emerges:
You are not fully who you think you are.
This world is not the whole story.
There is a deeper Self — a God, a Source, a Dreamer — in whose mind we live and move.
And perhaps the real spiritual journey is not to escape the dream…
…but to wake up inside it.
Reflection Questions:
When do you feel most awake in your life? What moments have the clarity of “waking from a dream”?
Do you experience reality as fixed and hard, or as mysterious and flexible?
What would change if you lived as if the world were a sacred dream — full of messages, metaphors, and meaning?
What is the dream that wants to awaken in you?
“The Kingdom of God is within you.” — Luke 17:21
Maybe it’s not about escaping the dream, but discovering who you really are within it.
Maybe — just maybe — you’re the dreamer, the dreamed, and the awakening all at once.