Thanks for the recommendation for reading this. I find the realm of sleep fascinating. In hindu philosophy there are three state of consciousness, awake, dream, and deep sleep. There is also a fourth, which is the witness to all three states. Sometimes when I dream, I can go back and forth between the witness of the dream and being in the first person POV.

The night before I died in a dream, the third time that I remember in my life. I was in a plane with my dream family. Suddenly, the plane started to go down. I shouted that I love you to my family who were on another part of the plane as the noise of the engines exploding became so loud. It became brighter and I started to do mantras, feeling no fear. Then I woke up with my heart racing, disappointed I didn't see what happened after the crash.

My meditation teacher, Ramana Maharshi, talked about how we don't know if we are dreaming or not. For if you asked a character in a dream if they were dreaming they would reply negatively. The only thing we know for certain is that there is a sense of existence, a sense of I.

It's all fascinating, this play of consciousness. Cheers