I want to extend the topic of my previous writing, to the degree that contains one of my biggest puzzles about nde/obe phenomenon. And I wish someone in this forum would like to shed some light to help me to unravel this puzzle.
First, let me introduce my opinion about "what is real" and "what is not real".
In a sense, everything is real, dreams are real because "they are really dreams", I had a dream last night, and I'm not lying, then that was really a dream. The dream is real in the sense that it is a dream, I actually experienced the dream, my experiences actually happened, and I'm not lying, this is why I'm saying I really really had that dream. If the background reason that I had that dream is my brain activities influenced by the environment when I was sleeping (for example the environment in which my house is burning gives me a nightmare to wake me up), it gives the explanation to why I was dreaming and gives the interpretation to the content of my dream, it doesn't repudiate the fact that "I was dreaming" was a really happened thing.
The atmospherical or optical illusions (for example mirage) are real in the sense that these phenomenon really happened, no matter what are the causes of them. You see, then your seeing is real, the problem is only how to explain the "visual phenomenon".
But why we often say that dreams, mirages, etcetera are not real? To remind us that, to consider them as real is a dangerous thought. For example, if you believed the grotesque information received in your dream, you would behavior wrongly. Dreams are often utilized by superstition to control ignorant people. Superstition would tell a person who had a bad dream to commit some vicious activities to prevent misfortune's advent. "Because those are the divine revelations of your dream." so as said by superstition.
Again, why we often say that dreams, mirages, etcetera are not real? The reason is all about "INFORMATION QUANTITY", as I said many many times before. When we are dreaming, dreams make us think they contain quite a lot of information, but actually, dreams don't contain much information. Let me conceive an example, you had a bad dream last night, in which the 6 years old little girl of your neighbouring family became a demon. When you were dreaming, your obscure mind truly believed that she had become a demon, and you then were frightened greatly and woke up and the dream ended. But if the girl had "really" become a demon then there should have been much more information than the dream had imparted. You could have investigated further in the dream, what would happen after she had become a demon, and why these would happen. She might have attacked you, persecuted you, or done more terrible things to you, and you could have chosen to fight against her, beg mercy from her, talk to her, ask why and persuade her to become good again. In other words, more information generated. But no information expected from the ended dream. Therefore, the event (girl becoming a demon) is not real, and you shouldn't listen to any superstition to suggest you to kidnap that lovely girl just because you are silly to believe that she is now really a true demon.
Similarly, when we say that mirages are not real, we actually mean we shouldn't expect the mirage to give us the information that we want and that it seems to contain, because the mirage itself truly doesn't contain those information, it's only an optical phenomenon. Of course if there is a mirage, there should be a ture oasis somewhere but the oasis is much more remote then the traveler expects, so it is not practical to expect to reach it and get the information that the traveler wants and the oasis truly contains. To believe the mirage contains the information it seems to contain, is dangerous and could potentially deviate the traveler from his correct path.
Voila, they are all about "INFORMATION QUANTITY".
Now let me refer to another aspect. I said that "In a sense, everything is real.", "You see something, then your seeing is real, the problem is only how to explain that visual phenomenon". On the other hand, you can't 100% guarantee anything to be 100% real. After all, we use our eyes to see the objective material world, we use our brain to analyse and think, but eyes and brain are not reliable, they could deceive us. We could have an illusioned vision by a pair of ill eyes, we could analyse wrongly of what we observe.
Up to this point, I run out of my time to write, I have something to do soon, so I will be brief, sorry for my previous interminable writing, I feel difficult to express my meaning clear ^_^.
Ok, so we can't 100% guarantee the genuine of what we see, what we sense, what we think and what we believe, but we can 50%, 70%, 90% sure, the key is "INFORMATION QUANTITY", the more information quantity we grasp, the more believing we feel worth putting. We subconsciously rely on "INFORMATION QUANTITY" to believe a thing. When someone believe a thing without many information, it is truly because 1, he can't get information anyway 2, he is in angst about something. The tribe or poor villagers in our world or in ancient times feel angst about famine, natural disasters, diseases, plagues, etcetera, and they can't have science anyway, so even if they know little information, they have no choice other than to believe superstition. The consequence is 1, they feel solaced a bit because they think they get explanation from superstition, 2, bad consequences caused by they believing superstition ensued. Then comes one of my biggest puzzle, the nders/obers seem to be unable to hold much information, why they claim so certain about afterlife etcetera.