One of the fundamental ideas in advaita relates to the fact that the world is a product of one's mind. And, as a means of proving it, a comparison is made in terms of an [equally unquestioned] world created in one's dream (which is obviously purely a product of mind).

I would like to relate a dream I had in 1972, which has implications regarding the above observation, and also seems to further substantiate the idea that the world is a projection of Mind; indeed, that it is Mind-stuff made visible.

The Dream:

     Suddenly I found myself standing in front of a mirror.  
And as I looked at my reflected image, it seemed that my very 
awareness of what was here and now happening proportionately 
increased with the clarity of my visualizing myself.  The dream 
suddenly took on a familiarity and exactitude which I otherwise 
only associate with what may be termed "ordinary waking 
consciousness."  

     As this deeply unsettling state of awareness further 
developed, I was smoothly shifted into a rare condition known 
as lucid dreaming, whereby the dreamer somehow realizes that 
he's dreaming.  

     I then took a rather deliberate look at myself, quite 
conscious of my own self-awareness--as conscious as I had EVER 
been in any waking state of mind!  What I saw had further 
confirmed the objective realness of what my eyes were recording, 
at least in terms of my ordinary familiarity with what I consider 
to be "objective perception."  I was actually able to see, in 
ultra-fine detail, the hair stubbles on my face, including some 
skin blemishes such as reddish discolorations, as well as some 
pimples, etc.

     As a result of this, I became somewhat frightened at a state 
of mind that was utterly alien to what I was otherwise accustomed 
to witnessing.  Whereupon I concluded that either I've entered 
an altered state or, worse, that I've gone mad, and was admitted 
to a hospital psyche ward, of which the restroom vanity was where 
I'm now having this experience!

     All this raced through my mind in an indeterminable amount 
of time, as time itself seemed to be--now that I recall--plastic  
and arbitrary, which was doubtless not at all a consideration 
within the dream.  

     In light of this unearthly drama unfolding, my only 
alternative--so as to gain some kind of handle on what seemed to 
be an utterly out of control situation, was to conduct an 
experiment in order to determine what was really happening to me. 
 
     It's interesting to note that throughout this ordeal I 
maintained focus on my reflection in the mirror.  (I guess that 
had I not, the dream, in its perhaps vulnerably organized structure, 
might have collapsed.)

     For reasons unbeknownst to me, I commenced to grab hold of  
the faucets on the vanity...and, reasoning to myself (again, with 
all the familiar deliberation and consciously applied logic 
unique to the waking state) that if in fact I am dreaming, I 
should be able to levitate the lower half of my body.  (Why I 
chose this type of an experiment isn't quite clear now in 
retrospect--although within the dream it made total sense.)

     I was able to levitate quite effortlessly.  However, I was 
still not convinced.  Therefore, I decided to conduct another 
experiment.  This time I reasoned to myself that, if in fact I 
was dreaming, I should be able to--also effortlessly--pull the 
faucets out of the sink.  

     I yanked on them...nothing!  I gave another yank...nothing!
Now I was in a real panic.  In fact my heart started racing and 
pounding quite uncontrollably!  The idea that I had perhaps gone 
mad and was therefore institutionalized was too much to handle! 
I really felt the full force of having perhaps lost conrtrol of 
myself.  

     Suddenly, in a fit of terror, I let go of the faucets and 
began running along what appeared to be a series of vanities with 
corresponding mirrors.  I saw my image being reflected as I was 
running back and forth and, to make matters worse, my so-to-
speak 'lead image' was actually invisible(!), which implies that 
there was somehow occurring a phenomenon of trailing images-- 
which WERE visible and which were, in turn, fading off like the 
tail of a comet!

     Whereupon I woke up.

     I was 24 years old at the time, and quite healthy; yet I 
had, upon awakening--what I felt reasonably confident was--the 
symptoms of a heart attack.  The sensation in my heart region 
I had not felt before (or since--as of this writing circa 1996).  
It took me a half hour or so to calm down enough to feel confident 
that I didn't need to dial 911.  It took a few days to 
psychologically surmount the fear and uncertainty that I might 
have been loosing control of my mind.  

     And now, 24 years later, I still recall it with a measure of 
trepidation, yet more like wonder, reinforced by a subsequently well
developed background in the study of metaphysics, and especially 
the many years of meditation with its inevitably profound 
stabilization of the psyche. 

     The conclusion, in retrospect, of this highly auspicious event 
[manifesting in the form of a dream] is that, indeed, the Mind is a 
powerful creator, which lies at the very foundation of what 
amounts to being [its OWN] three phases: waking, dreaming, and 
deep sleeping--as has been postulated by vedantins for hundreds 
of years.  This whole experience represents, at least to me, proof 
positive that the foundational structure of nature is ultimately 
accountable to what can only be its sole substratum: unalloyed 
Consciousness.

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