Understanding reality and presence in dreams through imagery.

The article focuses on distinguishing the experiences of reality and presence in dreams by defining reality as mind-independence and presence as the possibility of motor interaction with objects. It argues that while dreams can convey a sense of reality, they lack the visual and spatial features necessary for presence, such as enhanced visual determinacy, stereopsis (depth perception based on binocular vision), and peripersonal localization (awareness of objects within reachable action space). The paper supports this claim by highlighting differences between dreaming and wakeful perception, noting that dreams resemble imagery rather than true perceptual experience, and that key brain regions involved in spatial action processing are inactive during dreaming. Consequently, dreams do not provide the experiential conditions required for presence despite often feeling real.