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Originally Posted by inavalan
It depends what we mean by "really exist" and "substance".
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The only senseful definition of substance I can imagine is:
Things can be virtual or substantial.
Substantial things can exists independently from other things.
Virtual things (a dream) can only exist on or in a certain medium.
A substance is the opposite of a virtual phenomenon.
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Originally Posted by inavalan
Do my dreams exist? I'd tend to say they exist.
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The question isn’t if they exist. The question is if they exist in form of a substance. The answer, of course, is no.
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Originally Posted by inavalan
When I dream they seem even made of real substance.
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Okay, but it think it’s clear that the “seem even” is the crucial point in this sentence.
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Originally Posted by inavalan
In a way everything exists, made of some kind of "substance", that might not be made from periodic table elements.
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No, only things that can exist independently of a medium exist in a form of substance.
Your dreams can’t exist without you (your soul or your brain, as some would say) so they are no substance. They are just virtual phenomena generated by a substantial computer which is you.
Imagine, as another example, the 3D-world of the movie Avatar or Shrek. These worlds are virtual. They do only exist on a medium, namely the computers or DVDs were the virtual worlds are programmed or saved. Same is true for each computer-game.