He cannot stop the flow of his thoughts, he cannot control his imagination, his emotions, his attention.
He lives in a subjective world of 'I love,' 'I do not love,' 'I like,' 'I do not like,' 'I want,' 'I do not want,' that is, of what he thinks he likes, of what he thinks he does not like, of what he thinks he wants, of what he thinks he does not want.
He does not see the real world.
The real world is hidden from him by the wall of imagination.
He lives in sleep.
He is asleep.
What is called 'clear consciousness' is sleep and a far more dangerous sleep than sleep at night in bed.
"Let us take some event in the life of humanity.
For instance, war.
There is a war going on at the present moment.
What does it signify? It signifies that several millions of sleeping people are trying to destroy several millions of other sleeping people.
They would not do this, of course, if they were to wake up.
Everything that takes place is owing to this sleep."
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In Search of the Miraculous - Ouspensky