it presents false scenarios which could confuse the animal and get it into danger. — JupiterJess

Does this often happen to you? :D

I don't think you can call a sleeping person unconscious. Their external senses are purposefully reduced in capacity. When we sleep our brain goes through a de-frag, like the computers of old. When we dream we sort through the file fragments internally, while the consciousness still processes input from the external world. The brain's job is to make sense of any and everything, and so it mixes all the info together with the defrag into a nice incoherent story. If the emotions flush at the same time, you may have quite a powerful dream. Consciousness is still there though, just not looking out the windows much. When it's important enough, the thalamus gives it a shove and tells it to turn on its senses again.

. I believe the best and only path is direct observation of experiences, and experiences should be varied so that patterns of similarities and differences can be discerned. — Rich

I was looking into Asian philosophy and came across Wabi-Sabi. I thought you might like it. Are you familiar with it? I know you've mentioned Daoism.

Thanks for the link. The concept is widely used in art as a means of capturing nature as we observe it.