IF A TREE FALLS IN A FOREST

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it. Does it make a sound? I thought I knew the answer, but I just realized something. And now you have to be disturbed with me. When a tree falls, it creates vibrations, right? Those vibrations travel through the air, move your eardrum, and become electrical signals in your brain. And somewhere along that chain, you hear the crash of the tree hitting the ground. But the vibrations aren't the crash you experience. They're just vibrations. So if there's no one in the forest, the tree still falls, the air still vibrates. But is there actually sound? Okay, now here's where it gets weird. You can dream of a tree falling, and inside that dream, you hear it crash. But there's no tree, no forest, no vibrating air, no pressure waves reaching your ears. And yet, you hear it. So in a real forest with nobody there, there can be vibrations without anyone hearing sound. But in a dream forest, there can be sound without those vibrations at all. What the fuck is going on? And now I can't stop wondering. If the sound isn't inside the tree, and it isn't inside the air, and the electrical signals in your brain aren't literally sound either, where does the crash actually happen? Maybe the real mystery was never whether the tree makes a sound. Maybe the real mystery is: where does sound exist at all?