Is the physical world an illusion?

Hidden_Hand sounded like a poser to me, but he raised one question that stirred my curiosity. Where do we really live? Is it possible that our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us are a complete illusion? Are we in prison? Or is it more like we are under quarantine, as Hidden_Hand suggested. Maybe Earth is the toilet of the galaxy and we are like those little bacteria that eat sh_t from the septic field. Below are all the alternative possibilities I can think of. Please comment and/or add any other possibilities you can think of that have not occurred to me. Thanks!

Earth is:

1) a free world
2) a prison (“Hell”)
3) a quarantine
4) a lab experiment
5) an energy farm
6) a God's playpen
7) a galactic rest-stop (toilet)

Everything we see in the world and the universe is an illusion. From the side of religion, I can say that life is illusion created by god, and from the scientific side, using relativity, I can say that everything we see in the universe is a illusion of our dimension and what happens here, does not affect other dimensions.

from a religious perspective I prefer to see it as there just being our world, as it is, and we have the choice/free will to turn it into heaven or hell.

scientifically our world is just

electrical signals interpreted by your brain

reply to post by peacejet


I beg to differ.

A illusion is something it appears to be but is not.

Every human shows one same exact likeness -- We are all bound to the physical boundaries from which our eyes ears tactile smell and thought process.

This is what we live in and it is not an illusion.

However at the same exact time, we only choose to live in what we live in where as some take it piece by piece and rip it apart tearing a hole in the very fabric of space and time at which point we can ascend higher dimensions and or the astral plane.

The perfection of birth is not an illusion. We are really here, creatures aboard a Huge planet, lost in space for eternity. When you look up, do you see the Weather, or do you see beyond that into the depths of space. We are the results of millions of years of mutations.

well to be honest can anyone here even be sure that we see the same things when we looks at objects, no i am not talking about the physical form, more in the ways of color, taste, smell, sound.

This is what we live in and it is not an illusion.

pfffft, okay,keep telling yourself that. i beg to disagree

I would say closer to a matrice or simulacra.

I actually wrote a short story about this very subject. You know how the Japanese always have these strict and high standards for their upper businessmen and upper management?

My story was about a old man that was dying. He thought about what he learned in his lifetime and after a while he died but he woke up a young man in a recliner with a helmet on his head that had wires and sensors glued to his scalp. In the end, it turned out that his "life" was just a mental/personality test and part of the hiring process for a job that he applied for.


Our lives could just be job applications.

[edit on 9/1/09 by Pfeil]

I believe he physical world is very real in the sense that it exists. We are aware of it, our 5 senses reassure us of this and the 6ths sense questions it. I Think that our own perceptions of life and the world we live in create an illusion. I also believe we have created our own 'world' not planet but 'world'. Could it be maybe thats the our natural side can't balance with our new technological environment and its kicking in messages to try to get you to remember your roots. I do beleive in the chakras and the energy that flows within the body, and also think that is were the physical meets with the spiritual. My advice is to concentrate on you, go and visit yourself, ask yourself some questions, you might be surprised what answers you get. When was the last time you paid yourself a visit?

reply to post by jimmy1200


Are you to illiterate to understand;

"However at the same exact time, we only choose to live in what we live in where as some take it piece by piece and rip it apart tearing a hole in the very fabric of space and time at which point we can ascend higher dimensions and or the astral plane. "

???

I'm saying this world is not an illusion. I'm saying the way we react to this world could most definetly change the reality of this world, to an EXTREME extent.


The only illusion you'll ever see is David Blaine.

The rest is called, fabrication, lies, and deceit.

Do your study.

The ancients had a definiton for reality and that is "the illusion." Yes the physical world is an illusion created by our consciousness. It is like a hologram that we ourselvs have created. Yes it is created by God, but I believe that we are God. This is our own creation. The world is the reflection of ourselvs. All is equal as one.

[edit on 10-1-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

[edit on 10-1-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

One of the more interesting theories that I have heard is that the entire Universe is one giant computer simulation. I know that this smacks of "The Matrix" but heard this theory about 15 years before "The Matrix".

The idea is that everything that we can measure seems to have a limited resolution, quantums of energy, Planck's constant, electron charge, even the speed of light. The nature of matter is such that it all comes down to packets of energy, like the bits in a computer program. Ultimately, all matter is just bursts of energy moving around in probabilistic patterns.

The theory goes so far to suggest that the primary forces behave in pre-programmed ways.

reply to post by Wisen Heimer


That is very nice and historical and I bet it doesnt apply to what the word illusion is today.

Thank you have a nice day.

Someone sent me a U2U message with a very interesting link relating to this thread. Unfortunately, I cannot yet respond to U2U as I am a new member, but I hope the person who sent me that link (along with another one to the main page of the same site) will decide to share it with this community when he or she is finished with analysis, as it is most interesting!!

reply to post by Rumpelstiltskin


have you ever seen a movie called "the Matrix" anway here is a large quote out of that moviey

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it

reply to post by Rumpelstiltskin
i honestly choose to believe that we live in a free world and not in a toilet or anything else. but in actuality, it doesnt matter. no matter what the world really is, nothing will change and everything will always be the same regardless of what the truth is.

This thread reminded me of something that my daddy said to me years ago, he said " nothing is what it seems girl, even those trees you see over there"...

I was talking to my parents' dog earlier this evening before I read any of this. I said 'yumba yumba'? and she looked at me sideways. I then said 'yumba yumba' agreeably. Now I had her full attention. I said, 'Those trees out there, they are the structures all around us, they represent something else interdimesionally, don't they'? Before I even finished the sentence, the dog barked loudly and affirmatively, looking straight at me and pretty intensely. She then turned her attention to the trees. Animals seem to have a line on interdimensional reality sometimes. Maybe its the layered existense of multiple universes, or the multiple possibilites of a single universe.
It's always different, but it's always the same.
I do my best to avoid negative or positive connotation to the world around me, but it is hard to be truly objective in such a dramatic (and therefore seemingly synthetic) world. There was a signature I saw around here that was a quote (or paraphrase at this point) from Socrates: the only thing I know for certain is that I know nothing. lol