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Is reality as real as we think?

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posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 12:35 PM
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I have a rather existential question to ask: How do you know your reality is real? How do you know you are not dreaming when you are awake?

The reason I ask is that I read somewhere that the same part of the brain that is responsible for dreaming is also responsible for recreating the outside world from the information the brain receives via the senses. In effect the reality we experience is nothing more than a simulation programmed by electrical pulses converted from the vibrations that we call light, sound and matter. So as far as our brain is concerned there is no perceptible difference between dreams and reality, which may be the reason why our dreams can feel so real.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 12:38 PM
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If it's all an illusion, then the illusion itself is real. You've just renamed "reality" to "illusion", but not explained the illusion.

Something is real.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 12:59 PM
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OK, I have another question for you. How can you tell where "reality" ends and "illusion" begins? . That has never been an easy question to answer but I think that it is harder to answer now that it ever has been. In the world today you can be driven insane trying to keep the two apart. At this rate they may be a time and place where the two become one and the same then we all go insane. Think I am talking non-sense? Just read the paper or watch the news. Just look about you in your every day life and you too will start the see the line between the two start to fade.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 01:21 PM
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How do you know we haven't just got a virtual reality headset on? After all, everything we perceive is, like you suggest, electrical waves converted by our brains sight/sound/touch/taste etc. This would be similar to if our brain was taken out of our head and put into a box and connected via usb to a pc.

When its game over maybe we get to take the head set off and find out.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 02:12 PM
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Originally posted by Namaste1001
The reason I ask is that I read somewhere that the same part of the brain that is responsible for dreaming is also responsible for recreating the outside world from the information the brain receives via the senses.


Namaste, that sounds like a very interesting article. Do you have a link? I would very much like to read it.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 02:34 PM
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Very interesting..I've always wondered on all this..Sometimes wonder if we're all just like a computer game being played out with some higher intelligent beings from this or some other universe..



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 02:59 PM
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Originally posted by Snow.In.Summer

Originally posted by Namaste1001
The reason I ask is that I read somewhere that the same part of the brain that is responsible for dreaming is also responsible for recreating the outside world from the information the brain receives via the senses.


Namaste, that sounds like a very interesting article. Do you have a link? I would very much like to read it.


Sorry I can't remember it was a while ago. I also watched an interesting interview with Philip k. Dick in which he was certain that our reality was being programmed by some higher authority. I had the link but it's been taken off youtube.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 03:10 PM
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reply to post by Namaste1001
 


Thanks, anyway. I will do a search on it, and also on the Philip k. Dick interview. If I find anything, I will post a link.

This is a very interesting topic.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 03:24 PM
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That's quite a profound questions...

Regarding dreams, there are a number of ways when dreaming to test our reality but you must have at least some lucidity to do so.

Regarding the "waking" world, it's a whole different topic, but your observations make sense. In fact, I wrote in one of my articles that everything is vibrating energy including colors, light, sounds, etc. Our brain picks up that frequency and decodes it so that we can distinguish the color, light or sound.

I also remember reading somewhere that some studies suggest that less than 50% of what we "see" is actually based on the information entering our eyes. The rest is based on our expectations of what it looks like. Quite interesting!



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 03:29 PM
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So is it a possibility that we are nothing more than some experiment?



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 03:51 PM
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Originally posted by reesie45
So is it a possibility that we are nothing more than some experiment?


An abandoned experiment that went wrong, very very wrong if you ask me.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 04:19 PM
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Originally posted by NewlyAwakened
If it's all an illusion, then the illusion itself is real. You've just renamed "reality" to "illusion", but not explained the illusion.

Something is real.


Now, don't around saying things like that or you'll make alot of enemies or simply be ignored around here! The namaste freakazoids will shun you and expell you from the meditation compound.

Oooh....wow, man...it's like, not REAL?!1.1!>!>>!>????

Yeah, man....it's an ILLUSION!!!!

Wow.....that (is/makes it sound) so....deep.

Like, we could be in like, some sort of thing that's like, something else, other than what it looks like, man!!!1!!!1!!!!1!

Wow, man...but what things is it then, if it's something else?

You bastard! You don't get it. It's an ILLUSION!



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 04:26 PM
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Originally posted by fixer1967

Originally posted by reesie45
So is it a possibility that we are nothing more than some experiment?


An abandoned experiment that went wrong, very very wrong if you ask me.
I can understand that.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 04:29 PM
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Originally posted by fixer1967

Originally posted by reesie45
So is it a possibility that we are nothing more than some experiment?


An abandoned experiment that went wrong, very very wrong if you ask me.


Just like in the book 'Forever War' by Joe Haldeman.

Quality.....



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 04:31 PM
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Originally posted by fixer1967
OK, I have another question for you. How can you tell where "reality" ends and "illusion" begins?



maybe reality begins with the illusions?

maybe others' science fiction is somehow our realities...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d659babe6043.png[/atsimg]




what is real & what is illusion?



ah, who am i and what do i know,
et









p.s.
believe in something.
something has to be real.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 04:32 PM
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A very interesting read, if you haven't already is, "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. This is the book where it mentions about our eyes only actually perceiving 50% of what we see and the brain manufactures the rest.

He proposes that these vibrations we call 'light' are actually a projected hologram.

Our reality is projected by who/what? If it wasn't for this 'who/what', would we exists?

There's a big question mark over what the nature of reality is by the physicists... a good research topic is quantum physics, (if you haven't looked into it already).

A poll was taken about 10 years ago, the percentage was about 70% of physicists are inconclusive of what the nature of our reality is. (This is in the book Quantum by Manjit Kumar.... another good read.)

Thanks for bringing the subject up S+F!!!!



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 05:23 PM
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Originally posted by doorhand
A very interesting read, if you haven't already is, "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. This is the book where it mentions about our eyes only actually perceiving 50% of what we see and the brain manufactures the rest.


Thanks a lot for the info! I'll definitely have a look at that book!

And it does indeed seem to link well with the quantum physics theory where the particles behave differently when they are observed.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 05:27 PM
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Reality is not as real as we think because reality is only as real as we think.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 05:28 PM
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reply to post by Namaste1001
 


Namaste1001, are you not asking two questions here?

You ask: Is reality as real as we think?

Reply: The question you state above implies you have been led to believe reality is to be comprehended in certain ways. Skies are blue but have different colors due to weather conditions, for example. You are questioning whether there are skies in the first place and all else about skies may not be true if a sky does not exist.

Philosophers will tell you that reality, as comprehended by finite beings, is partial, relative, and shadowy. Religions will tell you the same thing. Science tends to accept material reality as existential and throws real thinkers into confusion because that just is not so. Someday they may correct that approach.

Notice I said “reality as comprehended by finite beings”. Such a statement should put anyone on notice that if we have to separate out what is “finite”, we then have to separate it from something larger. Finite reality is the experience of beginnings and endings. From what it is separated from is what you are calling existential as in your next question:

Namaste1001: I have a rather existential question to ask: How do you know your reality is real? How do you know you are not dreaming when you are awake?

Reply: You are asking a second question here, I believe. How do you know your experiences mean the same as others experience (the ones who say what is real)? The answer is that of course you do. You probably experience meanings as well as anyone even while there are personal differences of interpretation. This is normal and part of a natural mind function. Persons who have malfunctioning brain operations do not even ask the kind of question you pose here mostly because the rational mind can not operate well enough to analyze itself and its perceptions clearly. While this is a pretty wild and wooly area to discuss and loaded with exceptions to these statements, normal minds do question reality all the time. Such questioning is actually a learning tool to help the self to accrue information and balanced growth.

Namaste1001: The reason I ask is that I read somewhere that the same part of the brain that is responsible for dreaming is also responsible for recreating the outside world from the information the brain receives via the senses. In effect the reality we experience is nothing more than a simulation programmed by electrical pulses converted from the vibrations that we call light, sound and matter. So as far as our brain is concerned there is no perceptible difference between dreams and reality, which may be the reason why our dreams can feel so real.

Reply: The process that led to the appearance of man has taken about a million years to the present state of consciousness and intelligence. It has been estimated that it took the various versions of mankind most of that time to be able to separate dream states from actual and awake reality. For instance, the dream state in early man was so strong it gave rise to early religions populated with the ghosts of their ancestors and enemies. The appearance of science was a huge evolutionary step forward because it helped man to separate the disorganized dream states from the awake world he worked in. Thinking is not dreaming as it involves a whole different area of brain to do it. That division of dream from being awake and functioning in he conscious world is being more and more segregated until today we accept the division and know the differences.

Children go through the evolution of the process all mankind has taken and must learn to discern the difference. It is one part of growing up. Reality is not very well grasped by a child, but there is enough capacity in the brain-mind system that by age 21, most have traversed the worst of the transition and now may function in the real world as lucid, well-grounded beings. It is true that for nearly every person alive there is a different interpretation of what constitutes reality and what it means, but the natural world exists in a dependable display of the actual existence as we see it. However, we shall probably deal with that struggle of what underlies the reality we see all of our lives, but fear not, the mind is strong enough to know the difference and tells you so in many ways every day.



posted on Jul, 14 2010 @ 08:54 PM
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Originally posted by Nixes
Very interesting..I've always wondered on all this..Sometimes wonder if we're all just like a computer game being played out with some higher intelligent beings from this or some other universe..


This is pretty much the precise thing that is going on.

Awaken to your higher self and you will see for yourself.

The physical world is simply a very convincing illusion.

Everything is energy.

Love and peace,

Namaste.



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