[Speed3]

Hi I haven't been on in a while.

This question has been on my mind a lot lately.

What is Reality ?

I am curious to hear how my fellow members define it, understand it and experience it ?

thanks
Speed3

[Victoria'smom]

I'm so glad your back I was worried about you. Reality is what the general population of a culture believes. Reality is very allusive for me.

[TheatreKid]

I don't think reality exists, at least not in a collective sense.

It makes me feel incredibly isolated, but what is true in my mind is only true in my mind. Other people will view reality with their own biases and their own interpretations.

So how do we know that other people actually exist and are not just created by our own minds? I don't have autism, but in the autism community there is a term called "mindblindness" and I honestly feel that way. I have absolutely no idea what anyone else is thinking, what their perceptions are, how they see me or anything else. And since I have no idea what they're thinking, I use my own experiences and opinions to fill that in. So in my head, other people are only a creation of my own mind. I mean, other people exist. But the person I know is made up of my own assumptions. No one really knows anyone.

When I was a kid I would try to figure out whether everyone saw colour the same. Like, we're taught that blue is blue. But if I could see through your eyes, what if your blue looked like a completely different colour, maybe everyone sees different colours, but if we're all taught it's blue, no one knows.

[Speed3]

Does anyone think within this thing we call reality there are different dimensions ? Or different 'realities' happening at the same time. Where we only experience one at a time.

Everything comes down to atoms, something none of us can see. But they make up everything in our 'reality' Kind of worlds within worlds.

My son's tragic death has made me question everything, I think it is a way to distract myself away from the unbearable pain.

When someone dies what happens to all the atoms that made them who they were ?

[wildflowerchild25]

Hello speed! Always nice to hear from you after a long hiatus. Glad to know you're ok. As for the question of reality I simply don't know. I've always thought that if the majority of people don't experience something, IE a voice or a vision, then it must not be "real".

But my husband has told me some crazy stories that I definitely don't believe about encounters with ghosts and whatnot but they have been corroborated by other people...so I don't know.

This is an interesting question...

Up until 2012 (with identification of the higgs boson) scientists haven't actually found anything that makes atoms actual matter!! they are made up of energy. It is very possible that this is collective imagination.

As for dimensions or parallel universes. They have found in nature, particles that are seemingly separate from one another and behaving in a paradoxical manner and yet have an inherent connection and pattern that they follow in assimilation. showing that something can work in complete parallel within the same system and still have a joined connection within that, effectively working on two plains at the same time.

I am not a scientist by far and that is about all I know tbh. I do find it all very fascinating that the things we take for grated as reality actually could not truly exist at all !!

Back in the 'real' world, I do have a doctors appointment and they 'really' think I am crazy so maybe don't listen haha

Thank you for the thread

[swheaton]

Reality is whatever you make it. How do we really know that someone isn't hallucinating, but is really seeing something we can't?

[Curiosity77]

Originally Posted by TheatreKid

I don't think reality exists, at least not in a collective sense.

It makes me feel incredibly isolated, but what is true in my mind is only true in my mind. Other people will view reality with their own biases and their own interpretations.

So how do we know that other people actually exist and are not just created by our own minds? I don't have autism, but in the autism community there is a term called "mindblindness" and I honestly feel that way. I have absolutely no idea what anyone else is thinking, what their perceptions are, how they see me or anything else. And since I have no idea what they're thinking, I use my own experiences and opinions to fill that in. So in my head, other people are only a creation of my own mind. I mean, other people exist. But the person I know is made up of my own assumptions. No one really knows anyone.

When I was a kid I would try to figure out whether everyone saw colour the same. Like, we're taught that blue is blue. But if I could see through your eyes, what if your blue looked like a completely different colour, maybe everyone sees different colours, but if we're all taught it's blue, no one knows.

I wondered the exact same thing about colours as a kid. I'm still not sure the answer

I don't know about reality. I guess it's usually based on the consensus view of what is happening, so if enough people agree on something it must be real. I used to do a lot of hallucinogenic drugs when I was a teenager, and I thought about the concept of reality a lot. If I experience something, it is real to me, even if others don't experience it or agree. I had a few pretty terrifying experiences of loosing touch with consensus reality. I'm still not sure how to make sense of those kind of experiences, because I wonder if I was just able to tap into some other level of consciousness that is usually imperceptible or if it was purely psychosis.

Interesting topic

[r010159]

You are limited by your perceptions, both real and psychological I think a person only can respond to their perceptions, for that is what creates their reality. But it helps to know that there is something more out there, that what you don't know that you don't know. Makes sense?

Neurotics build castles in the sky, psychotics live in them, and psychiatrists collect the rent.

In other words, do not take yourself too seriously!

EDIT: I wonder if this would be my signature line?

[Nammu]

Reality is a shared mass hallucination.

[venusss]

Reality is a delusion shared by a huge segment of population.

[ManicIcarus]

Originally Posted by Speed3

Hi I haven't been on in a while.

This question has been on my mind a lot lately.

What is Reality ?

I am curious to hear how my fellow members define it, understand it and experience it ?

thanks
Speed3

Aint that just the million dollar question. Reality to me is what can be scientifically proven.

[repressedmess]

Originally Posted by Speed3

Hi I haven't been on in a while.

This question has been on my mind a lot lately.

What is Reality ?

I am curious to hear how my fellow members define it, understand it and experience it ?

thanks
Speed3

I'm convinced that there r infinite realities...each person perceives things through a different set of eyes based on their core beliefs among many other contributing factors...no-one sees things exactly the same way so therefore really we reach have our own perception and our own reality!...but that's just my opinion

Originally Posted by ManicIcarus

Aint that just the million dollar question. Reality to me is what can be scientifically proven.

But that is the funny thing. The more science looks the more it realises that this is actually a holographic image and that the fabric of the universe is made up of energy.

These are not conspiracies, these are theories being debated by top physicists now and the more we test quantum mechanics, the more we prove it's validity.

An atom (that the whole world is made of) is just energy.

And I believe that some people are actually enlightened to this

[venusss]

Originally Posted by ManicIcarus

Aint that just the million dollar question. Reality to me is what can be scientifically proven.

But if nothing is realand it's all illusion... (Berkley style)... why wouldn't we be deluded about science too? If reality is mass hallucination/delusion than science will be part of it, as opposed to antidote to it.

Also... science is interpretation of what we know at the moment. No way we are seeing the whole picture. That might be too much for us to grasp... ever.

[Speed3]

Originally Posted by Sky Blueblack

This is an interesting question...

Up until 2012 (with identification of the higgs boson) scientists haven't actually found anything that makes atoms actual matter!! they are made up of energy. It is very possible that this is collective imagination.

As for dimensions or parallel universes. They have found in nature, particles that are seemingly separate from one another and behaving in a paradoxical manner and yet have an inherent connection and pattern that they follow in assimilation. showing that something can work in complete parallel within the same system and still have a joined connection within that, effectively working on two plains at the same time.

I am not a scientist by far and that is about all I know tbh. I do find it all very fascinating that the things we take for grated as reality actually could not truly exist at all !!

Back in the 'real' world, I do have a doctors appointment and they 'really' think I am crazy so maybe don't listen haha

Thank you for the thread

Extremely interesting, thanks for the post.

[Speed3]

I wonder if we could see down to the atomic level, what it would look like.

I am looking out my window at a dogwood tree with numerous birds in it.

What would the picture be if I just saw all the atoms that make them up swirling around.

I saw a light orb the other day. It was high up on the wall. I know it was my son. I wished it was low enough so I could touch it. I wondered in my grieving mind if it was like a portal. A portal to where Jason is now.

No I am not experiencing psychosis. Just trying to look at things differently.

Thanks for all the posts. I find your answers fascinating.

[outlaw sammy]

Reality is the observer's perception of reality.

[LaborIntensive]

Originally Posted by Curiosity77

I wondered the exact same thing about colours as a kid. I'm still not sure the answer

I don't know about reality. I guess it's usually based on the consensus view of what is happening, so if enough people agree on something it must be real. I used to do a lot of hallucinogenic drugs when I was a teenager, and I thought about the concept of reality a lot. If I experience something, it is real to me, even if others don't experience it or agree. I had a few pretty terrifying experiences of loosing touch with consensus reality. I'm still not sure how to make sense of those kind of experiences, because I wonder if I was just able to tap into some other level of consciousness that is usually imperceptible or if it was purely psychosis.

Interesting topic

Just look at it from the point of someone who is colorblind.

[LaborIntensive]

Give this a viewing and perhaps it will fill in many blanks and give you some insight and comfort.

Speed -

If quantum mechanics is right and we have created this as a collective illusion, then we are merely avatars created by energy.

This means that your son didn't die in the conventional sense and actually became part of the energy in something new.

Some people believe that this is a spiritual journey and in that case some things are predetermined as a lesson or an experience that is a part of your soul evolution. This would also imply that your son did not die but was a spirit that was a part of your journey and the the lesson you came to learn and is therefore reborn into the new people and experiences you will experience in the future. No one dies if the world is made up of energy.

He is the portal. He is the life force that you carry in you.

FOR YOU SPEED

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Mary Elizabeth Frye

[ManicIcarus]

Originally Posted by Sky Blueblack

But that is the funny thing. The more science looks the more it realises that this is actually a holographic image and that the fabric of the universe is made up of energy.

These are not conspiracies, these are theories being debated by top physicists now and the more we test quantum mechanics, the more we prove it's validity.

An atom (that the whole world is made of) is just energy.

That's kind of a cop out though. There may be different timelines, alternate realities, or things of that such, but the only real thing that matters at this moment is what we know to be true. Heck even if it turns out that our universe is just one big giant "The Sims" style game on one giant computer, it still means that this is what is reality to us.

I don't know what it is... but I know it when I see it!