[Piraeus]

I talked to my doctor about this before. He said some things could very well be real. There is no trick to figure out what is real and what is not real. I have a very prominent sense of intuition, so I am pretty good at figuring it out. Some times it comes in waves and scares the hell out of me. I just want to be grounded and know what is going on always.

[Gr3tta]

instead of figuring out real and not real, i try to figure out "real to me" and "real to everyone"
that seems to make more sense in my own head, and also doesn't anger some of my visitors as much which is of benefit to me.

i still have to work on grounding, though.

[KUREHA]

I don't know how to tell, but I go with what makes sense in my head. If it looks real to me, it's got to be.

[newtus]

i can tell whats real by getting proof and i usually can

Nothing is real, objectively. There is only such a thing as a subjective reality. Bertrand Russel talks about this in his book "Problems with Philosophy". [Based on Plato's writings, of course...]
Take a plain, wooden table & place it in a white room with vivid lighting. Look at the wood grains, the shade of the wood, the bright white walls. Now go into a room with the same plain, wooden table & place it in a white room with dim lighting. Did the lighting change? Or did the table & room themselves change? The wood is much darker & the walls are a dull off-white now.
There's no ultimate authority on what is more real than another -- Only what is accepted. And generally, if your experiences aren't accepted through: reason, science, religion, common sense, etc. Your experience is deemed unreal & factitious. It can be argued that we are all programmed by our parents/society with a way of seeing the world &, through psychosis, our perspective deviates from our true one. Or are we liberating ourselves from a constrictive world-view?
There's really no way of knowing. Just do what is comfortable for you. Do what works. Do what makes you sleep easier & be more comfortable with yourself.

[newtus]

i can

i got proof of people following me i do

its my word and
some videos of planes.

i do
i really do

im not lying.

i have a hard time with real and not real. only becuase other people around me tell me its not real. my beliefs. i think i just have psychic powers and know whats going on. in the end when they make the movie everything will come to light. and the others will see i was right.

[Ones44]

Well... It depends on what you mean by real now doesn't it. Consider this, does it have substance. I am not referring to physical substance, but abstract substance. Even if what you see is not physically there, it may be an abstract idea or character that is entirely substantial...
On a more believable and personal lv... I rarely get anything more than auditory hallucinations... The auditory hallucinations often sound like people I know, so I can know it isn't real if the person isn't around, and if they around I tend to answer the voice and look like an idiot. In those cases, it isn't real because it lacks substance. And it only really gets bad if I don't recognize the voice or it tells me to do something... often if it tells me to do something, I do it without trying to... it isn't so much of a command either.. it is like the voice gives me a piece of info and I act on it.
So for a pseudo-fictional example: I am in class doing work and I am waiting for my turn to leave my seat speak to the teacher about a recently finished rough draft.
The voice would say something like: (insert name) just finished talking to the teacher." and maybe I might feel a tap on the shoulder as the voice says it. Knowing that I am next in line after the person, I get up and walk across the room and either get in trouble or make a good excuse. In those cases, the voice is substantially real. In that particular example though it is sadly misleading.

[fishsandwich]

I don't have my philosophy head on tonight, but I operate under the policy that something's real if:
1) I can poke it and it feels solid, or I can identify a pokeable source for the sound
2) It's something scary/dangerous and other people are running away from it/shrieking about it/ringing the police about it
3) It's so inconsequential that I don't even need to waste my time on it. (I saw three coffee mugs on my desk earlier. Only one was real -- it just didn't matter one iota.)

[Gr3tta]

Originally Posted by fishsandwich

1) I can poke it and it feels solid, or I can identify a pokeable source for the sound

sometimes mine have pokeability.
i'm with you on not worrying about the inconsequential things.

[Crescent Moon]

Originally Posted by fishsandwich

I don't have my philosophy head on tonight, but I operate under the policy that something's real if:
1) I can poke it and it feels solid, or I can identify a pokeable source for the sound
2) It's something scary/dangerous and other people are running away from it/shrieking about it/ringing the police about it
3) It's so inconsequential that I don't even need to waste my time on it. (I saw three coffee mugs on my desk earlier. Only one was real -- it just didn't matter one iota.)

You've got an impressively practical 'reality-check' process going on there. I'll bet that goes a long way toward managing hallucinations and minimizing the escalation of anxiety and fear.

Thanks for sharing it.

[junkDNA]

facts are subjective