What is reality?

[LightSun]

12. What is reality?

There are two dimensions of reality. The inner experience and the outward experience. For me the two need be in balance. The inner is our phenomenological inner universe of thoughts and perceptions. It does not necessitate reality.

None of us can see reality in it's full context. We project as unto a blank movie screen our thoughts, feelings and perceptions. if negative a problem is within. If positive, realistic and pragmatic so much the better.

 

[Luigi]

I don't know if there is reality. Another way of saying the same idea is that I don't know if it even exists at all. In my opinion, your personal experience and the experiences of other people and things that are not living (like geology, meteorology, astronomy, etc.) are equal, which means that neither is more or less important than the other. If reality does actually exist, then it should be a possibility for humans to prove the existence of reality. How anybody could actually accomplish this is more mental work than I am capable of processing. This is because of my next idea. I'm sure that most people base their opinions upon the assumption that reality is a fact, and it does exist, and I'm not an exception from this mindset. A college professor I once had, the course was sociology, said that "we construct our own reality" and at the time I didn't know what to make of that, but eventually, the more I thought about it, I agree, and what he meant was essentially the same as your idea of "the inner experience" being one determining factor of reality for any given person. For anybody to decide whether they believe that reality is absolute or a matter of perspective, means that those same people would have to consider their own thoughts about the idea of existentialism. Which is why I'd say that anybody claiming to have an opinion about reality, without having also considered existentialism, is being irrational and should simply say that they don't know, which is also a problem for many people because many people have so much pride that they are not willing to speak the words "I don't know" and the amount of energy and perseverance required in order to convince anybody that they don't know something which they have been claiming they do know, would certainly be an immeasurable quantity. Unfortunately, advanced math and science, despite my disciplined efforts, are beyond my comprehension, which is why I could never be anything more than an admirer of Einstein's ideas, without ever being able to understand or contribute to them.

 

[Population: 1]

Looking for answers to the simple questions eh?

My theory? There's reality, what is actually occurring in this universe (possibly in an infinite amount of others), and then there are billions of filtered realities around the world, and that's just the human realities! It really is amazing how many things our senses and brain misinterpret or acquire only partial knowledge of. How often we work with incomplete data. Our mind fills in the blanks. Our realities are each unique. We are all living in a place with a population of just 1.

That's why I chose the name.

 

[Luigi]

Looking for answers to the simple questions eh?

My theory? There's reality, what is actually occurring in this universe (possibly in an infinite amount of others), and then there are billions of filtered realities around the world, and that's just the human realities! It really is amazing how many things our senses and brain misinterpret or acquire only partial knowledge of. How often we work with incomplete data. Our mind fills in the blanks. Our realities are each unique. We are all living in a place with a population of just 1.

That's why I chose the name.

Almost nobody ever says anything that actually fascinates me, but you did just now. Well done, sir.

 

[Population: 1]

Almost nobody ever says anything that actually fascinates me, but you did just now. Well done, sir.

Thanks. Usually I just have people looking at me in a state of confusion. At least in real life.

 

[Polaris]

Reality is that which has an existence independent of the imagination.

 

[á´…eparted]

The most literal version of reality is the standard model. Aka everything. Except not really, because there is the pesky matter of dark matter/energy. Regardless, that is reality, and it is impossible for any conscious being to perceive reality (even in a small space such as a 10x10x10 room) in it's totality. The senses have limited ranges. As such, on a day-to-day level what we conventionally call reality isn't actually true. There are also almost certainly other senses that could exsist that would chance the perception.

In many ways, the question of "what is reality" is quite pointless and doesn't provide a useful or terribly meaningful answer.

Now, asking the question of how do we perceive reality is a very fascinating and useful question to ask. Compare our perception of our reality to that of an earthworm; we might as well be living in different galaxies our perceptions are so mind bogglingly different. If you try to put yourself into the shoes of other organisms in how they might percieve the world gives you a sense of how infinitely complex reality is by virtue of how many different interpretations of it can be had.

 

[GloriaInExcelsisDeo]

Reality is God and His Creation that includes spirit-beings, Purgatory, Heaven & Hell. Everything a human can conceive is based, to some extent if not fully, on reality and is therefore part of reality, though perhaps not entirely. Even something as abstract as a dream can be interpreted as a personal message vital to one's life and is therefore real in the sense of it portraying reality in a deeply metaphorical and encrypted way. I am a traditional Christian to the core, some would say a fundamentalist, so that is the only reality that exists if you ever were to ask me.

 

[nor]

Reality is that which has an existence independent of the imagination.

As opposed to that which exists, but not really -- brilliant.

 

[Typh0n]

Ipseity.

 

[Wunjo]

I happen to think that there is no "static" or a "greater" reality, there is only the void. The eternal nothingness, the unmanifested being, the "it" which did not realise itself, which manifests itself throughout the perception of sentient creatures. We all try to name it, as I did, but deep down, I know trying to name infinity, name nothingness, is futile, for defining is only a limitation, and can something which does not really exist, have a limit? There is, though, a "lesser" reality. Your reality. An attempt made by nothingness to know itself, to look at itself through a mirror. A reality that the void manifests itself through your perception. Your attempts to make sense out of nihility can be categorised as your own reality, however, even your attempts to make sense out of reality I think are not through, because it can be logically coherent as much as you try and want it to be, however, in order to make logical coherences, one must first make an assumption that there is a reality.

So we make the assumption, we fill the cup, for we are psychologically conditioned to do so. There is no reality, for reality itself, the lack of it, can be perceived with infinite possibilities which are not statistically related.

Some call this the burden of existence, some call this an illusion, some call this being human. I see no reason why this can't be all three or more, at the same time.

 

[Cellmold]

"An extremely odd demand is often set forth but never met, even by those who make it: i.e, that empirical data should be presented without any theoretical context, leaving the reader, the student, to his own devices in judging it. This demand seems odd because it is useless simply to look at something. Every act of looking turns into observation, every act of observation into reflection, every act of reflection into the making of associations; thus it is evident that we theorise every time we look carefully at the world" - Goethe

"Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves -goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying 'What I do is me: for that I came." - Hopkins.

 

[LightSun]

Reality: What to you is reality? Do you give more credence to the external world or the internal world? Do you consider yourself a deep inward looking person or is your focus primarily on the external world.

 

[1487610420]

salty caramel square

 

[Mole]

Reality and imagination are two sides of the same coin. Normally they are mutually exclusive. but when they mix. it is magic.

 

[LightSun]

"What to you is reality? Do you give more credence to the external world or the internal world? Do you consider yourself a deep inward looking person or is your focus primarily on the external world."

“They say that we live in a world of illusions. In addition there are wives tales and wisdom sayings from both religion and secular wisdom's thought to be reality. In fact many of these wisdom's do not stand up when using scientific scrutiny. Half the Real world is within. As well as half of the Real being external. To me the inner universe phenomenological landscape is based on what I think, feel and believe. It's origin is the cognitive schema we develop into our belief system. As said before many of these deep beliefs are not ever questioned. Due to psychological reasons these beliefs are held on to even when overwhelming evidence shows the contrary.

The inner reality comprises our thoughts, conscience, feelings, beliefs and perceptions. It is the world of ideas and concepts that come lay in our unconscious belief systems. The internal world is more ideal. Some call it the mind, soul, sub conscience or Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious. Our outer world is conversely what is limited to what are senses tell us. This however is not reality. Instead it is our perceptual universe which is subject to change.
Our external world is composed of objective facts. It is what we can feel, touch, smell, taste, and hear. Therefore it is much more concrete.

Alas wars are fought over ideological beliefs. They are in a metaphorical and philosophical sense illusions. So many of mankind's difficulties is when we argue or worse go to war over subjective ideals. We believe in certain things not substantiated by science and are prepared to go to war over what amounts to differences of opinion in the form of beliefs. We delude ourselves in doing so. This instead of learning to discourse and settle differences through communication and remaining with objective facts. It is true we live in a world of partial illusions. The answers lie within. Seek and ye shall understand.

Look inward for the truth and you shall find it. There are real truths in the external world as well. We need the basic items to find basic comfort and security as well as a modicum of happiness. But to search the external world exclusively for happiness is a fool's dream. You will die searching because you never discovered yourself. That is the inner world. The path of self discovery and finding out what you truly wish for yourself , that is finding your true self along with your inherent gift. There are many paths to achieve this. A valuable truism is no one person can tell another how to live.

That must come from inside. Learn to trust yourself. Learn to heed that inner voice as long as it is founded on virtue and not lies and self deception. I happen to like Plato's allegory of the cave. We as a species can not see the whole truth. We can only see slivers and angles of truth and reality based on our limited perceptions. Truth is always unfolding before us as more and more data is discovered by science. What many view as truth is merely perceptions and opinions. For one to say, "I think, feel or believe this to be true." I feel it, ergo it is the truth. This happens to be the cognitive distortion of emotional reasoning.

This irrespective of your belief having not been proven by science and science methodology. Even in science we start with a hypothesis and take it for granted as truth. Only with new discoveries do we find the error of our ways.
It is a main reason I favor science over religion. Science grows over time as new developments arise. Religion stipulates original hypothesis to explain the natural order of things and is inflexible in changing its belief despite overwhelming evidence in contrast.

In life we learn through experiential learning. We are a product of the nature and nurture paradigm. It is through life's experiences, provided we are open minded and amiable enough to learning new lessons through insight and reflection, that we can grow. We expand our understanding of ourselves, others and the reality we live in. To me the only reliable truths are not opinions or beliefs but hard objective facts proven and replicated by science. To move along our path we must learn to walk the middle path. The road called the Shining One and that is balance.

Two key attributes of the human race that have not yet been fully realized is the gift of reason and the gift of empathy. Together they form the best characteristics of humanity. Both must be taught at a critical level in the school systems for these two gifts to truly manifest. Using Plato’s allegory it is like we are in a cave. What we think we see is only a shadow of truth and in effect almost illusion. We hunt and seek the shadows always striving to find the entrance to the cave and see reality clearly in its entirety. We are searching for the brilliance of truth.

Each person lives in a different as well unique phenomenological universe. People live in different perceptual realities and live by different truths. Obviously not everyone can be right. In fact no one is totally right. This is why we fight instead of listening to each other and both honoring and respecting other people's truths. It is through understanding each individual has a different perspective reality that is just as real to him or her as your own version and perspective of what reality is. It is by meeting on common ground, respecting individual differences and communicating with respect that we can pool our resources and thereby increase our understanding of reality and the world we live in.

It is as if we are all part of a giant crystal or diamond. Call it the eye of Odin, Odin's eye or God's eyes. We need to pool our resources and capabilities into a cohesive whole in order getting rid of distortions, which we all have. But one must know self-first or at least have a preliminary knowledge. None of us can see the Truth or understand reality in all it's complexity.. We can catch glimmers of it out only of the corner of our eye. It is as if the life mission to cut away at illogical untruth. Each of us is different with different capabilities, as well as different attributes and with a different life mission. It is all part of the whole. Perhaps the most successful will be those they can see other people's world view and synchronize."

 

[GoldenDawn]

Reality is a biopsychological experience of stimulus of which its trustability is verified through healthy sense and intelligent conceptualisation.

 

[Tengri]

Reality: What to you is reality? Do you give more credence to the external world or the internal world?

Levels of perception: Sensory response to a knotwork of interdependent physical processes. The described and perceptual worlds of a conscious self

 

[Nomendei]

 

[LightSun]

'We do not see Reality in its totality for we only have limited Perceptions or only angles of truth and reality with these perceptions. Seeing The Pattern Of The Whole Of Reality with greater clarity By Pooling Resources"


"Each person lives in a different as well unique phenomenological universe. People live in different perceptual realities and live by different truths. Obviously not everyone can be right. In fact no one is totally right. This is why we fight instead of listening to each other and both honoring and respecting other people's truths. It is through understanding each individual has a different perspective reality that is just as real to him or her as your own version and perspective of what reality is.

It is by meeting on common ground, respecting individual differences and communicating with respect that we can pool our resources and thereby increase our understanding of reality and the world we live in.
I have an analogy that all of us are part of a giant crystal or diamond, each of us seeing angles of the truth but none of us seeing reality in it's whole entirety.It is as if we are all part of a giant crystal or diamond. Call it the eye of Odin, Odin's eye or God's eyes.

We need to pool our resources and capabilities into a cohesive whole in order getting rid of distortions, which we all have. But one must know self-first or at least have a preliminary knowledge. None of us can see the Truth or understand reality in all it's complexity.. We can catch glimmers of it out only of the corner of our eye. Using Plato’s allegory it is like we are in a cave. What we think we see is only a shadow of truth and in effect almost illusion. We hunt and seek the shadows always striving to find the entrance to the cave and see reality clearly in its entirety.

We are searching for the brilliance of truth. It is as if the life mission to cut away at illogical untruth. Each of us is different with different capabilities, as well as different attributes and with a different life mission. It is all part of the whole. Perhaps the most successful will be those they can see other people's world view and synchronize." LightSun

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” Anthony Robbins

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Indeed, the most courageous travelers are those who are willing to look within for what they wish to see “out there.” Marcel Proust

"There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragments by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cell by cell like a laboring mosaic." Anais Nin