solopsism - the theory that only one's mind can be sure to exist. how would we ever know that this isn't all a fake 'reality', that we're really all alone and that no one exists but us? that thought actually kind of scares me, but also fascinates me. we can be sure of our existence but no one else. who's to say we're not just a brain in a vat with signals being passed though the brain creating a fake reality? how can we ever truly know what reality is? the story of 'plato's cave' sums this up for me: imagine if you will, that a group of prisoners have been chained up facing a cave wall from the moment of birth, unable to move, never seeing the outside world. behind them is a great fire and a walkway. people carry objects, such as animal shapes etc, along this walkway in front of the fire every day. all the prisoners can see is the silhouettes of these objects reflected on the cave wall, and it's all they've ever seen. imagine one day a man unchains a prisoner and shows him the outside world, reality. the prisoner is terrified, all he's ever know is the shadows on the cave wall, that's his version of reality, the outside world is fake to him, how can he accept this as true reality? therefore how can we define what we view as reality? how can true reality ever exist? surely it's just our perception of things, and we can't prove one way or another what true reality is. this makes me wonder how we can lock people up and label them as mental simply for viewing 'reality' differently. i suppose the general consensus is that if the majority of people agree on something to be fact then that's how it's regarded. history has shown this can be dangerous though (witch hunting for example?) i'm high, i'm ra
goood question.. maybe it is what it appears to be, or at least it appears to be what it appears to be..
I was just thinking about this today. Like the matrix, but it's only you. Every experience you've ever had, every feeling you've ever felt was invented by your brain, which, by the way, is sitting in a jar in a spaceship. The world doesn't exist and neither do humans. You have the ability to modify natural laws such as gravity, but you don't; if you did, the illusion would collapse and you would be forced to confront your actual existence. Right now, your brain just invented this post, and you're reading what your own mind wrote. It's like a dream. Poke yourself in the palm. Your fingers don't exist. Neither does your palm. The sensation of pressure on your palm is an electrical impulse created by your brain and interpreted by your brain. Nothing you can see is real. By the way, as far as I know, there's no way to actually disprove this idea.
There are a LOT of things that you can't disprove. Can you prove that the flying spaghetti monster doesn't exist? No, you cant. You can provide a list of several logical reasons why the spaghetti monster SHOULDN'T exist, but you cannot prove that it doesn't exist.
What is reality? I feel that reality is totally subjective to each being of consciousness experiencing it. Arguably, reality is whatever you choose it to be.
My definition of Reality is everything that currently exists. This is Not as simple as it seems though. According to the string theory (my fav theory) there are 9 different dimensions out there, some hiding because they are so small, some vibrating at a different frequency as here. No one has yet to find any proof of this but this is only because we do not currently have the technology to do so, many scientists believe we will in by 2012 when the large hadron collider in Switzerland is at full power. imagine the possibilities
because we all have thought of those kinds of things so we can assume that we are each individuals and there isnt 1 person that everyone else is just a figment of their imgination. its not like everyone else is just some kind of pawn in your existence.
"Reality" is simply electronic signals interpreted by your brain. While there may be actual objects there, your brain is converting electronic signals to form/create an image/hologram in your mind.
It's not that they are pawns to your reality, but rather your excuse for this reality. Your excuse to believe it's real. It's obvious we are all different individuals and thus they cannot merely exist because of our brain, except that's exactly what our brain WANTS us to think. lol...
Reality is a hologram. I don't think reality is real. Its just something we're experiencing as a conscious being.
"Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will…" – Cesare Pavese, 1908-1950, Italian Poet Reality is a prison........Your mind will set you free.