realty is not real...how do we know?

[whatdidyousay?]

I saw "the matrix" a while ago, there is a quote in the movie: "if reality is what we see, hear and smell, then reality is simply electric singals interpreted by our brain."
This got me thinking. because everything that we feel is just electric signals inside our brain, and we are just machines or objects that are very advanced somehow. our behaviour is nothing but our brains doing it's thing, so then it would not really matter what happens to us, because "life" is just what we call things that move and self-sustain.

So how do we know what is real and what is not?
And what does it matter what we do with our lives if we are nothing but organic mass that just does what it does for no reason??

these questions depress me and makes me feel like nothing, and then comes the question if i should give a F*** in the first place about my feelings.

 

[jamesdean]

well today i couldnt tell u whot i think, i've had all my emails sent back 2 me, thats electric all the adresses r in correct i've checked n checked again but tell me am i off my head? there seems 2 of been a lot of disscusions lately about the theroies of life i'm a peoples person not that i would like 2 b a psycoligist or anything like (though i wouldnt mind the money).U have 2 respect people that r important like judges etc n legal people commanders etc that have 2 make life or death desions that must b really difficult, that much responsability, apparently then r neutro tranmissions n stuff! sorry i give up, hope u have a good day jd

 

[Dollit]

One of the simpler ways of checking about reality is the mass experience - we call the colour green, green because the majority of people see it like that. So that makes it a reality.

However in a case of mass hysteria where people suffer from a series of symptoms that have no physical cause that would be a distorted reality.

To me it's all about perception.

 

[jamesdean]

spot on.
( though i've always wondered about this colour therapy aurra stuff that people say that they can c! that bogals my brain because i dont c no colour)

 

[Dollit]

I've often wondered about that JD myself - and why would you want to see it anyway?

 

[jamesdean]

exactly the person who told me about how she could read it all was a student nurse, i dont even do phyhsic's n mediums n stuff like, i believed my horoscope 4 a short period this year n thats it OR]

 

[honeyquince]

I love trying to figure out questions like this but it inevitably leads to scrambled brain and feeling low.

My OH deals with stuff like this in their job working with clients with head injuries. In the past they've brought home assessments that they use and it's amazing how our brain can see certain things but can completely blank out others. All the time our brains are sifting out the relevant from the not needed so the reality that we perceive is already partial or an aproximation of what's out there. Reality is definitely flexible as we can see through medication, psychosis or even meditation. Change the brain chemistry and you can change reality.

I don't think that there is an answer to the conundrum put forward by the likes of the Matrix other than that we appear to have this time here and it's up to us as individuals what we make of it and what we do with our time here... I have great respect for people who really seem to take control of their lives and live according to their own desires, people who live 'alternative' lifestyles outside of the 'system'.

 

[Apotheosis]

I saw "the matrix" a while ago, there is a quote in the movie: "if reality is what we see, hear and smell, then reality is simply electric singals interpreted by our brain."
This got me thinking. because everything that we feel is just electric signals inside our brain, and we are just machines or objects that are very advanced somehow. our behaviour is nothing but our brains doing it's thing, so then it would not really matter what happens to us, because "life" is just what we call things that move and self-sustain.

So how do we know what is real and what is not?
And what does it matter what we do with our lives if we are nothing but organic mass that just does what it does for no reason??

The simple truth is that we don't know what Reality is exactly. No one does. There is of course Consensus reality - or a lot of people perceives something the same "like the colour green" - & that makes it true. But in many respects the "Truth" is subjective - it is based on the act of observation -
As in Quantum Mechanics - the act of observation changes the outcome, or the state of the thing being observed. This ties into theory's started by Jung on Synchronicity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity

If you look at the scientific theory of "Simulation Argument" - there is the closest theory to the idea expounded in the Matrix films;

http://www.simulation-argument.com/

There is also the theory of the "Holographic Universe"

http://www.crystalinks.com/holographic.html

It makes interesting reading. Personally I would go with the idea that "reality" operates on many levels, you could call them dimensions or perhaps more accurately Densities - we live in the 3rd Density. Time could be considered as existing within the 4th Dimension/Density - & we could be considered as multi dimensional beings - although our awareness could be considered; or is more commonly seen as only residing in the third. I would not go with the common "Scientific Reductionist" idea that "reality" is exclusively Objective & physical. Thinking of thoughts or consciousness - are thoughts from bio-chemical processes? - I would say they are not exclusively. It can be well argued that Consciousness itself gives form to the Brain, & not the other way around. It is a surety that the mystery of consciousness is not going to be solved any time soon. I would go with the idea that this World is some kind of "Virtual Reality" rather than "all there is".

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[jamesdean]

i will go with virtual raelity