What is Reality?

[moka9x9]

We exist for unknowen reasons, but we function the way we do, because of the way that our bodys and minds were created. If you look at history, we've only just begun, and there are so many possible planes of existance, it isnt even funny.

Our eyes SEE everything, but our brain only process's so much, that leaves a large percentage of true reality that we dont even notice, see, therefore have to deal with. The picture that im trying to patch together here is one of the theory that all things exist, (or all things that exist) are around us 24/7, but if we choose to ignore it, therefore not see, smell, taste, or believe. It does not exist (to us), and does not effect us.

This leaves many options open, see we can look into the past, think, and understand how it happend, so logicaly we should beable to see into the future with the same clairity as we can the past. Therefore being able to change, and mold our futures.

This also makes it very possible that the abuse of certain substances can be more or less revealing more of this true reality that we normaly dont allow ourselves to see. This is of course not with stimulants or narcotics, but with hallucingens and dissacositives like DMT, Salvia D, LSD-25, AMT, Mushrooms, and such. Another reasonable theory is that the drugs DO make you delusional, and therefore makes it increasing challenging to learn about the truth about reality.

Maybe my thoery, and my research are the words of a insane man, but I believe in what I've experinced, what I know.

[moka9x9]

Levitation
Witchcraft
Magic
Magick (elemental)
Teleportation
Flying
Enternal Life (Resserection??)
Demons
Ghosts
Zombies?
Sasquatch

These are things people claim to beable to do, or have seen before, but maybe if they believe enough, it therefore becomes true, and they allow their minds to see that part of reality.

Explainable through this theory?

[NaturaAtraSpiritus]

Ive always wondered about something similar to this... about color...

When we look at grass it appears green, but not because the grass is green but because of the light it reflects is on that spectrum... so in absence of light everything is black. So is black the real absence of color?

[moka9x9]

We as a race are still evolving, maybe our brains just cant handle EVERYTHING at once right now, allowing us to only see a fraction of whats really happening.

[moka9x9]

Yes, in the absence of light everything APEARS to be black, thats the way our eyes see it. Yet to an owl, or a nocturnal creature that can see in the dark, it apears as a shaded colour, meaning it cannot be black, for if it were, they wouldnt beable to see it. Althought bats do not count, they dont see with eyes.

If you believe it is black, whats stoping it from being black to you?

Nothing :)

[moka9x9]

(Obviously the wiggers, just believe they are black enough, for in their reality, they are black, damn them crackers)

[koopa]

Our eyes SEE everything, but our brain only process's so much, that leaves a large percentage of true reality that we dont even notice, see, therefore have to deal with.

actually our eyes merely record sensory stimulation. The processing of that information in the brain creates the IMAGE YOU SEE. Reality is only perception and there is no truth to it. It is an ever shifting persona of perspective. And the when each perspective uses logic correctly within a system of rules a perception is created.

The picture that im trying to patch together here is one of the theory that all things exist, (or all things that exist) are around us 24/7, but if we choose to ignore it, therefore not see, smell, taste, or believe. It does not exist (to us), and does not effect us.

They don't ever EXIST permanently. They always exist within the logic defined by the system of rules. Basically there is a bunch of symbols and rules that create relationships between them. Some of the rules are deductive, some analytical, others come from pure agreement btw perspectives who assign an arbitrary value to them. when each perspective uses logic correctly within a system of rules a perception is created. As for the ATTENTION thing you were getting at, I did a thesis in a cognitive science honors course about how the brain decides what level of attention to process external stimuli at. My theory was based on the Higher Order Thought theory. Simply stated, there are a few levels of conscious awareness. What makes the brain process sensory input at different levels of conscious awareness is a thought with intentionality. Intentionality means the thought has a target. ie; the thought is about something. Intentionality is "aboutness"

CONSCIOUSNESS LEVEL ONE: Sensory information comes into your eyes and is processed at a level below conscious awareness. So no conscious thought derived from the intake of that sensory data is created in your mind. EXAMPLE: a cat runs across your field of vision but you are daydreaming and don't even notice it. So in this level, there is only one "thought" in the brain about this sensory information. There is one level of intentionality here. The intentionality here is that the thought is about the sensory information. This level has NO CONSCIOUS AWARENESS but the information has been recorded by the eyes and processed by the brain on the lowest level.

CONSCIOUSNESSLEVEL TWO: Sensory information comes into your eyes and you do notice or SEE it. EX. Cat runs across your field of vision and you notice it. So the brain would need two thoughts with intentionality to be involved in order to get the subject matter to consciousness level two. The first thought is the thought from consciousness level one. Its a thought about the sensory input. Then the brain forms a second thought with different intentionality. This second thoughts target is the FIRST THOUGHT. This second thought about a previous thought is known in the world of philosophy as a Higher Order Thought or HOT. A HOT is about another thought. So when a second thought (the HOT) targets a first thought, the subject matter of the first thought jumps from consciousness level one to consciousness level two. This is the level of CONSCIOUS AWARENESS. So you actually, see the sensory information. But at this level you are a "pure receiver" or a "pure spectator". You see the input without thinking about it.

CONSCIOUSNESS LEVEL THREE: Sensory information comes into your eyes, you see it, and you INTROSPECT about seeing it. EX. Cat runs across your field of vision, you notice it, and you think about the fact that you notice it. To get to level three, you need a third thought (another HOT). And guess what, the intentionality or target of this third thought is going to be the second thought. So there is a HOT about a HOT about a thought about a sensory experience.

This leaves many options open, see we can look into the past, think, and understand how it happend, so logicaly we should beable to see into the future with the same clairity as we can the past. Therefore being able to change, and mold our futures.

Time is a measure of change and change is an illusion. Time can more accurately be viewed as the present, the present gone by, and the present yet to be. Change is the constant but its a constant illusion. All perception is perception.....NOT REALITY. If it was reality it wouldn't change. And you change every day. Which one of you was the real you? You from yesterday, last year, you as a baby? The answer is NONE are real. They are merely an ever shifting persona, the constant reworking of a forgery.

This also makes it very possible that the abuse of certain substances can be more or less revealing more of this true reality that we normaly dont allow ourselves to see. This is of course not with stimulants or narcotics, but with hallucingens and dissacositives like DMT, Salvia D, LSD-25, AMT, Mushrooms, and such. Another reasonable theory is that the drugs DO make you delusional, and therefore makes it increasing challenging to learn about the truth about reality.

There is no reality and hence no truths about it. The drugs merely retard your brain receptors and make you process information with errors. Like measuring something with a scale with bad calibration. Thats what creates the hallucinations. But the hallucinations show you that the "persistant sober reality" is merely another image. Be it the more dominant image that more people are in tune with.....hence it becomes a stronger frequency.

Maybe my thoery, and my research are the words of a insane man, but I believe in what I've experinced, what I know.
You know nothing, I know nothing. All of our observations and all of the logic we deduce from them are BIASED. Biased because they are observed through different eyes. Subjectivity creates bias. The senses are known deceivers. Socrates said the smartest man is the man who realizes he knows nothing. Believe all you want..........but don't claim to know!

[ShamanHut]

Interesting thread. I think you might be interested in reading up on quantum physics and string theory and how it relates to the notion that observation and perception create reality. A good book is the Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. It could sure explain why some people see things and others don't. Or maybe we are just crazy. Who knows?

[Zion]

You should check out the Nothingness thread. Its speaks of Nature, which is not as confused as man.

[mamaboogie]

reality is simply that which agrees with my perceptions of what exists
~William James (paraphrased, because I don't wanna dig through and find the original quote)

[prismatism]

i heard that the darker it is, the more colorblind you become. so one time i was stoned and outside in the "pitch black". somehow i realized i could see everything like i could in daylight, but the color was switched off. and then i remembered how your mind sees what you believe is possible to see. so i thought, "you know, black and white and gray are no fun" and colored everything in with my eyes. i was on drugs but it still proves my point a little bit.

if you're sober and you truly believe the grass is orange, it will be, until you think it isn't. like sometimes, i'll be laying down outside and blink one eye, and then the other. and i'll think "one eye sees more yellow, and one eye sees more blue". like slightly tinted sunglasses. and if i keep going back and forth, it will get stronger and stronger until it drives me crazy and i sit up. and when i look at the snow, i can see splotches of yellow. i don't mean dog piss. i mean i can put them wherever i want to with my eyes. colors are mind blowing. you can warp them so easily. and remember... everything you see is just different shades of colors to make "3D".

you guys ever play around on optical illusion websites? you go through life thinking you at least know what you're SEEING, but you can be so easily fooled.

[Ballad f Dwight Fry]

The real reality is kids this day and in he feature wont enjoy the freedom the 1960s or 1970s had and maybe a little of the early 1980s. and as much fun as computers can be "games, chats, forums" in the hands of police dept and goverment the little freedom you had well be totally gone. with a flick of a mouse.

[inbloom]

You know nothing, I know nothing. All of our observations and all of the logic we deduce from them are BIASED. Biased because they are observed through different eyes. Subjectivity creates bias. The senses are known deceivers. Socrates said the smartest man is the man who realizes he knows nothing. Believe all you want..........but don't claim to know!
Wow, thanks for everything you shared in that post. I never knew that much about the different levels of consciousness before, though I experience it everday.

I tend to find myself getting pretty confused in all this stuff, when I get right wrapped up in it. All I know for sure, is that I believe, definetly, that we DO create our own realitys with our minds. What we believe, is what is real. We are in charge of our own realities, and they can be as extravagent or as plain as we like.

[themnax]

reality is what you can stub your toe on without having to know or believe it is there in order to do so. it is also that existence is not limited to pain. or even pain and pleasure togather.

what we think we know about it on the other hand, does indeed begin and end inside our own perceiving.

=^^=
.../\...

[mati]

our psyches are products of a lifetime of repressions and manifestations. we delude our selves and create a dualistic "me-it" view of reality. acid helps break down those distinctions. we need to understand that we are "it".

[BlackBillBlake]

Someone, I forget who, said: 'reality is that which continues to exist when we stop believing in it'.

[Art Delfo]

The senses do not "lie" to us. Its more like they put blinders on us. There must be so much more to the world that our senses can not take in.....

[yonosoymedico]

a short answer would be "ishness"

[mynameisjake07]

I dont have much to say on this thread but I just wanted to say it is quite interesting and has opened my mind.

[BannedInDC]

Perception. That is reality. Our perception. And our thoughts, and that's all there is, we cants prove a goddamn thing about anything else, cause all we have is our perception and thoughts.

[themnax]

Perception. That is reality. Our perception. And our thoughts, and that's all there is, we cants prove a goddamn thing about anything else, cause all we have is our perception and thoughts.

reality doesn't give a dam what we can or cannot prove, what we belive or disbelieve. that doesn't make perception reality. it only makes it the only window we have through which to observe its existence.

we CAN play with reality, that is true. maybe not omnipotently but to a lesser degree we can. no, reality is what goes on existing when we don't believe in it. that is a true observation. as is "reality is an is-ness"

reality is diverse beyond our capacity to immagine. good, bad and inbetween. off of any scale we can ever invent or immagine.

it is not limited by our perceptions. only our perceptions are limited by our perceptions.

nothing has to exist, even our selves, not exist, nor be limited by our perceptions. that is reality.

it doesn't stop anything from existing. it doesn't stop anything from ceasing to exist.

=^^=
.../\...

[Soberbeah]

it's all a dream, an intricate web that drifts in and out of objectivity and subjectivity.


hosh posh if you ask me

[tikoo]

i think it's ok to divide existence from reality as terms of relationship . existence , i reason , has a wholeness and i cannot presume to feel it all . reality is an active relationship pos/neg toward that wholeness . i want to feel it all , i can be willful about this , accepting the known and the unknown and , too , the buggerdly unknowable . mostly , this makes life a part-time job since actually being pos. too much makes for weird obsessions .

[TommyT]

_OUR_ Reality is energy wrapped around time traveling in an infinite number of spacial dimensions. All entities spinning relatively. The combinations make laws of existance (physics, evolution, primal urges, etc) which themselves change over the period of their existance to eventually balance into 'nothing'.

Our reality is connected to a higher plane of existance without time. The higher existance is a collection of every possibility and impossibility waiting to happen.

Our reality can also connect to this higher reality as there are no limits to any existance.

Humans being simply a probable event in this reality.

Everything is predefined but impossible to predict as is the beauty of existance.

All the choices you make define how you see yourself and you made them all.

... Just my view anyway.

[TommyT]

Oh yeah and there is infinitely more to it than what I just went off on one about..

[tikoo]

infinity : continuance of the cycle
infinitely more : the cycle is strong , life is more and more
the purpose of life : motion positive

[TommyT]

If you can't think beyond relativity, my sympathies to you. :(

[alex714]

Originally Posted by koopa
Socrates said the smartest man is the man who realizes he knows nothing.



The smartest man knows the limits of his knowledge, which doesn't exactly imply knowing nothing. And Socrates never said that.

[TommyT]

nothing in comparison.

[prismatism]

If you can't think beyond relativity, my sympathies to you. :(
relativity is the only thing that isn't real. it's the biggest illusion, and most people live in it completely. it's sad.

[TommyT]

I believe in relativity, infact I find it hard to imagine non relativity, after experiencing LSD I'm pretty sure I'm relative to myself - but - I'm even more certain that relativity only touches the surface of existance.

[prismatism]

well, if you think about relativity for a long time you won't know exactly how to measure it or what it means. time is location relative to another thing's location (like the sun). distance is a number of "how many" can fit between one thing and another. but if you think, "how many can fit in the universe?", there is no answer. it just keeps going and there is no absolute end or beginning, nothing that is the biggest or smallest. and there is nothing that is nothing. so everything is the same, and everything is absolute.

our entire basis for time measurement is extremely flawed. if you any research at all, you'll learn your whole perception of time is meaningless.

i'll go into it more but there's a bunch of chaos going on around me and i can't think x__x

[TommyT]

Care to elaborate on what you meant by this?...
I'm too mashed to explain in detail.. so:
relativity only touches the surface of existance.

[Dr Phibes]

Interesting thread. I think you might be interested in reading up on quantum physics and string theory and how it relates to the notion that observation and perception create reality
or just about anything that makes some sense I guess, how about phenomonology (Husserl) or some metphysics