Ever since my friends foray into the psychedelic world, he has been left with the question of what is real? He's had so many experiences, seen things and been places that defy explanation, but in all of his experiences he has never been shown or given anything that is concrete proof of reality.

That goes for this reality.

We take in all information from just five senses. They are very good senses, but it would be pretty cool to have other senses. there could be many others such as ESP, radio telecommunication, etc. So even in this world, there is no way to prove anything is real. All of the information comes to me in my five senses, and I am limited to just accepting this reality.

As for other realities, my friend says they appear just as real as this one. So there really is no way to prove anything is real. Solipsism is an interesting concept.

It seems to me that the best way to think of things is to just assume it is all real, both this reality and hyperspace. There really seems to be no way to tell either way!

What do you think?

What is "real"?

It seems to be a short string of 4 squiggle symbols created by evolved/bald monkeys, which has an incredibly loose agreed upon meaning among their individual mental dictionaries...always having something to do with our internal conceptions regarding what something-or everything- ultimately "is" (whatever that means)

Yes?

I have several thoughts and opinions, but they are just that, thoughts and opinions. Some well founded, others perhaps not, but nevertheless I don't know. All I can say with an honest and significant degree of certainty, is that consciousness is real. All else is semantics and assumption.

Well said Citta....... well said.

Hello Mr.Peabody,

I have been struggling with the same issues for a very long time, however I have just come to accept that I may never know. So to the point Citta said it perfectly.

Honor-Bound,
PinkiePie

I LOL'd.

On topic, I believe everything is real. Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual. It all ties together if you look long enough.

Sweet, short, and simple explanation.

I think it's a matter of perspective. Some will say dreams, hallucinations, etc. are not real. While another man will say this reality we live in, is an illusion and that hallucinations are just as real as the illusion.

Everything is real to me, how can something not be real?

Yet, you could think about it in the opposite way and say everything is NOT real...

Thank you everyone! This is why I posted this. I always take so many words to say something so simple, and there were many good points of view, so eloquent and to the point.

I took a philosophy class a year ago, and the topic came up. Like every topic like that, I was just left more confused and bewildered. I don't think we ever arrived at an actual understanding in that class...

I have accepted that I will probably never know for sure, at least in this form. If there is something after this life, maybe I'll find out. Or maybe one day I'll be shown something which leaves no doubt... and then probably forget on the way back.

I wish I had a dollar for every thread on the nexus about "real"

I think it would help to layout what exactly you are asking. Simply asking what is real, can mean any number of things. Although you very well may be asking that as a question in order to see the many different perspectives of what everyone here considers that to be. I myself find the question/idea to be rather unimportant. The word real isn't a description of anything that really exists, we made it up. Not only that but unless our existence is fully understood one cannot expect anyone to have a substantial answer to the question.

After waking from a dream, you may be confused by what parts were dream and what actually happened. When you realize it was all a dream you say to yourself, "that was a dream, it wasn't real". This "Real" meaning an activity taking place while you are conscious.

In this idea we use the word real to describe a standard, the standard which is conscious happenings that we observe while awake that do not defy the physics of the natural world. So if you see something that doesn't make sense, floating geometric patterns eating jellyfish, you would say "that isn't real". It gets even more complicated when you introduce things like DMT. One can assume that in a sense what you experience is real because you can sense it, but in another sense it isn't real because it doesn't exist outside of your own perception. Or does it. The question "what is real" is like asking can god make a boulder that he himself cannot lift.

I do realize that it is a common question. Maybe one of the most common, but it is an intrinsic riddle to humanity.

While the question is pointless (I know it is pointless), I can't help myself. One way I've framed it lately is like this:

Suppose there's a man stuck alone on a desert island. In his day to day life he does his normal things, but happens upon mushrooms (the good kind). He's alone and bored and eats a ton of mushrooms and visits other realms complete with entities that he communicates with, and the like. Which world would seem more important? I avoided real, because it really doesn't matter. It always seems like this existence is more important because it seems to have a whole bunch of other people who generally agree that this world exists (though there is always much quarrel over trivial differences of opinion). But for this man on the island, there are more beings in the hyper-spacial world.

I don't know.... I just enjoy the debate, and felt like hearing some people's new opinions. When I have "break-though" moments I always feel like I attained some type of divine knowledge, and yet I am left more puzzled than before. The question of reality has always been tied to that.

I think that as far as we humans are concerned, "real" describes things and experiences that we can believe in. Of course that doesn't have anything to do with the actual reality of a thing, but "real" is a term that is used within the human story, rather than being an absolute scientific term. For one person, Jesus is real and you'll never convince them otherwise. For another, all kinds of proof must be presented for anything to be accepted as real.

We build models of our experiences over time; so although a dream may feel real at the time, waking will snap us out of it. Meanwhile, our waking experiences have a certain consistency and regularity to them, at least to our perception- so we assign these experiences a higher level of realness.

We like to think of reality as solid and unchanging, but in fact our personal realities are in constant flux, depending on what our perception is showing us. Nonetheless we believe in the illusion of a solid reality, perhaps because we'd go mad otherwise.

If we don't get hung up on the idea of what's real I don't think we're living right. At the same time I think we're living wrong if we do get hung up on it.
On that note, I'm currently hung up on it

Sometimes we just have to, live.

Well put.

^^^ Agreed. It's funny how contradictory such topics always seem to be.

I still subscribe to "I think, therefore I am." This phrase has been the one thing I have frantically gripped onto during some intense times.

Your post resonated with me, as well Guyomech.
Oh, and also I was cruising the art bin and the three paintings you posted (dmt, lsd, and psilo-uasca) absolutely blew me away. have you always put that much time and energy into your art? I never seem to be able to.

I didn't mean to come off as saying your question was unimportant. I'm kind of in a depressed state right now so it effected the outcome of my post. My post generally mirrors my take on the idea of the question and hints to my opinion on "what is real".

Hey! No worries! You brought up a valid point. I think one thing my philosophy class taught me, is that the question is just as, if not more, important than the answer. The question of reality may be inherently flawed.

I think the question actually upsets me now that I think of it. When I just asked myself this same question, what is real, my brain froze, glitched, experienced much lag, and then an error popped up asking to call tech support.

I would almost go as far to say that its programmed into reality, or rather isn't, that this is the real place, but it really isnt. This place is temporary and can vanish at any moment forever. The place we end up going to is the real place, but were tricked into not knowing about that place while we are here, so the question itself is unanswerable and confusing.

(just a theory based on my "theory" that hyperspace could be actually be the place we call heaven)

I have many a theory of this sort.

I can say this with a certain degree of certainty.....this life is a huge test.

This evening I broke through and was privy to some heavy stuff...there were many Buddahs....they explained to me that every decision has very serious consequences. Our construct can't even begin to explain it. Trust me though man, we will all be gods of our own Universe. My particular slice of pie had 3 moons orbiting my planet. It was so incredible. OMG my goodness man. What is DMT?? I can not believe I sought this out and created it. Pat yourself on the back for getting this far...there is something to be said for each one of us that has manifested this. Sorry if I sound rediculous. Much love