What is Reality? What is Illusion?

Guernsey

Guernsey

Final Fantasy Nut
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From what I read or researched in most books, communicated with people or even just stop meditiate and look at the world at around, I often wonder just what is 'real' anyway? I can read all the philosophy I want but it may or may not help me too much. From what I learned, I realized that most of what we think of reality is based on our perception or how we percieved the world. If a rich man says that life is bad based on his experiences and perception, that is how the world will appear to him.


How is this possible? The rich man is loaded with money and is probably really powerful to boot but he says his life sucks? The same goes for the poor man who has almost nothing material, he lives in way below the poverty line yet he says his life is awesome nevertheless. So what is the difference here? Is it the class of person they are or it is their perceptions of their environment? The same goes for most things in life, everyone is different yet we all live on the same planet, we all do almost the same things all the time. We all live, we all die.


What baffles me is this, just what is reality? I can research math equations, apply logic all over the place and look up philosophers but it may not answer my questions even if they help me in the right direction. Sometimes if anything in this world is 'real' at all or it is all just one big illusion.
 
Reality is made up of time and space intertwined, in which all matter are 'knots' in the fabric. Therefore, matter, space, and energy are essentially manifestations of the same thing.

It brings me peace. You know, that REAL peace/ like a Hindu cow out in the field eating grass kind of peace
 
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To me, reality is the hard facts in life.
Im working in a job 39 hours a week that i dont enjoy, thats reality but without that job i wouldnt be able to pay the bills and have nice things and enjoy going out with mates at weekends. I may not want to work or enjoy it, but the reailty is, i have to.
Money doesnt garuntee happiness. You could be rich and miserable or poor and happy. It will just differ on a persons attitude and theur outlook on life i guess.
If i said to myself. 'money will solve all my issues' that kinda sounds great but it not assured. A bit of an illusion isnt it to just assume something can change your emotions =S
 
In regards to the rich man, it is a typical myth that money = happiness. This is most certainly not the case as I have seen and experienced firsthand; not making it, but having money available to me whenever I please. Personally, I am a very frugal individual. I hate to spend money even though I have plenty of it. I feel guilty, really. I feel I don't deserve it. I see my step father who used to own a business (just recently sold it, but is still raking in the dough) as a miserable old coot who could think of a million things to rant and rave about. He's been married 3 times and on the edge of divorce knowing and seeing things as they play out with my mother. Money and power equal stress and stress takes its toll. So don't go thinking that just because you can afford that Rolls Royce means you're going to be the happiest man alive. There are other factors that play into the situation like family, friends, society, expectations, reputations, class, health, etc.

Same goes for the poor man, or rather on the opposite end of the scale. Many people perceive or believe that being poor is a bad thing. Yes it can and usually is. It means you have to work harder in society; that is, if you want to live in the 'norm'. Some people find that being 'poor' is just fine. Some live off the land, some keep it simple. Some work their asses off and still don't get the recognition or the dues they pay. It all depends on how one perceives the life that has been given to them, the culture they live in and what that culture, what humanity, how life is defined by their experiences.

These experiences can always be influenced, however. Heavy influential thoughts can come from different sources, but may cloud, distort or contort a person's perception of the world, of life.

It comes down to the individual, though, in my opinion and will always differ case by case.
 
I think you're lumping two things into one category that really should be separate.

There is the type of reality that cannot be changed regardless of how an individual perceives it. For example, a rock will exist regardless even if a person forces himself believe that it isn't there. Naturally, the person will not perceive the rock; however, this doesn't change the fact that a rock is taking up space. Obviously there are philosophical questions when you say "what if everyone believes that a rock doesn't exist, then does it not exist?" but I'm not gonna go there since there is really no practical relevance to such an analysis (but the short answer, if you define reality as an external existence, is the rock still exists).

Then there is the type of reality that is fully reliant on an individual's perception. These include such things as emotions, feelings, etc... So in the rock example, like I said, to the individual there will be no rock.

Now humans naturally place a greater emphasis on the latter type of reality. To put it simply, we place great importance on how we perceive things because we really put ourselves at number 1. This is why the rich man will perceive his life to be poor despite the "reality" that he is rich; all that matter to him is how he perceives his life. (I think the rock example may be a better explanation since there are a lot of externalities when it comes to what is "rich" and how a "rich" person should feel).

So in short...reality is perception to most people. So live life the way it makes you happy, and you'll be fine.
 
Reality isn't reliant on perception. However, since there isn't such a fundamental interpreter of reality, perceptions of reality tend to be just that - perceptions.

For example, the reality might be that a piece of cloth is black. That cloth would still be black whether we see it as black or white. In order for us to get better at perceiving reality, we have to have experience perceiving it.

In other words, I take the view of Realism, that reality isn't dependent on perception.

One contradictory philosophical view, Idealism, basically states that the nature of reality is based on perception.
 
I think (as a Psychologist) you also have to differentiate between Sensation & Perception.

Sensation is the physical stimuli. Perception is the interpretation of what is sensed. I guess if you want to take one point of view what is sensed is universal, what is perceived is personal.
 
Perception is just the tool we use to view reality. Reality will not simply vanish because you do. There is no relevance between perception and reality. 'Reality is perception' It's just a namesake to make you feel more in tune with your life. It by no means speaks a physical truth.
Illusion is just false perception, and even then, they are products of something. They do no exist without influence//
 
In my opinion, reality is everything that you believe you experience in your life, whether it is tangible or intangible.

We all share the tangible things in our reality - the world around us - but we don't share everything that we feel: belief in God, emotions, ideas, etc. Still, these things are real to us, so they are a part of our reality. Just because other people don't share those things doesn't make them any less real.

So, I would say that "illusion" is a label we use for things other people experience that we can't relate to. We don't believe that such a thing can exist in our reality, which is the only reality that we perceive, so we call it an illusion and leave it at that, just so we can relate to it in some form.
 
Reality thats an interesting question. I will give you my opinion on this question and try to make it understandable'
Reality is what a persons mind makes of situations that person is put into or enters willingly. If a person enters a building and sees blood everywhere there mind shuts down briefly and they are struck with a sense of horror. There mind then starts to process the images they are seeing and as its processing them you experience different emotions. nausea, the urge to run from the scene or vomit is your mind attempting and failing to process the scene and information going through it. After a while your mind makes a decision (heres my opinion again) It will either accept the situation or it won't and try to Hide or Banish what you saw. Reality is just a way for someone to make sense of there surroundings or there feelings. For example a person who is considered Insane (opinion again) most likely could not make sense of there surroundings or feelings.

With the loss of that ability there mind does the only thing it can do to try and protect that person it shuts down the ability to rationaly think. I hope I answered your question in a helpful way keeping in mind this is my opinion and im not suggesting it is correct. Have a nice day and I hope this helped you ^^
 
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Seren said:
After a while your mind makes a decision (heres my opinion again) It will either accept the situation or it won't and try to Hide or Banish what you saw. Reality is just a way for someone to make sense of there surroundings or there feelings. For example a person who is considered Insane (opinion again) most likely could not make sense of there surroundings or feelings.
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Why should we believe that normal people understand reality better? What if to understand reality is to become insane?
 
Hence why I put in most likely sir. By a doctors decision ive been deemed patially insane yet I can think clearly and rationalize stuff. Im just saying most likely they couldn't make sense of there surroundings or feelings not that im sure they couldn't. If I ever go completely insane ill give you a better answer ^^
 
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