Do we create our own version of reality ?

[Jess42]

Personally I don't think we create any realities. We are thrown into a reality and can approach it either by negative thoughts and actions or positive thoughts and actions. Why would I create this reality for myself? But I have choices of how to experience it though.

[Gabrielle_22]

I think the problem I have with solipsistic arguments is that they are obsessed with absolute certainty. It is not necessary to accept a thing or even consider it probable if you cannot provide 100% certainty that it is false.

Having no evidence FOR solipsism is the reason I reject it. Every inference I can make about the world indicates it is more likely to be an objective reality which I am experiencing from within my limited frame of reference provided by my senses.

Also, whether or not I am a brain in a vat and a machine is producing this sensory input would not effect in any way how I should act unless I am given evidence of some special features of the simulation which are inconsistent with the rest of the virtual reality. Again, there's that evidence word again.

Oh, I definitely agree! Since this topic was about reality being "created" or not, it's hard not to at least mention solipsism and thought experiments like the brain in a vat, but just because we can't disprove them absolutely doesn't give them a shred of credence. I accept what there is evidence for, while acknowledging that there will always be a minor level of uncertainty when it comes to asserting proofs. I don't like taking things purely on faith.

I don't think its necessary or even wise to believe in anything. But pondering the potential is a great exercise for the expanding mind; allowing yourself to be drawn into the mindset for a moment and fully experience the possibility.
As perception of reality is merely ones own perspective, one who allows for multiple perspectives could potentially gain a truer understanding of the world around them.
In a sense, as we expand our awareness, we do create reality where it wasn't before, if only from our own perspectives.

For sure. I wish some of my freshmen students understood this, so I could have better papers to grade....

[Torchickens]

Kia Ora,

Heaven...Hell...Happiness...Sadness...Love...Hate !

As trans-people we continually pass through all these conflicting feelings & emotions, and at times getting caught up and staying a little more longer with the unpleasant ones than with the more pleasant ones ....

However, judging by some posts there are a few skilled psychonaut members(psychē "soul/spirit/mind" and naútēs "sailor/navigator")) whom it would seem, have developed the ability to just "Go with the flow" of their feelings and emotions, sailing the mind's ocean of uncertainty on their boat of contentment so to speak...
 
Do we 'create' our own version of reality ?( rough or calm seas ?) Or do we have no say/choice in how we perceive things ? (a boat without rudder,sails....or outboard motor)

In a nutshell ....In any given situation do we have a choice in how we will react ?

Just a bit of mind tripping  so you don't have to share your thoughts, but you're most welcome to if you feel inclined ...

Metta Anatta

I like to think about this too. We can argue that we have the ability to make decisions, but is it really our brains and the external environment that is making decisions?

Free-will may be argued to have a structure consisting of elements like: cognitive understanding of reality (existence, paradigms, social norms — you identify with something so you become that person, you subconsciously filter out things you aren't interested in or don't want), preference (e.g. feeling; favourite foods, pain), and what the subconscious leads us to do.

We are self-aware animals, so we view ourselves as having a choice. I'm ignorant as to why we are self-aware, but what contributes to our self-awareness is our ability to speak, and the diversity of decisions we can make in a society very dependent on social interaction (we work to make money, choose which clothes to wear and how to present, make conversation with others; both through indirect speech and body language, what we say is important to what happens within our lives).

I personally believe perfect free-will is an illusion, but our experiences are satisfying enough to be viewed as free will. But interestingly when I pray or make a positive affirmation like "everything is OK", things do seem to get better and I cognitively seem to zoom into positive things surrounding this (I'm agnostic theist which means for me I believe in God but don't claim to know anything about God).

[Kylo]

Well... life is chemical. It's a chemical reaction, regardless if you think a soul is involved - anyone on hormones can attest to the power of chemicals and their affect on the brain and on personality and perception.

There's a physical reality outside of the brain we all perceive in common, but just like the colors red or blue, each eye may perceive it slightly differently. And the colorblind eye perceives the exact same physical reality outside itself but in a slightly different way due to the chemicals of genes and those milling around in the brain that make sight and reaction to sight possible. Those who are blind perceive the same reality as well, with different senses.

So we don't create our own basic reality, but there is definitely a certain amount of leeway in how a reality is perceived... both on a chemical level and on a higher mental level (if you want to separate things like ego and superego and so on from basic biological processes).

[Brooke]

It seems like we are arguing about determinism and also if reality is absolute, not dependent on us being here to witness it.

I believe I am in this life not to make the choices, those have already been made, but to understand why I made them.

I also believe that we can never know for sure what exactly reality is. The problem is we will always be separated from it. The phaneron, that line between our consciousness and the world can never be crossed, we will always view reality through a tool that is not "absolutely accurate ".

Given the shortcuts our minds take to allow us to cope with the world around us- yes I would say that we do make our own reality, and perhaps that is okay, as by doing so we are given the opportunity to view said reality through whichever lens we want.

Vsauce did an excellent episode on this

"Is anything real?"



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kylo]

Heh. I'm surprised by how many people out there now believe free will is a myth, I guess substantiated by ideas about Newtonian physics, even quantum - but still hold that people shouldn't act like jerks because they have a choice not to and feel let down by humanity's course.

[Raell]

YUP

Quantum physics proves it.

http://energeticsinstitute.com.au/quantum-physics-neuroscience/

[Chloe]

Heh. I'm surprised by how many people out there now believe free will is a myth,

Oracle: Candy?
Neo: Do you already know if I'm going to take it?
Oracle: Wouldn't be much of an Oracle if I didn't.
Neo: But if you already know, how can I make a choice?
Oracle: Because you didn't come here to make the choice, you've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it. I thought you'd have figured that out by now.

The new religion of so-called "Science", in it's vain attempts to explain 'how', doesn't really care about 'why' at all!!.

Any 'programs' without a purpose, a meaning, are subject to immediate DELETION!!

"Reality" is constantly changing!! LOL It's either UPDATE or DIE!!

[flytrap]

I am the only girl in my Multiple Personality Disorder System. Compartmentalizing feelings and memories of traumatic childhood sexual and psychological abuse to create alternate realities is the way the dissociative brain deludes itself into believing it is different people.

[MissGendered]

Reality is malleable. Intention is the hammer that forges...

[flytrap]

Intention is absolutely the key. At some point an alter's reality becomes a lie. Each of us has to decide for ourselves when we cross that line. A good friend of mine makes an important distinction between "truth" and "fact" in describing their male and female alter's experience of menstruation:

"I decided that recognizing 'dissociative truth' and fact... is not lying. I understand lying as a deliberate deception.. as long as I can identify facts and truth, and I speak and act from a position of honesty.. I am not lying. When this body, experiences 'uterine' events... emotionally it is a result of my male body parts being severed in a car wreak...a wound which will never heal properly ...that is my emotional/instinctive truth.. there are facts that education allows me to 'know'... -no such accident ever took place-... that is a fact."

The problem comes from the conflict between an alter's reality and their deeply rooted need as a trauma victim for truth.

[Wendyway2]

Hello,
So much of the transgender experiences borders on rest and unrest, when we are cross dressing our minds can get very busy with social expectation, norms and non-conformity. There are also times when we are too sluggish to leave the house when to go out into the world as a cross dresser even one more time can become exhausting. I feel as  a Transgender my life can become rather ambitious, and it may not necessarily ascribe to belief but is an effort to self identify concretely and completely. and yet there is a will power to kill and extinguish all concepts of virtue and vice, to be torn between the deviant, the proud and the selfless loneliness so many of us experience. Reality is a social concept that unites us to another via the soul, but I agree i do not want to become an object like a transgender woman who died and became reincarnated as a stick of lip stick.

[big kim]

Reality is for people who can't handle drugs

[jentay1367]

We are what we think. I asked a very sage friend how I got where I am...she told me, "you drove here".