I saw a short film that explored the idea of reality as a subjective experience. The main character entered a virtual world where he established a life. A trusted individual within the virtual world convinced him that it was indeed the “real world” and encouraged him to destroy the device that linked him to the original world thus no longer allowing him to “wake up.” The family members of the character were able to see on screen his experiences in the virtual world. They watched in horror as he destroyed the device that could bring him back to them. They were left with their sorrow and his catatonic body.
This idea of which reality certainly illustrates a true conundrum. Since we are on the doorstep of virtual reality at present, it isn’t difficult to imagine this path. It’s a matter of time before virtual reality will be so perfect that it isn’t discernible from the original reality. So if fake reality feels the same as real reality, then how does one discern which is real and which is not? The answer is clear. It doesn’t matter! Reality is what the experiencer believes it to be. There is no such thing as an objective reality. Every person creates their own reality through experience and thought. Each of our realities are overlapping with others to create a consensus on a “real reality.” Is this collective “real reality” then real? Of course not. It is merely the human reality. Since there is no way to know an objective reality then no reality is the “real thing.” Each person’s reality is real to them, but no one else. This difference of perspective is the source of all human conflict. That aside, I want to explore deeper.
The film, The Matrix, touched on the false idea of an objective reality. All of humanity believed itself to be rooted in reality when in fact what was real for humans was not what was real for machines. The machines were using human bodies as energy sources. To accomplish this, they created a virtual world for humans to exist in. This illustrates the point made earlier that reality is purely subjective. Multiple subjective realities can communicate and agree on a collective subjective reality as did the humans and the machines in the film, but being that it was a film, it also wasn’t real!
Human beings have more or less agreed on an objective reality. We believe we live in separate countries on the planet Earth within this solar system found on the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy where everything is made up of something. We believe we are born and that we will one day die. These ideas are widely accepted as reality because they are passed on from generation to generation. Also, we have this wonderful religion called science that perpetuates these ideas, but I digress. Plants and animals have their own reality as well. Imagine how bees and ants communicate with each other when describing a human being swatting at them or stepping on them. From bee and ant perspective, are humans home and property owners that run errands, play with their children, watch tv, and go to the mall? Heck no! Humans are these giant moving entities that appear suddenly to occasionally disrupt progress and sometimes kill fellow hive and colony members.
Every living being experiences life from its unique perspective, and thus its own version of reality. This begs the question, how can everything seem real but also be perceived so differently? The answer lies in the intelligent design of the universe. This is an extremely nuanced concept and requires personal experience, but I will touch on it briefly so as to attempt to put things into perspective. The Creator has designed a virtual reality which we call life. The purpose of this infinite virtual world is to explore and discover our true nature. By this means, everything we experience is illusion born from nothingness. Nothing is real, and yet everything is all there is. Without experience, there is nothing. The foundation of all experience cannot be rooted in anything because then that thing would be outside of reality. Thus, everything comes from nothing and nothing is all that there is. This concept of everything and nothing simultaneously, is the true non-dual state. Its packaged so simply that comprehension should be effortless, and yet its probably one of the most difficult truths to bear. It’s the most delicious strange loop, and it makes me smile everything I think about it.
Another mind-bending film, Existenz, also uses the virtual world to question the nature of reality. The plot is a sticky web much too convoluted to explain here. However, it’s a beautiful strange loop that calls into question what we assume about reality. A line from the film that caught my attention was, “You have to play the game in order to find out why you’re playing the game.” This sentence sounds esoteric or even pretentious, and for good reason. This is a key insight into the game of life. Only when one has properly seen through the illusion does the game and its mechanics take shape. What a glorious game it is!
The ideas stated here may seem radical and the stuff of science-fiction. They may be hard to conceptualize and even harder to embody. I think the virtual reality argument I posed earlier is the best way to convey this concept of no “real reality.” We are alive in an exciting time where virtual reality is in its infancy. This is the beginning of a new phase for humanity. Until now, we have assumed there is such a thing as the “real world.” Many of us use the terms “the real world” and “in real life” regularly without even thinking about it. We take for granted our experiences because they are so vivid and seemingly, “real.” The truth is, the only thing that is real is what is in our direct experience. What we experience in this moment is all that exists. The catch, however, is that this moment is fleeting and in a constant state of flux. Once its gone, it no longer exists. It becomes a memory, a thought the mind clings to. Now is all there is. Enjoy it.