What is Reality?

Recently, I have been obsessed with defining and discovering the truth of what Reality is. The reason why this question has been such a focus for me is because a couple of years ago, I spent two weeks in a coma. Inside this coma, I was living a nightmare in which people I love were killed in this nightmare, and the world was falling apart.

You may think this was just a nightmare, but how does this lead to your questioning of Reality? It is because, to me, it was not a nightmare at that moment. For me, it was Reality; everything I faced in that nightmare was genuinely happening. My mind programmed that nightmare as being translated emotionally as a real-life memory.

It took several weeks…, no months, for me to get my body to stop responding to thoughts of this nightmare as being real. That doesn’t mean that I don’t still have a physical and mental response as though it is a memory. Still, at least now, I have moved past the trauma responses that my body was going through, the fear and anxiety response, the breaking down in tears, and the questioning existence altogether.

To this day, I still have that question pop up when I wonder if this is Reality or a dream. As someone with vivid and detailed dreams that often are in very realistic scenarios, there can be those moments when I wake up in which my subconscious questions, which is the truth, what is real, what is Reality?

According to the 1828 Webster Dictionary, Reality is:

“Actual being or existence of any thing; truth; facet; in distinction from mere appearance… In the schools, that may exist of itself, or which has a full and absolute being of itself, and is not considered as part of any thing else.”

In more modern terms, this means that Reality is the world or the state of things as they exist, in opposition to an idealistic or notional idea of them. If you can’t touch it, if it doesn’t exist, it isn’t real. So, how do we determine that what we see and touch is real?

There are claims that there are nine different viewpoints on Reality:

Universalism

The belief is that truths can be applied to the universe in every situation.

Relativism

The belief is that truth is entirely subjective and individual and that each individual is justified in demanding others recognize their view of Reality. Relativism is embraced by postmodernism.

Pragmatism

It does not matter if something is universally true as long as it is true for all practical purposes in a situation. Views subjective Reality is meaningless unless it has some practical application.

Materialism

All things, including complex intangible things such as imagination, have a physical basis.

Idealism

Everything or some things are immaterial such that they have no physical form.

Realism

Reality often differs from our perception as our ideas, emotions, senses, and cognitive characteristics shape the latter.

Skepticism

A general doubt that humans can understand anything about Reality begins with whether our senses are accurate.

Virtual Reality

Electronically generated environment that fools the senses into thinking that products of imagination are physical realities.

Mixed Reality

The integration of the physical world and virtual Reality allows virtual things to be sensed in the real world and vice versa.

Perception of Reality

Perception acts as a lens through which we view Reality. It is through perception and that which influences our perception that controls how we focus on processing, remembering, interpreting, understanding, synthesizing, deciding about, and acting on Reality. Everyone perceives things differently; everyone has a different perspective.

Our perception of Reality can be skewed in several different ways; this includes how our energy and abilities impact our perspective, how our body awareness affects our decisions, how being hungry or not can influence what decisions we make, how an easy-to-read statement can seem more authentic, how our emotions affect our political views when we feel bad things seem more difficult to do, accomplish, or feel motivated to put forth effort in, or how having other people around us makes things seem more effortless, and so many different methods of how our perception of reality shifts, and affects our influence of that which we face.

Mental Health

To dive a little deeper into our Perception of Reality, Mental Health issues can cause our perceptions to be significantly altered. An individual who has Psychosis loses contact with Reality. During an episode of Psychosis, an individual’s thoughts and perceptions are disrupted, and they have difficulty recognizing what is real and what is not. Someone who suffers from Delusional Disorder may translate as being influenced by Reality in an altered way because of the presence of one or more delusions. A delusion is an unshakeable belief that something is true that is yet untrue. These delusions can include factors such as someone feeling like they are being followed, deceived, or loved from a distance. This involves misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences.

Symptoms from mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression can include Depersonalization, a state of mind in which you feel alienated from Reality like you are living in a dream or a film. This can be a rare symptom that is only known to happen generally in 1-2% of individuals and is more common in adolescents, young adults, and individuals dealing with other mental health problems.

Conclusion

The simple fact is that Reality, like any other topic, will be defined and perceived differently, and one’s perception of Reality will be affected by several variables in life, including beliefs, physical, mental, and spiritual health, environment, and so many more factors. With my obsession with Reality, it is my full intent to continue to dig deeper into what is Reality, and how our foundational factors of life can indeed affect our perception of Reality, and how our perception of Reality can and does affect living aspects such as our relationships, family, friends, strangers. Our careers, how much effort we put into our work, how we invest in others in our work path, and how we are invested in. There is so much to examine and dig deeper into; this will be a fun journey.