i don't think there is a definite view of reality that everyone will agree with. what i say won't be what someone else thinks so yeah. everyone has their own kind of reality.

Yes, I believe they do! People experience things so differently that it's difficult for me to think of reality as a static thing altogether. For me reality can be split in two. The event or thing, which is static, and the aftermath or reaction to these "realities" which are not at all static. Within these lies your reality.

There is one level of reality, objective reality, that everyone shares. There's only one of those. Through the scientific method, we strive to understand this reality as best we can with our limited faculties.

But then there's another level of reality, the social reality, which is constructed on an individual level. We learn what is "true" and "false", "right" and "wrong" by interacting with the people around us.

From my old Sociology textbook, Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life by David M. Newman:

"The year is 1897. Eight-year-old Virgina O'Hanlon became upset when her friends told her that there was no Santa Claus. Her father encouraged her to write a letter to the New York Sun to find out the truth. The editor's reply -- which included the now famous phrase "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!" -- has become a classic piece of American folklore. "Nobody sees Santa Claus," the editor wrote, "but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see."

To Virginia, Santa Claus was very real.

this can get into the idea of solipsism or around it at least.

in all actuality, the only thing we will ever understand is that our "mind" is projecting what we see, feel, smell, and hear. whether it is actually there, we can never confirm.

virtual reality is a way of changing how our mind senses things. although, we haven't gotten to a mainstream version of virtual reality technology that can manipulate all of our senses into creating another reality. but lets say we do, where we enter a virtual world where all of your senses say that the odd things you see and feel are real. how do you say it isn't? you can try and say there are machines hooked up to your body, but if you can't feel or see them, how do you know it's actually there? how do you know if your dream isn't real? maybe that is real, and everything you see now is all fake.

our reality may all be the same, but as for proving it and how we all perceive it, the result isn't certain.

Yes, I have my own reality. I live in my own little world but it's OK because they know me there.

Hillary Putnam once put a great example exactly for this uncertain debate.

He illustrated a computer connected to a brain, feeding it with what we call the sense-feed, whatever the brain saw, heard, tasted, smelled, felt, it was all electronic language translated though electrodes for the brain to correspond to.

Putnam now says that the brain will never get to the point where it is aware of the reality in which the computer stands, if he will not receive a set of organs to do just that.

Which makes me quite antagonistic about the certainty of THIS reality.

What interests me a lot more is that most of our reality, most of everything we experience within and without, is created. Very much like the Brain in a vat thing, but it's our self that creates it. With logos, interpretation, presumption.

As individuals, we somewhat easily comprehend with the 'fact' that realities have always been vastly multidimensionaly-far apart.

Then what is the use of a theory in which all = all?

Is it truth we are searching? Is it a handrail?

Are we so terrified to accept that everything there is, is everything as is it - right now - to me, that we are willing to adapt the necessity for communications as a necessity for the universe?

What is actually going on is that this objective reality, might not seem as far from one's perspective, maybe one, max two tweaks ahead. And when one believes that he has the objective in his right hand, this is where insanity begins.

This way, one may believe, and as everything else around, this one's too a matter of belief, that one is made of glass.

The only logical continuation of this thoughtstray is that one should be careful not to touch anything solid, or he might break.

Another insanity is declaring one's life superior over another's, basing his point of a resource believed to be parallel and permanently connected to the truth and the objective reality.

To prove you point, look into a mirror but have another person look at it from a different spot. In this mirror you each are seeing different things in the spots. If you each are in the same reality you would see the same thing in that mirror. But to one it has on separate image and to another there is a different image. You each are seeing a different image on the same surface but each is in there own reality of it which is why you each can see different images at the same time.

like the dude to the right. we all have our own perception of it but its still different.

So glad I stumbled on this site. Acually I use to always think inside the box, but over the last 5 or 6 years I've done a complete turnaround. One of my turning points was watching "what the bleep do we know" dont know if anyone saw it, but it opened up so many other possibilitys then just the one standard way everyone was taught to believe and think inside the box. Anyway, I've often wondered what if I have created my reality and everything in it? (and yes, I mean everything and everyone ) I know it sounds a little far fetched , but who truly knows for sure? I mean our brain is an amazing thing and apparently we don't use it to its full capacity... or do we? My daughter and I have disscussed this many times and what if my reality and everything and everyone in it is only in my mind and thoughts because my brain has created it as reality (to me) and when I (on a unconsious level) have had enough of reality, my brain closes it down (consious level would be to die) and I create another reality and everything in it. Im not good at explaining exactly what I mean, but you get the jist of it I hope. Its kinda like .... take an orange for example...the taste and the color of it. Now although I assume all of us see the same color and taste the same taste, that could be way off. For all I know, when you look at an orange , you may see a different color and have a different taste of it, but we just go along inside the box, assuming everyone must see and taste the orange as I do. ok, I just re-read the last few lines, and Im getting worse at trying to say what I mean. so thanks for listening... and look forward to hearing somemore views of our reality amd such...