question for intelligent and rational philosiphers...............?

Question

i have been struggling with this lately. and it makes me feel uneasy.

is it possible that my reality, and my loved ones dont realy exist and are just all an illusion created by me?? i know this sounds selfish but i need an answer to disprove this.

Answer 1

I have sometimes had that feeling too so I think I understand what you mean. It comes from us only really being able to understand ourselves and relate to our own person because we don't see the world through other's eyes nor do we hear their thoughts. The world does exist beyond you, you just only have your own experience to measure.

Answer 2

I have the same problem and I honestly think its a good thing to think that way at least a lil bit. It gives you a sense of what might be real and what might not be real. We can know existance is real and that love is real but beyound that I dont really know. The way I get around this thought is by having the belief that even if the people in my head arnt real that doesnt mean they never existed and it also doesnt mean that they will always be none real. So I do my best to love them more and try to make them as real as possible by teaching them what I know and learning from them. I once told my dad he wasnt my real dad I was so sure of it that I just knew the universe was my real dad but I think this was a huge mistake on my part because even if I am a son of the universe that doesnt make me any less a child of my parents too. Things are different now but I still love my parents possibly even more then I did before I realized some different ideas where possible.

Answer 3

you don't need to disprove it. all such philosophies are "possible" until YOU are convinced of a contradiction. In your case, the contradiction may be that you cannot agree with the opposite philosophy, i.e. that you are the illusion and everything else around you is real. (Why would THAT philosophy not be acceptable to you?) I'm not sure how old you are, or how many such internal philosophical struggles you've been through, but the more you do the more fun you'll have and the less "uneasy" you'll feel. Like the joke one tells themself while holding back a laugh at a funeral. (read some Raymond Smullyan)

Answer 4

I know a joke.

Descartes was famous for his "I think therefore I am." Actually he was trying to think of the one thing he could not doubt. He looks at a pen in a glass of water and he realizes that while his senses are tricking him to think that the pen is bent, it actually isn't. What if all his senses are tricking him? What was the one thing he couldn't doubt? Well obviously, he couldn't doubt that he was doubting. He couldn't doubt that he was thinking. Thus "I think, therefore I am."

But how does this thinking being know that everything else is real. This he failed to answer with satisfaction, having had to put God into the picture and thus invoke faith, instead of proof. So Descartes is actually trapped by his doubts.

So Descartes and one of his students were walking in the university when a dog began to chase them. They ran of course and the student said "If the dog doesn't exist, why are we running." Descartes answer was simply "Are you sure we are running?" x-D

Okay its a bad joke. But the point is, whenever you try to deny reality, reality will someday bite you in the ***.

Answer 5

Its possible that your life, friends, family, and even the words you are now reading could a hallucination or a dream. Who knows, maybe you're a brain crammed full of electrodes sitting on some mad scientist's desk. Or maybe you're a disembodied mind being tricked by some spirit or deity. Have you ever read any of Descarte's philosophy? If not, you should. I've thought enough about this topic to convince myself of the existance of other minds and God.

Answer 6

Don't we all want to escape our present reality. But you just need a cold shower and a walk in the park will relief those stress

Stop thinking too much, relax for awhile if you can

Or maybe you watch Scanner Darkly thats why you're like that

Answer 7

Relax.... your struggle and uneasiness with the idea also are nothing but illusion. Reality alone should have the right to affect us, if at all!!

Answer 8

My view is that, "No" It's Not possible when looked at from a Rational, Physical, Cosmic point of veiw. Unless "Your Reality" is psyco symaticaly indused, which would be very ill. I don't think that is the case..

Answer 9

I once heard a philosper in a Q&A session who was asked "How do I know I really exist?" To which the philosopher answered "And whom shall I say is asking?"....

What he's trying to say is that if you stop and pause long enough, you really know the answer. Rene Descartes, after his long internal struggle came up with "Cogito ergo sum"--I think therefore I am.---He tried doubting EVERYTHING but alas could not doubt he was a "thinking thing". If the test is applied to oneself, you pass...now apply it to everyone else.

Answer 10

Ask yourself how much your being and your reality is worth with respect to the whole universe and everything in it, with all its history. It might just be that we are only important in our own minds. Real or not, it seems it will be short this time around (only 100 years?!!).

Answer 11

My friend it is all theoretically possible. However how could this all be an illusion of your imagination if u did not first experience life? To create life as you see and know it... would mean all scientific ideas were either learned pre sleep or you are God. I ask you bro... do you think you are God? I assure you I posses free thought.. u did not create me.