Is our life all just one big illusion?

Answer 1

Yes, it is. Now roll over and go back to sleep.

Answer 2

gurdjieff believed we were all asleep, pretty much all the time but that it WAS possible to wake to a 'higher' level of consciousness where the common, habitual illusion of life could be seen for what it was...he had a very complicated and downright DIFFICULT system of exercises - mental/ emotional/ spiritual/ physical - to 'wake' his followers.

MOST people - myself very definitely included -have large tracts of belief that are not based on here/now reality that we live our lives according to. in TA they call this your script but you'll find a similar map in every form of psychotherapy and spirituality i can think of.

as to whether reality has an absolute nature (the implied opposite of all life being an illusion), then i'd have to say that i BELIEVE so and have had some experiences where i believe i 'KNEW' that...but there's no way i can prove that to anyone!

seems like all cultures produce individuals who have that sort of experience, though, and i think i have been a better, less aggressive, more compassionate person since having had MY peak experiences.

perhaps an interesting follow up question would be - what is it about your life and experiences that lead YOU to believe life is an illusion/life is not an illusion? and what's the difference between the illusion of life...and the illusion of what you BELIEVE about life?

=P

Answer 3

Life is an illusion, how did you feel before you were born? You felt nothing, The memories cut off point for the true reality is the moment of birth. If we had full memories of the true reality we would not bother with this, I mean, most people would simply think what is the point of going through all the grief if it is not real? They would refuse to play this game, so no memories just a vague feeling all is not as it seems. Life is a short test to see how you cope with anarchy. Life will start for real once you leave this illusion. I know it sucks!!

Answer 4

when asking a question like this, you'd have to ask "what is an illusion" one interesting subjet to bring up is dreams. They take all our thoughts and translate them into people, objects and situations, this to me is one big illusion with a hidden point. Now would "real life" also play by this rule? and is our dreams another "real life" that we see as just an illusion? something to take in mind here is that we only question the nature of our dreams when we are "awake" we forget most of the "dream" and can't make sense of it, But during the "dream" it all seems to make sense, aswell as that, we forget what happened in "reality" dreams seem to take on their own memories! so could this be the rule of ying and yang where we spend half our life in "reality" and half in a "dream" or put another way, seeing life through the right side of our brain, then seing it in the other. perhaps one half our life spent in this dream state escapes into "reality" and it seems like an illusion, whereas "reality" is just there to keep the balance and have some sort of order in our lives, while our "dreams" are actually "real life", or pehaps both, or maybe it's up to us to live in which one we wish, or maybe both are an illusion and the main point of everything is just to discover our "higher self" inventing the idea of god could be there because some people relate him/her/them/it to their higher self, and because they can't become their higher self for whatever reason, they see it as someone else and becomes "god" every religion has the same point of seeking this higher self, so maybe life is just an illusion trying to tell/teach us who we realy are!!

Answer 5

NO..your life is what you say it is, as my life is what I say it is..
you can be what you want to be, the only thing holding you back is yourself. if life was an illusion then we are are all sharing that illusion...forget the matrix..(u could say that was an illusion lol.)...I feel happy at times then I feel sad at times. this is everyones story...your no different than the rest of us..you may even be better..you could have skills that someone only dreamt of..so wake my boy or girl and take life by the **** ..lol

Answer 6

If it were then where does the real person exist who buys into the illusion? Are you confusing illusion with a vague understanding of the quantum nature of how you perceive your world?

Answer 7

For the most part. Dogs dream and other aminals, that is a fact and obvious to an ordinary observer. That is important to note because we are dreamers on a much larger scale. I think we sort of confabulate more than a dog. We "fill in the blanks" so as to make sense out of this tossed salad. Hope you understand.

Answer 8

Could be. It would definitely be interesting if our dreamlife was the real life and the perceived "real" life just fantasy. Ultimately, it really doesn't matter. Enjoy whenever you feel conscious. We'll figure it out on the other side.

Answer 9

More like one big dream. Every now and then you may wake up, but it doesn't usually last very long and your back in the dream state.

Answer 10

Sometimes it feels that way to me but sometimes it also feels like life is overwhelming I think it's natural to question these feelings within ourselves.

Answer 11

Possibly - we can't know. Our perception is based on what our mind makes of the signals it receives. We'll never know what beings who are higher developed might perceive.