Have you ever had the suspicion that you somehow create your own reality?

Question

Do you ever have sporadic premonitions? Maybe what others call coincidences? Have you ever seen the movie, "What the Bleep Do We Know?"

Answer 1

Never heard of the movie but this is really a philosophical rather than Psychological question. One of the founding blocks of philosophy is how do you really know that you exist. Once you can prove that you exist how do you know that anybody else exists. "I think therefore I am" is the accepted answer to the first question. The 2nd question is a little fuzzier.

In Sci-Fi and Fantasy and even some horror novels the concept of what if the world is not what you think it is has been a common theme. The Matrix for example places the world/reality as part of a computer simulation that we all take part in. In Dark City the world/reality is an elaborate experiment by aliens. In Jacobs ladder the world is a hallucination in a dieing man's dream. In many Sci-Fi stories it gets more personal than that. In one when the one person who dreamed the world we live in dies the world goes away.

The existence of ghosts, spirits and other supernatural phenom reinforces this questioning of the nature of reality. Most people think of reality as a hard unyeilding substance much akin to a rock when it is more like the sea. Shifting, subtly recreating itself but consistent in behavior for the most part. Consistent enough that most people think it's unchanging if you never really watch it. If you cling to an island you never have to swim, as such no chance of drowning either. The sea of reality is so vast that the what ifs can literally drown the sanest man if they neither learn how to swim or find something to cling too.

For me the way I solve the second question is I consider things that could never have come from me. The camera for example. I understand the mechanics but marvel at the leap of intuition that it took for somebody to invent that. While many inventions are purely just exposure to a set of ideas and a need there are some that just skip the middle steps. There is art work that is so fantastically origional that it had to come from another person. While I am a musician and sometimes wonder how I conjured up a song I wrote deep down I still see me in that tune. Many songs I can see how they were written but every once in a while there is something different enough that it is really the work of another.

That proves there are others involved in reality. So the next question is the nature of reality.

Experience has taught me that perceptions change. What was considered the reality of human nature when I was young is no longer even acceptable behavior today. People's ideas and social structures change. Technology makes the impossible not just possible but mundane. Reminders from worlds/dimensions we have yet to discover such as ghosts, UFOs and such assure us that whatever our perception of reality is, it's not complete. De juvu, visions of the future, premonitions beg the questions about time. Currently we view time as linier progression. Yesterday is destroyed so that today can be born. If that is true then time travel is impossible as once we leave yesterday it no longer exists. Is it true? If time is a more like an unwiding ball of yarn then time travel is indeed both possible and inevitable. Some of the most intellectually stimulating Sci-Fi plays with questions of time travel. Keith Laumer is easily the best time travel novel I've ever read. While it is a short novel don't even attempt to read it if you don't have your full wits about you. In that short novel Laumer goes over most of the current theories of time travel with very concrete interactions. The novel strongly questions the nature of reality and time and introduces many of the paradoxes associated with time travel and a highly mutable reality.

On question 3 I don't have an answer yet. I left viewing the Matrix profoundly curious about the nature of reality. I've always viewed it with suspicion. Viewing the Matrix awoke again the raw curiosity about what is really true.

Which brings up the concept of truth. Is it black and white as most people suppose? Is there no absolutes, which in itself is an absolute, leaving only shades of grey? I have not worked out the proofs but I feel that both are right and both are wrong. Truth without circumstance is like trying to view hight without distance. There is no depth unless you have circumstance. Given circumstance the greys often resolve into vivid colors. Just as without light there is no color, without circumstance there is no truth.

That is just two of the elements that make up the compound known as truth. I suspect there are more. Just as color requires more than light and a surface to reflect off it. Truth is more than concept and circumstance.

Told you if you want to get off the island your going to have to learn how to swim. If your not ready to swim you WILL drown. So the first step of answering your question is to learn how to swim.

The second step is to swim out there and see just exactly what this world is really made of. Are we in some high tech video game for example? Are we the dream of a slumbering dragon underneath a rock somewhere? Is all that we see and do planned out? So many possibilities to explore. At the very least it's not boring :) The only thing we can be certain of is that popular beleifs about reality and truth are way off base. They are crutches that allow people to exist on the islands and rafts they have created to deal with the mystery of life. Every so often people do question reality. Do go for a swim and come back with some very interesting ideas that dramatically change the way we view things. Einstein for example trashed conventional physics with his theories.

Some books I recommend in your quest.

Dinosaur beach Keith Laumer
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Mechanics Robert Persig
Rendovous with Rama Auther C Clarke

Answer 2

I did not see that movie, no, but this creating your own reality, yes. Some people believe that man has not gone to the moon, then they site all kinds of info from NASA that they use to confirm their theories. Others will have premonitions of things, which come true.
It is almost like being in the "Twilight Zone" TV shows of years ago.

Answer 3

Yes I have seen that and very much believe that philosophy.

Of course you create your own reality. Each and every one of us does just that. And the energy you put out is the energy you get back. Call it karma call it whatever.

That is a great movie and thanks for reminding me that I really need to watch it again. It's so hard to get your head around it all. I'm sure the book would be a lot more detailed.

Life is so phenomenal. I just don't get people who can't see the beauty, the miracles, the wonder of it all. Everything is connected, and there are no coincidences. We are what we make of every moment of our lives and I believe we are predestined to something unique, each and every one of us.

Answer 4

I have never seen that movie but you know...what you are saying has allways been interesting to me and I actually believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence I think that god has a plan for all of us and coincidences are more like a high five from God letting us know that we are on track.

Answer 5

i like this question. i dont think anyone but my self creates my own reality, but myself. i have premonitions but i attribute that to my slightly psychic nature. i do believe in premonitions though. it is not just a coincidence. soemtimes u dont need to see something to know that it exists.

Answer 6

When i was a kid i used to hide in the closet and pretend i was in another world where i was the queen. and even to this day i still have dreams and daydreams about this beautiful world. Sometimes, i think i might have made this world up in some other universe. Once i knew this crazy guy who thought he was telepathic and we where spending the night together and he dreamed the same dream as me!! in that world!! neatness.

Answer 7

Nope!

Answer 8

I don't believe in that kinda shtt.

we live, we die. everyone creates there own destiny.

Answer 9

Bullshit!!