Your reality is a simulation

Virtual reality is at the cutting edge of contemporary technology. Yet there’s one simulated reality that’s been around for 200,000 years, since the dawn of human existence. You don’t need a headset to experience this simulation, though – you’re living in it right now.

Our perceived reality is a simulation. That’s not a metaphor. It’s a biological fact. 

Let’s break it down.

At a fundamental level, we apprehend reality through our senses, filtering the world through our abilities to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. What we experience through our senses isn’t technically a concrete reality but a sophisticated simulation. 

Take sight, for example. Say you look out your window and see a tree. That tree is a collection of particles, the building blocks of matter. These particles emit electromagnetic waves known as photons. Your retina, the layer of tissue at the back of your eye, registers the presence of these photons. It then captures impressions of them, which it sends to your visual cortex, the part of your brain that processes visual information. Only when your visual cortex interprets the signals detected by your retina do you “see” the tree. 

How do you know that the collection of electromagnetic waves your retina perceives is a tree? Because your sensory perception interfaces with the mental framework you’ve been building up since birth. This framework conditions you to sort sensory experiences into categories, dividing the natural world up into “plants,” “trees,” and “flowers.” It’s this framework that sorts billions of shades into categories like “red,” “blue,” and “yellow.”

This applies equally to our other senses. Everything our senses apprehend is alchemized by our minds into information and experiences we can understand. We sense odorous molecules floating in a garden, and the mind interprets them as the fragrance of flowers. We sense the vibrations of airwaves in a concert hall, and the mind interprets them as the sounds of an orchestra playing.

In this way, everything we experience is mind-made – mediated and shaped by our mental processes.

Whether you’re smelling a freshly baked pie or admiring a rainbow, the reality you experience is actually a sophisticated mental simulation.

#Gratitude4beingthemasterofthislife