“Hallucination: A profound distortion in a person’s perception of reality, typically accompanied by a powerful sense of reality. An hallucination may be a sensory experience in which a person can see, hear, smell, taste, or feel something that is not there” (MedTerms.com).
I’m reading this and wondering… what if perhaps, the reality of this statement was false. Meaning that reality is in fact the opposite, a distortion of a hallucination. Could it be possible that what we consider a hallucination is actually the way things are meant to be perceived? Could our minds be so powerful to hide reality and brush it up to make it more appealing. This brings another range of thought into my mind. Could the evolution of the human mind since the dawn of time slowly distort the truth. What I mean is that over time could the human mind evolve so greatly that it shows us things in the most eye-pleasing way it can. I’m not so sure how to put into words fully what I mean, but I thought it would be interesting to get other peoples’ on this idea. Sorry if it’s a bit confusing.
Wrong forum maybe but interesting nonetheless.
Maybe our minds are slowly revealing reality to us. Consider the horizon and how it has grown from being grass-plains to continents to the moon to the galaxy and out into space it travels, our line of sight slowly creeps out into the unknown unveiling it to become known.
If your question seems a bit confusing, it is because we ourselves are a bit confused. The grey area of what is real in itself meets with the pre-conceived ideas of mind, and the result is predictable. I don’t know if one should use the term hallucination, oe even the word distortion, but our precepts often control our percepts - and they may or may not have anything to do with reality. Of course, what is reality is by definition, and who makes up the definitions? Oops. And around and around we go…
IMHO – reality is only what we can see+hear and perceive(while sober and wakeful ) and is most of the time expectable. I believe there is another world in our fantasies and that it is maybe some kind of different dimension/reality. Hallucination is the way (one of the ways) to get to this world. It is an art and wisdom of reality.
That’s almost impossible to answer withoutout a very tight definition. It supposes that we would have a benchmark independent of the species itself. I’m not sure where that would come from. One never escapes perspective, which is always rooted in enculturation, so multiple realities are a guarantee. Does this make us schizoid? I think diverse is the best answer. But behaviors within a specific culture can promote a divided self - with every culture having it’s own definition of normal and abnormal.
I understand what you are trying to say but I just had a thought. Don’t we already distort the truth. It is part of one’s perspective at times and sometimes it can be part of our illusion – when we “see” things as we wish to, instead of the reality that it is.
For me, evolution itself presupposes that there is progress albeit stagnation too. Could we really all come to see things in the same distorted way? That would be humanity retrogressing.
And let’s suppose that at some point, humanity does evolve to see things in the most eye-pleasing way that we can. Would it actually be the human mind that would be evolving or the universe itself?
Surely evolution would prevent ones mind from distorting the truth purely for aesthetic pleasure, due to the fact it would make us less efficient survival machines. Anything that was a less efficient survival machine would die out, hence our minds would not deliberately deceive us just for pleasure, due to the fact it would be detrimental to the species.
there was an interesting book by michael talbot “the holographic universe” , book explains paranormal psichic phenomena, self-healing by placebo and wishfull thinking, also this idea reminds me of the film “the matrix”… indeed i think that our minds have way more impact to the “reality” than we think… way more…
what if this relity is rely a hallucination\hologram and we can form it which ever way we want…
I always thought of mine as a temporary gateway into an overlapping universe.
It’s there, but it’s not… The fact that you can see/smell/hear etc it, is simply a glitch in the veil holding one from the other.
I have had a theory on this for a while, and i would agree, it would make since that it evolves that way because DNA contains memory. So it would explain why people once believed in magic and dragon. It would also help to explain why human arent as connected to the world around us as other animals.
Can it ever be otherwise? By definition, as offered, it can be nothing but ‘complete’. Re-read the definition.
We can not view the complete universe as we are Perspectives, limited by definition and necessity. All ‘possibilities’ are ‘actualities’. All that can be, is. What ‘is’, is all that can be.
What’s left to see? Every moment is another Perspective; a ‘new/nother’ universe to “see”, perceive. One moment = one percept; all are unique.
) and is most of the time expectable. I believe there is another world in our fantasies and that it is maybe some kind of different dimension/reality. Hallucination is the way (one of the ways) to get to this world. It is an art and wisdom of reality.
