Is this world real?

The Start

All of us started our journey of life when we woke up for the first time while we were still in the womb. At that time we had a plain brain. We had a body that was not fully developed and we were completely driven by instincts – no knowledge or intelligence.

Sensing the World

From the moment we woke up into life, we start gaining knowledge and building intelligence. We learn how to control our limbs, eyes and other organs. Then, we use our organs to explore the environment further. In addition to being the means of getting knowledge, the sensory organs are responsible for making the individual feel that he is connected to the environment.

All of us trust our senses more than anything else. We believe that an object exists because we can see it with our eyes and feel it with our hand. I believe that I am right now typing this sentence in my computer because I can feel the keyboard, hear the sound of the keys and also see the text appearing in the screen as I type.

Our senses are the only means by which we can perceive the existence of the physical world including one’s own physical self. When we started the life, we had no idea of anything called a physical world. As we started sensing things, we realized that we a have a body and we live in an environment containing other physical objects and other individuals like us. Everything that we think exists in physical world – the planets, stars, galaxies etc and the laws that govern them like gravity etc – appear real to us only because our senses say so.

Questioning our Sense

But, what is the guarantee that our senses are not duping us. We know that there are situations in which we cannot trust our senses. In case of phantom limb, for example, a person can feel pain in a body part that does not exist. What an individual perceives through his senses depends on what the sensory organs transmit to the brain. The information transmitted from the sensory organ need not be necessarily correct at all times.

Why can’t I can stretch that possibility to an extreme level and say that it is possible that I do not have any physical self at all and no physical world exists in reality. I may just be made to believe in the existence of all these things by “something” that manipulates my senses.

Another reason for me to look at our own senses with mistrust is dreams. It is really amazing how easily we go into dreams and come out of it. During the dream, the things that we sense appear real. Only when we wake up from a dream, we realize that it was a dream and say “Ah! It’s just a dream”. What is the guarantee that we would not wake up from life some day and say “Ah! It’s just life”?

Only thing that we can say for sure is that we perceive the existence of a physical world. But, we can never be sure about the ultimate truth because we don’t have a way to independently validate our perceptions. We know that truth can be stranger than fiction. Then, how would the ultimate truth be? – extreeeeeeeeemely strange!!

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