An Idea About What Reality Is

What is reality.  The short answer is this:

Reality is exactly what you honestly think it is, until further notice. This is the best that one can do.

Reality is not whatever you say it is because you can say what you don't believe.  But it is what, the part of you, to which you can not lie, actually thinks it is and it will not change until you consider something (basically new information) that causes it to change.

This is your perspective.  All of what you are aware (at a given point in time), is in your perspective and all else does not exist for you until you become aware of it.  After becoming aware of something, you may conclude that it existed before you were aware of it but your conclusion, at this new point in time, is as real as that existence gets and no more (again until further notice of new information that may refute or further support the conclusion).  I keep repeating "point in time" because time is very significant.

Over time, we change dynamically and our perspectives change with us.  So, when addressing reality, not only are you addressing it from a point in space, as in who's perspective, but also from a point in time, as in, from what point in time are you addressing this person's perspective of reality.  Time need not always be addressed in hours, minutes, seconds, etc.  You just need to be able to distinguish whether a perspective's point in time came before or after the same perspective's point at a different time.  Other perspectives can have the same or different points in time from the first but noting that time, is still significant.  Here is an example.

I was walking down the sidewalk one day and I looked across the street and noticed "Man-A" walking along the sidewalk on the other side of the street, in the same direction as I walked.  Then I noticed "Man B" come up behind "Man-A", grab him, reach into his pocket and pull out his wallet.

Is "Man-B" wrong for taking the wallet?

Remember, I'm watching this.  So at this point I'm saying "Man-B" is wrong for taking "Man-A's" wallet.  This is the best I can do for what I've seen so far.

To continue with the story, then I see "Man-B" look at the wallet and back at "Man-A" and yell out "What the heck is wrong with you, Frank!  I can't believe you're  a darn thief!"

So is "Man-B" wrong for taking the wallet now?

Now, I'm saying that "Man-B" is right for taking it because he was just taking back his own wallet.

Then I hear Frank ("Man-A") yell out "That's not your wallet, Joe!  It just looks like yours.  Look, it has my license and all my stuff."  Joe ("Man-B") looks closer at the wallet and embarrassingly hands it back to Frank.

Now I'm back to saying that "Man-B" (Joe) was wrong for taking the wallet even though I, now, understand that he's not a criminal but just mistaken about who "really" owned the wallet.

I said "really," like it was the final truth about who owned the wallet but I could find out later that I'm wrong again.  For instance I could find out that "Man-A" actually did take "Man-B's" wallet but just replaced the contents, making me think that "Man-B" was, again, right for taking the wallet in the first place.  He just needs to empty out "Man-A's" contents.  This, back and forth, about the owner can continue on and on.  All it takes is new and convincing information for you to change what you think about reality.

As long as you don't know everything, new information has the potential to change everything you know.

That is as real as it gets.  Reality is no more real than your best honest guess, based on what you know, at the point in time that you're knowing it.

Questions, Disagreements, Comments are welcome.

b9