What is Real?

This is a question we all have, atleast after the movie 'The Matrix' was released. We were all stunned by the concept of the movie. The concept was so overwhelming, so stunning, so undeniable that all the special effects (which were fresh, never before seen), the amazing characters - Agent Smith, Morpheus, Neo, Trinity - each character chosen to perfection that - for sure - we could relate to one of those characters.... all this was just an extra compared to the idea.

"What is the Matrix?"
I am not here to review the movie. I am sure there are millions of reviews out there. Millions of theories developed on it. Universes created around this idea. So much.

I am here because today I ended up asking myself - 'What is real?"

Morpheus: "What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can hear, what you can smell, taste and feel then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

Is that it? It is perhaps oversimplified in words - but what it covers is perhaps just about everything we know, everything that we 'think' we are capable of doing, everything that we think we have done. I am not speaking about the matrix. But a concept similar - one where - we can't be sure of what is reality.

I can explain this with a few commonly heard examples - which have to be amplified to a certain extent.

"Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder".

My explanation may not be the best - but - it easily translates to "We love to see what we want to see'.

"My God is the right God".

Many say that, like I say there is no God, it is perspective. Religions have no proof but a book written many many centuries ago - depending on whichever religion saying that it is right and implicitly meaning the rest to be wrong. My point here is not religion - but perspective.

How do I know if this world exists only just in my imagination? That this computer itself doesn't exist - that you, my dear reader, are only a figment of my imagination? That I myself don't look me? What if the 'mental projection of my digital self' is wrong?

To twist things further - in my thoughts - you think -that I am thinking about you thinking about what I've written on this blog which itself is probably not real... heh... its an endless spiral..

We have defined our world in 3 dimensions - maybe 4 or sometimes 11, even 26 to support our theories about our world - but those are not the rules of the 'apparently real' universe. We have created a translation of those rules so that we can understand how to obey them.

Our world is a result of our thoughts - maybe we all exist in a matrix - our thought processes overlapping each others creating complex relations - mix of love n hate, laughter n sorrow, genius n idiocy, real n unreal. I don't know.

'Reality' becomes a scary situation when you think about it. It is not as simple as we just usually don't care about it. Maybe we don't have to, as we, atleast now, can only define it by our sense of taste, smell, vision, touch, sound. Our dimensions are bound there. A reality defined by years, centuries, millenniums . ages of understanding - evolving from atoms, to become entities which question our own existence.

What would prove that all this is real? What is the truth about us? Who are we? Why are we here? Where is this going to end? Does it end? Are we prepared to realize who we are? Evolution of the most extreme kind. To know the mind of the God( - the explanation of my question is what I mean by 'knowing the mind of the God'. It is one phrase, not to be split :P)

My thoughts spiral outta control these days, a mixture of thoughts at the level of a normal human being working to earn his monthly income to live to the thoughts of a person trying keep up with relations, to the pinnacle - thoughts about who we are. The perfect mid-life crisis.

Lost in thoughts of where I am headed.

I took the red pill, I am going to find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes...
Tumbling down, breaking a bone or two, reeling in chaotic thoughts, to the point where I know I am free.

In chaos, I find order...
In the enigmatic. I find clarity...
In complexity, I see arising simplicity...
In the unreal, I find the astonishing possibility of reality...

The real has become a matter of perspective. Absolute is a word that is relative in itself.

I find myself being asked these questions:
"Why, Mr. Anderson? Why, why, why? Why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom, or truth, perhaps peace or could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify it's existence that is without any meaning or purpose! And all of them as artificial as the matrix itself. Although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now. You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why do you persist?".

Not exactly those words... but question built on the same idea. Why should I persist to know?...
...there is only one realization: "Know Thyself".

It is inevitable.... We are only as real as we think we are.