HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT IS REAL?

Descartes: I think therefore I am.

How do we know what is real? How do we know that we are experiencing reality? Its a simple question and the simple answer is: We can see/feel/hear/smell and taste the environment and therefore what we are experiencing must be actual reality. But this is not so. Our senses lie to us in every moment of every day. You feel how the ground is steady? Well its not, its moving at thousands of miles and hour.. 

All the things which we SEE in the physical world are a translation, by our brains, of the sensory input received through the eyes. Vision is merely the interpretation of light touching the retina. The brain then decodes this information, flips the image the right way up and filters out anything it deems to be unimportant in that moment. This all happens instantly, its an incredible feat of human brilliance.

The famous philosopher Rene Descartes understood this and posed the following question: How do I know that I am not just a brain in a jar? His point being that electricity and therefore magnetism could be used to stimulate the brain in such a way that it could see things which are not there or be tricked into experiencing other sensory information. We've all seen the Matrix, its a similar question. How would you be able to determine if what you are experiencing is a real event or just a complex fabrication made by your own mind? Those of you who are apt at Lucid dreaming will have struggled with this question also. I have often been awake and had to question myself "is this real?" or "am I asleep?"

Do you actually see whilst astral projecting or do you just imagine moving? I would have to ask the question when you are imagining do you actually see? I know that I do for sure. Stop.

When you make a picture in your mind what happens to the rest of the room? I've had people angrily say at me "what are you looking at?" and I've been like huh? I was in a trance state and my eyes may have been pointing at them but my mind was off and away somewhere else. For years they've told you off for "day dreaming" but I ask you whats the difference? How do you know that what you're experiencing right now, sitting at your computer or on your phone reading every word of this, and then you swallow.

How do you know any of this is real?

All the stresses in your life, your boss, your teacher, your husband or wife, how do you know they are not all fabrications of your own mind? We know that the mind has the ability to do remarkable things like that, be it in a dream state or the Persinger god helmet.

Then after writing all of this I realized that we still, now some 400 years after Descartes still don't have a water tight answer to this question. So I put it to you, how do you know that you are alive and that you are experiencing reality at this moment?