Are we experiencing reality? Or something else?

What do you see when you look out at the world?

Virtual Reality? Or Actual Reality?

I took my teen to see the latest Johnny English movie this weekend (meh, so-so — go see Bohemian Rhapsody instead).

In one scene the hapless agent is running amok in London — he put on a set of virtual reality goggles to rehearse an attack but misfired the platform and went out the door instead. The action is amusing to the outside viewer because we see him attacking a sandwich shop owner with two organic sourdough baguettes, accosting an old lady and crossing the road on all fours.

To him, in his VR world, it looks as if he’s pursuing the bad guys. To us, with our wider perspective we can see how the actions he’s taking relate to the world he sees — but don’t make any sense at all — and wouldn’t were he to take off the goggles.

…Applies to Your Life

To me, this is pretty much how we all look all the time. We live life, immersed in a reality that is generated by our experience. It looks as if everything we’re doing makes sense in relation to the world we see, but that’s because we are living from our experience — our version of ‘real life’.

Unlike Johnny English we can’t take our goggles off, we can only hone our awareness that we’re wearing them.