They say that perception is reality. I have some disagreements with this saying. Granted, it is a general statement, just something people say without really thinking about it because after all who has the time to contemplate the ins and outs of random generalized statements. Me, thats who.

Ask Yourself, what color is blue?

Okay? Done?

Now, how do you know that when others see the color blue that they don't see something more akin to what you know as red?

But that's the way you perceive it right? But if they see it another way, and their perception is something different then yours, then what is real? What is the reality of the situation?

Ah, but now you say that YOUR perception is your reality.

BUT, just because you perceive it that way does not make it real, does not make it the reality. After all, crazy people see things all the time that aren't there and you're not just going to say that because they perceive it that way it must be real.

Just because we view something a certain way does not make it true, does not make it real, does not make it reality.

Now, lets take this argument one step further, to a more perverse level.

What if the way you feel walking around everyday doing mundane things is not the way everyone else feels? Lost? Okay, I'll explain.

What if you, unbeknownst to all the doctors you've seen throughout your life, have always, from the day of your birth, suffered from severe chronic pain, a pain that if it struck someone else on any random day in the middle of their life would strike them down and agonize them horribly, but because you've always experienced this pain have never realized there is something different? You've simply grown accustomed to the pain.

How would you ever know?

This is what I call personal reality.

So, if you're willing to except that there could be personal realities, and I know I'm asking for a little faith here, then is there a shared reality? Or, are we all just floating around experiencing vastly different sensations at every moment of our lives.

I'd like to think so. It would just make things more interesting.