Anybody else have trouble with reality?

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I was just wondering, do you guys ever have trouble with things like believing in reality or being part of it, or imagining ghat other people think and are conscious?

I ask because as long as I can remember I just accepted that the world around me is what it looks like, so I never actually thought about it. Now, whenever I think too much about this kind of stuff, I just can't imagine it. Like I don't believe in it.

So, how about you guys?

Yes, I experience this in various forms. In particular, though I'm very interested in history, the past often seems like very unreal territory to me.

I used to infuriate one of my supervisors at university many years ago by being sceptical about virtually every event or person referred to by ancient historians. I didn't even believe the historians were real most of the time, I wondered if their works had been made up at a much later date. You can drive yourself nuts thinking about this sort of stuff....

Sometimes. It took till I was 14 to fully understand other people have their own thoughts and ideas, like me. I did know that before but never really got it.

Usually I'm suprised if I be one close friends with someone and they tell me about their past and where they have been on holiday and stuff and it always shocks me that they had such a life and I didn't know.

What you are saying makes so little sense to me i am not sure I understand it. I know my senses are in imperfect means of perceiving reality, but it seems obvious and self-evident to me that there is a reality there, regardless of what I or others perceive or think.

I have all kinds of problems with reality--it so often imposes constraints I would prefer not to be under--but the idea that "it" isn't there makes no sense to me. It almost doesn't mean anything, within my frame of reference.

What does the phrase "I don't believe in it" mean without an underlying concept of some things being real and others not real? This is a sort of anti-tautology.

I have no doubt that other people think and are conscious because they keep coming up with such weird ideas. Donald Trump alone is sufficient evidence that other people have their own consciousness and cognitive processes (I'm not sure "think" would be the right term for the activity of his CNS).

Well, what I mean is basically the oposite of what you describe, i.e. everything is sort of abstract to me. Like looking at a star and trying to imagine planets with life. Or like trying to imagine that your whole body is made of individual cells. I really don't know how to describe it better.

What I like most about reality is that everyone gets to have their own version of it.

Classic.

This reminds me of something Andy Warhol said about reality, that I can totally relate to:

“Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television.”

It's called "having an imagination."

Another interesting view of that shooting with quotes from Warhol can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLcGjBmrzl4

It suggests a more complicated idea than that it's all just watching television, I think.

But reality remains, no matter what people's beliefs, perceptions or mortal state may be.

A curious mind might inquire "how would I know?".

And then might conclude that while each mind is subject to all manner of subjective distortions, sensing devices that record external events can be constructed and create a consistent picture of an external reality.

This could all be illusory, but there is no rational reason to believe it to be such, nor does the concept of illusion have any meaning without the premise of some non-illusory state. At some point, a curious mind might move on to other questions.

One might also wonder if this (including oneself) is not all a simulation and conclude that it might very well be, but if so it has the characteristics of reality, so it may as well be taken for real until some evidence of it not being real emerges. A feeling of dissociation from events and people is poor evidence against there being an external reality.

But even if one were to suppose that it is all a simulation or a dream, one has simply offset the notion of an underlying reality to a containing entity. There is a dreamer having the dream. Or a computer running the simulation.
Some sort of thing is thinking and therefore being.

The good sir Adamantium might rest assured that this curious mind has already concluded that the tools with which we percieve reality must needs be accurate to at least a reasonable degree, despite their fallability, lest we fall into an existential matryoshka doll. In short it has, as you say, moved on to other questions, and was merely being obtuse for entertainment purposes. I'd offer apology, but I don't think anyone was slighted.

Once somebody noted that a potted plant in the corner was not real. In fact, the plant was real! That is, my senses confirmed that it was real; it physically existed in space. Instead the distinction was that the plant was made of green colored silk and acrylic.

So while it was not alive, the plant was real, i.e., not imaginary. Still I sometimes grapple with what others then regard as 'real.' Real vs. imaginary. Yes, reality is perceptual.

You could argue that it was a real object, but not a real plant. Since it looks like a plant you assume it's a plant and think about it as a plant. Then you find out the plant never existed. Or something.

Right. It was not an imaginary plant, albeit not alive. Not dead either though.