Is Reality an Illusion?

Miss Hello World
Miss Hello World
Published in
7 min readSep 18, 2023

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is reality an illusion
Image Credit: Freepik

Since ancient times, this has been a puzzling question.

How real is our reality?

“Dreaming of a Butterfly” poses an interesting perspective.

It’s a story about a man, Zhuang Zhou, who dreamt he was a butterfly.

Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly
Image Credit: Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly, by 18th century Japanese painter Ike no Taiga, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

He was joyfully flying around and didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou.

And, when he woke up, he wasn’t sure.

Was it him, Zhuang Zhou, who had dreamt he was a butterfly?

Or was it the butterfly dreaming that it was Zhuang Zhou?

Makes you think, right?

A story from ancient China of 476–221 BC makes you think!

Over the years, up to this day, many theories try to explain the “realness” of our reality.

And most of them agree on one point.

The reality we experience is, most probably, an illusion.

Ponzo illusion
Image Credit: Ponzo illusion.gif by Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Miss Hello World
Miss Hello World

Published in Miss Hello World

Opening the doors to understand the universe, the world, humans. What’s it all about? What is our purpose?

Miss Hello World
Miss Hello World

Written by Miss Hello World

I want to understand – the universe, the world, me. What’s it all about? What is my purpose? As Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living".

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