What is reality? We assume that there is one objective reality and yet there is no way to prove that what we are experiencing is it.

What if this reality that we experience is a computer simulation being operated in the real reality? What if even that reality is merely a simulation running in a still more real reality?

What if I am dreaming? In this dream I might question the reality of my experiences. I might question the nature of reality itself. Then I wake up and realize that the experiences I dreamed were not real. Then I begin to question whether I’m still dreaming.

One time I wondered if I was dreaming. I pinched myself and upon feeling the pinch quite clearly, I concluded that I was not dreaming. At some later point, I awoke from this weird dream. Ever since then I am skeptical of reality. Am I still dreaming?

What if I’m trapped for eternity in nothing but dreams? Dreams inside of dreams. I wake up from one dream, not realizing that I’m still dreaming. No matter how hard I try, there’s no way to prove to myself that I’m not dreaming.

What if I died and went to heaven (not that I believe in heaven)? Would I question that reality too? Can I even conceive of a certain type of reality–one that I won’t question? The disconcerting answer is–No! If I died and went to this mythical heaven, no matter how perfect it might be, I would question its reality just like I question my reality now. The only conceivable universe or reality in which I would be content is one in which I did not have the ability to think.

All of the above bothered me for a long time. It doesn’t anymore. I have discovered (or decided) that reality is a subjective matter. Anything that experiences things will perceive those experiences as being real, it doesn’t matter if you’re dreaming or in a simulation. When I’m dreaming, that reality is just as real to me at the time as the reality that I experience after waking up. No longer is reality an objective state–it is relative.