This chapter coulda gone anywhere. Right after
\u201cGreat Questions\u201d (it\u2019s the biggee, right?). Or in
the middle of \u201cScience and Religion\u201d (since both
are taking their crack at it). \u201cParadigm Shift\u201d
could be called The Accepted Reality Shift.

ow about after \u201cSight and Perception\u201d (the next chap- ter), which deals with what we perceive\u2014and take to be real? Or the \u201cQuantum Physics\u201d chapter, which

No? Tell me,what is reality when you\u2019ve just fallen in love (the \u201cEmotions\u201d chapter) or when your true love has just died. What about the \u201cDesire\u201d chapter, which deals with choice and free will? Do you think those decisions are based on reality, or your assumption of it?

Let\u2019s see, what other upcoming chapters fit into our vision of reality? \u201cConsciousness Creates Reality.\u201d Okay\u2014there\u2019s a tie-in. On and on it goes . . .

This questionis everywhere. It\u2019s in every chapter, in every moment that we live. Every decision is based on some construct of what is real to you. Yet when was the last time you took the rabbit-hole ride down into your assumptions about reality?

We asked more than a few scientists this question. In his response, Dr. David Albert touches on how and why we answer this question every day:

Animals and birds often
live in a reality very different
from ours. Some can hear
sounds we can\u2019t hear, or see
light frequencies (ultraviolet,
infrared) that we can\u2019t see.
Most mammals (like dogs)
live in a world filled with scents,
and rely much less than we
do on vision. What about
infants who stare for hours
at an \u201cempty\u201d corner
of the ceiling?

true claim . . . that I don\u2019t know for sure if my eyes are working correctly, so that for all I know even though it looks like there\u2019s a stable floor by the side of my bed, there might be a cliff or something like that. If I am unable to order those possibilities in terms of probabilities that I assign to them, then I\u2019m not gonna get out of bed! Seems to me I\u2019m paralyzed in the most literal sense of the word.

One hypothesis is there really is a floor there, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m seeing. Another hypothesis is my seeing the floor is a hallucination, and there\u2019s a cliff there. By getting out of bed in the morning, you endorse one of those hypotheses as more likely than another. That\u2019s the way we\u2019re used to proceeding in our ordinary lives.

We endorse the reality that our eyes give us, so for us in that moment we answered the question looming above us\u2014What is reality? Most people think reality is what our senses project to us. And, of course, science has gone along with that view for 400 years: If it is not perceivable by our five senses (or their extensions), it\u2019s not real.

But even this \u201creality\u201d appears one way when we look at it with our eyes, and another if we look more deeply into it with a microscope or an atom smasher. Then it becomes totally different, unrecognizable.

And what about our thoughts? Are they part of \u201creality\u201d? Take a look around right now. There are windows and chairs and lights and this book. You probably thought they were all real. All of them were preceded by an \u201cidea\u201d of windows and chairs. Someone imagined those windows and chairs and cre- ated them. So if the latter is real, is the idea real as well? Most people think thoughts and emotions are real\u2014but when sci- entists explore \u201creality,\u201d they carefully avoid talking about such things.

What about consciousness,
the fundamental fact of our
own existence, that goes with
us wherever we go? In order to
do anything, to think, to dream,
to create, to perceive, we have
to be conscious. Isn\u2019t that part
of reality? But where is it? What
is it made of? Unlike material
objects, intangible phenomena
like consciousness can\u2019t be
measured, but that doesn\u2019t mean

Many scientists are in a real
pickle on this one. If it\u2019s real,
then its reality can be
examined; if it\u2019s not real, then
they never have to go looking
for it. And thus it will never
be known as real.

who we are, what life is, what is
possible and what is not, is all
based on what we think is real.