FOREWORD

Many of the movies that have hit the big screen over the last few years share a common subject as part of their storyline. These films question reality-or the real world, as we know it-pointing out that artificially created dream worlds or worlds produced by simulations can actually be quite realistic.
Movies, sequels and TV series like The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Thirteenth Floor, Harsh Realm, Vanilla Sky, Total Recall, The Truman Show, Strange Days, Dark City, Open Your Eyes, The Frequency, Existenz, and The One all examine the theme of just how seriously wrong we might be about what is reality and what is imagination.
These films also deal with suggestions, thus far represented only as food for thought at scientific gatherings, of how these questions could affect our lives. In The Matrix, for instance, the following dialogue takes place:
What is real? How do you define "real"? If you're talking about your senses-what you feel, taste, smell, or see-then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
Doubtless one of the foremost reasons why these films, based on scientific explanations, captivate the attention of millions is the fact that people now question the reliability of the external world's assumptions and preconditions.
These movies' themes had been the focus of philosophical research in the past, though not until the end of the 20th century did they receive the attention they deserved. But now, science has proven the subject website  discusses to be scientific fact, rather than a philosophical hypothesis.
The truth about the true the reality of matter had been kept quiet until recently, even though for over ten years, we had been publishing books about matter's true origin, along with the scientific evidence supporting it. This issue has been dealt with extensively in our previous books: Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, Timelessness and the Reality of Fate, Eternity Has Already Begun, Knowing the Truth, The Little Man in the Tower, Assuming That Matter Exists We are Still Watching an Illusion and The Secret Beyond Matter. Besides all the above titles, many other publications like our book, The Evolution Deceit, have special chapters analyzing this issue.
These books are read and appreciated in many countries around the world from India to the United States, from United Kingdom to Indonesia, Poland to Bosnia Herzegovina, Spain to Brazil and are available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu, Arabic, Albanian, Russian, Kazak, Azeri, Bosnian, Uyghur, Persian, and the Malaysian and Indonesian languages. They are valued and read with great interest by a large readership around the globe. The positive response they receive from outside Turkey increases every day, and many people are making use of these books' subject matter and the linguistic style they use.
Our efforts in this respect are continuing. Many audio and video tapes and CDs provide scientific explanations on the subject alongside a stunning commentary, as do the following websites: www.harunyahya.com and www.secretbeyondmatter.com.
The two controversial Matrix films were received with great interest for their views on the origins of matter. With the publication of our book, The Evolution Deceit in English, Matrix scriptwriters Andy and Larry Waschoski obtained a copy and expressed their thanks for it. The effects of our efforts at bringing this subject to public attention for over ten years, can be seen in many of today's films, TV programs, newspapers, magazines as well as on over 1000 websites.
This website deals with several of those movies that make people reflect on the views printed in our earlier publications, and also touch on some ideas these publications included, which prove quite similar to the concepts expressed in those films. In this way, we'll reveal once again that this website's explanations describe scientific facts, acknowledged around the globe. People's individual complaints or disapproval can't alter the reality of the true origins of matter.
 

INTRODUCTION:

WE ARE WATCHING A COPY OF OUR LIVES

When you read the book; you believe you are holding, together with its printed text and illustrations in bright, vivid colors, is in reality a three-dimensional image in your brain. Similarly, the embossed logo you feel when you touch the book's cover is something you are "touching" only in your brain.

You may think that the book is outside of you because your hand can feel the smoothness of its pages. But in reality, when you believe you're touching the book, you are turning its pages inside your brain, and feeling their thin smoothness there.

When you look at a book, the light reflected from its pages is converted into electrical impulses by the cells of your eye's retina. These signals, carrying details of the book's shape, color and thickness, are transmitted to your brain's visual center via the optic nerves, where they are interpreted into a concise whole. In this way, the book's appearance is recreated inside the darkness of your brain. Therefore, statements like, "I'm seeing with my eyes," or, "This book's in front of me" do not reflect true reality. Your eye only converts the light it receives into electrical impulses. The image of the book you behold doesn't lie outside you, as you have always thought, but on the contrary, inside your skull. Furthermore, never can you know for certain whether the visualizations in your mind reflect the actual reality "outside," or even if there are material correlates for them.

We perceive the world so perfectly that we believe it to lie outside us, all around our bodies. There is no disruption in the flow of the images, from a vivid, colorful world formed by countless details. This can make us forget that we are living in a world of perceptions and imagery that, in reality, all takes place inside our brains.

You could be thinking that this book lies outside you simply because you can feel the smoothness of its pages under your fingers. But this sensation of smoothness, just like the phenomenon of "seeing," is formed in your brain. When the touch-sensitive nerve cells on your fingertips are stimulated, they transmit stimuli to your brain in the form of electrical signals. Receiving these messages, your brain's touch center interprets them into such sensations as touch, pressure, softness or hardness, coldness or warmth. And you, inside your brain, come to sense the hardness of the book, the smoothness of its pages or its embossed logo when your hand touches them. In reality though, you never can touch the actual book. When you think you're doing so, in reality you're only turning its pages in your brain and-again, in your brain-feeling the thinness and smoothness of its pages.

The same is true for all your other senses. In the air, the vibrating string of a guitar creates pressure waves, which then stimulate the hairlike structures in the inner ear. The vibrations thus created are converted into electrical signals, which are then transmitted to the relevant center in the brain and interpreted there-whereupon you experience the sensation of hearing the sounds of the guitar.

Likewise, your sense of smell is formed in the brain. Chemical molecules, escaping a lemon's peel stimulate receptors in the nose, are converted into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain for interpretation.
In short, all that you can perceive-what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell-is all recreated specially for you in your brain. Therefore, when we speak of our perception of the surrounding environment, we are talking only about our inner "copies" of those same colors, shapes, sounds and smells.
We perceive the world in so perfect a way that we believe in an external reality. But that "reality" is not so very different from the dreams we experience at night, inside our heads. In dreams, we are aware of the external events, sounds and sights; even our own bodies. We think and ponder. We feel the emotions of fear and anger, pleasure and love. We speak with other people, whom we believe we are observing the same things as they are, and even discuss them with them. Even in our dreams, we are convinced that a material world exists around us. But upon awakening, suddenly we realize that everything we thought we experienced took place only in our minds.
When we wake up and say, "It was only a dream," we mean that our experiences were not physical or "real," but only the products of our minds. While awake, on the other hand, we believe that there's a one-to-one correspondence between our perception and the physical world. But in fact, the experiences in our wakeful state are lived out in our minds, just as our dreams are.
Why do you think that you are awake now? Probably because you feel this book in your hands. You can comment on what you read; and everything around you displays a consistent continuity. But these perceptions-the hand with which you hold this book, the pages you're turning, the furniture surrounding you and your location in the room- all these are only replicas observed within your brain. Were you asked, "Right now, are you awake or are you dreaming?" surely you would answer, "Of course I'm awake!"
Possibly you've asked yourself this question in your dreams, many times. Of course, the answer you gave then-"Of course I am!"-would be exactly the same as you'd give right now. But only now, when you're truly awake, do you realize that your answer then was wrong.
So could it be that you're making the same mistake now? Who can guarantee that you're not actually dreaming right now-or even that your entire life has not been a dream? How can you be at all certain of the reality of the world in which you live?
In the following pages, you'll see that this certainty can never be possible. First, let's examine some movies that deal with the scientific facts revealing this "reality" and the explanations we've given in various earlier publications.
 FROM THE MATERIALISTS ANXIETY, WE CAN DEDUCE HOW SIGNIFICANT THIS SUBJECT IS

Looking at the materialists around us, we see that they're uneasy about the various concepts of matter's true nature. They receive with haughty arrogance the public's interest in the possibility that, just like dreams, the world we experience is imaginary. They send out messages like, "Don't be fooled by idealistic suggestions. Remain true to materialism." But this kind of response reveals their nervousness over seeing this subject being brought to public attention.

Their own philosophies are inherited from Vladimir I. Lenin, leader of Russia's bloody Communist revolution. In Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, written a century ago, we find the following passage:

Once you deny objective reality, given us in sensation, you have already lost every weapon against fideism [reliance on faith alone], for you have slipped into agnosticism or subjectivism-and that is all that fideism requires. A single claw ensnared, and the bird is lost. And our Machists [adherents of Machism, developed by the Austrian philosopher Mach, one of the leaders of modern positivism] have all become ensnared in idealism, that is, in a diluted, subtle fideism; they became ensnared from the moment they took "sensation" not as an image of the external world, but as a special "element." It is nobody's sensation, nobody's mind, nobody's spirit, nobody's will.1

This passage betrays the great apprehension with which Lenin discovered the reality that he wished to erase from his colleagues' minds as well as his own. It continues to cause apprehension among present-day materialists, but with one difference: Today's materialists are a lot more nervous than Lenin ever was. They are only too aware that this reality is now understood with much greater certainty and clarity than it was, a century ago for the first time in history, this subject is being related in an irresistible way.

The materialists warn, "Do not reflect on this issue, or else you'll lose your materialism and you'll be lost to religion." The reason why is that the truth, now being explained in context with the origin of matter, is destroying the materialist philosophy, leaving it in such a discredited state that there's nothing left to discuss. The materialists' nervousness at seeing the world of matter disintegrate is a result of their blind belief in matter, and their inability to come to terms with the impossibility of experiencing matter direclty-which means that materialism has no reason to be.

In the following words, science writer Lincoln Barnett expresses the materialist scientists' paranoia of this subject at even being just sensed:

Along with philosophers' reduction of all objective reality to a shadow-world of perceptions, scientists have become aware of the alarming limitations of man's senses.2

In every materialist coming face to face with this subject, the fear and worry is clearly visible.

The 21st century is a turning point in history; once this reality reaches all people, then materialism will be wiped off the face of the Earth. For people who come to understand this reality, it's irrelevant what they used to believe or what they advocated before. The only important thing is not resist once this reality has been recognized; to understand this truth before it is too late-because death will make it understood, for sure.

Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it cuts right through it and it vanishes clean away! Woe without end for you, for what you portray! (Qur'an, 21: 18)

1. V. I. Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970, pp. 334-335.
2. Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, New York: William Sloane Associates, 1948, pp. 17-18.

THE MATRIX

Two of the most popular and acclaimed films of the last few years were The Matrix and its recent sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, released in 2003. These movies' storyline presupposes a world conquered by machines, running on artificial intelligence, which are keeping the human race in an imaginary world, using them as an energy source. Reaching a huge audience, the Matrix movies portray a very advanced virtual-reality program.
The movies' hero, nicknamed Neo and played by Keanu Reeves, is a computer programmer within this system. He believes himself to be working for a large software firm and living during the last remaining years of the 20th century. But in reality, the year is 2199, and his body is being maintained in a liquid-filled capsule, in which he sees only what he is shown and can experience only what he's made to feel. He "knows" himself to be a software engineer, going to work among all the other people, while in reality, he exists in a totally different environment and a totally different century. In short, he exists in a virtual-reality environment called "the Matrix," believing that he's living an actual life.
The character called Morpheus knows the truth, that Neo lives in an imaginary world-and throughout the film, he tells Neo the reality of things. He reveals, for instance, that so far, everything Neo has seen, heard, smelled, tasted and felt had no physical reality; and proves to him that all his experiences were imaginary impressions created in his brain. Later in this chapter, we'll give examples of dialogue from the movie.

In this picture, we see someone who feels himself skiing on the mountains, whereas there is really neither skis nor snow. This illusion is artificially created.

Virtual Reality and a World Composed of Electrical Signals

Thanks to present technological developments, it's possible to have realistic experiences without the need for an "external world" or "matter." The incredible advancement in virtual reality technology has come up with some especially convincing proofs.
To put it simply, virtual reality is the projection of computer-generated three-dimensional images that appear to be real with the aid of some devices. This technology, with its diverse range of applications, is known as "virtual reality," "virtual world," or "virtual environment." Its most important feature is that by the use of some purposely constructed devices, it misleads the person experiencing it into believing the experience to be real. In recent years, the word "immersive'' has begun to be used in front of the term "virtual reality," reflecting the way that witnesses are literally immersed in the experience.
The rationale of any virtual reality system is based on our five human senses. For instance, when the user puts on a special glove, devices inside transmit signals to the fingertips. When these signals are relayed to and interpreted by the brain, the user experiences the sensation of touching a silk fabric or ornate vase, complete with all of its surface details-without any such thing actually existing in the environment.
One of virtual reality's foremost applications is in medicine. Michigan University has developed a technology that trains assistant practitioners-in particular, the personnel of emergency wards-to learn their skills in a virtual reality lab, in which environment is created by projecting the details of an operating room onto the floor, walls, and ceiling of a room. The "picture" is completed by projecting an operating table, complete with the patient to be operated on, onto the center of the room. The surgeons-to-be put on their 3-D glasses and begin their "virtual" operation. As the pictures on the next page show, anyone viewing these images cannot distinguish a real operating room from this virtual one.
In The Matrix, too, once the movie's two heroes are seated in special armchairs and get their nervous systems connected up to a computer, each one envisions himself in a totally different environment. In one scene, they are seen practicing martial arts; in another; they walk down a crowded street dressed in different clothes. When Neo expresses his disbelief that that these experiences are only computer generated, the simulations are suddenly frozen. He is forced to concede that what he thought to be real was, in fact, only an image.

Technology has revealed that we can experience very realistic perceptions without the external world: People can feel themselves in places they are not, and can feel themselves doing things while they are actually lying inert.

Technology developed by Michigan University permits the training of doctors and particularly, emergency ward personnel in a virtual operating room. Practitioners wear 3-D glasses and operate on a virtual patient.

Another scene finds Neo stretched out on an old chair, badly dressed in old clothes, with wires attached to his head. But when the software is loaded, he finds himself in a wholly new, simulated environment where his worn clothes are gone, his hair is longer, and he looks altogether different from his real appearance.
Morpheus : It is our loading program. We can load anything from clothing to equipment, weapons, training simulations. Anything we need.

Neo : Right now, we're inside a computer program?

Morpheus : Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different. The plugs in your body are gone. Your hair has changed. Your appearance is now what we call "residual self-image." It is the mental rejection of your digital self.
From this dialogue, it's evident that Neo is reluctant to admit that his experiences are imaginary, because they are so wholly realistic. Consequently, the following dialogue ensues between him and Morpheus, who is aware of the truth:

Neo : This isn't real? (Indicating the chair)

Morpheus : What is real? How do you define "real"? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
The wise Morpheus shows Neo that the world that he thought to be real is actually only a simulation. Every detail of his experiences-including cars, the noises of city traffic, the ocean, skyscrapers, people and everything else-is a computer generated impression in his mind. Notice how Morpheus' words quoted above explain scientifically how images believed to be real are formed by the brain's interpretating the electrical impulses it receives.

Everything we perceive is specially recreated for us in our brains. Therefore, when we say, "We are aware the world around us," we are talking about copied images of colors and shapes, of sounds and smells.

Below are some extracts from our previously published books on the subject:

• All the information we have about the world we live in is conveyed to us by our five senses. The world we know consists of what our eye sees, our hand feels, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our ears hear. We never think that the "external" world can be other than what our senses present to us, since we've been depending on only those senses since the day we were born.

However, modern scientific research in many different fields points to a wholly different understanding, creating serious doubt about our senses and the world we perceive with them.
This approach's starting point is the notion that any "external world" is only a response created in our brain by electrical signals. The red hue of an apple, the hardness of wood, your mother, father, your family, and everything that you own-your house, your job,-and even the lines of this website, are composed of electrical signals only. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.216)

• When we say that we "see," in fact we are perceiving the effects of impulses reaching our eyes, after they're transformed into electrical signals in our brain. That is, when we say that "we see," we are actually observing electrical signals in our mind. All the images we view in our lives are formed in our center of vision, which takes up only a few cubic centimeters of the brain's volume. Both the book you are now reading and the boundless horizon you see when you gaze out the window fit into this tiny space. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.218)
• Everything we see, touch, hear, and perceive as matter-"the world" and "the universe"-is nothing but electrical signals occurring in our brain. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.222)
• At this point, we encounter another surprising fact: that there are actually no colors, shapes, or voices inside our brain. All that can be detected within brains are electrical signals. This is no philosophical speculation, but simply a scientific description of the functions of our perceptions. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.18)

No matter how realistic our perceptions, they are our minds' interpretations. Someone watching dolphins perform in the sea is, in reality, watching the vivid and colorful three-dimensional images in his brain.

• The act of seeing is realized in a progressive way. Photons of light, traveling from the object, pass through the lens at the front of the eye, where they are focused and fall, reversed, on the retina. Here, the impinging light is converted into electrical signals transmitted by neurons to a tiny spot in the back part of the brain, called the center of vision. After a series of processes, this brain center perceives these signals as images. The actual act of seeing takes place in this tiny spot at the rear of the brain in pitch darkness, completely insulated from light. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, pp.217-218)

As we have seen, the subject matter of The Matrix conforms to the scientific realities published in our books. As the above quotations and dialogue from the film explain, we always deal only with the images forming in our brains. No matter how realistic our perceptions, they are our minds' interpretations. Therefore, we can never be sure that the images we perceive are not created by artificial signals. In other words, we can never distinguish between reality and imagination.
We'll examine the subject in more detail with scenes from the films.

The Impossibility of Distinguishing Between Reality and Imagination

In this scene, Morpheus teaches Neo about reality by using the images on the TV screen to show him that he's living in an imaginary world he considers to be real. The modern world and all its skyscrapers, cars, and details he sees within Matrix; are all images created in his mind for him to experience. At that time, the true state of the world is altogether different: It is a destroyed, decayed planet. But until Neo was told this, he thought he was existing in the real world, without ever questioning its reality of it, having been fooled by it for all those years.
Morpheus : This is the world you know. The world as it was at the end of the Twentieth Century. It exists now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation that we call Matrix. You have been living in a dream world, Neo. . . This is world as it exists today... Welcome to the "desert of the real"…
The following passages, published in our earlier books, are relevant to this section of the film:

• Since we can never actually reach the "external world," how can we be sure that such a world really exists?

Actually, we cannot. Since each object is only a collection of perceptions, and those perceptions exist only in the mind, it is more accurate to say that the only world that really exists is the world of perceptions. The only world we know is the world that exists in our mind: the one that is designed, recorded, and made vivid there-in short, the one that is created within our mind. This is the only world we can be sure of.

We can never prove that the perceptions we observe in our brain have material correlations. Those perceptions may well be coming from an "artificial" source.

. . . False stimulations can produce in our brain an entirely imaginary "material world." For example, let us think of a very highly developed recording instrument that can record all kinds of electrical signals. First, let us transform all the data related to a setting (including body image) into electrical signals and transmit to this instrument. Second, let us imagine that your brain can survive apart from your body. Finally, let us connect the recording instrument to the brain with electrodes that function as nerves and send the pre-recorded data to the brain. In this state, you will feel as if you are living in this artificially created setting. For instance, you can easily believe that you are driving fast on a highway. It never becomes possible for you to understand that you consist of nothing but your brain, because what is needed to form a world within your brain is not the existence of a real world but rather, the availability of stimulations. It is perfectly possible that these stimulations could be coming from some artificial source, such as a recorder. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.225)

If Our Perceptions Seem Realistic, That Doesn't Prove that Their Material Equivalents Exist in the External World

We'll never be able to prove the existence of our perceptions' material equivalents, because our brains don't need an external world for perceptions to occur. Present technologies like simulators are some of the proofs of this, as pointed out earlier. When Neo enters a simulated environment for training purposes, he finds it totally realistic, to the extent that he believes he's breathing that environment's air, and that his success in the fight depends on the strength of his muscles. In reality, his body is stretched out on the chair and connected to the computer.
Tank : How about some combat training?
Neo : Jujitsu? I'm going to learn jujitsu?
(After the downloading ends:)
Neo : I know kung fu.
Morpheus : Show me.
Morpheus : This is a sparring program, similar to the programmed reality of the Matrix. It has the same basic rules. Rules like gravity. What you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken.
Technologies similar to those seen in the film can now give people the impression that they're existing in a completely different environment. In this case, they'll respond as if what they see, hear or do was utterly real. It's possible to project stereo images onto the floor, walls and ceiling of a room-sized cube. Entering the cube, people wearing stereo glasses can walk around and see themselves at the edge of a waterfall, on a mountain summit, in the middle of the ocean, on board a ship, or in other different environments. The headsets worn create the illusion of depth and space, and the images thus created are proportionate and life-sized. Special devices worn like gloves recreate the sensation of touch. Anyone using these devices can touch objects in the virtual environment and even move them around. These environments' sounds are also very realistic, because they can be produced from different directions and distances. Some applications can display the same virtual environment to different people around the world. With this technology, for instance, three people on three different continents can see themselves together on a speedboat or discussing issues in a meeting.
These examples show that in order to see ourselves in a certain environment, we do not require the external world. We can't possibly discern whether what we feel, see, taste, and smell is real or whether it comes from an artificial source. In all cases, we live in our minds and will never be able to reach the original substance.

Don't be Deceived by a Picture's Quality or Wealth of Detail!

In one scene, Neo is introduced to the virtual world of the Matrix in a simulated environment. Everything looks perfectly realistic. Neo sees people walking down the street and waiting for the traffic lights; when the lights turn green, they cross the road. He even feels the knock to his body when someone walks into him.
Morpheus : The Matrix is a system, Neo . . . But when you're inside, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are a part of that system...You have to understand most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it . . .
At a moment when Neo is looking around, taking it all in, Morpheus says: "freeze it" and at once the image of their environment freezes as it was. The people frozen as they were, the fountain's water is frozen in time, the bird hangs in the air on the very spot. Only Neo and Morpheus continue their conversation in an otherwise frozen image. Neo is stunned but he begins to realize that everything around him is part of the imaginary world he lives in, that it has no actual reality.
Morpheus : Freeze it.
Neo : This isn't the Matrix?

Morpheus : It's another training program designed to teach you one thing...

It's impossible to prove that human life does not occur in a way similar to what we see in the film. No matter how realistic all the details of one's environment, they are experienced only in one's mind. Even if the originals of these people, places, and events actually exist in the "outside" world, we can never reach them. Some of our explanations on this question are given below:

• On a three-dimensional, high quality screen, an individual watches a film being projected. Since he is almost attached to this screen, he cannot succeed in detaching himself from it, so that he may grasp the situation he is in. (Eternity has Already Begun, p.101)

• … Regardless of whether there is a material world or not, a human being watches only the world of perceptions in his brain. No one can ever come across the true original of anything. Furthermore, it's enough for everyone to perceive the copy. For example, someone who wanders around a garden with colorful flowers is not seeing the original, actual garden, but the copy of it in his brain. But this copy of the garden is so realistic that everyone receives some pleasure from it, as if the garden were real, when strictly speaking, it is imaginary. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.50)
• At every moment, God creates the universe with its numberless details, perfect and without defect. Moreover, this creation is so flawless that the billions who have lived on the Earth up until now have never understood that the universe and everything they see is an illusion, and that they have no connection with the reality of matter. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.94)

• Some people think a fast-moving bus on the highway-or an accident caused by that bus-are striking proofs of that they're dealing with the physical existence of matter, because the image they're dealing with is seen and felt as deceivingly real. For instance, the surrounding images, the perspective and depth of the highway; the perfection of their colors, shapes and shadows; the vividness of sound, smell and hardness; and the complete logic within that image can fool some people. Because of this vividness, some forget that these are actually only perceptions. Yet no matter how complete and flawless they may be, that doesn't alter the fact that they are still perceptions in the mind. (Matter : The Other Name for Illusion, p.180)

Laws of Physics are Interpretations of Our Perception

Morpheus tries many methods to help Neo understand the reality of matter and provides much evidence in support. Previously, we saw that as part of Neo's training, the image in a copy of the Matrix was suddenly frozen, thus making it evident to Neo that everything appearing real is in fact, a virtual reality. Neo's education continues with the following conversation:

Neo : What are they?

Morpheus : Sentient programs. They can move in and out of any software still hardwired to their system. That means that anyone we haven't unplugged is potentially an agent. Inside the Matrix, they are everyone and they are no one. We have survived by hiding and running from them, but they are the gatekeepers. They're guarding all the doors and holding all the keys. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them.

Neo : Someone?
Morpheus : I won't lie to you, Neo. Every single man or woman who has fought an agent has died. But where they have failed, you will succeed.
Neo : Why?
Morpheus : I've seen an agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit noting but air. Yet their strength and speed are still based in a world built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.
Neo : What are you telling me? That I can dodge bullets?
Morpheus : No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.
In this conversation, Morpheus advises Neo not to think with the laws of physics always in mind. In the Matrix system, the "agents" are security officers who can control everything by using people's virtual bodies. But because this system is only a virtual world displayed to people's minds, Neo can achieve "the impossible."
In subsequent scenes of the film, characters demonstrate supernatural powers when they have to. Although they experience them in a perfectly realistic manner, in reality these experiences are created in their brains, by the computer. Neo believes himself to be living through these nerve-racking situations, whereas in reality he remains stretched out on his chair.
Morpheus, on the other hand-to use the expression from the film-wants to "free Neo's mind" by rescuing it from all the conditioning it's been subjected to throughout his life. To achieve this, both characters get connected to a jumping program. Morpheus leaps from skyscraper to skyscraper, bridging vast distances between them almost as if he could fly. He says that if Neo frees his mind (rids himself of prejudices), he can do the same. But even though he knows that he's inside a computer program, Neo can't manage to escape what he knows in his mind about the laws of physics. He takes his unreal environment so seriously that he's afraid of falling when he jumps.
In the following sequence, Neo is seen falling onto the concrete floor because when trying to jump from one building to another, he could not overcome his doubts and fears.
Despite the film's obvious science fiction elements, the messages it contains are truly thought-provoking. For example, anyone who realizes matter and space are imaginary, discovers another secret that other people don't know: Cause-and-effect reality does not occur because of matter's physical attributes or as a result of people's relationship with one another. Since matter is only a perception, it can't have any physical effect. Each physical cause is created separately. For instance, a thrown stone, does not break the glass. The perception of the stone being thrown, and the perception of the glass breaking, are each created separately. What makes a ship float is its buoyancy, and what keeps a bird in the air is aerodynamics, but both are created as perceptions. In reality, therefore, all such "powers" belong to God, Who creates them.

Do you not see how your Lord Stretches out shadows? If He had wished He Could have made them statýonary, Then We appoint them sun to be the Pointer to them. (Qur'an, 25:45)

Neo, having learned this reality, realizes that while actually stretched out on a chair and connected to the computer, he can move outside the laws of physics upon entering the virtual world of the Matrix. As shown in the accompanying stills from the film, he finds himself ducking and moving at such incredible speed as to evade the bullets fired at him. Furthermore, everything is so realistic that when he opens his eyes on the chair, he is still in a state of great agitation. This is an important demonstration that for a person to experience a certain environment, it's not necessary for it to exist in external reality.
We have written about this subject in our books dealing with the nature of matter, explaining that the laws of physics are formed in the mind, in the following way:

• God shows us the images we experience within ourselves as united by a network of cause-and-effect relationships, all linked by the laws of physics. As for the images of night and day that form in our brains, we perceive night and day as linked to the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. When, in our minds, the image of the Sun is at its height, we know that it is noon; and when it sets, we witness the fall of night. God created perceptions of the universe, together with a cause-and-effect relationship. We never experience daytime immediately after the Sun has gone down. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.201)
• In the illusion within our minds, whenever we drop a pen, it falls to the ground. As a result of researching the cause-and-effect relationship governing this kind of occurrences, we discover the "law of gravity." God presents the images He shows us in our minds as linked to particular causes and laws. One of the reasons for His creating these causes and laws is that life is created as a test. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.201-202)
• We must remember that God possesses the power to create all these perceptions without the need for any cause or law. For example, God can create a rose without a seed, or rain without the need for clouds, or day and night without the Sun. God reveals this fact in the verses 45, 46 and 47 of Surat al-Furqan, declaring that He created shadow first, then the Sun as a cause of it.

Dreams are an example that can help us to better understand this process of creation. Although our dreams have no material counterpart, still we perceive the Sun's light and warmth in our dreams. From that point of view, dreams indicate that perceptions of the Sun can be created in our minds, without its actually being there.
However, God has also provided humans with reasons for everything. Daylight is caused by the Sun, and rain by clouds; yet all of these are images that God creates individually in our minds. By creating a cause before an effect, God lets us believe that everything functions within specific rules, thus enabling us to carry out scientific enquiry. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.203-204)

God shows the images He creates as linked to particular causes and effects. When an apple drops off a tree, for instance, it always falls to earth. It never goes upwards or remains suspended in the air. The study of these effects and the laws that God has created form fields of study in science. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.203) God possesses the power to create effects without any causes. One proof of this is the way we can feel the heat of the Sun in a dream at night, even though the Sun is not actually shining down on us. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.204)

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR

As in The Matrix, this movie's subject is the amazing similarities between the real and virtual worlds. In the year 1999, the lead characters, Hannon Fuller, and his business associate Douglas Hall, create a computer generated virtual world on the 13th floor of a Los Angeles office building that recreates Los Angeles as it was in 1937.
As the photos on the following pages show, people who want to log on to this computer program stretch out on a bed, and the program's data is then transferred to their brains. Whoever connects to the system acquires a virtual personality back in 1937. When the data is loaded into his brain, for example, Douglas Hall-a wealthy businessman and successful company executive in 1999-become a bank cashier named John Ferguson, living in the year 1937.
Once the data is loaded, anyone connecting to the system suddenly finds himself in the 1937 environment, with everything-buildings, cars, clothes-of authentic 1937 vintage. When people enter this simulated world, what surprises most is that both of their lives seem similarly real. In both, they feel the coolness of water and air blown by the wind and experience the same fears and excitement in the situations they encounter.
As the film progresses, people connected to the system begin to realize that the life in 1999 Los Angeles, which they thought was real, is itself a specifically designed program! Everything they thought to be real up until then-their companies, jobs, cars, computer systems, families, friends-are actually imaginary. In reality, the year is 2024, and all the events projected as their "real lives" are part of a simulation. The film's most amazing aspect is that the characters connect to a simulator-within-the-simulator and live lives that, in these successive virtual environments, all have stunningly convincing similarities with reality.
The stills on the opposite page show Douglas connecting to the simulation and the transfer to him of 1937 banker John Ferguson's personality.
Douglas Hall - John Ferguson consciousness transferring
User: Douglas Hall
Scanning Complete
Preparing user for download into simulation.
Program link: John Ferguson
Aligning user to program
Ready for download.
Mr. Grierson, 117 West Whinston, Pasadena.
Consciousness Transferring
Transference beginning.
Download complete.
Even though Douglas's body is motionless, once connected to the simulator, he finds himself alive in the year 1937 as a bank cashier named John Ferguson. Even though every detail appears perfectly realistic, the old-fashioned cars, the people he meets, his own clothes and physical appearance-everything is part of a vision created in his brain by artificial signals.
Despite the fact that Douglas is the designer of this system, he is amazed by his appearances and the realistic environment he is in, as the movie still below demonstrates. Spending a long time in front of a mirror, he even observes his hair, moustache, and the color of his skin.
Because of 1937 John Ferguson's weird behavior, his bank manager tells him that he looks appalling and should take a break. But 1999 Douglas Hall, deeply affected by the realistic quality of his computer-generated life, is proud of designing such a system.
Douglas Hall : I think I look pretty good.

Simulations and Misleading Reality

As pointed out extensively in the previous chapters, things we perceive as the "external world" are only the effects of electrical impulses on the brain. The blue sky when you look out the window, the soft chair you are sitting on, the scent of the coffee you drink, the ringing of the phone, even your body-all are your brain's interpretation of electrical signals.
Were it possible to send the required electrical signals with the aid of a computer, just as in this film, you could have experienced the same feelings with the same degree of authenticity. As you've seen, artificial stimulation can create a living, convincing world inside our heads, with no need for an external physical reality. With the help of simulators, we can now recreate some aspects of our lives realistically. With a special glove, for example, it's possible to feel the sensations of stroking a cat, shaking someone's hand, washing your own hands under a tap, or touching a hard object-without these actions taking place physically. More sophisticated systems let you feel that you're playing golf, skiing, driving a race car or flying an aircraft. In reality, none of these environments exist. This shows absolutely that humans experience sensations only in their brains and are not interacting with the "originals."
In The Thirteenth Floor, computers create virtual lives, indistinguishable from real ones. Through the simulation machine, characters in the film connect to different times and environments where they live just as in their "real" lives.
In the following dialogue, Whitney, one of the system's designers, explains the simulation they are working on to detective McBain:
Detective McBain : The whole thing's a giant computer game?
Whitney : No, not at all, it doesn't need a user to interact with it to function. Its units are fully-formed, self-learning cyber beings.
Detective McBain : Units?
Whitney : Electronic, simulated characters. They populate the system. They think they work, they eat... Let's just say that they're modeled after us. Right now we have a working prototype: Los Angeles, circa 1937.
Detective McBain : Why '37?
Whitney : Fuller wanted to start by recreating the era of his youth. You see, while my mind is jacked in, I'm walking around experiencing 1937. My body stays here and holds the consciousness of the program link unit.
As you can gather from this dialogue, in the simulated environment there is no reality whatsoever, only artificial signals. There is no need for eyes to see, ears to hear, or no body to feel. Someone stretched out on the bed can feel himself somewhere else in a different time, simply by some data being transferred through the computer.
Our books on this subject offer some explanations:

• All our senses work more or less in the same way. All the stimuli (sounds, smells, tastes, sight, hardness, etc.) from objects we believe to exist outside of ourselves, are transmitted, via the nervous system, to the brain's perceptual centers. All the stimuli reaching the brain are in the form of electrical impulses. For instance, streams of light-photons-reflected from external objects reach the retina at the back of the eye; in the process of seeing, they are converted into electrical signals, then transmitted by the optic nerve to the brain's visual center where, in an area of a few cubic centimeters, we perceive a vivid, colorful, three-dimensional world.

The same basic process applies to our other senses. Cells in the tongue convert different flavors into electrical signals, scents are transmitted by cells in the epithelium in the nose, feelings of touch (hardness, softness etc.) by receptor cells under the skin; and sound by a special mechanism in the ear. All are then forwarded to be perceived in the relevant areas of the brain.
If you are drinking a cup of tea, special cells under your skin convert the warmth of the cup into electrical signals sent to the brain. Likewise, when you take a sip, the tea's strong scent, sweet taste and the brownish color are all converted into electrical currents transmitted to the brain. When you put the cup down onto the table, the sound of its making contact with the tabletop is received by the ear and sent to the brain as an electrical impulse. All these perceptions are interpreted by separate sensory centers in the brain, in conjunction with one another. As a result of these interpretations, you think you are drinking tea, while everything is really taking place in your brain's sensory centers. You go wrong in thinking your perceptions are for real, because you have no proof whatever that they exist outside your skull. Were there any complications in your optic nerves, vision would instantly disappear. Likewise, if there were a problem with your auditory nerves, the sounds you believe you hear outside of you, would cease to exist. (Articles-II, "Splendid Science Beyond Matter," pp.112-113)

There is No Light Outside

Everything we taste, smell, hear and feel are only perceptions in the brain.

In light of some recent discoveries, scientists have come to an interesting conclusion: In reality, our world is in utter darkness, because today it is known that "light" is a wholly subjective term. In other words, it's an experience taking place in the brain.
There is no light outside, really. Light bulbs do not emit light, neither do your car's headlights, not even our biggest known light source, the Sun. Our experience of light is produced by photons reaching the retina at the back of our eyes, where cells convert them into electrical signals that we come to perceive as "light." If the cells of our eyes perceived photons as heat, we would never have terms like "light," "darkness," or "color" and therefore, would look at objects only in terms of "warm" or "cold."
In The Thirteenth Floor, upon Douglas Hall's return from the artificial but realistic environment of 1937, he has the following exchange:
Whitney : How's the lighting? Textures?
Douglas Hall : Colorization needs work, but the units don't notice.
Whitney : What are they like?

Douglas Hall : They're as real as you and me.

Someone looking at a rose garden is in reality interacting with the perception of roses in the brain. If the optic nerve were to be severed, the roses' images would instantly disappear.

The "reality" depicted in the film is in fact true. By means of artificially created signals, quantities like color or light can be experienced quite realistically. Some examples from our books on this subject explain:

• The brain is insulated from light;the inside of the skull is absolutely dark. Therefore, the brain itself has no contact with light . . . You can watch a burning candle at length. However, your brain never has direct contact with the candle's original light. Even at the moment you perceive the candle's light, the inside of your brain is pitch dark. We watch a colorful and bright world inside our dark brain. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.218)
• As we all know, light cannot penetrate the skull. In other words, our safely contained brain is in utter darkness. Yet in this darkness, we see the blue ocean waters, the green trees, colorful flowers, brilliant Sun and every shade and hue. . . . If we saw the true state of the objects outside ourselves, we wouldn't perceive this external brilliance, colors and light, because the images would bounce off our skulls and never reach the visual center in our brain. If this is so, then how do we see this brilliant light of the Sun and moon? How do images of the bright chandeliers in our lounge form in the brain, where light can never reach? (Articles-II, "Splendid Science Beyond Matter," pp.112-113)

The light we know and understand does not reside outside our brains. Light, as we perceive it, is also formed within our brain. What we call light, supposedly in the outside world, consists of electromagnetic waves and energy particles called photons. When these electromagnetic waves reach the retina, only then does light, as we experience it, come into existence.
Consequently, light comes about as a result of the effects caused in us by some electromagnetic waves and particles. In other words, no light outside our bodies creates the "light" we see in our brains. There is only energy; and when it reaches us, we perceive a bright, colorful world. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.27-28)
Just as with light, the experience of colors forms in our brains too. When photons from the Sun hit an object, it reflects these in photons of different wavelengths. Reaching the eye, the retina converts them into electrical impulses. Carried to the visual center in the brain, they are interpreted as colors. But these are personal, specific interpretations within ourselves; there is no light and no colors in the real world. A defect in our eye, or the different eye structures in other creatures, will convert the photons into different electrical signals, resulting in our perceiving the exact same object in a wholly different way.
Below are some passages dealing with this subject from our books:
Starting from the time we are born, we deal with a colorful environment and see a colorful world. But there isn't one single color in the universe. Colors are formed in our brains. Outside, there are only electromagnetic waves of different amplitudes and frequencies. What reaches our brains is the energy from those waves. We call this "light," although this isn't the bright and shiny light we know. It's merely energy. Our brains interpret this energy by measuring the different frequencies of waves, and we see "colors." In reality, the sea is not blue, the grass is not green, the soil is not brown and fruits are not colorful. They appear as they do because of the way we perceive them in our brains.
Both color and light exist in our brains. We do not actually see a red rose as red simply because it is red. Our brain's interpretation of the energy that reaches our eye leads us to perceive that the rose is red. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.28)

• Color blindness is proof that colors are formed in our brains. A small injury in the retina can lead to color blindness. A person affected by color blindness is unable to differentiate between red and green colors. Whether an external object has colors or not is of no importance, because the reason why we see objects colorful is not their being colorful. This leads us to the conclusion that all of the qualities that we believe belong to the object are not in the outside world, but in our brains. However, since we will never be able to go beyond our perceptions and reach the outside world, we will never be able to prove the existence of materials and colors. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.31)

God brought you out of your mothers' wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and hearts so that perhaps you would show thanks. (Qur'an, 16 :78)

Flowers That You Smell in Your Brain

Most people believe that they smell the scent of a flower with their noses. Like all our other senses, smell too is an interpretation of the brain and works in a similar way. After entering the nose, a flower's scent molecules are converted in the epithelium into electrical signals. These signals reach the brain's olfactory center, where they are perceived as the scent of a daisy, rose, or some other flowers. Were the relevant signals sent to your brain by artificial means, you could smell these scents without the flowers themselves.
In The Thirteenth Floor's simulated environment, scents are perceived in a perfectly realistic way. . Mr. Grierson, a bookstore keeper in 1937, is a virtual character crafted to resemble the elderly Hannon Fuller, who connects to the simulator and uses this person's body to spend time in Mr. Grierson's virtual environment. He listens to 1930s music, watches the dances of that era and acquires a social circle there. As one of the program's requirements, when he leaves the system, the body he's been using continues its old life. Therefore, Mr. Grierson-bookstore keeper in the virtual year of 1937-can't quite remember what he experienced, or else considers his memories to be only products of his imagination. In one exchange of dialogue, he says:
Mr. Grierson :When I wake up, I even have a perfume smell all over me.
Douglas Hall : Real or imagined?
As this scene shows, the units in the virtual environment perceive smells realistically, via computer-generated data transmitted to them, without the existence of any perfume in the real world. Some passages from our books explain this matter:

• You suppose that the end-effects formed in your center of smell are the scents of the objects outside. However, just as the image of a rose exists in your visual center, so its smell resides in your olfactory center … (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, pp.223-224)
• To understand that smell is only a sensation, consider dreams. When people dream, just as all images are seen realistically, smells too are perceived as if they were real. For example, a person who goes to a dream restaurant may choose dinner amid the aroma of the foods on the menu. Someone who dreams of a trip to the seaside senses the distinctive smell of salt water, and someone who dreams of a garden would experience the pleasure of magnificent scents. Likewise, someone who dreams of choosing a perfume would be able to distinguish the smells of the different perfumes, one by one. Everything is so realistic that when people awaken, they are often surprised to realize they were dreaming. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.39)

To Feel that Your Experiences are Real, You Don't Require the Existence of the "External" World

In the late 19th century, people who faced a movie screen for the first time believed the objects they saw on the screen to be real. They began to panic when they saw a train racing towards them. Much more convincing effects are achieved today by means of special glasses which create holograms (3-D view). People wearing these glasses, believe the imaginary scenes they're watching are real, respond with fear and excitement. Even though they're well aware that they're interacting with a virtual environment, they can't help becoming absorbed in the recreated environments of this new technology.
This situation is also true for our lives: We believe in the real world because of the perfectly realistic appearance.
The Thirteenth Floor points out how technology can mislead. In the virtual year 1937, a character named Ashton reads a letter he wasn't supposed to, written by Hannon Fuller, one of the system's founders. When Ashton finds out that his entire life until then was not real, that he lives in a virtual world, first he thinks it's all a joke. Later, when he sees that this environment, created specifically for him, comes to a predetermined end, he goes berserk. But none of his actions can change the reality that he is living in a virtual environment. Becoming aggressive, he furiously demands that Douglas Hall, one of the system's founders, tell him the truth. The following dialogue takes place between them:
Ashton : When I read it, I thought it was a gag. The world's a sham. Fat chance! But I'm not stupid, Mr. Hall. I watched you and Ferguson do the old switch-er-oo. And all that stuff about going to "the ends of the earth."
Douglas Hall : What stuff?
Ashton : I did exactly what the letter said. I chose a place I'd never go to. I tried to drive to Tucson. I figured, whatever, I've never been to the countryside. And I took that car out on the highway. I was going over 50 through that desert. After a while, it was the only car on the road. It was just me, the heat and the dust. I did exactly what the letter said. "Don't follow any road signs and don't stop for anything. Not even barricades." But just when I should've been getting closer to the city. Something wasn't right. There was no movement, no life. Everything was still and quiet. And then I got out of the car. And what I saw scared me to the depths of my miserable soul. It was true. It was all a sham. It ain't real.
Douglas Hall :Why would Fuller write about the limitations of the simulation? I know them.
Ashton : I'm asking the questions now. I want to know why... Now I want you to show me what is real. Is this real? Is that real blood?
When Ashton discovers that his environment is actually virtual, he refuses to acknowledge it. To prove his point, he even shoots Douglas in the leg and asks him if the blood flowing from the wound is real. But when someone gets injured, because the blood from his leg, the pain and fear he feels, are all perceptions. Therefore, nothing changes. The fact of someone experiencing pain or fear can't constitute evidence for the existence of an external, material world.
The same is true for us. We can't prove that material equivalents exist for the perceptions we experience in our brains because we can never step outside of our brains. It's impossible for us to tell whether these perceptions derive from some artificial source, or if they have a material existence in the outside world.
Some people who disagree, without pondering this subject, say things like, "Step in front of a truck, and you'll understand whether or not matter is real." But even when the truck runs us over, still we live in our brains: The sensation of being run over, like the vision of the truck and the anxiety of trying to escape it are all brain-based perceptions. Likewise if someone strikes you, the blow of his hand, the sensation of pain on your face and the reddening of the skin are all experienced in the brain.
Some passages from our books are in line with the subject:

• Objection: "Matter exists outside my brain. The pain when a knife slips and cuts my hand and the blood that flows are not images. Moreover, my friend was with me and saw it happen."

The hummingbird in the picture is only the sum total of perceptions to the beholder. The bird is drawn and colored in the mind, where its voice is also heard.

Reply: . . . Those who say this kind of thing ignore the fact that not only sight, but the other senses like hearing, smell and touch, also happen inside the brain. That's why they say, "I may see the knife in my brain, but the sharpness of the blade is a fact. Just look how it has cut my hand." However, the pain in that hand, the warm wet blood, and all the other perceptions are still formed within the brain. That a friend witnessed the incident changes nothing, because the friend is also formed in the same visual center of his brain as the knife. The speaker could experience the exact same feelings in a dream-the way he cut his hand with a knife, the pain in his hand, the image and the warmth of his blood. In that dream, he can also see the friend who saw him cut himself. Yet his friend's existence doesn't imply the physical existence of what he sees in his dream.
What if someone came up in that dream and said, "When you cut your hand, what you saw is just perceptions. That knife isn't real, nor are the blood and the pain. They are just events you're witnessing in your mind"? The person would not believe him and would object. He might even say: "I am a materialist. I do not believe in such claims. There is a physical reality in everything I see now. Look, can't you see the blood?" (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.183-184)

• It's impossible for us to reach the physical world. All objects around us are apprehended through one or more means of perception such as sight, hearing, and touch. Our brain, processing the data in the visual and other sensory centers throughout our lives, confronts not the "original" of the matter existing outside us, but rather the copies formed inside our brain. (Timelessness and the Reality of Fate, p.32)

We can never prove that the perceptions we observe in our brain have material correlations. Those perceptions may well be coming from an "artificial" source.

• We can visualize this with such an example:

First, imagine that we remove your brain from your body and keep it alive artificially in a glass tank. Next to it, let us place a computer that can produce all kinds of electrical signals. Then, let us artificially produce and record in this computer electrical signals of the data related to some physical setting, such as image, sound, odor, hardness-softness, taste, and body image. Finally, let us connect the computer to your brain with electrodes that will function as nerves and send the pre-recorded data to your brain. As your brain (which is literally you) perceives these signals, it will see and experience the corresponding setting.
From this computer, you can also send electrical signals related to your body to your brain. If we sent to your brain the electrical correlates of senses such as sight, hearing, and touch that you perceive while sitting at a table, your brain would think of itself as a businessman sitting in his office.
This imaginary world will continue so long as the computer keeps stimulations coming. It will never become possible for you to understand that you consist of nothing but your brain. This is because what is needed to form a world within your brain is not the existence of a real world but rather the stimuli. It is perfectly possible that these stimuli might be coming from an artificial source, such as a recording device or a different source of perception. (Eternity Has Already Begun, pp.29-30)
In the following dialogue, Douglas's connection to the simulation gets disrupted, returning him to real life. In the virtual world, his friend Whitney-in the person of Ashton-is trying to kill him. In the virtual world, Douglas experiences fear so realistic that upon returning to real life, he's out of breath. Still trying to defend himself, he even punches Whitney.
Douglas Hall : He tried to kill me.
Whitney : Who?
Douglas Hall : Ashton. He found out his world isn't real. This is a mistake. This whole project, this experiment. We are screwing with people's lives!
Whitney : Now you're talking crazy. I know you just had a bad trip...
Douglas Hall : "Bad trip?" These people are real. They are as real as you and me.
Whitney :Yeah, that's because we designed them that way. In the end, they're just a bunch of electronic circuits.
As this scene dramatizes, it's possible to live in an unreal world, believing it to be the real life. Douglas, despite being one of the system's designers, and despite his friend's reminding him that the people he encountered were the sum total of electronic circuits, still has trouble believing his experience wasn't real.
While engaged in this argument about the emulation of reality by a system they designed, they themselves live in an artificial environment. But they aren't aware of this, and so believe their world to be real.
Many passages in our books touch on the possibility of creating the impression of reality by artificial stimulation:

• ... In principle, it's possible to create artificial images and an artificial world with the help of artificial stimuli. We cannot claim that the "real-life images" that we see and deal with all the time are of the original, outside world. Our senses could well be coming from a very different source. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.74)
• When nerves to the brain are severed, no image can form. Then there is no meaning to the sentence, "The originals of the images do exist outside," because we can never perceive these originals-even if they do exist. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.182)

Dreaming Within a Dream

Someone who falls asleep at work might see himself drowsing at the beach in his dream-and in that sleep, be dreaming of spending time with his child. In other words, he could be dreaming within his dream, despite the lack of physical actuality.

Towards the end of the film, viewers are surprised to learn that the characters who designed the system, living a virtual life when they connect to it, are really with their bodies in 2024. The life of Douglas Hall, who believes himself to be living in Los Angeles in 1999, is itself a dream. He's living a fantasy inside a fantasy.
This can be compared to dreaming within a dream. Even though a dream has no material reality, yet we can experience realistic feelings and even think that we are sleeping and waking as a part of our everyday lives. We can even tell our dream-friends about very realistic dreams we dreamt in our dream.
Consequently, it's possible to experience an artificially created fantasy in which we realize it to be so. Douglas, facing such a situation, can't overcome the shock of this reality.
Douglas Hall : How many simulated worlds like this are there?
Jane Fuller : Thousands. Yours is the only one that ever created a simulation within the simulation. Something we never expected!

Your Body is an Image Formed in Your Brain

People think they're interacting with their real bodies, because they can touch it, provide for its needs, and feel pain. Just as with all other "outside" objects, our own body is a perception too, and we can never reach its material reality. The pain when we cut our finger is a perception, as is stilling hunger with a decent meal. It too is a perception. Artificial stimuli can provide the same feelings of satisfaction without us having to eat a meal. For this reason, we can never be certain about the physical reality of our bodies. It's the soul who feels the touch, the pain, and who reads a book.
Consider this subject from another perspective: The book appears to you at an approximate distance of 30 centimeters. You see walls around you, and your being seated on a chair at a certain height from the floor creates the impression that you're located somewhere inside a room. In reality, this environment is an illusion created by your mind. Because of this mistaken belief, you have the sensation of living in the world. Actually, the opposite is true: everything is inside of you.
In the accompanying photos, the virtual character Ashton, who has just learned the truth, is seen speaking with Douglas. Ashton is experiencing the shock of discovering that for all those years, he has lived an illusion he thought to be reality. But Douglas, who created that virtual system, shares his feelings because he is part of yet another virtual environment.
Douglas Hall : No, Ashton... I'm just like you. Just a bunch of electricity.
Ashton : What are you talking about?
Douglas Hall : It's all smoke and mirrors. Just like your world. We're nothing but a simulation on some computer.
Ashton : But the letter said…
Douglas Hall :Everything was fake? The letter was meant for me. Fuller was talking about my world.
Ashton : So what are you saying? You're saying there's another world on top of this one?

It may be that you hate something when it is good for you, and it may be that you love something when it is bad for you. God knows, and you do not know. (Qur'an, 2: 216)

Douglas Hall : That's right.
Ashton : I don't understand.
Douglas Hall : Fuller found out about it.
These characters realize they've been living in a virtual environment with illusionary bodies, without the existence of a material reality. Nothing they ever saw or experienced was real. In another scene, Douglas explains, "None of this is real. You pull the plug. I disappear. And nothing I ever say nothing I ever do will ever matter."
When these characters discover that they're part of a virtual reality, they realize that everything they've ever experienced happened outside of their control, determined by whoever developed their virtual world.
Our own situation is very similar to theirs. God controls everything in the world we live in; He has created every detail therein as part of our trial. Someone who realizes that everything he sees and hears is in fact a perception in his mind God has created, trusts in the infinitely merciful and compassionate Creator of us all, instead of suffering from sadness, fear, or panic.
It's appropriate to remind the reader of the some passages from our books on this subject:
All the events that cause people difficulty and anxiety in their lives actually "happen" in their brains. Someone who realizes this will show patience in the face of whatever happens to him. He will know that God has created everything for a good purpose, and will maintain trust in Him. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.119)
… God gives everyone the impression that he can change things, making his own choices and decisions. For example, when a person wants a drink of water, he doesn't say, "If it is my fate, I will drink," and sit down without making a move. Instead, he drinks a predetermined amount of water from a predetermined glass. But throughout his life, in everything that he does, he thinks he's acting according to his own desire and will. The person who submits himself to God and to the fate He created, knows that everything he does is according to the will of God, even despite his sense that he's accomplished it all himself. Other people mistakenly assume that they've done everything with their own intelligence, under their own power. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.146-147)

Nothing occurs either in the earth or in yourselves, without its being in a Book before We make it happen. That is something easy for God. That is so that you will not be grieved about the things that may have escaped you or exult about the things that come to you. God does not love any vain or boastful man. (Qur'an, 57: 22-23)

…Everything in heaven and Earth is God's and a manifestation of God. God is the only absolute Being. The other beings whom He has created are not absolute beings, but appearances. All the individuals observing the appearances that God has created are all spirits from God.
When people grasp the secret of this great knowledge, they will attain great conscious clarity, and the haze enshrouding their spirits will lift. Everyone who understands it will freely submit to God, love Him and fear Him… Those who understand this amazing fact will view things from a different perspective and embark on a totally different life. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.103)