HARSH REALM

The serial "Harsh Realm" is based on the story of a war game simulation developed by the Pentagon, a secret project for testing new developments in training military personnel. People to be part of this system are under the control of the army and kept with their heads and bodies wired up, in a designated area.
This Harsh Realm "game's" most stunning feature is that it recreates a totally realistic virtual environment where soldiers, enemies, weapons, social lives and all other details are indistinguishable from their counterparts in the real world. In this game, there are two types of people: the artificial or virtual characters, and the real players who can enter the game. Like their virtual environment, the virtual characters are indistinguishable from the real thing.
Another character in this TV serial is Omar Santiago, a deserter from the army who secretly manages to hack into the system and gains superiority in this virtual world. But because no one knows how he breaks into the system or where he is, they can't take action against him. Tom Hobbes, the hero, is told to eliminate Santiago and to prevent his evil plans for the world.
A colonel briefs Hobbes about Harsh Realm, informing him that this system was designed to teach war strategies on a virtual-reality war game platform and that his job is to defeat Santiago. In order to persuade the reluctant Hobbes, the colonel gives him a headset and has him watch an introductory video on the Harsh Realm simulator. This video explains that the Harsh Realm project relied on satellite maps, the 1990 census, and some other classified data to create the game's environment, imitating people's real lives. The introductory video is terminated suddenly, and Hobbes realizes that while watching this tape, he was integrated into the game.
Hobbes, now in the virtual world called Harsh Realm, meets a soldier by the name of Pinocchio, who, like himself, was inducted by the army. This virtual world is so realistic that, Tom is fooled throughout the film, to the extent that he ends up even endangering his own life helping and pursuing the game's virtual characters.
As we'll shortly explore in more detail, the quality and details of the images that take place in people's fantasies can fool them into believing these events are real.

Everyone is Interacting with the Images Shown on his Own Personal Screen or, in Other Words, His Own Soul

3-D films are made by projecting images shot by two cameras, from two different angles, onto one screen. In reality, the viewer is not regarding a 3-D image, but an effect created by a special technique. The viewer wears color filtered or polarized glasses. Each lens of the glasses captures one of the two images, and the viewer's brain recombines the two, creating a 3-D image.
The same is true in our real lives. All the images we see with our eyes are really two-dimensional, having only height and width. Because we have two eyes, similar to the two images we see when watching a 3-D film, we perceive the images as three-dimensional. This phenomenon explains why we're misled that the images on our personal "screens" are real. The depth, color, shadow and light of our three-dimensional visual images formed in our brain seem perfectly realistic. Their endless detail and continuous quality give us the impression of living a real life. However, our perceiving a three-dimensional picture does not prove that it has any counterpart in the external world.
The virtual world depicted in the serial "Harsh Realm," no matter how life-like it may be, is "seen" by players whose wired-up bodies are lying on their beds. All their realistic experiences are induced by artificial electrical impulses received by their brains. In each episode, the introductory scene recaps the subject of the series in this way:
A world exists exactly like ours. You live in this world, your family and your friends. No, you may not know it. I was sent to save you. It's just a game.
In his first few days of his adventure in the virtual world, Tom can't stop himself from thinking that the environment around him is not real, even though he knows it's not.
Tom Hobbes : Now, I know none of it is real and it is only a virtual world I'm in. I'm living day to day . . . trying to make sense of all this, trying to stay strong trying my best just to stay alive.
Repeatedly, our hero remarks on his virtual environment's stunning resemblance to reality itself. The world he's now part of gives him such a strong sense of reality that he begins to pray that his experience is part of a game.
Tom Hobbes :We're on the run from Omar Santiago, a renegade soldier who hijacked the computer program that runs this world. It was Santiago the military sent me here to kill. Their fear of him is real and great, though I've yet to understand why all this is imaginary… They say this is a recreation of the real world down to every man, woman and child. Each of us is with a double here who can live or die in the virtual reality of the Harsh Realm… But only those plugged into the program know this and have any consciousness of the truth: that it's only a game. I pray that's all it is.
The scenes from this serial apply to our own lives, because we are watching the images projected onto our souls and interact only with them. Even if a real world existed outside ourselves, we'll never reach it, never meet it. This situation can be summed up in the following passage from our book Evolution Deceit:

• Since matter is a perception, it is something "artificial." If this perception must have been caused by another power, it must have been created. Moreover, if this creation were not continuous and consistent, then what we call matter would vanish and be lost. This may be compared to a television that displays a picture as long as the signal keeps being broadcast.

So, Who makes the stars, the Earth, plants, people, our bodies and all else that our soul sees?
It is very evident that a supreme Creator has created the entire material universe-the sum of perceptions-and He endlessly continues His creation. Since He displays such a magnificent creation, surely He has eternal power and might. This Creator introduces Himself to us. He has sent down the Qur'an, in which He introduces to us the universe, Himself, and the reason for our existence. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.228)

The Human Body is Also an Interpretation of Perceptions

One reason for our difficulty in realizing matter's true nature is our mistaken belief about our own bodies. We look down, see ourselves, touch everything around it, and get the misinterpreted impression that we live in an "outside world."
In reality, our bodies are copies-images, like all our other perceptions of the external world. Therefore the body we interact with is not the original on the outside but its imagination forming inside our brain by the interpretation of our perceptions.
Below is one of the dialogues from the serial:
Tom Hobbes : I had orders to win the game.
Major Watters : It's no game, no getting out, no going home. I've got the same mission.
Tom Hobbes : Why don't they take Santiago out of the real world?
Pinocchio : They don't know where he is, where he comes in and out. He has hijacked the whole program . . . If they kill you here, it's not any virtual character, but you. Your brain, your consciousness, your head and your mind will slide back into the real world.
Those playing the Harsh Realm game interact with virtual appearances, as in a computer game. Their real bodies are located somewhere else, and computers transmit the game's images to their brains.
The following page shows Inga Fossa, a member of the armed forces, being transferred to this virtual environment. She is stretched out on an armchair in a high-tech room, putting a special device on her head. Once her body is scanned in, she is then transferred into the simulation Subsequent photos show her inside the government building in the Harsh Realm game's city of Santiago.
The pictures below depict Pinocchio, one of the lead characters of the film, with facial injuries and his body tied up with cables. But inside the Harsh Realm game he has no such wounds. This example shows that by means of artificial signals, someone can perceive his appearance much differently from what it actually is.
On this subject, here are some excerpts from our books:

• One reason why people don't realize that seen images are actually sensed in the brain, is that they see their body within the image. They wrongly conclude that, "I'm in this room, and not the other way around-the room doesn't exist in my brain." They make the mistake of forgetting that their body is an image too. Just as everything we see around us is an image in the brain, so is our body as well. While sitting on an armchair, you can see the rest of your body below the neck, but this image too is produced by the same perceptual system. Put your hand on your thigh, and you'll sense a kinesthetic feeling-in the brain. This means that you see your body, and feel yourself touching your body, in the brain. If your body is an image in the brain, is the room inside you, or are you in the room? The obvious answer is, the room's inside you. You see the image of your body inside the room which, in turn, is in the brain. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.58)
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• A person may dream that he is in the middle of a war. He might feel tension and panic as if the war were taking place in the real world. Yet at that time, he is sleeping comfortably at home. The realistic noises and visions of his dream occur in his mind. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.62)
• While you read these lines, you are not truly inside the room you assume you're in. On the contrary, the room's inside you. Seeing your body, you think that you are inside it. However, you must remember that your body, too, is an image formed inside your brain. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.223)

Those are Wrong Who Believe that the Images in Our Minds Represent an Outside Reality

When someone sees a tree and thinks it is real, he is deluding himself. It's impossible for us to leave our brains, impossible to reach the real tree. As stated throughout this website, the person is interacting with a tree formed by the interpretation of electrical signals in his brain.

Someone sleeping silently can see himself, in a dream, in the midst of a war, with bombs exploding all around. He can even experience all the tension, and panic of war, as if it were real.

We can compare the assumption that we deal with physical reality itself, to our interaction with the visible images on a computer screen. Touch the keys on the keyboard, and you believe you are moving the cursor on the screen. In reality, the computer sends a data stream to the CPU (central processing unit). This data stream calculates the cursor's new location and refreshes the image on the screen accordingly. In older computers, there was a noticeable delay between typing a command and seeing it appear on the screen. Since then, computers have become much faster and can recalculate image changes in a fraction of a second. Now when you hit a key, the effect on the screen is almost simultaneous. We get the feeling that we are, indeed, moving the cursor.
Our everyday experiences are comparable. When we want to kick a stone, the will to move our foot is transmitted to the relevant muscles, and our shoe is moved to connect with the stone. The brain receives feedback from the body-in this instance, the hardness of the stone's impact and pain in the foot-and updates the perception. In reality there is a delay in our experiences, just as in the computer example. It takes approximately one fifth of a second for the brain to interpret the data sent by our senses but, not being aware of this delay, we assume that we are interacting directly with the physical reality.
If all we can ever know is limited to images forming in our minds, then how can we be sure that a physical reality lies behind our perceptions? Isn't this just an assumption? Yes, and proving it so is impossible, because for those who believe in the existence of a physical world, their only evidence is the visions in their minds.
To say that we are interacting with matter itself is just as untenable as claiming that our experiences in virtual reality environment are authentic. Throughout the serial, Pinocchio points out to Hobbs that it's not logical to act as if their environment were real. In one episode, Tom encounters his fiancée's virtual counterpart and risks his life trying to protect her, even though she has no physical reality. Likewise, a virtual copy of his real-life dog is present in the game, and he endangers himself to keep the dog from harm.
In another scene from the film, he encounters a small child in an area designated-in the game-for warfare training. Feeling concern for the child, he tells him that it is very dangerous to be there, but the soldier with Tom tells him that the child is only a part of the computer game:
Tom Hobbes : (to the boy) What are you doing here? Go on home.
Eric Sommers : Don't get too fond of him.
Tom Hobbes : Why not?
Eric Sommers : Look, I've seen this played 100 times. That kid does not pass Day 28 once.
Tom Hobbes : He is here.
Eric Sommers : He's just a game piece. He is not like you and me. The sim (simulation) resets them so that they can come and die all over again.
Knowing he is in a virtual world, Tom is repeatedly reminded that the virtual characters he interacts with are part of the simulation. Yet he reacts to them, fooled by the environment's realism. When the war escalates, for instance, and they are seeking cover, he sees a child walking towards the enemy positions. He cannot contain himself and risks his life to save the child.
Pinocchio : What are you doing?
Eric Sommers : It's just a kid
Pinocchio : You heard what Sommers said about this place. You can't change anything.

… I have only been ordered to worship God and not to associate anything with Him. I summon to Him, and to Him I will return. (Qur'an 13: 36)

Tom Hobbes : I don't believe that.
In another scene, they are withdrawing from the enemy, when he sees the child coming under fire. He reaches out to the child, but its body disappears. As he had been warned, the child is shot dead as part of the game and won't be reintroduced to it until the game starts over anew.
These examples from the film are illustrative of people who can't accept that the world they're dealing with is a simulation in the brain. Obviously, the world we live in isn't comparable to a film, because it cannot be explained by computer games or technological developments. God created this world and everything it contains, animate or inanimate, and revealed the purpose for our creation in the Qur'an:

[I only created] man to worship Me. (Qur'an, 51: 56)

For this reason, we have an obligation to obey God's commandments and to worship Him.
Many fool themselves by telling themselves, "I see with my eyes, I hear with my ears. Therefore, the world I'm in is real." In actuality, they're thinking those words in the silence of their brains. These technical realities are obvious truths that can be learned in high-school biology textbooks or in any book on human anatomy. All branches of medicine teach in great detail how vision and sensations originate in the brain.
Advancements in quantum physics, psychology, neurology, biology and medicine have shed much light on the technical aspects of this physical reality. At present, therefore, science accepts that we cannot reach the reality of matter. Anyone who claims to be interacting with the real world is ignoring these scientific facts. We have to accept them and live in awareness of our responsibilities to God in our lives, even though we live those lives only in our minds. Following are some passages from our books on this subject:

• The fact of the physical world being formed in our perceptions does not eliminate the secret of the test that God puts us through during our lives in this world. Whether matter exists as a perception or lies outside our minds, what God has said to be forbidden, is forbidden; and what is lawful is lawful. Since God has forbidden the eating of pork, to say, "Pork is only an image in my mind" and then going on to eat it is hypocritical and evidently unintelligent. Alternatively, saying, "Other people are only mental images in my mind, so what does it matter if I lie to them?" is not something that anyone who fears God could ever do. This applies to all the limits, commands and prohibitions that God has imposed. The truth of what we're discussing doesn't do away with giving alms, for instance. The fact that alms exist in the minds of the people to whom we give them doesn't mean we needn't perform this obligation. God has created the whole world as a totality of perceptions, but within these perceptions, we are still charged with abiding by what the Qur'an has revealed.

... Anyone who honestly considers the situation will see that, for the purposes of the test which God gives us, it is not necessary for matter to exist. God has created this test within the world of images. Matter does not need to exist for someone to pray, or to distinguish what is lawful from the unlawful. Furthermore, the important thing is the soul, which will be punished or rewarded with blessings in the hereafter. For that reason, if matter is a perception in our minds, that does not prevent us doing what is lawful and avoiding what is unlawful or carrying out our religious obligations. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.207)

• In the past, some have grasped the truth about the essence of matter. Yet because their faith in God and their understanding of the Qur'an were weak, they have produced deviant ideas. Some have said, "Everything is an illusion, so there is no point in worship." Such ideas are twisted and ignorant. True, everything is an image God presents to us. But it is also true that God charges us to abide by the Qur'an. We have to carefully abide by His commands and prohibitions. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.214)
• Even though God causes us to live in this world of perceptions, He also links the world to all its many causes and effects. When we are hungry, for instance, we eat something. We do not say, "It is all an illusion, so it does not matter," for if we fail to eat, we grow weak and eventually die.

God can remove these causes and effects whenever He wishes, for whoever He wishes, by whatever means He wishes. We can never know when or why He may do this. However, the most important truth is that God charges us with abiding by the whole of the Qur'an, and we continue to live in the world of causality in order to abide by its divine commandments.
. . . In conclusion, everyone must do all he can to carry out the responsibilities laid on his shoulders in the Qur'an. Knowing the true nature of matter-and adopting a view of the world in accord with that nature-further strengthens all our efforts to gain God's good pleasure, and increases our determination many times over. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.220-221)

Watching a Film, Knowing its Beginning and its End

Inan earlier chapter, we pointed out that time is relative, not fixed, dependent on the viewer's perception. Knowing this is very important in comprehending the question of destiny, which represents God's creation of everything-past or future-in one moment. This means that everything in the presence of God, from the creation of the universe to the Judgment Day, has been lived and is already finished.
A great many people cannot comprehend how God can know things that have not yet happened and how it can be that in God's presence, everything past and future has already occurred. They also fail to understand the reality of destiny. In reality, past events are the past only from our perspective, because we live within the boundaries of time that God has created, and cannot know anything unless it is introduced to our memory. God, on the other hand, is unbounded by time and space because, after all, it is He Who has created them from nothing. For this reason, past, present, and future are all the same to God.
The fact is, everything, past or future, has already been created in the presence of God and preserved. The very important truth is that every human being has surrendered unconditionally to his destiny. Just as no one can change his past, he cannot change his future, because both his past and future have already been lived. All his future is fixed: where, when and what he will eat; what he will talk about and with whom; how much money he will earn, what illnesses he will endure; and finally, the circumstances of his death- all these events are fixed. He cannot change any of it, because this has all been lived in God's presence, with His knowledge. Except the knowledge thereof has not been granted to the memory of the person himself.
Therefore, those who are saddened by what they encounter, grow angry, shout and scream, worry about the future, or become overly ambitious, do so in vain. The future they worry about has already been lived. Whatever they may do, they have no means of changing it.
One episode of "Harsh Realm" can help us understand this. In this episode, set in the Second World War, the leading characters walk in the woods but, because of fault in the computer program, suddenly find themselves in a constantly recurring war game simulation.
Tom Hobbes : What the hell is that? Software glitch?
In this part of the game, the Ardennes offensive of World War II is simulated. German and American advance units are dug in either side of a bridge and are engaged in month long battle between them.
Tom Hobbes : That bridge out there. I've seen the battle review of the Ardennes campaign, Second World War. There is a siege in Hotten, Belgium between two small advance units, the German and the American armies, lasted over a month. I swear, this is the same bridge.
Pinocchio : It's a combat sim.
Tom Hobbes : What?
Pinocchio : Virtual combat simulation. When they started beta testing in Harsh Realm, they downloaded battle scenarios: Pork Chop Hill, Picket's Charge.
Tom Hobbes : So, it's another game.
Pinocchio : It's a battlefield trainer, what Harsh Realm was originally designed for.
Tom Hobbes : What is it still doing here?
Pinocchio : Who knows? Probably oversight. Some pencil neck in the real world probably forgot to "delete."
The serial's heroes find themselves in a different time. Just as they are about to be shot by a German soldier, a unit of American soldiers rescues them. But being from a different era, their speech makes the American soldiers suspect them to be spies and take them as prisoners of war.
In the opening scenes, a soldier named Eric Sommers-who also exists in the real world-draws attention by his cool stance despite the explosions all around him. Because this is a repeating war training simulation, everything occurs as programmed. Aware of this, he lies on the ground and begins a countdown. When he gets to three, a hand grenade lands next to him. He picks it up, throws it back out again, then continues to drink his tea. In short, everything develops as part of the program. Because it repeats itself, with everything occurring in the same way time after time, Eric keeps his cool even under fire.
Eric Sommers :Three… two...one. (He throws the grenade outside, then takes a glass of tea) Grenade.

It is predetermined and destined where which leaf will fall in autumn and what flower will blossom in spring.

Like Hobbes and Pinocchio, Eric Sommers was made part of the game in the real world when he was connected to the computer. Therefore, the soldier also knows that the time and place they live in has no reality. But he was unable to find a way out of this part of the game. He tells Tom and Pinocchio that in this battle field of four square kilometers, everything always occurs as it is programmed to. For example, the siege always lasts 34 days, the counterattack 28 days; and how and when the brigade's soldiers die is also known.
These parts of the serial constitute an analogy that can help explain fate. If we compare our life to a video tape, we are watching it, but without the means of fast-forwarding or rewinding it. No matter how often we watch this tape, we cannot change even its smallest detail. The parts that appear to be changed by us are in reality also predetermined parts of the film.
It is God Who has determined this film in every detail, creating and sustaining it with the feel of reality. He sees and knows the entire filmstrip in the same instant. Just as we can see the beginning, middle, and end of a ruler as a single whole, God has encompassed the time we are subjected to, from the beginning to the end, as one moment. People, on the other hand, live out only what they are meant to when the time has come and witness the destiny God has created for them. This is so for the destinies of all of the people on Earth.

• God has made us perceive events in a definite series, as if time were moving from past to future. He does not inform us of our future or provide this information to our memories. The future does not lie in our memories, but all human pasts and futures are in God's guardianship (hifz). This, again, is like observing a human life as if it were in a film, already wholly depicted and complete. One cannot advance the film and sees his life as the frames pass, one by one. He is mistaken in thinking that the frames he has not yet seen constitute the future. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.144)
• … Anyone who believes in destiny won't be troubled by or despair about things that happen to him. On the contrary, he will have the utmost trust and confidence in his submission to God…God determines the difficulties that human beings experience, together with their wealth and success. All these things are part of the destiny predetermined by our Lord to test not only human beings, but also all things animate and inanimate. The Sun, the Moon, mountains and trees have their destiny determined by God. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.150)
• … It is pointless to be fearful and worry about a life whose every moment has been lived, experienced and is still present in the awareness of God. … Actually, everyone is already in submission to God, created in subservience to Him. No matter whether he likes it or not, he lives subservient to the destiny God created for him… For a person who submits himself to God, knowing that there is nothing better for him than the destiny God created for him, there is nothing to fear or be anxious about. This person will make every effort, but knows that no matter what he does, he won't be able to change what is written in his destiny.

A believer will submit himself to the destiny God created. In the face of what happens to him, he will do his best to understand the purpose of these happenings, take precautions, and make an effort to change things for the better. But he will take comfort in his knowledge that all things come to be according to destiny, and that God had determined the most beneficial things in advance. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.152-153)

It is predetermined that the gardener waters a rose, that its first flower blossoms, that the owner picks it and places it in a basket-even before it is even planted. All this is known and lived already in the presence of God.

Aches and Pains, Too, Are the Interpretation of Perceptions in Your Brain

The guards of a concentration camp capture Tom Hobbes. He is imprisoned there and made to work in the timber yard. In the virtual environment, he meets his mother's copy. Finding out that she suffers from terminal cancer, he forgets that what he sees here is a virtual reality and tries to help her.
The camp guards have wounded his friend Pinocchio. When Tom tells him his plans, the following conversation takes place:
Tom Hobbes : How are you feeling?
Pinocchio : If it ain't real, how come it hurt so much?
Tom Hobbes : We have to get out of here… It's more complicated than that.
Pinocchio : How's that?
Tom Hobbes : I found my mother. She's here.
Pinocchio : Your mother? Hobbes, I've met people here. People I know in the real world.
Tom Hobbes : It's her.
Pinocchio : No. It just looks like her. Everybody in the world has a copy here. That's how the whole thing is set up. But it is VC (virtual character) files not people.
Tom Hobbes : She recognized me. She knows who I am.
Pinocchio : She doesn't know. She is part of some game. She doesn't know what's happened to you. She thinks this is all real.
Tom Hobbes : She's in pain. How different is that from what you feel?
At a later point in the series, the heroes find themselves wounded and in pain, even though in reality they are lying on beds. They think their pains are real, though actually they have been artificially induced.
Our books also explain that people believe they are interacting with real matter because of their feeling fierce pain, aches, fear, and the like. In truth, this is a mistake. Human beings are never interacting with real matter:

• When someone cuts her hand, the pain and wetness all form in the brain. Dreaming that she has cut her hand, that same person might experience the same sensations. Yet in her dream, she is simply seeing an illusion, and there is no real knife or bleeding wound. That being the case, our feelings of pain do not alter the fact that we see all our lives as images within our brains. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.184)
• All sensations-touch, pressure, hardness, pain, heat, cold, and wetness- also form in the human brain, in precisely the same way that visual images are formed. For instance, someone who gets off a bus and feels the cold metal of the door actually "feels" the cold metal in his brain. . . As we have already seen, the sense of touch occurs in a particular section of the brain, through nerve signals. For instance, it is not your fingers that do the feeling.

People accept this because it has been demonstrated scientifically. But when it comes to the bus hitting someone-in other words, when the sensation of touch is violent and more painful-they think that somehow, this fact no longer applies. However, pain or heavy blows are also perceived only in the brain. Someone hit by a bus feels all the violent pain of the event in his brain.
A person may dream of being hit by a bus, of opening his eyes in the hospital, being taken for an operation, the doctors talking, his family's anxious arrival at the hospital; and later, that his being crippled or suffering terrible pain. In his dream, he perceives all the images, sounds, feelings, and other aspects of the incident, very clearly and distinctly-all as natural and believable as in real life. At that moment, if the person were told it was only a dream, he wouldn't believe it. Yet all that he is seeing in his dream is only an illusion, and the bus, hospital and even his own body have no physical counterparts in the real world. Still, he feels as if his real body has been hit by a real bus. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.178)

• A sharp blow, violent slap, or the pain from a dog's bite are not evidence that you are dealing with matter. As we have seen, you can experience the same things in dreams, with no corresponding physical counterparts. Furthermore, the violence of any sensation does not alter the clearly proven scientific fact that the sensation in question occurs in the brain. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.180)
• Events that produce difficulties, worries and fear are illusions occurring in the brain. A person who sees these illusions for what they really are doesn't feel anxious because he finds himself in difficulties, nor does he complain about them. Even if he were confronted by an aggressive and dangerous enemy, he'd know that he is facing illusions in his brain and would not be overcome by fear or hopelessness. He knows that each one of these things is an apparition God formed, which He created for a purpose. No matter what he encounters, he is at peace in his trust and submission to God. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.119)

Someone who falls asleep while fishing at the beach could, in his dream, see himself on a sinking ship and experience quite realistic fear and panic. While he was seated on his beach chair, his dream could make him believe, mistakenly, that he's in a material world.

 

VANILLA SKY

This film portrays the confusion between a person's real life and his imagination. Both the characters in the movie and the viewer have trouble telling one from the other. David Aames, the lead character, has a life anyone could wish for. He runs a large publishing business inherited from his father, and the people in his environment admire his physical appearance, financial status and social circle.
But one day, a traffic accident leaves him with terrible facial injuries and from then on, his life disintegrates rapidly. His friends all desert him. Feeling particularly lonely and unhappy, he signs a contract with a firm that will "supply" him with "lucid dreams" for the rest of his life. He acquires an artificial life, taking place only in his mind, in which he can be the age he wants, have the looks and be with the people he wants. But as with dreams, he is misled to believe in this daydream's reality, remaining unaware that his experiences are all imaginary.

Dream or Real Life?

In dreams, you have no control over your experiences. Suddenly, during your sleep, you find yourself in the middle of them, without choosing the place, time, or storyline. Despite their surreal sense of logic and incomprehensible laws of nature, many dreams do not appear strange to you. In reality, you don't have the use of your hands or eyes; there is nothing to see or hold on to, but to you, everything is real, solid, and visible.
What, then, is the difference between a dream and the life we acknowledge as real? If you suggest that real life is continuous and dreams come in intervals, or that different cause-effect rules apply in dreams, these assertions are not all that relevant. Both lives take place in the brain. If we can live in an unreal world during a dream, then this should also be possible for the world we're in. There is no rational objection to the suggestion that when we wake from a dream, we begin a new and longer one called real life.
The main theme of Vanilla Sky is this same confusion, which every human can experience. In one of opening scenes, lead character David wakes up to his electronic alarm clock. Noticing that the time is 9:05 AM, he gets up, washes his face, picks out a stray hair from his head, then leaves in his car for work. Strangely, he sees the usually busy New York streets are deserted. Everything-buildings, cars-is in place, but no human being is to be seen anywhere. Just as the anxiety of this situation descend upon him, he wakes up again to his alarm clock. Everything he dreamed before, he experiences this time for real. He looks at the time, sees that it is 9:05, washes his face, looks at the mirror, and plucks out a strand of hair. Then he gets in his car to leave for work. This time, there are people on the street.
As you can see in the accompanying illustrations, it's possible for you to see yourself doing the same things in a dream as you do in real life, never suspecting that the experience is not a real.
Some passages from our books expand on this observation:

• In his dream, one can experience very realistic events. He can fall downstairs and break his leg, have a serious car accident, get stuck under a bus, or eat and feel satiated. Events similar to those experienced in daily life are experienced in dreams too, and their same persuasiveness rouses the same feelings in us.

A person who dreams of being knocked down by a bus can open his eyes in a hospital in his dream and realize he is disabled-but all this would still be a dream. He can also dream that after dying in a car crash, angels of death take his soul, and his life in the hereafter begins. This event will be experienced in the same manner as this life, which is a perception just like the dream.
In a dream, this person perceives very sharply the images, sounds, light, colors, and all other sensations pertaining to the event. These experiences are as natural as the ones in "real" life. The food he eats in his dream satisfies him even though it is merely a perception-because feeling satiated is also a perception. In reality, however, this person is lying in bed at that moment. There are no stairs, no traffic, no buses to consider, because the dreamer experiences perceptions and feelings that don't exist in the external world. The fact that in dreams, we experience events with no physical correlates clearly reveals that the "external world" consists of mere perceptions. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.236)

• Even if someone is attacked by a dog, that doesn't change the fact that he sees it all in his brain. In a dream, one could see the same incident with the same clarity and experience the same excitement and fear. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.180)

In another scene of Vanilla Sky, David relates to his friend Sofia how his dreams affect him:
David : No, actually, I had a horrible dream… I went downstairs to the car, and my friend…had followed me there… She was upset... about-I don't know. Igot in the car and... she drove off a bridge...
Sofia : I thought you were going straight to work...
David : But I survived with my arm and my face reconstructed. And what's worse, is that I can't wake up... My dreams are a cruel joke. They taunt me. Even in my dreams, I'm an idiot, who knows he's about to wake up to reality. If I could only avoid sleep. But I can't... It never works.
Why can confusion occur between reality and dream? The main reason is that both experiences take place in the mind. As we mentioned throughout this website, what we call real life is nothing but electrical signals affecting the brain. What we experience as very real can't be taken as evidence; because we are always interacting with the interpretations of perceptions in our brains. We can never be sure whether our perceptions have any material counterparts in the external world.

• An example will further illuminate the subject. Let's say that we see the dream inside our brain, in accord with what's been said so far. In dreams, we have an imaginary body, imaginary arm, imaginary eye, and an imaginary brain as well. If during the dream, we were asked, "Where do you see?," we'd answer, "I see in my brain." Yet actually there is no brain to talk about, only an imaginary head and imaginary brain. The seer of the images is not the imaginary dream brain, but a "being" that is far superior to it.

There is no physical distinction between a dream setting and the setting we call real life. So, in what we call real life, when we're asked, "Where do you see?" it would be just as meaningless to answer, "In my brain." In either case, the entity who sees and perceives is not the brain-which, after all, is only a chunk of tissue.

For a sleeping child, the football match in his dream is totally real. He could be seeing his friends just as their voices and appearances really are. He could feel the exhaustion of chasing the ball, or his heart racing with the excitement of winning the game. But these are all perceptions with no physical cause or reality.

When a brain is analyzed, it is seen to consist of nothing but lipid and protein molecules, which also exist in other living organisms. Within what we call our "brain"; there is nothing to observe the images, to constitute consciousness, or to create the being we call "myself." (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, pp.226-227)
In the following scene, David's doctor asks him whether he can distinguish between reality and dream. At first, David is adamant that he can. But the more he tries to remember his past memories, the less certain he becomes, until he admits that he can't. (Even better, when this conversation takes place, David is actually living in an imaginary world specially created for him!)
Doctor : Who is the man in the restaurant? Who is it?
David : I can't…
Doctor : Can you tell the difference between dreams and reality?
David : Of course. Can you?
Doctor : Think with your head. You signed a contract... did you not?
David : I signed something.
Doctor : Was the man in the restaurant there? Accept your body's resistance. Let your head answer.
David : Yes-that's right. (The paper he signed and the technician suddenly come to mind)
Doctor : Who is Ellie?
David : I don't know what's real.
This scene is thought-provoking. It's possible to be fooled by a vision's realism and take an imaginary world for real. David, living within artificially induced dreams, genuinely believes in the reality of his past experiences. The same is true for many people's present lives. No matter how adamant people are that the images, voices or feelings they interact with are real, these are only copies existing in the mind-in other words, imaginary copies of things they can never actually reach.
Below are two explanations from our other books, along the line that we've set forth in this one:

• ... It's very easy to be deceived that perceptions with no material correlates are real. Often in our dreams we experience events, see people, objects and settings that seem completely real. But they are all nothing but mere perceptions. There is no basic difference between the dream and the "real" world; both are experienced in the brain. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, p.226)
• As a result of artificial stimulations, a physical world seemingly as true and realistic as the real, physical one can be formed in our brain. As a result of artificial stimulations, a person may think that he is driving his car, while he is actually sitting at home. (The Evolution Deceit, Second edition, p.223)

Never Forget That You Are the Spectator of A World You Cannot Reach

Lift your head and look around the room you're in. You feel that you're occupying a certain space in a room outside of you. You are certain that the floor is under your feet, sure that the space around you is filled with air. But this realistic perception misleads you, as it does millions of others, because it is so perfectly concise and three-dimensional.
In reality, your family, home, school, and workplace are all created for you in your mind. The Sun, Moon and stars orbit inside you. In short, you are not in the world, but the world is inside of you.
For a better understanding of this subject, the imaginary world the film calls "lucid dream" can be an eye-opening example. The following paragraph contains an introductory message from the company offering an imaginary world in the form of dreams. Even though these claims are taken from the film, recent advances in technology make them real. For willing candidates, present-day means can create a virtual environment and its illusion of reality.
Advertising Voice-Over : Ihave a universe inside me. Portrait of a modern human life. American, male... birth and death… continue your own life as you know it now... You will continue in an ageless state . . . preserved, but living in the present... with a future of your choosing. Your life will continue as a realistic work of art . . . painted by you, minute to minute . . . and you'll live it with the romantic abandon of a summer day with the feeling of a great movie or a pop song you always loved, with no memory of how it all occurred . . . save for the knowledge . . . that everything simply improved. In any instance of discontent . . . you'll be visited by technical support. The day after tomorrow, another chapter begins seamlessly. A living dream.
Woman : A living dream. The dream of peace. . . the dream of achievement . . . The dream of hearing someone say these words . . . When they really, truly mean them . . . This is a revolution of the mind.
As we've seen, David signs a contract that guarantees him a real quality dream world in which he'll be happy. But one requirement of this dream world is that he won't remember the contract he signed. Consequently, he's led to believe that his happiness is real. However, the reality is different: His body is kept in a dedicated environment where he is shown the realistic visions he so desires.
In one scene, a technical problem forces one of the company's employees to reveal the true state of affairs. David's reaction is explosive-he doesn't want to acknowledge that he's been living in a dream world. The company employee has no other choice but to freeze the images in this virtual reality environment, thereby proving their total control over the visions shown to David.
Technician : Problems?
David : I'm in no mood to be messed with, so do yourself a favor-
Technician : There's a
n explanation for all this, David… You and I know each other. You found me on the Internet. I'm here to help you, David.
David : Who are you? Why are you following me?
Technician : First of all, it's very important that you calm down.
David : Calm down?
Technician : Calm down. You must overcome your fears and regain control.
David : Look, I'm fine. Okay?
Technician : David, look at all these people. Seems as though they're just all chatting away, doesn't it?
David : Yeah.
Technician : Nothing to do with you.
David : No.
Technician : And yet... maybe they're only here because you wanted them to be here. You can make them obey you or even destroy you.
David : Well, what I'd love for them to do is shut up. Especially you.
Technician : You see? You and I signed a contract, David…
David : What happened in my real life? Something happened.
Technician : Do you really want to know?
David : Tell me everything. . . So all I have to do is imagine something. Like, if I wanted McCabe (the doctor) to come back right now?
It's of utmost importance to understand this reality, because people who become aware of this secret behind matter will enjoy a very different frame of mind. With the realization of matter's true nature, people will easily understand where God is, the existence of paradise and hell, the nature of the soul, life after death, and infinity. Take, for instance, anyone who previously held a materialistic worldview or was raised under its influence and couldn't comprehend these matters. Realizing that matter is perceived as an illusion, he will clearly see that God is the only absolute being.
As a consequence, he'll realize the pointlessness of cravings, passions and everything else one selfishly desires. Vanity and pride will give way to modesty and mildness; tightfistedness and egotism will be replaced with helpfulness and selflessness; distrust and depression with contentment and inner peace. Anyone who understands that matter is an illusion and that we live in a world on the level of feeling and perception God created, is freed from struggling amid events and people. He'll know that every good and every evil is from God and, therefore, will seek God's help in everything he undertakes and pray only to Him. He doesn't value that all the things people crave, such as status, wealth, luxurious cars and designer clothes, because he knows they're only illusions God created for the purpose of testing people.
Also, anyone who realizes that matter and space are illusory is freed from the fear of anything and anyone besides God. He is aware that God created everything he perceives, and that unless He wills it, nothing can harm him in any way. When people realize that those they look up to are actually shadow beings, they'll believe in God without ascribing to Him any partners or associates. They won't be led astray by the illusionary enjoyment of life and will strive to win God's approval.

With the realization that everything is a copy or image in the brain, it becomes clear that cravings for material goods, the children that people feel proud of, and the superiority they feel because of their rank, are all really illusions.

In our books, we've written extensively about how realizing matter's illusionary nature improves people's frame of mind:

• Certainly God, the Absolute Being, knows every aspect of the human beings whom He has created. This is a very simple thing for God. But some, in their ignorance, may find this hard to understand. However, we observe the impressions that we think belong to the "external world." As we lead our lives, the closest being to us is no illusion, but clearly God. In this fact is hidden the secret of the verse, "We created man and We know what his own self whispers to him. We are nearer to him than his jugular vein." (Qur'an, 50: 16) As long as a person thinks his body is composed of matter, he cannot conceive of this important reality; again because he thinks his body is the nearest thing to him. For example, if he conceives of his existence as being his brain, he doesn't admit the possibility that there is a Being even closer to him. But when he realizes that everything is a facsimile experienced in his mind, then such concepts as "outside," "inside," "far and near" have no meaning. His jugular vein, brain, hands, feet, his house and his car-which he thought to be outside himself; even the Sun, the Moon and the stars that he thought were so far away-are all on the same plane. God has encompassed him all around and is eternally near him. .... (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, p.97)
• … That everything is an image is a very important implication that renders all lusts and boundaries meaningless. Verifying this makes it clear that everything people toil to possess-their wealth accumulated with greed, their children whom they boast of, their spouses whom they consider closest to them, their dearest friends, their superior rank, the schools they have attended, the holidays they enjoy-have been nothing but mere illusion. Therefore, all their efforts, time spent, and greed felt prove unavailing.

This is why some people make unwitting fools of themselves by boasting of their wealth and the yachts, helicopters, factories, manors and lands they hold-as if they ever really existed.
In fact, these are scenes seen many times in dreams, as well. In dreams, they also own houses, fast cars, precious jewels, rolls of banknotes, and loads of gold and silver. In their dreams also, they are positioned in high rank, own factories with thousands of workers, possess power over many, wear clothes that excite everyone's admiration… Just as boasting about one's possessions in a dream brings him ridicule, he is equally sure to be ridiculed for boasting of the images he sees in this world. After all, what he sees in dreams and in this world are both merely images in his mind. (The Evolution Deceit, 7th edition, pp.232-233)

• Everything a person owns-a large holding company, and houses, the latest model cars, and employees who show him respectful deference-are impressions in his brain. The esteem he enjoys is also in his brain. What he considers serious and important-the work to which he devotes a large amount of time, his meetings with colleagues, the decisions he makes-are all impressions occurring in his brain.

A person who counts his money with great satisfaction is actually counting it in his brain. He doesn't realize that the yacht he sails with so much pride and ostentation, and the people he tries to impress, are all impressions formed in his brain. Were he told the truth, he would forcefully reject it, in order not to lose all the things he owns and the esteem he enjoys. But while dreaming that he owns all these things, he never doubts their reality. In his dream, he would not accept that he isn't these things' real owner. But when he woke, he would grasp that it was all a fantasy. (Matter: The Other Name for Illusion, pp.110-111)