Does Anything Actually Exist Outside Of Ourselves?

Materialism VS Idealism: Are we a product of the universe or is the universe a product of us?

I want you to stop for a moment and consider something radical, the idea that we are all there is. Don’t let your brain convince you that to let your mind go to that place is narcissistic/selfish. What if this is reality?

Just think about it, what proof do we have that anything actually exists outside of ourselves?

What proof do we have that there is an external world at all?

When every thought that we have ever had, when everything that we have ever seen, when everything that we have ever done has been through ourselves, what proof do we have that anything actually exists outside of ourselves?

How can we trust that the world exists beyond mere perception?

Granted, we see other people and other things, but what are they, if not just a projection of ourselves?

Does anything exist outside of our brain?

Does everything come from within?

If we close our eyes, is the whole world plunged into darkness?

So.

Many.

Questions…

According to idealism, a philosophical theory that associates reality with ideas in the mind rather than material objects, in the same way, that sound requires a listener (the falling tree doesn’t make a sound if no one is there to hear it), so too does life require a viewer.

There is no life if no one is there to witness it

(there is a planet, but no life).

There is no story if no one is there to read it.

A book without a reader is merely bits of paper bound together. It is only when someone reads the book that the book becomes ‘real.’

When it is on a bookshelf, unopened, all we see is a book, but when we open it and start reading it, we are transported into a whole other world within which we feel like we are a part of it (even though, we’re not). Reading about the end of the world while sitting by the side of a swimming pool in Italy, we’re not actually there, but in our mind, we’re on the frontline preparing for WW3. Yet, when we close the book, we’re back in Italy…

Is the same true of life then?

If life is like an unopened book that requires someone present to bring it to life, then what happens when we die?

Someone once said that the ancients believed that light came from within the eyes and that you cast this light upon things in the world wherever you turned. I remember wondering if the world disappeared or was cast into darkness when you closed your eyes, or if you died, did the world die also? - David Wojnarowicz.

When my Grandad died, the books on his bookshelf didn’t disappear with him, they still sit there, one year on, dust-covered, untouched. They are still there in physical form (surface level/materialistic), however, the depth/meaning is not, for the story only comes to life when someone is there to read it….

When I open a book, I bring the contents to life, entering a whole other world, but when I close the book, I’m back in this world, and the book is back to being pieces of paper bound together, nothing more.

Surface VS Depth

The book is still there, but do the characters still exist, does the world the author has created still exist when there is no one around to witness it?

No, for…

To be is to be perceived - George Berkeley

Like a movie projector, our eyes cast light onto a black screen ( the void that is the universe) whereby…

The world doesn’t exist outside of the pages of a book.

The world doesn’t exist outside of the mind of a reader.

The world doesn’t exist outside of our one, collective consciousness.