Deception

It's not an optical illusion - it is a photograph

I suppose the colors of the photograph have been altered.

What makes you say that?

The photo aside ─ I can tell you that nothing in this world feels real anymore. Somehow it feels as if it's made out of artificial substances. It's hard to explain and I'm not sure if I know how to. What I do know is that everyone has a filter through which they experience reality, and oftentimes those filters are filled with the thoughts and opinions from other people who want you to see through reality with a filter that's very similar to theirs. But what if someone doesn't have a filter, or what if they lost that filter? What if they experienced reality in a way that no one else is capable of understanding?

... Say I pick a flower. In my head, I know that flower is made out of organic material and that it isn't artificial. I know that the dirt is what grew it and that it has a floral smell because it was grown out in nature. On the other hand, when my eyes are looking at it and I touch it, there is this sometimes-subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle feeling or impression that the flower doesn't really exist and that my mind only thinks it's real because of all of the other real flowers I have seen in the past. Somehow, that one flower, and all the other flowers around it, I figure, all seem like they are artificial replicas and my memory is just filling in for my senses because the flower itself isn't necessarily real.

Does any of that make sense? Sometimes this makes me feel unnerved, other times not so much. If I don't focus on it, I can go about my merry way in life. The fact that I have felt this way about my reality ─ food, flowers, clothes, dirt, everything ─ makes me question reality, itself. Again, what if someone doesn't have a filter, or what if they lose that filter? What then?

Edit:
I feel like I have to say this because almost every single person I have ever spoken to has mentioned this and used it as an excuse to think I'm stupid or crazy, but no, I'm not making some sort of hint or reference to film "The Matrix". I haven't even seen that entire movie and I don't care to. Hollywood is Hollywood, but day-to-day life is actually real.

I coupled the photograph with what you wrote in your original post. I suppose the photograph and shat you wrote could be completely unrelated and the photograph not be in the least deceptive.

So the deception is to cause people to think the statement and photograph are related.

I coupled the photograph with what you wrote in your original post. I suppose the photograph and shat you wrote could be completely unrelated and the photograph not be in the least deceptive.

So the deception is to cause people to think the statement and photograph are related.

Platonism! Which is kind of a shadow of Christianity. You’re not crazy. This Earth, though material, is not actually reality. Heaven will be reality- the real real. The Ideal. This Earth is a flawed shadow of what will one day BE.

That is my thoughts, but many Christians think the same. St. Augustine, C. S. Lewis, etc.

What is maybe confusing to you is the fact that the Earth is material, yet seems immaterial. Kind of like God’s dream. Everything that is matter is held together by atoms, which are held together by forces so gigantic, if enough of them are torn apart, the universe would explode. These atoms are always vibrating and always singing to God.

I don’t think you are crazy. You have just kind of sensed something that other people have also discovered.

What you wrote, not shat.

I understood what you meant.

We are told to 'not believe every spirit' , 'test the spirits...' paraphrased that to 'don't believe everything you see or hear. '
The purpose of this thread is just a reminder to do that. Things are not always as they seem.

The photo is an Easter lily which is a white flower - not blue as shown. Those with knowledge and/or understanding of plants would
recognize the deception. Alteration was done with Photoshop and Photomatix.

Ya'll take this for what it's worth.

the flower is a 'man-eater'...

So- was this a whole thread to be mystical and warn men not to believe filtered photos?🤔

Why not just say, “Bros, don’t believe all the pics you see- chicks use filters”?

No not quite. The purpose was to put something out there that most folks would believe at face value,
then rattle their cage a little at how easy it is to be fooled.

Similar to the photo of a 12 week old doll that was being reported as an aborted baby a while back.