Reality

REALITY, that which is or can be un­der­stood to be. The two main types of re­al­i­ty are Sub­jec­tive, which is re­flect­ed with­in and there­fore lim­it­ed by the per­cep­tor; and Ob­jec­tive, which ex­ists in­de­pen­dent­ly of the per­cep­tor and is there­fore large­ly as­sumed to be nonex­is­tent.

Ob­jec­tive re­al­i­ty is typ­i­cal­ly viewed through a sub­jec­tive lens, and vice ver­sa. Which di­rec­tion is in use at any giv­en time, is of­ten ar­bi­trary and un­clear and usu­al­ly unim­por­tant.

Subtypes

Many sub­types of re­al­i­ty ex­ist; the fol­low­ing are among the most fre­quent­ly oc­cur­ring:

• Phys­i­cal re­al­i­ty is reg­is­tered through sens­ing or­gans such as eyes, ears, and an­ten­nae. If one or­gan is ab­sent, oth­ers fre­quent­ly shift their func­tions to com­pen­sate. This shift can hap­pen even if all or­gans are present and func­tion­al, and is com­mon­ly ex­hib­it­ed dur­ing sleep de­pri­va­tion, re­ac­tions to in­gest­ed chem­i­cals and food, and synaes­the­sia.

• Non­sen­si­cal. A dis­tort­ed mir­ror im­age of what is usu­al­ly as­sumed to be phys­i­cal re­al­i­ty, but is ac­tu­al­ly the re­verse case ap­prox­i­mate­ly fifty per­cent of the time (see Dreams).

• Po­lit­i­cal. (See Body Politic.) As phys­i­cal re­al­i­ty is tak­en in through sens­ing or­gans, po­lit­i­cal re­al­i­ty is pro­ject­ed out­ward through ex­cre­to­ry or­gans such as the mouth, ec­crine glands, stom­a­ta and oth­ers.