How can we distinguish between reality and illusion? Is reality an illusion, or is an illusion simply reality? Albert Einstein once stated that ‘reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one’. The statement suggests that what we interpret to be real may well be an illusion and this is evidenced mainly through dreams and aspirations. For example if someone has dreamt of one day being a doctor their reality, which is described as the state of things that actually exist, shifts or changes in order for that idea to become real. Reality is tangible while illusion is a faculty or activity of imagination. What may be reality for one person may be an illusion for another and this is clearly evidenced through many situations that we as individuals face. What is real is often clouded by the concept of illusion for example the idea of what is glamorous, the difference between what is beautiful and what is real is distort by the media and its false interpretations. However it is not only the media that can distort reality from illusion, the virtual world of computer games and Internet socializing has revolutionized the Nintendo 64 and the plain old phone call. We are now able to find solace inside the world of an Avatar or pet puppy that our parents never let us bring home, and instead of having real friends we can have as many as one thousand without even meeting them. Our emotions and mental state also contribute to the way in which we interpret our reality; it has proven to be a major impact of how we see things and importantly how we react to it. The reality of today is what Einstein most famously predicted, that we as individuals sometimes find it difficult to interpret the real world from illusion.
It may often occur that an individual chooses to disregard what is real and accepts their illusions. This can be portrayed when we are faced with a really dismal time in our lives and in order to cope we