[trainedobserver]

Who gets the fact that the world you perceive is actually the simulation constructed by your brain-mind system and not the real world itself? If you do are you consciously aware that the monitor that you think you're reading this off of right now is constructed of your own brain-stuff and is in fact just as much YOU as your 'awareness' of it is? In becoming aware that the world that you experience and the experienced self (the appearance of your body, all your physical sensations and inner dialog) are the one in the same brain-mind thing you can 'transcend' the egos illusionary existence. Everything remains the same however you will no longer see things quite the same again until your human nature over-rides your insight and you once again think of the world your perceive of as the real world rather than your mind itself. Or so it seems to me.

Oddly enough my avatar is an attempt by me to illustrate the above facts. The gray body and leaf are in the "real world" on the other side of our senses. We never experience them. We experience the leaf, body, and awareness that our mind simulates represented by the colorful bubble on the guys shoulders. The real world and self and the experienced world and self are two completely different things in substance, form, and location. The real world contains all dimensions and matter. The experienced world is restricted to 3 dimensions (which may or may not exist in the real world) and the chromatic and auditory portrayal (which certainly exists only in the perceiving mind) of a limited section of what we understand as the electromagnetic spectrum. When I actually realized this I had one of those laughing, crying, weird experiences people sometimes refer to as a spiritual experience. It was quite a profound and mind altering thing.