Why Does It Feel Like We’re Living in Different Realities?

3 min read

Just now

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Ever have a conversation that leaves you feeling dizzy and disoriented, as if you’re arguing with someone from an alternate dimension? You lay out the facts as you see them and they are clear, solid, and undeniable…only to be met with a version of “truth” or “alternative facts” so fundamentally different it feels like it was beamed from another planet.

Trust me, you’re not going crazy. That feeling is real, and it’s one of the defining struggles of our time.

The simple explanation is that none of us sees the world with perfectly clear vision. We each view it through a lens ground and polished by our unique life story. Your upbringing, your financial struggles or comforts, the community you call home, your personal triumphs and your deepest traumas…all of it creates the invisible architecture of your belief system. What feels like fundamental, unshakable common sense to you is a direct product of the path you’ve walked.

That’s why two people can look at the exact same event and see entirely different things. One sees a cry for justice, the other a threat to order. One sees a necessary safeguard, the other an unforgivable overreach. It’s rarely because one person is good and the other is evil. It’s because their life experiences have taught them to prioritize different values…like liberty over safety, community over the individual, and vice versa. Their moral bedrock is simply built on different ground.