This illusion that reality is always independently in front of us arises because every time we look at reality, we feel we see the same reality we saw before. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an identical reality, but we consider them to be the same because we cannot discern the difference. And we believe that the reality that appears before us is there, just as it is, and independently there, regardless of our presence.

The reality of this world that appears in our acts of observation is created by our five senses and our mind. The senses and the mind are the "observational devices" of the "observation apparatus" called the ego. Vision measures light, hearing measures vibration, taste and smell measure chemicals, and touch measures temperature and pressure. The results of these measurements are then analyzed and synthesized by the mind to create the reality that is this world. The "reality" we see is an imaginary picture of the world created by our five senses and minds.

The imaginary picture of the world is drawn from memory. Memories are records of the past, but our imaginary picture of the future are also based on memories, which are records of the past. The future is an imaginary world created based on memories of the past. We live in a reality that is an imaginary world born from past memories, and we live in a world of our own making. That is what it means when they say that this world is a dream.

When we wake up in the morning, we feel that the world is just as it was the night before, intact and independently. But this is an illusion. If reality appears through our act of observation, then when we sleep, the world disappears. When we wake up, the world will appear. The reason we don't perceive it this way is probably because our memories are creating an illusion.

In the world of quantum mechanics, quanta have two properties: particle and wave. When they are observed they are determined to be in a particle state. When unobserved, quanta remain in a wave state. Quanta are usually in a state such as "superposition" where they are distributed in various places simultaneously, or "entanglement" where multiple quanta are interrelated, but when observed they seem to take on a definite state known as a particle.

As waves, quanta appear to be spread infinitely throughout the universe, but when observed and turned into particles, they appear to be determined to be in a specific place and at a specific time. For quantum mechanics, waves with an indeterminate state are the normal state, while particles with a determinate state seem to be a special case.

The reality of the quantum-based material world is probably inherently indeterminate. It seems likely that when we sleep we are in that indeterminate state. When we wake up and we, the observers, appear, we enter into a definite state of reality, of this world.

The ego is sometimes likened to an artist who paints the world; perhaps the ego is the artist who uses the sensory information gathered by our sensory organs as "paint" to paint the world.

In quantum mechanics, the world recognized is not the world, but the world not recognized is the world. In this world, we believe the world we perceive is the world, but that is an illusion, and actually, just like quantum mechanics, the world we are not perceiving may be the world.