Perceptions of life

Read in a book by Gregory Benford: (paraphrasing here)  "Life is complex.  Part of it is real and part of it is imaginary."  What do you perceive about this?

Hm. It makes me think of information that we process based on sensory input, and then information/conclusions that come to us by other means (dreams, intuition, fears, hopes). Often the things we think we know are things we have falsely concluded based on incomplete or ill-founded inputs.

How then would you go about figuring out what is false and what is real if what we think we know is based on incomplete or ill founded inputs?

In part, this question makes me think of empathy, having an awareness of personal biases and the biases in one another, and reminding one's self that your experience is not the only experience. I don't know that absolute oneness can be achieved on a mass level, at least not at this time, however I do think it is possible for each of us to minimize internal biases and to have more collective empathy for one another.

The Native Americans had a different way of teaching oneness (based on The Tracker, a book I found unexpectedly helpful, though its main purpose is to teach survival methods in the wilderness.). The author described the first survival technique he got from a Navajo Indian. The first task was to sit, not move, just remain still and observe nature (I think they called it stalking, sort of like a conscious meditation). Over time, the animals forgot the student was there, and moved about freely. The student saw, over time, where the animals in the area collected water, how they used natural materials to stay warm and dry, how and where the predators hunted, how the pressure from slow and fast movements left different types of tracks and how to monitor and interpret movement, first for animals and later for humans. This became important when the student had progressed to the point where he could gather materials in the wild for himself; he had to be mindful of the other creatures in the habitat, not taking or using things in a destructive or disruptive manner,  (using dead wood for fire, not over-harvesting wild edibles, so plants would be available for others in subsequent seasons), and literally be aware of his footprints in the area, and knowing how and when to erase them to minimize disruption.

In another aspect, this question has me thinking about scientific study and experiments and theories, and always having to study and re-examine what you think you know, and re-tweak theories based on subsequent studies. Always improving yourself, never being satisfied that you have achieved the end product.

This really synchs up to how I've lived my life. I've always paid attention to what was around me, been still and observed. At some point, long, long ago, I decided to set aside all beliefs, both scientific and religious/spiritual and just look, to see what I could. This began an amazing journey that continues to unfold to this day and will for a lifetime. What I've experienced is quite different from what anyone else believes.