Existing

by Trixia Tan

Last Thursday, the thing that really boggled my mind was the question of Existence. I mean, how to really know that we exist? How to know that we aren’t just in a dream or a figment of some imagination or hallucination? Or that we aren’t invisible?


This question seems to be answered easily with just saying “because I exist” but the things is, how do I know that I really exist? How do I know that this is the real world and not a dream reality that I just conjured up? Like in the 2010 movie Inception, wherein the protagonist (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife forgot about the real world because they lived in their conjured up “dream” reality, only knowing the real from the imaginary when Leonardo found his totem spinning endlessly. However their going back to the real world caused the wife’s hallucination of the dream world as the reality to surface, which raises the question for me, how do we know that we exist in the reality?  To help me answer these questions, I compiled a list.

The ways to know that you exist

1. When there are documents that give proof of your existence. You have birth certificates, diplomas, records, and other documents that can attest to the fact that you are existing in this world.
2. When you check the mirror, and you can see your reflection. A ghost or someone who doesn’t exist wouldn’t know to look in the mirror, and there wouldn’t be any matter to look at.
3. When a person looks at you and doesn’t look through you. This means that you are not a ghost. It tells you that you exist in the eyes of that person and that you are physically in existence. 
4. When something you move would move and fall like any normal object. An object wouldn’t move in the first place without any existing force from an existing person and as was in the movie,Inception, the protagonists’ totem doesn’t stop spinning when they are in the dream world, so when the object we move falls, this can also mean that we are in reality.
5. When you do something and you get recognized. Like when you won something and an award was given or even in more simplistic moments when you are thanked at. 
6. When you touch someone. Like physically touch someone, it means that you are physically present for that someone to feel your presence. 
7. When you think of this question. This means that you are aware enough to ask this question and that can certainly assure you that you exist.

Based on this list, one can say that to know that we exist, there should be an interaction with the world. We can know that we exist when we are part of the community. As was discussed, we can know that we exist when we participate in the world and when we know that we are aware of the things around us. When in a sense, we are in being.