Whether or not the world is real, a dream or a simulation or a computer program or a game or whatever, it is the only world we've got. We have no choice but to deal with it as it is--or at any rate, as we THINK it is.

But remember, you have a lot of control of that outside universe, not only can you make things happen, you have a choice on how you respond to what it does to you. And just in case you haven't noticed, we all don't see the same universe out there. Everyone you talk to has different ideas about what is going on, and how to deal with it. That's what TB and I are always arguing about.

What this tells me is that we all create our own universe to a certain extent. Not the universe of gravity and electricity and atoms, but the universe of human relations and community, society and culture, the world the psychologist and sociologist and anthroplogist studies.

Even if there is a "real world", we all experience different versions of it. And what we experience is what we have to deal with, isn't it? We decide what is important and what matters, and we even have some say as to the rules we choose to play by.

If you have managed to convince yourself there is only one real universe, and only one way to deal with it, and that you have nothing to do with it or say about it, and that you and you alone have been able to figure that out, then you clearly have no clue what is going on.