Everybody lives in his world of ideas
Either consciously or unconsciously every human and animal is living in his world of ideas. Unconsciously most human beings make a difference between the idea of him/ herself and all other ideas.
This knowledge is difficult to process because this idea, this thought form, is abstract like a Golem. It does not grow in nature like for example a Seagull that you can hear, see and smell with the senses. It takes time for the individual to see abstract knowledge as a fact. This knowledge is no invention but has been stated by several independent sources:
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: The world as Will and Idea
Schopenhauer was, and is, far ahead of our time. It takes a lot of time to consume his books, you might start with the pictures below.
Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti advises you to investigate everything you were made to belief, due to your conditioning, yourself. By doing so you gradually discover that the observer is the observed. Both the observer and the observed are ideas in our world of ideas.
Philosopher Daniel Dennett, etc. etc. See for more, the Peace Protocol, Step 5 The Philosophical Foundations or the scientific approach at the bottom of the page.
Figure 2: Innocent Golem, chained to his conditioned responses in Plato's cave.
Inside his personal universe, his personal simulation, there is always the current idea of self (some kind of a narrative like "I am a thief" or "I am a Golem") and, as long as the human is not self-satisfied, there is also a future idea of the self, "I will become president". Massive action (+ resulting frustration) is needed to reach the future idea of self. The current idea of self is happy or unhappy etc., also some kind of narrative, the universe does not care. The pictures below show various possibilities within the total world of ideas that you are part of.
Note that you slowly build your narrative of the "REAL WORLD". You first start to build an image in 3D space using your senses. Then you add words to the objects you found. Later in life you might add more difficult concepts into your simulation like "I", "the government" or "the subject".
The pictures speak of Golems because (talking) animals also live in their world of ideas. Most Golems have a very limited and fixed set of ideas like a SeaGull. They cannot, and will never, change. Feeling proud (self-satisfied) about their rock-solid consciousness. A large part of these SeaGull Golems wired their ideas/ fixations from a few books or from their education. For this reason one could speak of Gullible SeaGull Golems (GSGG). Note that this also explains the origin of the word "gullible".
GSGG never learned to ask questions and can behave rather judgemental with constant pressure as if they know the truth. Krishnamurti speaks of the constant pressure of a slightly demented person.
The Current Idea of self is a thought complex build according to events that happened in the past. When there is no projection into the future or/ and there is no change, consciousness has become rock solid.
When the mind undergoes a radical perception shift, the fixed idea of 'self' might momentarily dissolve. Note that this not equal the 'Somnabulant Golem' state of mind because there is just limbo. The 'Distressed Golem' appears almost identical to the 'Self-satisfied Golem'; the only difference is the level of internal friction vs. satisfaction with the current illusion.
The Scientific Validation
This world of ideas is not a metaphor or an abstract theory. Modern science has independently investigated and proven the exact mechanics of this subjective reality through two separate fields:
Quantum Physics: The Participatory Observer
In classical physics, scientists assumed the universe was a static, solid machine independent of us. Quantum mechanics completely shattered this illusion.
Physicist John Wheeler, a collaborator of Albert Einstein, proved through his famous "Delayed-Choice" experiments that subatomic particles (the building blocks of all matter) exist only as abstract waves of infinite probability—ghostly ideas—until a conscious observer makes a measurement. The act of observation literally collapses the abstract wave into a solid particle. Wheeler explicitly stated that we live in a "Participatory Universe," meaning our awareness is actively drawing the physical landscape into existence. Matter does not create mind; consciousness is a fundamental participant in shaping the physical grid.
Cognitive Neuroscience: The Controlled Hallucination
If you trace how the biological body experiences this universe, neuroscience arrives at the exact same conclusion as Schopenhauer and Krishnamurti.
Neuroscientists like Dr. Anil Seth have mapped out that the human brain sits in absolute darkness and silence inside the bone of the skull. It never touches a rock, a tree, or a seagull directly. It only receives chaotic electrical signals. To make sense of these signals, the brain uses internal algorithms to predict and construct its surroundings.
Neuroscience proves that everything you see, hear, or feel is a predictive simulation generated entirely within your own neural pathways. As Dr. Seth states, "Our reality is a controlled hallucination." When the Seagull Golem looks out and sees a solid world, they are completely unaware that they are staring directly at an internal projection screen (the shadows in Plato's cave) made of their own biological conditioning.