The question is - regardless of sex and faith and race and any other demographic - how do we determine perceptions of reality are based on reality?
Apologies,RAZD, for derailing the thread.
Thoughts at random.
I guess the concept of reality must be allied to a certain number of observations--claims, if you will. Dunno where the cutoff point will be reached. 5? 10? 20? Certainly, there will be anecdotal experiences reported, and they may even be genuine, in a realistic sense, not delusional. But, they remain oddities until such time as more of the same surface, and we can assess whether the proposers are reporting something factual or an experience of the mind. Many tales of seafarers were dismissed as delusions till repeated physical sights and concrete evidence caused them to pass from fantasy to fact. Some were so bizarre (like the Kraken and mermaids) that the tales were never accepted. (Anyone who has seen a manatee or dugong up close will never confuse the two with mermaids. :-p).
With mass hysteria, religious conversions, riots, etc., are we dealing with mental aberrations on a grand scale, or something on the chemical level? I suppose physical apparitions tend to get confirmed a lot sooner than apparitions of the mind, even though both were reported.
On the individual level,how is one to determine the reality of what may be an optical illusion in the desert? Walk it off? Have forty winks and see if it goes away? Surely, knowledge of these aberrations must be fundamental to making a judgement. Just like being aware of the avenues that the mind can wander down gives us a tool to pick real from unreal. Somewhere in the reported incident may lie clues to separate fact from fancy. Does the recipient vary the story from day to day? Does the reporter embellish (a la Matthew) the tale at repeated tellings? Does it retain clarity over a period? Are the names changed to protect the innocent?
Yet we have had so many great concepts and inventions that were created within our minds, even if it took physical work to bring them to fruition. Were they delusional? What of the ideas and inventions that didn`t pan out?
While it might take a bit of the spontaneity out of life, I guess a sceptical frame of mind should put new claims of unusual events or concepts on hold until such times as they can be compared with similar claims,and excluding all other possible explanations. Accepting oddities first-up is the province of children and the gullible.