Man lives in a primary, physical reality life has imprinted on this universe:
and there is also a second reality,  imprinted in men’s brains
which they manifest materially in the physical world in which they live.
 

Man’s primary, physical reality is real,
as is his mentally derived second reality,
but to call them equally “real” is not precise,
but to say that either of them is not, is incorrect;
they are both realities --  simply different based realities.
 

No healthy human doubts the existence or influence of the physical reality,
and no ordinary one routinely does so man’s second;
to mundane men – both realities exist, and they do not generally
make a running distinction between the two.
 

The essentials for man’s survival are in the primary, physical reality;
those for civilization in all its facets are in the second reality;
the former has no direct interest in affairs in the latter,
and normally the latter does not conflict substantially with the former,
for doing so is pathological;
they for the most part maintain a laissez faire relationship;
one supporting man’s physical survival,
the other sometimes consciously assisting therein,
but most of the time, simply offering him entertaining distractions.
 

The overlap between the two is so omnipresent that
any meaningful distinction between the two realities is
constructively xenolithic to man’s conventional consciousness;
but a few people are born with an anomalous feel for the situation;
a quiescent, uninhibited view of the layout;
from their early days they sense being in a world with a fissure,
about which those around them seem ignorant or else choose to ignore.
Many of these few become and remain so disturbed by seeing this
while others do not, that their unusual sight is wasted,
and generally results in bitterness and sarcasm.
 

A few of the few for some genetic reason do not get so snared,
and remain mentally balanced enough to both pass for ordinary,
while privately viewing life in a way most decidedly not.
 

But few of even these few ever see their view lead to a satisfying understanding of
exactly what it is they are extraordinarily seeing;
even they have an extremely tricky time of directly recognizing the existence of
two separate yet operationally inseparable realities in the ordinary life of man:
the failure to do so is directly responsible for all dreams & delusions to which
men are subject, and makes it impossible for them to cut through
the confusion and apparent contradictions of everyday human existence,
and see what is really going on.
 

An on going consideration of the above ad hoc description can be a tool of great value to the few in their circuitous search for that elusive prize;
use it by remembering it thus:
there are two realities in which men simultaneously live:
one physical and literally essential for survival,
and the other not physical, but mentally derived & created by man,
and essential only for his civilized survival:
one of the realities is physically imprinted in the world around you;
the other one is imprinted in men’s brains and then manifested in material form in the physical reality around him --
but it is never the same thing as the other reality.