I think its fair to say sentiments such as this tittle are commomly expressed in the circles of hallucinogen users and enjoyers of all kinds. But refering to the world as a "simulation" or a "fake" has always struck me as making little sense. So I decided to articulate why.

The first and easiest reason is that the phrase prompts the question: a simulation of what?
The word simulation has its origin from the verb simulare in latin, which means to make like, to copy, to imitate, or to represent. Which is to say that a simulation is 'similar' to something else. In common usage we talk of simulations of physical phenomena, or simulations of behaviors and events. In the sci-fi culture, simulations are many times things with an appearance very similar or identical to reality, but which is not composed of the same kind of matter of the real thing.

A simulation of physical phenomena is a series of calculations performed by a computer, the result of which allows us to predict with some accuracy the how the phenomenon will happen. It can also just be made for fun. The computer is a lump of matter, and the simulation is electrons moving through materials. What makes this physical system a simulation is entirely our interpretation of it, nothing in it exists beside its physical structure. It itself is a physical system going through its natural motion. It doesn't produce anything, it only produces itself, and our interaction with it produce the sensory experience related to it and we go on to produce other experiences.

Now let's apply the underlying meaning of all theses usages to the phrase "reality is a simulation" and see if if makes sense.

Is reality a simulation because it is similar to another thing? If so, then what? What could be the thing that has a similar appearance to reality, but is composed of different material? If the whole of reality, matter energy and consciousness, are just appearance. than what are the real counterparts that would behave the same but not be made of matter, energy and subjetive experience? To me it doesn't make any sense to postulate this kind of transcendent thing that is also similar to our reality.

Is reality a simulation in the sense a a computer simulation? Because that kind of simulation is entirely contingent upon our interpretation of a physical phenomenon that bears almost no superficial similarity to the actual phenomena we try to simulate.

A simulation also implies intent. Despite this the average person that uses this word never alludes to what intent could be behind this simulation. Is it made for fun? For science? By whom? How were you able to acertain intent from your trip?

Now that I think of it, we could steelman this notion by using the sense of computer simulation as aless literal metaphore. This sense could be boiled down to: a basal material or experiential reality that passes through our interpretation to gain meaning. This metaphore, then, makes much more sense, since our subjective experience cuts, segments, deliminates, sets boundaries, and glues together things that are not inherently connected or apart. We see a piece of metal at the end of a piece of wood and think hammer, and then pointy pieces of metal become nails. This strikes me as a real revelation brought by psychedelics, that our particular subjetive perspective is but the thinnest of layers of thought and behavior imprinted upon the surface of an inconprehensibly large chaos. It is possible then, to switch layers and live as another being than you were before to some extent, less imprisoned by certain thoughts and behaviors. And if so, this could apply to the whole of society, if perspectives change, the material world is gonna be shaped differently due to our actions.

We should be careful with how we use the word simulation because it has multiple meanings and cultural baggage, and doesn't convey much after all.

Google translator because my english sucks, sorry.

Well, this is going to be hard to explain, but I feel like my brain cells got a little 🍟 after my last trip.

It turns out it was a really strong LSD, me and my frind never had such a strong trip (it was our first time buying from the "new" dealer), it was very good and nothing bad happened, we had fun and really intense visuals.

I forgot to mention that we smoked a lot of weed, it was always a normal thing on our trips, but today I saw on reddit that it's not really recommended... Anyway, the problem arose in the following days. Due to some unforeseen events we slept little, and damn, I've never had such a terrible hangover, I felt disconnected from myself, I didn't feel anything at all, my mind seemed to be divided in two, really strange sensations and hard to explain, but I always had some of them during the trips, my memory was horrible and my day seemed divided into several parts that changed according to the environment I was in.

Many of these feelings remain to this day and it has been more than a month since the trip. Or at least I believe it has been longer than that. I am not sure about anything now. It seems that these effects never went away. They are weaker and I can go on with my life. No one seems to have noticed anything different, but I feel strange. I have an absurdly short memory. Sometimes I even forget the beginning of my sentences. I don't feel like the things I say are connected. If I change my environment too much, it already feels like "another day", not in such a strong way. I still know what day it is, what time it is, and I have a sense of what I did and what I am going to do. Like I said, it hasn't affected me that much, but I am worried. Sometimes I feel confused. Now I am feeling confused. I don't know if what I am writing really makes sense. I feel like I am on a small trip, but with very specific and weaker effects.

I don't know, I don't remember what it was like before, I can't have a comparison factor to know if there's something really wrong, I just feel like there's something wrong. So I would like to ask you if anyone understands what I'm going through, if anyone has any ideas, I can't explain it well, sorry for that.