She asked her mother, “Mum, mum, mum, what is real, real, real?”

“What do you mean, what is real, real, real?” “I mean without this echo, echo, echo.” “Which echo, echo, echo?

Right here and now is real, real, real.” “I see, see, see.”

And then she understood, understood, understood.

The story “The Cave Dwellers” demonstrates that what we perceive is determined more by our biology and biography than by objective facts, and that the feedback effects from both our sensory perceptions and our interpretations largely drown out what is allegedly real about the world.

(From: Stefan Hammel: Handbook of Therapeutic Storytelling. Sories and Metaphors in Psychotherapy, Child and Family Therapy, Medical Treatment, Coaching and Supervision, Routledge 2019)