I am writing this to help myself anchor this realization. It makes me smile and not take myself so seriously. I love when I loosen up--the best things seem to happen then, and they have been ever since this understanding blossomed.
Our eyes are the greatest deceivers.
Close your eyes and take a good deep, down-into-your-lower-ribcage breath.
Open your eyes and now look all around you--including your body.
All of your reality, everything, is merely a SUGGESTION of what can be. It does not have to be WHAT IS.
We were living--acting out--a hypnotic suggestion...that's all. Pretty much the same as a hypnotist telling a volunteer that he is a chicken--and he accepts that suggestion as his truth, and he flaps, struts and clucks about like a chicken.