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by denton-scratch 982 days ago
To distinguish between "is an illusion" and "is not an illusion", you need evidence that isn't observational. The whole point of illusions is that observational evidence is unreliable.

A desert mirage in the distance is an illusion; to the observer, it's indistinguishable from an oasis. You can only tell that it's a mirage by investigating how the appearance was created (e.g. by dragging your thirsty ass through the sand, to the place where the oasis appeared to be).