I've long thought that, in practical terms, we all pretty much are. The universe is, to all intents and purposes a figment of my [and your] imaginations. We h

I've long thought that, in practical terms, we all pretty much are. The universe is, to all intents and purposes a figment of my [and your] imaginations. We have no experience of its existence from before we were born. We can be told and shown things that supposedly happened back then. But with no 'cogito ergo sum' first hand experience of them, how do we know any of that is real? When we die, our own personal universe will wink out of existence for us and, again, we're being asked to believe that it will somehow continue outside of our ability to experience it. Which kind of segués into another of my philosophical mind-benders; how did the universe exist before there was even the most primitive form of life anywhere? Because, how can something 'be' when nothing exists to experience it?