  My discussions with John Bell about reality in quantum mechanics are
recollected. I would like to introduce the reader to Bell's vision of reality
which was for him a natural position for a scientist. Bell had a strong
aversion against "quantum jumps" and insisted to be clear in phrasing quantum
mechanics, his "words to be forbidden" proclaimed with seriousness and wit --
both typical Bell characteristics -- became legendary. I will summarize the
Bell-type experiments and what Nature responded, and discuss the implications
for the physical quantities considered, the real entities and the nonlocality
concept due to Bell's work. Subsequently, I also explain a quite different view
of the meaning of a quantum state, this is the information theoretic approach,
focussing on the work of Brukner and Zeilinger. Finally, I would like to
broaden and contrast the reality discussion with the concept of "virtuality",
with the meaning of virtual particle occurring in quantum field theory. With
some of my own thoughts I will conclude the paper which is composed more as a
historical article than as a philosophical one.
