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Our Deceitful senses
Humans have been toying with visual illusions since time immemorial. Numerous experiments have proved that true memories can be erased and false memories created, in the human mind. A couple of years ago, discovery channel broadcasted a real-life story about a rape victim who was suffering from a state of ‘post-traumatic stress’. She had difficulty identifying her aggressor. However, after repeated interrogation & questioning by an officer, she finally recognized her attacker. However, the convict repeatedly pleaded not guilty. A local newspaper editor decided to investigate the case further. A similar rape did take place a couple of days prior to the case in question. When the victim was shown pictures of the person convicted in that case, she realized that it was this person that had actually raped her. What actually happened was that the officer, by repeated and persistent questioning created a false impression in the victim’s mind i.e. the photo of the criminal shown by the officer superimposed on the memory of the actual aggressor. Many a time we decide on ‘what is true?’ based on our visual impressions and memory. However, if these can be artificially induced & created are we justified in relying on our senses any longer?
Medical science since has been trying to unravel the mystery of the human body, since time immemorial But alas even in this 21st century, man is still searching. One of those mysteries is the mechanism of sense perception. Science has stopped short of investigating the process beyond the neurons in the brain. What is ‘mind’? What is ‘soul’? Where are these located? How are the signals from the brain processed and conveyed to the mind? How does the mind decipher and interpret these signals? These questions are unanswered, yet. Interestingly, science does not even consider the mind to be part of the human anatomy. One could argue that the mind is too mystical to be explained by science.
The following is an attempt to dissect the perceptive mechanisms of the human body and thereby try to understand the working of the human mind.
Human beings have been used to taking many of natures mysteries for granted. Why does every person have a different perspective about a particular object /situation though the object is the same? Why does one person love eggs while the other may vomit even on hearing its name? Why these contradictory feelings to the same stimulus? Sure, the ‘tastes’ of every individual differ; why should they? Here's a possible scientific explanation........But first, let us first gain an interesting insight into the normal functioning of the sensory-receptor mechanism in the human body.
· Just like any other electrical gadget our human body is nothing but an instrument in which different parts communicate with each other through electrical impulses.
· It is clear from the figure that, when blue light is sensed by the corresponding receptors in the eye, electrical impulses are generated which in turn stimulate the corresponding ‘blue reception centre’ in the brain. Signals from the brain are then transmitted to the ‘mind’, which makes the individual sense that particular colour.
· Experimentally it has been proved that artificial stimulation of the centres in the brain (by electrodes) can also make an individual perceive stimuli (depending on which centre in the brain is stimulated) when in reality he is seeing nothing!
· Extrapolating the same principle, one can imagine that- connecting the yellow receptor in the eye to the ‘blue centre’ in the brain, the individual would perceive blue light, in spite of yellow light shining into his eyes!
To understand why each individual has different likes and dislikes, let us assume two individuals Tom and Jim, like and dislike chicken, respectively. Before we try to analyse why they have different tastes; is there any way of proving that both of them taste chicken the same way? As illustrated above, a simple cross-connection between neurons could lead to two individuals perceiving two different colours yellow and blue, as blue. Furthermore, neither of them would be aware of the cross-connection since by birth, they are taught to identify that particular colour as blue. This is better understood by imagining three different coloured contact lenses (white/yellow /orange) in three different people, without their knowledge, since birth. These people, though seeing the world in three different shades each, assumes that this is the normal colour of the outside world, as he does not know any other. (Analogous to the story- ‘The Frog in the Well’).
The connections between, the sensors for taste/ sight/ smell/ touch/ pain/ temperature/ sound and the areas in the brain have not been mapped to minute detail. Moreover, the ‘cross-connections’ described above need not necessarily be abnormal. Each individual depending on his genetic make-up might have varied connections between his sensory organs and his brain. We do not know if the centre for- for example tasting chicken is located at the same spot in every individual. Therefore, coming back to Tom and Jim, there is no way of knowing how each individual perceives/tastes the chicken. For all we know, Jim might taste the chicken like ‘sour tomatoes’. The shady interconnections between the brain and the psyche further complicate things to say the least.
Having understood (or not understood) the mechanism of sensory perception by the brain, let us now see how the brain conveys the information to the mind. Colour perception by the psyche needs the mediation of some psychosomatic connections whose exact anatomy, scientists have not yet dared to explain. We do not know where the psyche (mind) is, or how the brain communicates with it. Apart from centres for perception and interpretation of different sensations, two 'mood' centres in the psyche namely- 1. The happiness centre; and 2. The sorrow centre, are presumed to exist.
Consider the following illustration. Let us assume that in humans, the 'blue colour perception centre' in the brain is connected to the 'happiness centre' in the psyche. Therefore, whenever the 'blue perception centre' is stimulated, one should feel happy.
It is clear from the diagram that though the colours seen by each individual are different, because the individual brains perceive the colour as blue (refer notes in the first Diagram), that particular colour though different from what the other person is actually seeing, pleases that individual (since in his mind he is interpreting it as blue alone). However, the human body is not as simple as this illustration. Just as different stimuli when they stimulate the same centre for blue perception in the brain give a sensation of blue; similarly, depending on the corresponding psychosomatic connections, different stimuli from the brain can give the feeling of happiness. This may be blue colour in one person or red in another. Even more intriguing is the fact that depending on one's mood, he/she might like/dislike certain colours i.e. depending on whether it is connected to the sorrow centre or happiness centre at that time. (Example: one may like the colour red when he is in a good mood, whilst the same colour might make him angry at other times). This indicates that the psychosomatic connections (between the brain and psyche) are not constant. Furthermore, our senses too may be interpreting these stimuli in as many different permutations (because of our genetic differences) and thus it is not too difficult, to comprehend the fact that each of us is living in his own different, unique world. Thus the impression of a 'lizard' in Tom’s mind need not be the same as that in Jim’s i.e. though both of them call it 'lizard’, their idea of a 'lizard' need not be the same. The lizard they are seeing is nothing but energy E=MC^2. Energy being interconvertable, can be converted into and perceived in many ways depending on the type of receptor/sensor/neurons. That probably also explains why one may like Britney Spears, while the other Madonna.
Since electricity is interconvertable to light/sound/heat etc, it might not be wrong to say that all these forms of energy are potentially present in electricity. It is only when we tap these potentials with an appropriate sensor, these forms manifest. Similarly, everything (when I say everything I mean infinitely everything) is potentially present in the world around us, which is nothing but energy. When we tap these potentials with our limited senses, the world manifests and comes into existence. If we were to have 10 more senses god knows how this world would look like.
Experiments have also proved that artificially connecting the ears with the light perception centre in the brain would actually make a person see sound when the ears are stimulated. Who knows it might actually be happening now! (Just joking). Nevertheless, the startling reality is that, our worlds might be completely different from each other.
SO, ARE OUR SENSES ACTUALLY DECEIVING US?
It is clear that the way in which a particular object is perceived by a particular person depends, not on the object, but on the way in which the neurons in the brains are arranged and their connections to the psyche. After all, if we were to have an extra sense-an Electron microscopic vision, our entire world would change. We would be looking not at solid objects but at a set of randomly moving molecules of varying densities.
So, when the mere existence and attributes of the objects around us depend on how we perceive them, rather than on how they are...
What is their actual existence?
Do they really exist?
If so what is their true nature?
OR IS THE MIND BY ITS IMMENSE MYSTIC AND MAGICAL POWER, FOOLING OUR CONSCIOUSNESS/SOUL INTO BELIEVING THAT EVERYTHING IS (WHEN ACTUALLY NONE) REALLY EXISTING OUTSIDE JUST AS IT FOOLING US IN OUR DREAMS! After all, this life is not very different from a dream. A dream as everyone accepts is the creation of the mind from the mind itself. All the characters in the dream are but projections of the mind but appear real, only due to the concomitant laws of the dream world. It's only when one comes out of the dream and analyses it from the living world does one realize, that the dream world is not real..
No two persons see a single object in this world in a similar way (as illustrated above). If so, on what basis can we believe this living world to be real? One might actually remember a childhood dream more vividly than what happened a couple of days ago. So, which is real? We are forced into believing the world around, since otherwise we would not have any purpose to fulfil or anything to do. After all, why would anyone work so hard in this competitive world to achieve something, which is non-existent? HOWEVER THE FACT IS-THIS LIVING WORLD IS ALSO NOTHING BUT A PROJECTION OF THE MIND, which is in addition, aided by the senses and due to the concomitant laws of this world makes everything appear to be real. It is only when one analyses this life from a third perspective does he realize the illusionary state of this world. That is the reason Holy Scriptures have called this world ‘Maya’, an illusion. And yes, each one lives in his own illusion.
The mechanism is similar to a cinema projector. The mind being the negative, the light beam from the projector- energy, the world- the screen and ourselves- the man operating the projector. Just because the image from the negative is falling on the screen 100m away, we do not say that the film roll is on the screen, do we? Only an ignorant unaware of physics would say that. Similarly, this external world is also a projection from the negative called ‘mind’.