How We Form Reality in Our Heads

How We Form Reality in Our Heads

In order for we puny humans to be able to concentrate on any part of the universe, we need to limit the amount of sensory inputs we are able to perceive. To facilitate that limitations our minds (consciousness) is wrapped in an electrical system which gives us only a small amount of all possible information.

Our bodies necessarily limit us to only a single point of view of the world around us at a time. In a similar manner we are limited to a single moment in the progression of moments we see as time. We are also constrained in the frequency range of mechanical vibrations we can hear and the spectrum of light our eyes can see.

Sketch One

In the first sketch the reality of the tree can be seen from every possible angle at the same moment. Each of us can only see the one reality of the tree from the position we stand. All the other realities go forever unseen. They nonetheless existed and continue to exist, but unseen. This can be demonstrated by having another person stand at any other position and call out to you that they can see the tree and describe it to you.

If the tree was spray painted blue on the far side, they would claim it was a blue tree while you continue to swear it is green as always.

After the two of you walk away from the tree you will always hold your own opinion of the nature of the tree. Everyone else who ever visits the tree will likewise have the differing opinion depending on which side they stood at. 

Sketch two

The passage of time is also expressed in the single moment you are ever able to see at one time. A bird flying to the tree, roosting there for some interval and flying away will only be discernible as a fluid progression through the air to and from the tree. time lapse multiple exposures can depict what one might see if successive moments could all be observed simultaneously. The impressions would be highly chaotic.

The tree has a full life-cycle which is stretched out into years. It rises out of the soil as a seedling, to become a sapling then a fully grown tree only to be felled some day by ax, wind, flood, or decay. We can come back occasionally to see the changes but not ever see the multitude of appearances all at once. That would be part of that chaotic experience which psychotic people might be experiencing in their mental illness.

The physical processes by which we see the reality we see involves receiving a small number of photons on our retinas as two dime-sized areas upside-down. The two images are fused together to appear 3D and are projected out into the world outside our heads. Imagine THAT. In order to see movement two successive images are fused together so that we see one image moving. This means there must be some sort of storage buffer to hold the previous image. A lot of processing is going on for our sensory abilities to be. We are not able to see anything unless photons reflect off of it.

We also know that a lot of post processing is going on in order for us to see what we see ant not see what we don't see.  For example we don't see the red blood cell that are floating around in our field of vision. We don't see the two holes in our retinas where the optic nerve passes through and back to our brains. Actually, there are no retina cells to see the color YELLOW but we see it nonetheless. 

In our dreams we see objects without the benefit of light or eyes.

All of the reality we see is only a field of light waves interacting with each other until some tiny portion reaches a retina and a sentient brain where it is converted something we perceive as tangible and "real." There is no image until it is seen. the image making process requires an aperture through which the light waves pass and are highly filtered to limit the light to only that portion which arrive from the same direction. In Sketch One thee is only one image of the tree and it the one You see. the rest of the light is merely a bunch of disorganized photons forming interference patterns that will never be seen.