Perception is reality

An often heard grouse in offices these days is – Perception is reality – implying that one doesn’t need to do good work but one should appear to be doing good work. Even yours truly has been guilty of using this hackneyed statement in some meaningless conversations. The statement itself carries a very negative connotation. Shouldn’t be so. The fact is that - for all of us perception IS reality. Nothing can or will change that. That's how we have been ‘designed’ if I may use the word.

Let’s consider what I am trying to state, by using the example of vision. There are petals of a red rose lying on the floor. How do you see it? Very simply put, here are the steps:

1) Rays of visible (for humans, the frequencies between 380 to 740 nm (nanometers) are visible.) light strike the surface of the rose petals.

2) The petals absorb all other visible light except except for a group of frequencies that we identify as red, which are reflected. When you look at the rose petals those reflected rays reach your eyes.

3) The rays pass through your cornea, lens etc and strike the retina forming an image on it.

4) The retina has various cells called photoreceptors which convert these rays of light into electrical impulses of the brain. Depending on the frequency of the rays (three broad groups – red, yellow and blue) the different type of the photoreceptor cells absorb them and transmit the specific electric impulses to the brain.

Phew!!!!!!!!!! Even up to this stage, at any point, what you see can be drastically be influenced, impeded distorted because of:

• No light. Poor light
• You don’t look towards the object (like looking for lost keys. It may be lying somewhere reflecting light but you don’t look towards it), the object is covered, anything that distorts or prevents the rays form reaching your eye
• Any damage to any part of the eye.

That was just the simple part. If there is any problem until this stage it can be described / understood and probably the impact can be clearly identified.

However what happens in the next stage is actually where a difference is perception in its most unidentifiable form can be created.

The problem lies in what our mind does – ‘It is all in the mind’. To elaborate. Light in the wavelength range of 630–740 nm (lets use the term ‘Rays6374’ for simplicity) are identified as red colour by us. So how does anyone of us know that it is red? Here’s how.

WE ARE TAUGHT.

The eyes receive the red rays reflected by say an apple and through he photoreceptor are transmitted to the brain. Now your brain now knows that the object has reflected Rays6374 and that it has been ‘seen’ by the eye. The brain interprets or perceives the colour and shows it to you.

So it is very much possible that when person A perceives Rays6374 as Rays6374 and person B may perceive Rays6374 as Rays6374. To explain:

Person A

The eyes of A receive Rays6374 his brain shows him Rays6374. He is taught and told every day that this is red. So when he sees an apple he sees.

To him Red (Rays6374) is RED

Person B

The eyes of B receive Rays6374 his brain shows him Rays6374. He is taught and told every day that this is red. So when he sees an apple he sees

To him Red (Rays6374) is RED

Thus, even in the context of a supposedly objective thing like a colour one cannot ever be certain that it is being perceived by someone in the same manner as it is being perceived by you. What one perceives lies deep only within the perceivers mind. That's his or her reality. No one will know.

Now, vision is just one minute aspect. Think about it. Everyday a humungous amount of subjective inputs are received by our mind / brain. Each input could be perceived very differently by different individuals.

Also worth remembering is that our perception is based on our circumstances, experience and understanding of everything around us. Even a simple thing like a food item can be perceived differently depending on whether you are hungry or have a full stomach.

Everybody sees, hears, feels, tastes, smells and well…… understands and perceives the world differently.

So when some people disparagingly remark about anyone - ‘He /she lives in his / her own world’, I would like to tell them -

My dear friend that’s true for everybody. There is no world other than that what exists in our own minds. Perception is reality or to put it correctly – “Your reality is nothing more than what you perceive.”