04-14-2006, 03:05 PM
Ramesses. How are you sure your intense experience is not an artifact of your brain? People sensory experience and mental reconstructions are not fool-proof. We do not posses objective and efficient sensors and we are certainly not passive and simply record an external world that displays itself to us like when we "passively" watch a film.
Actually the film metaphor a good example. Watching a film the spectators are more active than naively suspected. For one things they see a three dimensional world in a two dimensional screen. But they must also follow and then accept a story told by someone else that had to compose a sequence of images that had to "make sense". Bad films exist that convince nobody. Good films may have fans that see it dozens of times. Nothing objective nor passive, but a kind of conspiracy.
Never forget that our sense organs are very limited in performance and easily work bad if we are in an altered state due to hunger, thirst, lack of sleep, down right delusion (paranoia, assumption of drugs).
But we can go wrong even because of hypnosis, suggestion, manipulation of information at all levels (prejudice, propaganda, commercials,...).
More in general never underestimate that our making sense of our imperfect perceptions does a lot of "filling in the gaps" and we desperately look for relationships, cause-and-effect just to name one. Our species has a real talent for inventing relationships to make sense of things. We need to. We must. Nothing will keep us from doing it. We are hardwired to do it.
So even if your experience is shockingly true to you it still doesn't make it true. Ask yourself again. How am I sure my experience is really true. If it seems true to you, is that enough? Are you really the best judge?
Actually the film metaphor a good example. Watching a film the spectators are more active than naively suspected. For one things they see a three dimensional world in a two dimensional screen. But they must also follow and then accept a story told by someone else that had to compose a sequence of images that had to "make sense". Bad films exist that convince nobody. Good films may have fans that see it dozens of times. Nothing objective nor passive, but a kind of conspiracy.
Never forget that our sense organs are very limited in performance and easily work bad if we are in an altered state due to hunger, thirst, lack of sleep, down right delusion (paranoia, assumption of drugs).
But we can go wrong even because of hypnosis, suggestion, manipulation of information at all levels (prejudice, propaganda, commercials,...).
More in general never underestimate that our making sense of our imperfect perceptions does a lot of "filling in the gaps" and we desperately look for relationships, cause-and-effect just to name one. Our species has a real talent for inventing relationships to make sense of things. We need to. We must. Nothing will keep us from doing it. We are hardwired to do it.
So even if your experience is shockingly true to you it still doesn't make it true. Ask yourself again. How am I sure my experience is really true. If it seems true to you, is that enough? Are you really the best judge?
Jeffery Wyss
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
