Seeing is Believing but is it Reality?

[Troy]

There is an old saying believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.  I've also understand that eyewitness testimony is often flawed. This is the reason I don't rely on my own observation to understand the nature of reality.

I while don't ignore my observations, or those of others, I know it is our condition as Sapiens to be limited in our perception of reality.

The image chessboard below helps make my point.  Most people will look at the square labeled A and square labeled B not see them as being identical in color. 

Many, even after being told that science has proven that these squares are they same color, many people will stubbornly hold onto the fiction that the squares are different colors--simply because that is the way they perceive it.

Sometimes we have to look at things a different way to perceive them correctly. You can print out the page, cut out squares A & B and place them side by side. But I find most people are unwilling to make this shift in thinking or take the extra to discover an answer that conflicts with their worldview.  This too is part of the human condition.  

Understanding why we perceive these squares as differently is a step in the direction of self-discovery.

  

I've shared images like this on this forum before, but in a different context.

[Delano]

I am not certain knowing a mirage is not real lessens the effect. 

I know I have a blind spot in the center of my vision. Thats the way the eye is structured.  Yet the brain fills that in from other visual cues 

[Pioneer1]

I hear exactly what you're saying.

Seeing isn't always believing.

But if you are of normal psychology....meaning not mentally ill or intellectually deficient....and your mind is sober and not influenced by drugs or alcohol.
Then USUALLY what you observe along with your judgement can give you a pretty accurate understanding of reality.

If we went around being suspicious of EVERYTHING we experienced or observed how would most people be able to live their lives?

You wake up....but should you get out of bed?
Perhaps the floor is just an illusion and you end up falling through it.

You go to take a shower....but should you REALLY grab for that soap and wash cloth (Black people use wash cloths with their soap....lol) ?
It could be an illusion and the towel turns out to be the cat.

However when it comes to dealing with people or institutions who have a HISTORY of deceptive behavior, that's when it's wise to be skeptical and not believe everything you see and hear from them just on face value.

For example growing up in the city me and some of my friends would see something happen in the neighborhood and see the news crew out at the scene.
Then later on we'd go back home and watch television to see if any of our pictures made it on the news and the story the achors gave was TOTALLY different from what we saw go down.
They'd even put on witnesses giving statement in clips that were called "neighbors" who never even lived in the neighborhood!!

We'd be like, "Man who is SHE??????"

That's how you learn at an early age not to trust everything the media reports.

 

[Troy]

Del I guess it is a matter of how good the effect is. In fact, a good illusion can be a desirable experience.

Here we go! Pioneer, why you gotta go off the deep end again?  Not one has suggested that we go through life being suspicion of everyday situations.  Is that called paranoid schizophrenia?

All I'm saying is that science can dramatically conflict with our senses and everything we have previously been taught or experienced. A stubborn reliance on only senses to the wonders of the universe.  Similarly, a stubborn reliance on what science can prove can have the same effect.

 

[Pioneer1]

It's about balance and common sense.

You can't trust everything "science" says either because different generations of scientists are constantly discovering different things and coming to differnt conclusions about the SAME things.

At one point and time blood-letting or draining people's blood out of their bodies in order to release toxins and heal them was standard "science" at the time.
Today most people see that treatment as ridiculous if not down right dangerous.

Over 150 years ago "scientists" of the United States described a mental disorder called DRAPETOMANIA in which slaves who wanted to run off and leave their plantation were considered crazy as hell for doing so!

Just like KNOWLEDGE evolves for the person, SCIENCE evolves for the contemporary scientific body.
 

[Troy]

Drapetomiania was racism, not the practice of science. Bloodletting was obviously not backed by observation and experiment. If anything science stopped the practice.

Man will twist anything including spirituality, religion, and science for self-benefit.  This does not make spirituality, religion, and science bad--at makes the people who exploit these bad.  This distinction is important.

Of course, science's body of knowledge changes as new information comes along to prove previous knowledge wrong; as in the case of Einstien correcting Newton's calculation of motion near massive bodies.  This is the way that knowledge advances.

Also, science is not about "balance" or "common sense."  For example, current knowledge about the quantum world defies common sense and is completely counterintuitive. because particles on the subatomic scale simply do not behave the same way large objects do on the macro scale.

I'm still surprised that what I was taught about the structure of atoms was a century behind the then current knowledge. But then our education system, I've learned, has little to do with actually "educating" people....

 

[Mel Hopkins]

Believing is seeing...and it's how we, as magicians or the faithful, manifest what we seek to have in our lives. 

BUT, while I respect it,  I tend not to mess around with optical illusions, especially those involving colors, for this very reason.

Its effects is two-fold.

On one hand, it seeks to reinforce you can't trust your own mind, since "seeing" is a function of the mind.  But at the same time, it teaches you NOT to trust everything your mind reveals... which is a good thing too because "what you believe can kill you"... 

Since words create images for me; and I score very high on spatial intelligence... I use my other senses such as "feel" (not to be confused with touch, btw) to determine reality

[Delano]

Maya

 

[Troy]

@Delano thanks for the reminder, What does Maya need to share with you.  

[Delano]

@Troy i was referencing a Veduc term.