I have an intense interest in the difference between reality and perception. My fleeting attempts at understanding theoretical physics are often stymied by my sense that perception is the benchmark and not reality.
The other night I was walking through the house with no lights on. On this dark evening, I perceived that a pair of socks was our cat. Did my perception change the socks? In the multiverse of possibilities were my cat and my socks both there? This reality clinging to the socks and the other petting a cat.
Does the vision of a color blind person change the reality of the colors in the rainbow?
So, if we work within our own perception, how can we distinguish the reality from the perceived?
I always like to read your blog. I find it stimulating to think about your thoughts and how they relate to my own. Interestingly, I have posed the same question (of sorts) to another friend. I can tell you what I believe differentiates reality and perception.
ReplyDeleteFrom a social work perspective, perception is reality until evidence tells us otherwise. Example? A person who perceives himself as worthless is worthless. This can be reinforced by those around him suggesting that he is a drain on society and a burden to the family. It isn’t until someone gives solid evidence, that he has value, that his reality changes. This may explain your experience with the sock and cat. Your reality, in that moment, was cat. Your mind made the image up for you as the perception suggested. It was not until you gained evidence that your reality changed the cat into socks. The mind is hardwired to perceive things that are dangerous before it has all the evidence. People very often “see” spiders in sequence of patterns before they can recognize a shoe in the same set of patterns. It isn’t that the shoes or spiders are not there; it is just an instinct to protect or defend. You may have seen the cat, at first, in order to prepare yourself for a protective or defensive need (cat runs under feet, cat jumps and bites and such).
From a Wiccan standpoint, perception is what we invest our psychic energy in to create reality. You have, no doubt, experienced my perception of the treatment that others have “bestowed” on me. In this, I invest my energy and it becomes my reality. I “hear” in a different way, “see” in a different way and, thereby, experience it in a different way. This is my reality.
As far as theoretical physics, I will need a lot more space to go into that. However, “Big Bang Theory” is certainly a fun way to learn little tidbits about it. I don’t know if I have been a help or a hindrance, but there it is. My ramblings for you to peruse at leisure.