Perception

I vaguely remember a movie scene, where a psychologist asks his patient, "what is real?". In a much dramatic lunch, he points to a flower vase on a table and questions its existence. Maybe, one person is able to see it, and the other is not. Specifically, maybe it is just the brain believing that it is there, when it is not. Tempted as I am to categorise this as a hallucination, I believe there is more to it. The brain posses the power to make us believe anything, and if we really push it, there is no distinction between what is 'real' and what is imaginary. If since birth I was told an apple was white, and was a ball not a fruit, perhaps I would perceive everything red, as white, and try to eat all balls. White could be a new colour, called 'prasig'! That's not a word, but this amuses me. Our thoughts are so strongly defined by our perceptions of the world. I stop to wonder if there would be any person who would not be anchored to any perceptions, raised in isolation, creating a new world for himself/herself. I would like to see that world. All talks about innovation and creativity need a benchmark of what a true creation is. That world would be it.

The book I am reading right now, This is your brain on music by Daniel Levitin (Buy here), discusses a similar concept in relation to visual and auditory perception. Obviously, I got really excited when he started talking about things that I've come to be so curious about. His argument is based on what sound is and where music really comes from. Big physics talk about sound being generated due to oscillating particles hitting our ear, is fine. But from there, it reaches our brain, and the tone map in our brain that tells what frequency, more importantly, what pitch it is. Pitch, he defines as a reference that our brain develops against frequencies and that is what defines the sound to us. Obviously there are different types of sounds produced the same frequency etc, but thats a different story. The interesting point he raises is about hearing sounds. Particles move everywhere, but they become sound only when we hear it. When a tree falls, we hear it crash. But, does it make a sound when no one is around to hear it? We can never tell. :) . Similarly, about visual perceptions, when I see a wall painted white, does it stay white even after I leave the room? The paint stays on, but the colour 'comes' only when I look at it.Our perception clearly defines our thougts. So if I was raised in a world where apples were white, that wall would be 'prasig' to me. To me, this is extremely important. To know, why I draw something, or why I play a particular chord in a song, generates a basket of new ideas. Because I know that every line that I put on a paper and every note I play is becasue of a reason, becasue of a perception, I can judge its true purpose. It is soothing to know that even abstract is not all that abstract. It also gives an added advange to my belief that people can be judged by their actions. If you analyse in the right perspective, why a person did something, there is enough you can tell about their history. That is, provided you can trace back to the formation of perceptions, leading to thoughts, leading to actions.
To top it all, it is brilliantly interesting.