Things Arent Always What They Seem

A mind like a parachute, works best when it is open." (unknown)

The next time we feel completely sure that the perceptions through our senses are 100-percent correct, we should sit down, close our eyes and ponder this. As we sit, apparently motionless, we are on a planet that spins on its axis at a rate at the equator of 1,000 miles per hour. This same planet hurls through space orbiting its sun every 365.25 days.

That orbit traverses several hundred million miles. More than a million and a half miles per day, faster than 66,000 miles per hour. This rotating, orbiting planet also moves in tandem with the solar system. It both orbits a distant center of the universe and expands out from it. Planet earth does all of this while we sit, beginning to feel a little antsy because we are motionless.

The chair we sit on feels solid. Our knee believes it is solid when it bangs into it in the dark. However, physics has displayed that the chair is in constant motion. Made of invisible particles, it moves close to the speed of light. Physics also tell us that our chair is mostly space between particles.

Have you ever see any of the art of M. C. Escher? Fish as they rise to the surface of the ocean become geese that fly into the air. Waterfalls and stairwells descend to lower levels that somehow are above those behind them.

Our senses are adaptable. We can adjust to prolonged exposure. Ever been on a boat and not notice the rocking until you were off the boat, in your bed and closed your eyes? Optical and other illusions show that we can trick our senses also. Objects and events aren't always as they appear at first. The point of perspective can give differing perceptions. If we project a cylinder out of its three dimensional space, from a side perspective we will see a rectangle. From the top we will see a circle. (Frankl, 1969).

We base our attitudes and opinions on our sensory perceptions and our mental interpretations of them. Mental input enters through the senses. Except in highly controlled situations, bias, or distortions enter through our senses also. The opinion of teachers, the angle of perception, the attitude, personality, previous experiences and the ability of the observer, all can influence how each of us sees, interprets and metabolizes the world.

So the next time we feel certain that we are right and someone else is wrong, or vice versa, ask:, "right from what perspective? Right under what conditions?" Einstein spoke of time/space. There is no event independent of time, and no time independent of an event. Time/space events are points on a continuum, and the viewpoint of the observer effects both the perception and the outcome.

Hot or cold, long or short, near or far, to most of us they represent opposites. In fact they are relative descriptions of the extremes of heat, length and spatial relation. Hot to an Eskimo could be, freezing to an equatorial person. Use the senses as adjunctive aids, not infallible allies.