Page 668 - Atlas of Creation Volume 4

The Sense of Touch is No More Than Electrical Signals

Transmitted to the Brain

The external world we perceive seems totally realistic. Though it is a scientific fact that we inhabit a
world made up of our perceptions, most people are deceived by the perfection of these perceptions. One

of the most misleading factors is their sense of touch. People may harbor doubts as to the reality of what
they see, smell or taste, yet being able to touch objects may mislead them into assuming they have di-
rect contact with the external world. But in fact, information about the object touched is forwarded to
the brain as electrical signals, which entirely eliminates all such preconceptions on the subject. As with
all our other perceptions, the sense of touch arises in the brain. Your feeling an object depends on the

information you receive regarding it in your brain.
Although you are touching an object, you cannot feel it if your brain does not perceive it, as Peter
Russell makes clear:

Our notion of matter as a solid substance is, like the color green, a quality appearing in consciousness. It is a
model of what is “out there,” but as with almost every other model, quite unlike what is actually out there. 61

The concept of reality he emphasizes is exceedingly accurate. When you touch an external surface,

your relationship with it consists solely of the electrons in your fingers repelling the electrons in the ob-
ject. In other words, you are actually unable to even touch it. We have no direct contact with outside ob-
jects. Notwithstanding, the sensations that arise give the impression we are perceiving its true nature.
We may perceive that a tree trunk is hard, and that cotton is soft. We perceive the different natures of

both, but the process taking place at the molecular level consists of electrons repelling one another. The
sensation of hardness from the top of a desk, the softness of a cat’s fur or the rough surface of a brick
wall reaches us solely as electrical signals. The physical experience taking place is completely different
from the sensation arising within us. Therefore, we can never touch the original of any substance that

exists externally. What reaches us is only a perception regarding the outside world, and on the basis of
these perceptions, we have no means of knowing what the outside world is really like.
Andrew B. Newberg, an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology and Psychiatry at the
University of Pennsylvania, states:

There were philosophers in the past that said, “Look, if I kick a rock and I hurt my toe, that’s real. I feel that.

It feels real. It’s vivid. And that means it’s reality.” But it’s still an experience and it’s still this person’s per-
ception of it being real. 62

666 Atlas of Creation Vol. 4