Page 674 - Atlas of Creation Volume 4

What Is “Real” for Us?

We believe in the existence of objects just because we see and touch them, and they are reflected to us by our
perceptions. However, our perceptions are only ideas in our mind. Thus, objects we captivate by percepti-

ons are nothing but ideas, and these ideas are essentially in nowhere but our mind… Since all these exist only
in the mind, then it means that we are beguiled by deceptions when we imagine the universe and things to
have an existence outside the mind. 65

—George Berkeley

Our seeing any object, hearing the sound it makes or touching it, provides little information about
the nature of the material world existing outside. For us, what gives us evidence of anything’s physical
existence is our perception of it. Yet there is actually no sound, nor image, nor flavor, nor smell in our
perceptual center in the brain where all these things arise. The inside of the brain is pitch dark and ut-

terly soundless. There are no small observers in the brain to detect smells or observe images. Therefore,
the idea that sounds and images can form inside the brain is illogical, scientifically impossible. However,
we perceive an amazingly flawless, colored, mobile and distinct world in that pitch-black, soundless
space. Despite being a world of perception forming solely in the brain, this world is realistic and highly

convincing. An image far clearer and more distinct than the most advanced three-dimensional film scre-
ens or televisions, of a far higher quality than the world’s most perfect cameras, arises in the brain.
Inside the brain form sounds that are much more perfect, much clearer and richer than the most advan-
ced music systems, and which cannot be distinguished from the real thing. The perfume and scent of a

rose also forms inside the brain, as do sensations of heat and cold, in the most precise manner. This per-
fectly clear world is placed at our disposal, without interruption, by the will of Allah. Anyone looking
around in a crowded shopping center can see children running around, different people shopping,
brightly lit shop windows, trays of foodstuffs, an occasional stray cat, the warm air and the smells ema-

nating from the food court reaching his nose—all at one and the same time. People may be chatting with
friends, greeting someone they recognize, as window-shopping. Yet they are actually experiencing ima-
ges arising in their brains. The crowd a person sees around him, all the details he observes, all form on
a phantom screen inside the brain.

He actually watches and feels images shown to him by means of his senses. All of these are part of that
person’s experience, yet each is also nothing more than the entirety of perceptions arising in the brain.
Is the original of this world anything like the details that person is made to perceive? We cannot
know. It is impossible for us to obtain any knowledge regarding whether there really are a lot of peop-

le around, or if the scent of flowers fills the air. What we are shown is the form of the environment as
we perceive. For us, the external world is solely the world we are shown. If the electrical signals for-
warded to us by our sense organs were eliminated, then our external world would disappear as well,
even though there is an actual world outside.

We can only know what is forwarded to, reaches and is shown to us. That is the sum total of what
goes on in our minds.
Gerard O’Brien describes the concept of the outside world and that of our perceptions:

There is an issue about whether or not the world that we experience, the world in some sense that is cons-
tructed in our heads, whether or not it actually corresponds to the way the world actually is. Because if you

accept, as a number of theorists now do, that our experience of the world is constructed by our brains, then
there becomes a real issue of the correspondence that exists between our experience of the world and the way
the world really is, independent of our experience. And if you think there might be large mismatches bet-
ween our experience of the world and the way the world really is, then it starts to look as though our visu-

al world, the world of our experience, is in some sense an illusion. 66

That being the case, what is real for us?

672 Atlas of Creation Vol. 4