Page 48 - Timelessness and the Reality of Fate

46 TIMELESSNESS AND THE REALITY OF FATE

Now, let us reconsider this seemingly ordinary and unremarkable
process. When we say that "we see", we are in fact seeing the effects of the
impulses reaching our eye and induced in our brain after they are trans-
formed into electrical signals. That is, when we say that "we see", we are
actually observing electrical signals in our mind.
All the images we view in our lives are formed in our centre of vision,
which makes up only a few cubic centimetres of the volume of the brain. Both
the book you are now reading and the boundless landscape you see when
you gaze at the horizon fit into this tiny space. Another point that has to be
kept in mind is that, as we have noted before, the brain is insulated from light;
its inside is absolutely dark. The brain has no contact with light itself, which
exists outside.
We can explain this interesting situation with an example. Let us sup-
pose that there is a burning candle in front of us. We can sit across from this
candle and watch it at length. However, during this period of time, our
brain never has any direct contact with the candle's original light. Even as
we see the light of the candle, the inside of our brain is pitch dark. We watch
a colourful and bright world inside our dark brain.
R.L. Gregory gives the following explanation of the miraculous aspect
of seeing, an action that we take so very much for granted:
We are so familiar with seeing, that it takes a leap of imagination to realise
that there are problems to be solved. But consider it. We are given tiny dis-
torted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see separate solid objects in
surrounding space. From the patterns of simulation on the retinas we per-
ceive the world of objects, and this is nothing short of a miracle. 45
The same situation applies to all our other senses. Sound, touch, taste
and smell are all transmitted to the brain as electrical signals and are per-
ceived in the relevant centres in the brain.
The sense of hearing functions in the same manner. The outer ear picks
up available sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middle ear; the
middle ear transmits the sound vibrations to the inner ear by intensifying
them; the inner ear sends these vibrations to the brain by translating them
into electrical signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalises in the
centre of hearing in the brain. The brain is insulated from sound just as it is
from light. Therefore, no matter how noisy it is outside, the inside of the
brain is completely silent.
Nevertheless, even the subtlest sounds are perceived in the brain. The