Page 50 - Timelessness and the Reality of Fate

48 TIMELESSNESS AND THE REALITY OF FATE

quency band ranging from the rustling
of a leaf to the roar of a jet plane. How-
ever, if the sound level in your brain
were to be measured by a sensitive
device at that moment, it would be
seen that complete silence prevails
there.
Our perception of odour forms in
a similar way. Volatile molecules emit-
ted by things such vanilla or a rose
We perceive a perfume, a flower, food we
reach the receptors in the delicate hairs enjoy, the smell of the sea and all other
smells we like or dislike in our brains.
in the epithelium region of the nose
and become involved in an interaction. This interaction is transmitted to the
brain as electrical signals and perceived as smell. Everything that we smell,
be it nice or bad, is nothing but the brain's perceiving of the interactions of
volatile molecules after they have been transformed into electrical signals.
You perceive the scent of a perfume, a flower, a food that you like, the sea, or
other odours you like or dislike in your brain. The molecules themselves
never reach the brain. Just as with sound and vision, what reaches your
brain is simply electrical signals. In other words, all the odours that you
have assumed to belong to external objects since you were born are just elec-
trical signals that you feel through your sense organs. You can never have
direct experience of the true nature of a scent in the outside world.
Similarly, there are four different types of chemical receptors in the
front part of a human being's tongue. These register salty, sweet, sour, and
bitter tastes. Our taste receptors transform these perceptions into electrical
signals after a chain of chemical processes and transmit them to the brain.
These signals are perceived as taste by the brain. The taste you get when you
eat a chocolate bar or a fruit that you like is the interpretation of electrical
signals by the brain. You can never reach the object on the outside; you can
never see, smell or taste the chocolate itself. For instance, if taste nerves that
travel to your brain are cut, nothing you eat at that moment will impinge
upon your brain; you will completely lose your sense of taste.
And here is another interesting fact: We can never be sure that what we
feel when we taste a food and what another person feels when he tastes the
same food, or what we perceive when we hear a voice and what another
person perceives when he hears the same voice are the same. On this point,