Page 187 - Matter: The Other Name for Illusion

means of the electrical signals reaching it. In other words, we always live in the
worlds that exist within our own brains. The birds we see when we look at the
sky, the car about to disappear from sight at the other end of the street, the
things in our rooms, the book in our hands, our friends, relations and
everything else—all of these are copy images that reach our brains. Nobody

can step outside this life within the brain. Neither science nor technology can
be of any assistance in doing so. That is because whatever a scientist may
invent, he still invents it within that image in his brain. For that reason, the
object he invents to see the outside world with still remains inside his brain.
It is not possible for anyone to know what matter actually looks like,
because nobody has ever come face to face with the original of anything. From
the time of the first man right up to today, not one human being has ever heard

the original of any sound, nor seen the original of any view, nor enjoyed the
original smell of a rose.

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R Reply: We actually considered the reply to this objection in the previous
answer. Given the importance of the subject, however, it will be beneficial to
run over it one more time.
Those who say this kind of thing ignore the fact that not only sight, but
other senses such as hearing, smell and touch also happen inside the brain.
That is why they say, "I may see the knife in my brain, but the sharpness of the
blade is a fact, just look how it has cut my hand." However, the pain in that
person's hand, the warmth and wetness of the blood, and all the other
perceptions still form within the brain. The fact that his friend may have
witnessed the incident changes nothing, because his friend is also formed in
the same visual center of his brain where the knife is formed. This person could
also experience the same feelings in a dream-the way he cut his hand with a
knife, the pain in his hand, the image and the warmth of his blood. He can also
see in that dream the friend who saw him cut himself. Yet the existence of his
friend does not prove that what he sees is not a dream.
Even if someone came up just when he was cutting his hand in that dream
and said: "What you are seeing is just perceptions, this knife is not real, the
blood flowing from your hand and the pain in it are not real, they are just
Replies To Objections Regarding The Reality Of Matter 185