Page 24 - Matter: The Other Name for Illusion

for us, and interprets these signals as senses of smell, taste, vision, sound or
touch. It is a stunning fact that the brain, which is made of wet meat, can know

which electrical signal should be interpreted as smell and which one as vision,
and can convert the same material into different senses and feelings.
Let us now consider our sense organs, and how each one perceives the
world.

It's Not Our Eyes That See,
It Is Our Brain

Because of the indoctrination that we receive throughout our lives, we

imagine that we see the whole world with our eyes. Eventually, we usually
conclude that our eyes are the windows that open up to the world. However,
science shows us that we do not see through our eyes. The millions of nerve
cells inside the eyes are responsible for sending a message to the brain, as if
down a cable, in order to make "seeing" happen. If we analyze the information
we learned in high school, it becomes easier for us to understand the reality of
vision.
The light reflecting off an object passes through the lens of the eye and
causes an upside-down image on the retina at the back of the eyeball. After

some chemical operations carried out by retinal rods and cones, this vision
becomes an electrical impulse. This impulse is then sent through connections
in the nervous system to the back of the brain. The brain converts this flow into
a meaningful, three-dimensional vision.
For example, when you watch children playing in a park, you are not
seeing the children and the park with your eyes, because the image of this view
forms not before your eyes, but at the back of your brain.

Even though we have given a simple explanation, in reality the
physiology of vision is an extraordinary operation. Without fail, light is
converted into electrical signals, and, subsequently, these electrical signals
reveal a colorful, shining, three-dimensional world. R. L. Gregory, in his book
Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, acknowledges this significant fact, and
explains this incredible structure:
We are given tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see
separate solid objects in surrounding space. From the patterns of
simulation on the retinas we perceive the world of objects, and this is
nothing short of a miracle. 2

22 MATTER: THE OTHER NAME FOR ILLUSION