Page 98 - The Struggle Against the Religion of Irreligion

three-dimensional world is perceived within this center of a few cubic

centimeters.

The same system also applies to other senses. Tastes are

transformed into electric signals by some cells on the tongue. Smells

are transformed into electric signals by cells in the epithelium of the

nose. Special sensors lodged under the skin are responsible for

transforming impulses of touch (such as feeling hardness or softness)

into electric signals, and a special mechanism in the ear transforms

sounds into electric signals. All these signals are sent to related

centers in the brain and are perceived therein.

The following example will clarify the point: assume that you

are drinking a cup of coffee. The hardness and hotness of the cup you

are holding is transformed into electric signals by special receptors

under your skin and sent to the brain. Simultaneously, the strong

smell of the coffee, its taste, and dark brown color all become signals

reaching the brain. The sound heard when the cup touches the table

is perceived by the ear and sent to the brain as an electric signal. All

these perceptions are interpreted in the relevant centers in the brain,

which work harmoniously with one another. As a cumulative result of

these impulses, you sense that you are drinking a cup of coffee. That

is, while everything takes place in the sensory centers of the brain,

you assume that what you sense has a solid existence.

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