Page 148 - The Truth of the Life of This World

As a result of artificial stimuli, a physi-
cal world as true and realistic as the
real one can be formed in our brain with-
out the existence of physical world. As a
result of artificial stimuli, a person may
think that he is driving in his car, while
he is actually sitting at home.

direction from which sound "really" comes.
Similarly, none of the smells you perceive reach you from any distance
away. You suppose that the scents perceived in your centre of smell are

those of outside objects. However, just as the image of a rose exists in your
visual centre, so its scent is located in your olfactory centre. You can never
have direct contact with the original sight or smell of that rose that exists
outside.
To us, the "external world" is merely a collection of the electrical sig-
nals reaching our brains simultaneously. Our brains process these signals,
and we live without recognizing our mistaken assumption that these are
the actual, original versions of matter existing in the "external world." We
are misled, because by means of our senses, we can never reach the mat-

ter itself.
Again, our brain interprets and attributes meanings to the signals that
we assume to be "external." Consider the sense of hearing, for example. In
fact, our brain interprets and transforms sound waves reaching our ear into
symphonies. Music, too, is a perception formed by - and within - our brain.

146 The Secret Beyond Matter