Page 742 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

It is a fact that some skin diseases can be cured by using hyp-
nosis. On the pictures to the left we see the disease before
being treated with hypnosis, then we see it after the person
has been hypnotized and the disease has been cured. (D.
Waxman, Hypnosis, p. 113)

Who Is It That Experiences All These Perceptions?

So far we have established that everything we perceive takes place in our brains, and that we have no
need for the outside world or material beings to experience these perceptions. At this point we face a ques-

tion which would be asked by anyone who thinks on this subject a little bit.
As we know, the electric signals coming from the cells in our eyes are transformed into an image in our
brains. For example, the brain interprets some electrical signals coming to the visual center in the brain as a
field filled with sunflowers. In reality, it is not the eye that is seeing.

Therefore, if it is not our eyes which are seeing, what is it that sees the electrical signals as a sunflower
field, at the back of our brain, in a pitch dark place, without feeling any necessity for any eyes, retina, lens,
visual nerves or pupil and enjoys the view in the sight?
Or who is it that hears (without needing an ear) the voice of a very close friend, becomes happy on hear-

ing it, and misses it when he cannot hear it, when the brain is totally sound proof?
Or who is it in the brain that feels the fur of the cat when stroking it, without having any need for a
hand, fingers or muscles?
Who is it that feels sensations such as heat, cold, and a sense of consistency, depth, and distance, as they

originate in the brain?
Who is it that smells the lemon, lavender flower, rose, melon, watermelon, orange, and barbecued meat inside
the brain (even though the brain is smellproof), and feels hungry because of the smell coming from the grill?
We have thus far discussed how everything we perceive continuously is actually formed inside our

brains. Who is it then that sees the sights in a brain as if watching television, and becomes excited, happy,
sad, nervous, or feels pleasure, anxiety or curiosity while watching them? Who is responsible for the con-
sciousness which is capable of interpreting everything seen and everything felt?
What is the entity in the brain that has consciousness and throughout life is capable of seeing all the

sights shown to him in a dark, quiet head, that is capable of thinking, and reaches conclusions and makes
decisions in the end?
It is obvious that it is not the brain, made up of water, lipid and protein, and unconscious atoms, that
perceives all this and is responsible for consciousness. There must be a being beyond the brain. Despite

being a materialist, Daniel Dennett ponders the above question in one of his books:

My conscious thinking, and especially the enjoyment I felt in the combination of sunny light, sunny Vivaldi vio-
lins, rippling branches – plus the pleasure I took in just thinking about it all – how could all that be just some-
thing physical happening in my brain? How could any combination of electrochemical happenings in my brain
somehow add up to the delightful way those hundreds of twigs genuflected in time with the music? How could

some information-processing event in my brain be the delicate warmth of the sunlight I felt falling on me? For
that matter, how could an event in my brain be my sketchily visualized mental image of … some other informa-
tion-processing event in my brain? It does seem impossible. It does seem as if the happenings that are my con-

740 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3