Page 816 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

Someone walking in the country with his
friends is actually doing so with friends in his
mind, and smelling the fresh air in his mind.
Three people looking at flowers in the country-
side form three different images of them.

ers all form in your brain, so do your friends, and the things you all talk about. In other words, your friends
are walking in the garden you see in your mind, not one in the outside world. So the fact that your friends
see the same things as you does not mean that there is a physical counterpart of all that you see.

When you watch a match in a stadium full of people, the fact that thousands of people see a goal being
scored at the same time and react to it at the same moment is no proof of the physical existence of the sta-
dium, the players, the referee nor the thousands of people in the stands. The players, fans, cheering and
everything else you see there all take place inside your brain. The player who scores a goal and the fans

who rejoice at it are all inside you. You rejoice at a goal scored in your mind, and clap and cheer with the
crowd in your brain. In conclusion, the fact that the people you see alongside you confirm what you see
does not mean that what you see has any physical counterpart in the external world. No matter what their
number is, the people you say are "right beside" you, are actually in your brain.

Objection: "We perceive the external world as it actually is so there isn't any abnormality in our behavior. For
instance, when we come to a cliff, we stop instead of keeping on and walking over the edge."

Reply: This objection shows that the questioner is seriously confused, and has not understood what is
being said. That is because the objection rests on the following claim: "There is a physical world out there.

However, everybody sees that world differently in his own mind." This person thinks that such a claim is
being made, and goes on to object to it, thinking that he disproves the claim by saying: "There is a material
reality out there, and we see it as it is. Nobody sees it any differently. The proof of this is that when there is
a cliff edge out there we see it as such, and stop walking."
However, the fact under discussion here is very different from what that person supposes. One case

says, "There is an outside world, but we see this world differently from how it truly is." The other says, "We
perceive all that we experience in our minds, and we can never make direct contact with any sort of origi-

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