Page 760 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

WHO SEES ?

rom the moment a person is born, he becomes subject to the steady indoc-
trination of the society. Part of this indoctrination, possibly the most per-

F suasive, holds that reality is what the hands can touch and the eyes can see.
This understanding, which is quite influential in the majority of the society, is car-
ried without question from one generation to another.
But without being subjected to any indoctrination, a moment of objective

thought would make one realize an astonishing fact:
Everything we confront from the moment we come into existence-human
beings, animals, flowers, their colors, odors, fruits, tastes of fruits, planets, stars,
mountains, stones, buildings, space-are perceptions presented to us by our five

senses. To further clarify this, it will help to examine the senses, the agents that pro-
vide us with information about the exterior world.
All of man's sensory faculties-sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch-function in
the same way. Stimuli (lights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures) from objects in the

external world are carried through nerves to the sensory centers in the brain. All
these stimuli that reach the brain consist of electric signals. For example, during the
process of vision, light rays (or photons) radiating from sources in the exterior
world reach the retina at the back of the eye and, through a series of processes, are

transformed into electric signals. These signals are transferred along nerves to the
brain's vision center. There, a colorful, bright and three-dimensional world is per-
ceived within the space of a few cubic centimeters.
The same system applies to other senses as well. Cells on the surface of the

tongue transform chemical traces into electric signals that become tastes. Odors are

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