The definition of reality in the Merriam Webster dictionary states that it is neither derivative nor dependent but exists necessarily. According to its definition, then, reality exists outside of distortion, manipulation and belief. Such a source cannot be affected by anything except its natural flow of cause and effect events. In a sense, reality is just there. What I think about it will not affect it. Because reality is so objective and because what I see and believe is so subjective, such a fickle beast as perception should never be equated with reality. The two don’t mix in the slightest, and the belief that they have ever had any true correlation, has greatly affected society as a whole in many different ways.
Perception, in contrast to sensation, is a very relative part of the human body. Unlike the senses, it occurs inside the brain and does not interact directly with outside stimuli. In the process of perception, the brain uses the senses’ reaction to stimuli as a sort of book which it reads and interprets. Once the information is interpreted, the source of the brain will come to an understanding of the phenomenon it sensed.
How people hear things is a great example of sensation and perception. When someone makes a speech, his words are only sound waves buffeting the ear. This is the sense stage of hearing and is only the start of the perception process. If the procedure ended here, the listener would never successfully comprehend the speaker’s words. He would only sense the vibration of the sound waves and an intangible noise in his ears. Perception takes the process of hearing to the next level. The sound waves travel into the ear through a network of specially crafted devices: hair cells, three very small vibrating bones, and other such structures. These interactions create electrical signals which flow to the brain. The brain interprets these signals through tiny cells called neurons and formulates an understandable message out of the jumbled sound waves.
Though perception does give us an idea of surrounding reality, it can never be equated to this certain force. What we perceive as a sound, as a vision, or as a feeling on our skin, can be easily manipulated by the electronic signals in our brain. Whether the distortion is a lesser version of reality, like nearsightedness, or a similar version of reality, like a blue ray version of the discovery channel; what we interpret from surrounding stimuli, will always be distorted by how our brain decodes the information it is given.
What one sees, hears, touches, and smells can be affected by more than just distortions in the way our brain interprets signals, though. What our senses detect can also be distorted by what we believe.
I once walked through the ghetto part of a town in Ponca City, Oklahoma. For some reason an atrocious smell would always waft over and burn my nose. I had assumed that the smell was associated with the gas plant near my house. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered the smell was coming from a fast food restaurant not to far away from where I walked. Because I could see the gas plant and new that a bad smell usually came from it, I perceived that the odder stinging my nose was a polluted stench. But I came to find out that the stench was not bad at all. Instead, it was a great fragrance of the greasy food I had enjoyed inhaling many times before in other areas of town. I believed one thing and my brain perceived the outside reality accordingly.
This tendency for our minds to perceive things that are not perfect forms of reality can cause conflict in different relationships. An argument between two people might result from misperceiving the reality of a situation. One person may have perceived one thing a person was doing or saying and judged that person, while that other person may have been trying to do something else entirely. An argument may result when it could have easily been avoided through a mutual understanding of the actual reality of the situation.
Though there are many bad things that can result from this difference of perception and reality there are also some benefits. Because our brain’s perception can be distorted, the mind is able to make adjustments for the human senses. Within the eye, at its center, there is a gap where cones and other light receptors are missing. This gap acts as a blind spot. When one looks at an object, he should not be able to see it as a whole. Instead, there should be a gap in it where his eye is not sensing the reflected light. The brain, however, takes what it knows about the reality of the object and fills in this gap allowing the human to see it exactly in its actual form.
So reality is definitely not the same as what we perceive. It is a stable, unaffected entity that exists independent of our realm of belief and perception. Realizing the true implications of this fact could be a great step towards understanding how to deal with differences in perception and how to appreciate the alterations our brain makes, through perception, to give our senses a fuller view of reality. The mind is truly amazing, reality is truly amazing, and the interaction that occurs between the two, however distorted or beneficial, is also truly amazing.
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