Eyes
How do we see? Do we see with our eyes or do we see with our brain? You may be thinking, “Why should I waste my time learning about such a trivial matter?” In order to answer those questions, I’ll use an analogy about photography and color film processing.
Darkroom chemistry is the primary cause for good or bad photograph quality. (before digital photography was invented) The picture of the flowers show how the image changes depending on the chemistry. If the ph or temperature of the darkroom chemicals are wrong, this will affect the quality of the picture. This won’t change the actual flowers. It will only change the image. Photography can be a great analogy for how the brain works. The eyes are a lens but the image is developed in the brain. This is the same thing as the camera vs the darkroom. The quality of the image is dependent on brain function. It affects how you perceive reality. However, reality doesn’t actually change to match how you perceive it.
Perception precedes reality. – Andy Warhol.
For example, a person that’s suffering from depression can’t see as many colors as normal. The colors will run together and look washed out. This visual interpretation compounds with the mental interpretation. As a result of this, things can become very distorted. A beautiful flower with vibrant colors can be interpreted to be only a plant that causes hay fever! This in turn alters the chemicals in our brain and distorts the images even further!
I know where you’re going with this. I’ve heard this positive thinking crap before. I don’t buy into this fantasy land stuff! People that are born into a sheltered life can use positive thinking. I don’t have a Brady Bunch family nor was I born with a silver spoon in my mouth. That’s why I’m better off to stay focus on the real world!
You don’t believe in looking at the half full glass?
Definitely not! You people wear rose colored glasses. That wonderful stuff that you see isn’t real.
When you say rose colored glasses, are you referring to it as a metaphor?
That’s right! You have trained yourself to only see only the good in the world. YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES TO ALL OF THE BAD STUFF! YOU HAVE AN OSTRICH MENTALITY!
Do you mean that whatever we spend our time thinking about only clouds our vision and it alters our perception?
How many more times do I have to say it? The rose colored lens that you decided to wear determines what you’re able to see! Therefore, you became blind to all the negative stuff!
Does this apply to everybody?
Of course it does! DUUUUUUUUHHHHH!
Does that mean that it applies to you as well?
What do you mean? I don’t wear rose colored glasses.
No, but what a person thinks about alters their perception. This applies to you as well. If our positive thinking gives us rose colored glasses, then it’s equally true that your negative thinking gives you shit colored glasses. You’ve trained yourself to see ONLY the bad in the world. You’ve closed your eyes to all of the good stuff. You have an ostrich mentality that’s equal to ours. This mindset is just as true or just as false as the one that we have.
YOU’RE TWISTING MY WORDS AROUND! WHAT I SEE IS REAL! WHAT YOU SEE IS FAKE!
STEREOGRAMS
I’d like to pause here to talk about another concept. I’ll talk about stereograms and I’ll use it as a metaphor to talk about perception vs reality.
A stereogram is a hidden picture within a picture. What looks like a pattern of gibberish contains a simple black and white image. A stereogram is an optical illusion of depth created by a flat, two-dimensional image. But if you view the image in a particular way, the three-dimensional image reveals itself in an uncanny way. But getting the hidden image within a stereogram to reveal itself takes a couple of tries to master. They work because our eyes are spaced slightly apart in our heads and each eye views the same scene from a slightly different angle. Normally, we don’t notice this. If/when we do notice the difference, the hidden image will appear.
Few people can see these without a lot of effort. However, after a bit of practice, they find them easy to view. Some can’t see them at all. They can spend 30 minutes trying but never can see the hidden image.
Imagine that you’re one of these people that can see the hidden picture within seconds. This wasn’t always the case. When you first started viewing stereograms, it sometimes took five minutes before you could see the hidden picture. However, now that you’ve seen hundreds of them, the image ‘jumps out at you’ with ease. You’re so good that you see the image without any effort! In fact, it’s hard to comprehend why other people don’t see it!
Person ‘A’ – How can you not see the snowman? You must be blind!
Person ‘B’ – There is no snowman there! You must be imagining it!
Person ‘A’ – How can you not see the flower? You must be blind! This is a metaphor for, “How can you not see the good things in the world?
Person ‘B’ – There are no good things in this world! You’re either living a sheltered life, or you’re delusional!
Person ‘B’ – How can you not see the turd? You must be blind! (How can you not see all the shit in this world?) You obviously live in lala land.
Person ‘A’ – You see a turd because you have been practicing for years on how to find turds. You’ve become so good at it that you can see them without even trying. In fact, you don’t know that anything else even exists! This is why you were unable to see the flower!
Let’s get back to our original concept. What you think about alters your perception. Not only do you ‘practice’ everyday about seeing either the flower or the turd, but what you see helps to determine your brain chemistry! This is the same as a depression sufferer that sees colors that run together and have that ‘washed out’ look.
This is a paradox or circular argument. The answers are complicated. Unfortunately, when people are in a depressive state, they seldom have the patients to explore something so complex.
If you read this far, you may be wondering how to fix this. You may have spent years of practice on how to view turds. Fortunately, it won’t take as many years to learn how to view flowers. First of all, you have to recognize that viewing turds for several years will ensure that the photo processing darkroom (your brain) will be turbulent. This will take time to settle. The best way to start this process is to visit this page.
