Perception superseding reality

Perception is everything. It influences our views of the world; it affects the way we understand things. The power of perception lies in its subconscious influence over everything we do, everything we experience and everything that we will do in the future.

What is perception? Sensual perception (perception via the senses) can be defined as "the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding."¹ Alternatively, in much the same way, perception can also be defined as "the process of attaining awareness and understanding. For this task we are equipped with the senses - sight, smell, olfaction, touch, taste and the Psyche - imagination, conscience, intellect, memory."²

Interestingly, the concept of perception and its significance towards reality is something that is affected by self-perception. Ironically, the nature of perception means that my perception of this topic would likely differ vastly from you, my reader. My reality, or what I would define as my reality, is only reality under my perception.

Let me throw an example. If someone is locked in a dark room, their perception of their feelings would influence their response. Someone who perceives darkness as despair would begin to panic, but someone who perceives darkness as serenity, would remain calm. Differences in individual perception results in unique points of perspectives within any one community.

The power of perception is seen in how we know anything from our senses. Our sight involves the stimulus of cone or rod cells on the retina, which then are sent as electrical signals to the brain that are decoded. How do we know that our brain is decoding the right images? How do I know that what I think is a laptop is really not a laptop? How can I be certain that I am reading what I am really typing?

More importantly, how do I know that my brain is not subconsciously affecting what I see? The power of perception subconsciously influences our physical perception from our senses. If you are infatuated with someone you love, you are less likely to look at their flaws. if your perception of "big boobs" is beautiful, what are the odds of you looking at someone's face? A quick glance and odds are, a person who finds "big boobs" beautiful will look at women's breasts. It is subconscious, due the the mental perception of "big boobs" being beautiful that affects our physical perception from our senses.

This implication is severe. If our perception influences the way we physically perceive the world, that would make our senses completely flawed. We cannot depend on them to be objective, as everything we perceive physically would be subjected to personal perceptive bias. If this is the case, how can we know anything is real or not? Our perception would influence what we think is real. What our perception of real is will not the same as what our physical perception tells us. (For those who are lost, physical perception is being used loosely to mean "sensual perception").

If this is the case, then what is reality? No one can tell you what your reality is, and neither can you tell yourself. Perception will deceive you into thinking what you perceive is real as real, when in reality it may not be.

Assuming that perception has this capability to influence everything we do, then to what extent is reality purely reliant on perception? Many would consider "reality" as the "absolute", but if perception affects what we think is "absolute", then can we ever know what "absolute" really is?

Let me present an example. You don't need to put someone in a scary place to make them frightened. You simply have to make them perceive that what they are experiencing is frightening. Deceive the perception of the senses and attack a person through psychological means. You could have someone do something perfectly safe, and yet the fear comes from anxiety and insecurity. This can be seen in sky-diving, roller-coasters and pretty much most "thrill" based activities. The perception of a trained sky-diver is different from a beginner, for a trained sky-diver would have past experience and expertise in knowing how to react. For this trained sky-diver, sky-diving can be something that is almost absolutely safe. For the beginner, it is not so. And yet, it is the perception that sky-diving is dangerous that causes fear and anxiety. Insecurity arises from the perception of overstating the danger of an activity like sky-diving.

Put plainly, even if you are in a safe position, your perception will ultimately tell you whether it is safe or not. The unlit alleyway you walk down could be completely safe, but your perception of it being dangerous leads to anxiety and insecurity. Likewise, the lit alleyway someone else might perceive to be completely safe is actually very dangerous.

Ultimately, this boils down to how perception is created. Perception is affected by personal experiences and these past experiences affect our understanding of what we perceive sensually. If you're brought up in a position where education is valued, you might perceive education to be more valuable than someone who is not brought up in similar conditions. Perception changes with experience and differs as different events affect our perception.

What can anyone learn from this? For starters, perception is the most significant factor that affects our interpretation of "reality". We may think that we are nervous, but actually we think we are because we perceive the situation we are in as being challenging. People get stage fright because they perceive themselves as making mistakes and embarrassing themselves. The reality is that they are afraid because they perceive what they feel as being "fear". What if it wasn't called fear? What if it was called "newfeeling"?³

Perception is by and large a part of our daily lives. We exercise it subconsciously without ever considering how it affects our reality. We cannot remove it from how we live, but we can adapt it and change it. Insecure of how you look? What you perceive to be ugly in you could be beauty in the eyes of someone else. Poor grades? What you perceive as poor grades may be what someone looks up to. Perhaps, in essence, we should self-examine ourselves. How much of what we say is as a result of our perception, and how much of what we say because of our perception is only applicable to the individual? Good grades are always sought after by universities, but the perception that universities only care about grades is not accurate. Perhaps it is the reality, but that would be a flaw in my perception.

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^{1:dictionary.reference.com/brows…
2:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percepti…
3:Reader's Digest Asia, June 2010, "How not to be scared", pg 68-72}