Thursday 21 April 2011

Perception




Perception is merely reality filtered through the prism of your soul
Christopher A. Ray




The image above is a common example on perception. What do you see? Some people can see a young women looking over her shoulder, others see a old women looking downwards, some see both, some neither.

Often what we see is filtered through our experiences and beliefs. So the question I ask today is "Is what you think is reality or just a perception?" Have you ever thought that you knew the truth of a situation, only to learn more information and have your opinion change?

There is an experiment that you may want to try that really can make your brain go "What the..?!

Get three buckets of water. In one place cold water, in the second have hot water and the third is filled with water at room temperature. After placing one hand in the cold bucket and the other in the hot water, simultaneously place both hands into the bucket at room temperature. Even though both hands are now in the same bucket, the hand that was in cold water now feels as if it is in hot water, while the one that was in hot water now feels as if it is cold water.

The point is that the same thing - in this case, the room temperature water - can be made to seem very different depending on the nature of the events that lead up to your experience.

So how do we know what is real and what is just our perception of reality? I'm not sure we can. Even Albert Einstein stated that "Reality was merely an illusion", meaning that what we class as real is actually just our interpretation of reality. This is why police often get very different statement from witnesses at a crime scene, they are reporting what they think they witnessed.

Here is another picture, like the one above there are two things in it that can be perceived. (I'll give you a hint: two animals)

I know personally I struggled with finding the second animal. I could find the frog happily sitting in its pond. But I needed someone with more experience or a different viewpoint to help find the second one. It was easy when they made me look at the picture from a different perceptive, like the one below

Now is the horse visible to you? Amazing how just by looking at something from another angle gives it a whole new meaning isn't it?

Now I ask that you try it with something in your own life. Picture an event, one that normally brings up strong negative emotions inside you. Now look at the situation from the other people involved point of view - how are they feeling and what are they thinking; then look at it from the perception an innocent onlooker - maybe a small child; and finally from the perception of a higher power (call it God or the Universe or whatever you like). Does this maybe change how you think and feel about the situation?

Would love to hear of your experiences with having a change of perception
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