Reality or Illusion? How Your Brain Shapes What You See

Your Brain Creates Its Own Version of Reality—And It’s the Version that Keeps You Alive

Researchers shot lasers into brain cells and triggered illusions on demand—a breakthrough that’s rewriting how we see the world.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this story:

Studies show that your brain doesn’t perceive the world exactly as it is. Instead, it “fills in gaps in perception.”

The first layer of your brain’s primary visual cortex helps to decide what reality looks like.

You evolved not to have picture-perfect sight, but to have a useful image of the world, because that benefits your survival.

Illusion—and perception in general—is the brain interpreting sensory evidence based on your beliefs about the sensory world.

:anjal:

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That is why we should be cautious about any claims of a “reality as it is.”

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Hi,

I’d offer that it’s the six senses, including the mind sense, that don’t perceive outside reality exactly as whatever it may be.

This is, on a physical level, fairly obvious: humans don’t perceive UV or infra-red light, hear above 20KHz, have limited olfactory acuity, and so on. The senses are band-pass filters, so whatever information comes in is already limited. And only a small percentage of information that comes in is actually processed by the mind sense.

So our world, or present moment experiences via the senses are, as in SN35.23, the All.

Fortunately, it’s enough to work with towards wisdom, compassion, and happiness – all the way to liberation. :slightly_smiling_face:

:folded_hands:

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Nice that science finds out what yogis found several thousand years ago, - well done, but will it change behaviors, I doubt

Perceiving and conceiving a world

  • Lord Buddha