A Little More on Perception
Sorry, I know readers prefer juicy scoop about an election, but I must post a little more content on this sensory perception material. A proper perspective requires one to break free of the five sense paradigm and recognize that a vast stream of far finer distinguished data streams flood our perceptual system.Starting with taste, the old school is that we have four components: bitter, sweet, salt, sour. Well, that’s completely ridiculous. Bite into a fresh jalapeno and tell me which of the four has you charge for a cold beer or a glass of water. Taste alone can be broken into over a dozen components, and if you think taste has many components, consider that you could easily spend an hour listing all of the different possible scents the nose can register. Now, a spectrum of data does not imply an additional instrument of perception. Whether we are talking about 20,000 different scents or 2 million, it is still one nose.
The useful insight comes from fragmenting the entire stream and destroying any binding classifications or categorizations that apply restrictive filters on one’s ability to perceive reality.We get nowhere until one truly distinguishes "distinction" which forms the foundation of what I am building. Sight provides the easiest access. In the first image, what do you see? Consciousness has levels, and what determines what you see operates at a level beneath thought. A young woman looking away? An old woman looking down? What led you to your conclusion is not thinking. It is something else.
How about the second image? What is it? It is most instructive if you have to struggle a little while. If you see nothing but chaos, that is uninterpreted data, which surrounds you completely in quantities beyond comprehension the vast majority of which you completely ignore or you would go insane. Once you "see it" the data has passed your interpretive framework into the realm accessible to thought, and you say, "Oh, it's a cow."
When the cow becomes clear, or you shift from the old lady to the young woman, it is not thinking.
Now, take this concept we applied to simple sight and expand it to all perception including the many senses beyond the five. You have my solemn promise that I am not messing around.
There is a red pill.
posted by x4mr at 7:09 PM
3 Comments:
Very interesting.
I read Something Else over the weekend. I think you should complete it with professional advice on how to make it as good as it can be.
I finished it Sunday morning, and it is very thought provoking. I've been thinking about it all day.
Your story is sad. I admire what you have done, but I also, no disrespect intended, feel sorry for you. You are obviously very gifted, yet the world seems to work against you. It is painful to witness.
I am absolutely appalled by the way TREO took money allocated for SAIAT. That is disgusting. I could not agree more with whoever said that Snell's letter is damning. It is worse than that.
That letter is the smoking gun. That they had a contract with your board members and didn't tell you just puts icing on the cake. Then these board members tried to fire you. Hideous people. Hideous.
My career has not required me to engage at this level.
By matching the terrible behavior in Washington with the terrible behavior in Tucson, you have written an admirable work. It says a lot about why this planet is so full of suffering.
Best of luck to you.
I have not read Something Else. I react to your remarks here.
Are you going in this direction, this direction, or somewhere else? Do you interact with Ken Wilber?
Do you know what you are doing?
Our narrow definition and understanding of the senses is the language barrier at work. Language being the framework of concious thought we are narrowed by it, and in turn narrow our understanding. By the time we reach adulthood, the barriers are in place, our reality has been set for us, because the way we integrate new data is set for us.
Descartes is correct, and incorrect. We are thinking things, but to say so is like calling the tip of an iceberg the entire iceberg. There is so much more, emotion, intuition, and empathy. I've always felt that concious thought is just along for a ride on the river. Maybe once a buddist quiets the mind, they are really just going for a swim.
A final thought on intuition. I think it is the right tool for jumping the language hurdle, the part of our mind least affected by if-then linear thinking. Intuition gets mice and men through the maze.
Blind Man
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