It determines what we see, what we do, what we feel. It controls ouremotions, our thoughts, and our conscience. What is this remarkable element ofthe human mind? It is called perception. Perception as defined in the Merrian-Webster Dictionary as the following-1 a : awareness of the elements of environment through physicalsensationb: Physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience-2 a : quick, acute, and intuitive cognition : appreciation b : capacity for comprehension Perception. As hard as it is to define it, it is impossible to correctlyconceive a “correct” or “right” way to use it. Perception varies with not onlyhumans, but with virtually all other animals as well, whether through instinctor with conscious thought. Let us take this a step farther. When a bee looks ata flower that is meant for feeding from, they do not only notice the colors thehuman mind sees. The bee sees a yellow “run-way” directly into the core of theflower, guiding it into the source of nectar. This brings us to the question-“is what we see real, or is what we see our own reality?”. What the human mindsees is only three dimensions. Since Albert Einstein first conjured thescientific possibility of a fourth dimension, human beings have longed to see it.
Many people assume that it does not exist simply because they cannot see it. They are not able to see the yellow “run-way” into the heart of a flower, but tothe bee and an ultraviolet light, that “run-way” is certainly real. People’sphysical use of their own perception is very limited, as such noticeable in the”tunnel-vision” effect. A good example of the Tunnel Vision effect is aperception or thought such as “if I cannot see it, it simply does not exist”. Weas humans are limited not only to what we can sense, but how we perceive what wesense. Such is a formidable question. What if that fourth dimension does exist,what if we can see it , only our brain cannot perceive it being there, thereforit never exists in the first place. I would consider that as a paradox.
Where does perception come from? Is it a result of the upbringing andsurroundings of an individual (animal or human), or is it a result of genetics?Certainly I would believe that conditioning has a great impact on anindividual’s perception. An example to that would be as such : A dog is abused,beaten, and starved by a group of owners in a kennel. The dog is then recoveredby the humane society and adopted by a local family. The dog in turns bites onein the family every time a hand is raised near it as a motion, for food orotherwise. The dog has been conditioned into fear. However, due to theconditioning, the dog perceives the hand motions differently than would anewborn pup. The dog perceives such hand actions as a premonition that it isabout to be hit or harmed in some way. I can only conclude to myself that thereis a distinct possibility that conditioning has the ability to alter perceptionin a great amount.
People often mistakenly identify people for others in many circumstanceseveryday. For example, I got on the bus to go to school a few weeks ago, and satdown next to a person whom I believed I had talked to the day before regarding atopic. I started to say something, I looked up and realized the person was atotally different person than whom I believed I was talking to. I had seen theperson who I thought I was talking to when I got on that bus. The physicalfeatures, the voice, etc. all matched. However, a neuron must have misfiredbecause there was an entirely different person altogether in that seat. I wentto another seat, pondered it over, and realized how speculative humanidentification is. Often victims of rape, robbery, or other crimes are asked toidentify their assailant in a police lineup. Seventy two percent of peoplemisidentify suspects in police lineups the first try.
The reason? The personsees who they “saw” when they were attacked. I would presume that during anattack, a person would be more concerned about staying alive than noticing theexact physical characteristics of the individual who is attacking. Since thebrain is overworking to do multitudes of tasks at the time of an attack, I wouldassume that a person would not pay particular notice to the appearance of theattacker. This is why human visual identification is so controversial and hardto support. Perhaps the person see that person who attacked them in thelineup. People often fill in the gaps of a picture and story to make everythingseem clear to them and the authorities. Therefor, human visual identificationcannot be trusted simply due to people’s differences of perception. When Ilook at and read the Bible, I regard it as an awesome literary work, but notsomething I would base or live my life upon. However, there are those whoperceive the Bible as not only words on a page, but as the guiding force behindhumanity. Religion and perception do not go well together simply due to the vastdifferences in opinion among the human race. What I perceive as fact is thatJesus Christ did not ascend into heaven, and that the Bible is merely a literarywork. A book to be concise. However, what Christians perceive as fact is theexact opposite. Often, there are those in the religious or family oriented lobbyindustries who try to suppress what I read or hear based upon their ownperception.
Perhaps this is stretching the links of perception, but I believethat the perceptual differences among people are the original roots ofcensorship. One group of people or person perceives something as obscene or”harmful”. Another group perceives as intellectuallystimulating or entertaining. Such is why I consider perception as not onlyhaving to do with human psychology, but with politics and beliefs as well. I consider perception to be not only what a person senses, but what theyget out of what they sense. I listen to hard-core rock and like the sound of it.
However, an adult would most likely label it as simply “noise”. The perceptualdifferences among people is the biggest speed bump in attaining world,civil, and domestic peace. Our differences are small, but great in bounty. I seewhite, you see black. Never will all people in the world agree on one particulartopic, however we can learn to respect the perception of that topic. Untilpeople understand the roots of problems is how they perceive them, and that itis only a problem if you make it a problem, peace and respect are unattainablegoals.
