Seeing is Believing?

Seeing makes it believable because you think what is in front of you is real, as simple as that.  But what we see is only what we are wired to see.  To understand this better, some brief notes on Biology 101 may help.  We all know that we see with the pupil of our eyes.  The light first passes through a protective outer layer called cornea, and then moves into the lens.  The adjustable structure of the lens bends the light, focusing it down to a point on the retina which is at the rear of the eye.  When nerve signals are sent by the retina to the optic nerve, the brain or more specially the visual cortex, steps in as the interpreter and processes the visual input.  It elaborates the visual stimuli we receive and transforms them into what we perceive as reality (visual images).  So thanks to our brains for constantly interpreting, correcting and giving structure to the visual input from our eyes as it is indeed a highly selective process.  It is always busy choosing what to concentrate on and what to filter out.  Casting out all the terminology, it is thus the brain that constructs our visual world, physiologically.  To make it more perceivable, we would like to attribute it to the brain.  Tactile and visible it is, right?  But after all, isn't the brain just a product of the mind?

So what determines what we have chosen to see then?  Visual memory and attention work together to allow a smooth and coherent transition from one source of information to the next.  When the data is stitched together, we do need our brain to create our perception of a meaningful visual world.  But it is only meaningful to, literally, the eye of the beholder.  There is more to what is behind the meaning.  The meaning only makes sense when it is coming from the judgement and beliefs accumulated from past experiences of the individuals.  Some of the things that we can see and observe on a day to day basis may be pleasing to us, but I cannot say that this is the case of the majority of our experiences.  If we were to work in reverse, how about if we can be more mindful and reflect on what we can choose to see and demystify all our judgement behind our choices?