Reality Isn’t Real

What you think of reality and what I think of reality can be very different. This isn’t a new concept but many people believe that because they see something one way, that is the only way to see it. 

In this new video from The Atlantic, they analyze controversies like the “Yanny and Laurel” phenomena where some people hear Yanny and others hear Laurel. Take the infamous Blue and Yellow dress debacle, either side couldn’t understand why the other was “clearly wrong.”

It’s because we trust our senses far too much. Our senses bring in data inputs into our brain and our brain interprets them based on the data (such as it is) and blends that through our experience and cultural notions that we’ve unconsciously adopted. The only perspective you can trust is your own and we know through philosophy that even that can’t be objectively proven because no two people are exactly alike and no two people can see exactly the same thing. 

For example, I have severe cornea coning in my left eye. Without my contacts, it is hard to see distance or have depth perception because while my brain is reading the data very well, my eyes are not giving the brain good data. Ultimately, our senses fail us and how we see the world may not be the same as others see the world. 

Of course, the political implications of this are obvious. I am a student of the Enneagram and I enjoy learning about all the 9 numbers and their own unique perspective on the world. Who we are, as people, humans, and persons, deeply affects our perception. Our eyes, noses, fingers, and ears give only some or part of the picture. Our brain fills in the rest. I can describe my environment to you, but you may see things very differently than I do. In this way, reality isn’t as real as you might originally think.