Human beings perceive the world
primarily through a system "The expectations of life depend upon diligence : the mechanic
that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools"
.........Confucius 500 B.C.
The whole process of a being's existence revolves around what is called perception :
the cognitive activity that from birth to death directs the stream of consciousness. The
concept of perception is distinguished from consciousness is that the primary element
of consciousness - the supra-conscious is beyond direct perception, but affects and
directs perception. In a new born being, the perceptual field is empty, and although
the supra-conscious is active, it has nothing to act upon or direct. Immediately after
birth, the perceptual field starts filling up, mostly through the senses and the order of
the senses that comes as a part and parcel of the order of the society around the
being. The processing of these sensory inputs by the nervous system takes place,
and the perceptual field is also acted upon by the supra-conscious. The resultant
structure of the perceptual field is called here as the mind of the being.
It should be clear that this perceptual field is very much limited in its capacity to
hold and process conceptual elements (objects) that make up this field, although
this does have
considerable variation from one person to another.
"First, we need to
differentiate between sensing and perceiving. Sensing
is the more mechanical aspect, involving the stimulation of the sensory
receptors and the sensory nerves. Perceiving is about one's
personal
relationship to the incoming information. We all have sense organs which
are similar, but our perceptions are totally unique. Perception is about
how we relate to what we are sensing. Perception is about relationship
to ourselves, others, the Earth and the universe. "-- B. B. Cohen
"Perception is always
an embodied perception, one that is what it is only
within a specific context or situation. Perception in-itself does not exist-
there is only perception as it is lived in the world - as a result of the
incarnate nature of perception, the perceiving subject is always
changing." .........Merleau-ponty
In a highly active state of awareness or stimulation or in strange experiences
this perceptual field does expand, but again not without limits. Its only in case
the supra-conscious becomes fully active and is able to take the perceptual
field beyond its boundaries, can there be unlimited possiblities of experiences
out of the ordinary.
"I say one must be a seer, make oneself seer. The poet
makes himself a seer by an immense, long, deliberate
disordering of the
senses. " ...............Arthur Rimbaud
THE SENSORY SYSTEMS
" I have defined
sensation as perception through conscious sensory
processes, and intuition as perception by way of
unconscious
contents and connections. Obviously we could argue until Doomsday
about the fitness of those definitions, but the discussion eventually
turns upon a mere question of terms." ........Jung
Human beings perceive the world
primarily through a system
of inputs known as the sensory systems of vision, sound, touch,
smell and taste ( the five senses). The physical world around
a being is therefore constructed as a model primarily through
these sensory inputs , with the inbuilt primary goal of survival
as the dominant controller.
The sensory systems provide the direct communication mode for
a being to interact with its environment so that a basic structure
of the mind is constructed in order to provide for the functional
requirements for the survival of the being.
The sensory systems are therefore vital not only for the survivability
of a being but also play an equally vital role in developing the
construct of the mind of the being by accumulating the ''knowns' of
the world, perceived by the being through the sensory inputs and
explained or interpreted mainly by other beings in a system of know-
ledge that is distinct to that society and time in which the being lives.
Since the sensory systems are a system of input-output with the
physical world and the paradigm of the world is primarily based on
this system , most attributes of the physical world can be agreed
upon by beings in sensory communication with each other so that
an order exists in which a social system functions.Thus the sensory
systems not only provide vital functionality for the individual being
with his environment or the physical world in which the being lives
but also the vital means by which a group or network (society) of
beings function cohesively and orderly ( or disorderly, as
the case may be).
Without an agreed upon system of perception based on sensory
data no social system or order can last . The degree of order in a
social system is proportional to the degree of agreement in
perceiving the physical world through the sensory systems .
Similarly the physical survivability of a being is proportional to
the degree of coordination or correlation between the overall
self of the being with the physical reality of the being
determined by the sensory systems.
But these are considerations with the assumption that the
world, and its reality is wholly physical only, i.e., that there
is nothing in reality beyond the physical.
With this assumption, however, no comprehensive grasp of
reality is attainable, and one is stuck only within a scientific
view of reality.
"Intellect
distinguishes between the possible and the impossible;
reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless.
Even the possible can be senseless."........Max Born
THE NON-SENSORY SYSTEMS (Nonsense?)
" I entitle transcendental all knowledge which is occupied
not so much with objects as with the mode of our
knowledge of
objects." .........Immanuel Kant
Apart from the sensory systems, there exists a faculty of perception
that is independent of the perception generated from the sensory
systems and that the nature of this mode of perception is mainly
spontaneous, and the source , the location , the time duration etc
essentially cannot be identified or quantified , and yet can have
the most profound impact upon the self, although this is neither
accepted or agreed upon in general nor is likely to be agreed
upon in the near future, that is, it cannot be in the domain
of scientific method or investigation.( or at least what is
currently understood and agreed upon as science)
( This faculty for perception beyond the sensory systems is
fairly active in early childhood, but as the perceptual field
gets more and more cluttered with "objects" of sensory
content, this faculty becomes diminished in strength and
influence upon the perceptual field. )
Because of the very nature of this kind of perception , perhaps
to seek an agreement is itself inappropriate or invalid, for one
thing is for sure : this kind of perception is in no way similar
to sensory perception. Even giving an example of this type of
perception is fraught with pitfalls : and we will end back to
where we started : sensory models. It is for this reason that
words like ESP, Sixth Sense, Sorcery , Out of Body Experience
Mysticism, Occult powers, Shamanism, LSD, Altered States of
Consciousness, God, instinct, intuition, higher level of conscious
-ness, etc are being avoided here, for no sooner such terms
are used, immediately our minds will respond with :
Aha ! So that is what you mean !
Unfortunately, there is no other way to model non-sensory
perception than to use sensory models and analogies, and
this process is unavoidable, even if the only purpose that
this can at all serve is to make us aware of the possibility
and potential of this mode of perception.
To deny possibilities, capabilities and potential of the human
faculties is not an option here.
"A primordial image is
determined as to its content only when
it has become conscious and is therefore filled out with the
material of the conscious experience.".....C. G. Jung
THE SYNTHESIS PROCESSING OF
NON-SENSORY INPUTS
" Art, essentially involves the idea of a sustained, experienced
mental synthesis. All art objects are 'performed' or imagined first
by the artist and then by his clients, and these imaginative and
intellectual activities or experiences may said to be the point or
essence of art.
The subject matter of the art is then the nature of the
process itself." Iris Murdoch
The main point here is that
non-sensory perception and the
synthesis process are inseparably related. In other words,
in any experience of the mystical, non-sensory kind, an
element of creation or synthesis are invariably involved,
and only then it
becomes subject to analysis.
To revere art and have no
understanding of the process that forces it
into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is....I. A. Baraka
The
rational, intellectual faculty is thus twice removed from
the non-sensory experience. What has to be recognized is
that every experience is processed by the intellect, whether
consciously or by
default, sub-consciously.
"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to
comprehend."........Robertson Davies
Our intellect's function is to automatically, by default, provide for
interpretation and meaning to even the most weirdest of experiences.
One can train the intellect to stop doing so, and live only in continuous
experiencing mode, but how functionally and meaningfully useful it is
can only be determined personally.
"We are thinking beings, and we cannot exclude the intellect from
participating in any of our functions".....William James
A vital distinction has been made in this article between the world of senses and of
the world or worlds beyond the senses. This then becomes the basis of the division
of the Self (and its reality in its experience) into the physical - of the senses as well as
derived from the senses and the non-physical - independent of the sensory systems,
but synthesised and then given form or expression in the domain of the senses,
with the intellect as the interpreter.
"We should take care not to make the intellect our god ; it has, of course
powerful muscles, but no personality"........Albert Einstein
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