What sees what the eye sees?

We found out the eye is only a light-sensitive organ (and a half-baked one at that) and does not see by itself.

So, the question now is: what sees what the eye sees?

If we trace the wires (optic nerves) going from the eye, they reach the brain.

So, we will continue our exploration there.

You are probably feeling quite confident now. This must be where the answer is. It is the brain that sees what the eye sees.

Ok. Good idea. Let’s check it out.

When we see something (pay attention to an object), there is a heavy burst of neural activity in the brain, in an area called the visual cortex (occipital lobe).

Then what?

That’s it.

That’s it???

Yes.

It takes the light/color map from the eye and creates a neural map.

But even this conversion is not perfect in the brain. The stupid thing gets activated by other neurons in other parts of the brain – that have nothing to do with seeing.

What we think the brain should be doing is not what it really does. What do we expect the brain to do when we see something with our eye? We expect the wires from the eye to go to the vision center and show the image there faithfully. Right?

Wrong. That’s not what really happens. At best, only 20% of the signals coming to the vision center come from the eye. Close to 80% come from other parts of the brain, related to memory!!!

What we see is mostly memory!

In fact, close to 90% of what the brain ‘perceives’ is memory, not the actual object we see. Damn!

In fact, many things affect what we see.

1. Desire affects what we see

2. How we feel affects what we see

3. Our memories affect what we see

4. Music affects what we see

5. What we want to see, affects what we see.

That’s why illusions are so easy to create.

Consider this! The smell of an object is not the same as the taste of it, the sight of it, the touch of it. But somewhere, sometime, we bring all these together and form a complete perception of the world. There is no central area in the brain where all of these smells, forms, tastes, touch and sounds meet at the same time – to become a tasty, beautiful, crunchy, sweet-smelling red apple!!

So, how can we be sure that is what we are experiencing?

Woow! This is probably freaking you out! So, I’ll stop here

But don’t blame the brain for this.

The illusions are created in the brain, not by the brain

So it’s not all bad news. The problem is elsewhere. We can’t fix it here. But while we are here, let’s see how to make the best use of it.

The brain actually reveals several secrets that we will use later on to master our lives. You can use these tips to save several thousand dollars from your next psychiatric visit

1. The brain reacts the same way, regardless of whether we think about an image with our eyes closed or see an image with our eyes open. (This principle is used extensively in visualization and in ‘creating your reality’, aka the ‘Secret’.

2. The brain can only ‘remember’ new things that already match something else in your brain. (You can use this to rediscover love in your life or to kick a habit forever. All you need to do is associate a new person or habit with the memory of things you enjoyed earlier. The brain will favor familiar looking faces when you are choosing a new partner. Let the brain form the link for you. Easy.

3. If you don’t keep stimulating your memories constantly, the storage of the images will fade over time. (You can use this to let go of memories you have that are very emotional or traumatic. Over time, the brain will not even remember the event happening in your life. It’s perfectly normal.

4. The region of the brain that gets activated when we think of our past events is the same region that gets activated when we envision our future. The brain has no clue of past vs future when it does this. You can imagine yourself in a beach at the Bahamas and your brain fires up as if it has already happened to you in the past. Save several thousand dollars on your next holiday.

Spiritual practitioners in the past, didn’t give too much importance analyzing the function of the brain. They gave it the same respect as other organs in the body – like the liver, kidneys, heart etc. They saw its biological use. They didn’t see its use in getting a direct experience of the world. It takes a half-baked view from the eyes and distorts it even more.

I read an article a long time ago on how much of his brain Einstein used. Waste of time. That is not really what set him apart from the rest. It was how he used the mind.

But that’s another chamber entirely. So, that is where we will go next in our treasure hunt.