What We Think We See...

What we think we see could fill more books than the time it would take to read them. For me this was a frighting thing. Just about all that makes our world is based on what it is that we think we see. That's right, what we think we see!

I remember back in my high school science class when introduced to the notion that everything we see isn't at all what is there... I can still remember what it felt like trying to comprehend that idea and what it also felt like to have my mind slip into a more comfortable state of denial as it shut down!

The red we see from an apple is the one color that the apple isn't, that being red! It is the light reflected back out into the word, the one color that could not be absorbed by the skin of that apple! OK... so are you good with that so far?! So if you were to mix all the colors together but red, that would be the true color of the apple, it the apple is a red one that is! So what does it really look like? Ever see a color negative from an old film camera? That is what the world really looks like... without light that is. All the colors we see from objects around us are the colors that each object isn't, it is the color reflected back into the world and into our eyes and interpreted as that color because we just didn't know any better. Like seeing the sun rise and fall each and everyday in our sky and then later finding out that it doesn't move at all but we do! And the first thought was,"... I don't feel the earth moving?"

But that's not all! There's more! Even the orientation of what we think is up and down has been changed by our minds. The eye is a single lens device and therefor inverts all light that comes through the lens upside down onto the back of our eyes where are the rods and cones are. Our minds make the switch to right-side up to help keep us from losing our cookies when we walk and chew gum! 

This image is a real one I took from down the street where I live, but has had all the colors removed to create what I like to call "The Mother and Kids"... her hair even looks organic, alive and flowing. And just for fun I will not tell you just what this is, after all, you would just see it totally different than what it really is!