Nothing is what it appears to be

In this image I reflect on the notion of “reality,” that it’s both individual and a construct. There’s the reality that I, as the photographer, experienced—the bright sun and the people on the hill. And part of that reality includes cars in a parking lot and an observation platform to the right of the walkers. So, the reality within the frame is a small fraction of what I experienced. Further, the realities of the individuals walking down the path are entirely different from my experience, each having a unique perspective based on a complex of references, preferences, relationships and motivations. And then there are the realities that you and other observers will read into this image.

For instance, there is humanity’s exploration of the planet, it’s advance into the future or the scale of the Earth and human beings relative to the immensity of the sun. Yet another reality is the image itself, experienced differently on a screen or on paper. These and other realities are quite easily seen and understood because our senses provide our brains with stimulations that construct meaning based on past personal experiences.

What we do not see is an “objective reality.” While our sensory systems evolved to maximize the potential for survival and growth, they do not detect the realities that give rise to life and form, the worlds of quarks, atoms and quanta. For instance, the photons that are stimulating our retinas when we look at the above image. Objectively it has no color. What the brain interprets as color has everything to do with the reflection and absorption properties of surfaces. We say a fabric is “red,” for instance, because the combination of threads absorb the colors of the visible spectrum other than red. Put another way, “Blue” is the experience of a lack of yellow. So while our eyes perform the critical task of providing wavelength input and generating stimuli accordingly, it’s actually the brain that “sees” color. The same is true of shape, texture and dimension, properties the brain uses to interpret and construct our visual reality. Actually, every sensation is a mental construct.

People act, not on reality, but on the pictures in their head.

Walter Lippman, American reporter and political commentator

In themselves and aside from our perception, even solids are constructs. In the quantum realm nothing is solid. There is no matter, only vibrating fields that blink in and out of existence. There’s far space then matter within and between the atoms in the hardest metals and minerals. The same goes for the universe—as we know it. All matter reduces to “quanta” and energy “fields.”

For whatever reason, this image reminded me that the realities of everyday life are personal constructs, moment to moment interpretive creations where all my sensory inputs are filtered through a myriad of past experiences and influences including physiology, ethnicity, psychology, family, education, peer associations, socialization and work to name a few. Even the realities and the symbols that represent them are momentary constructions. I’m reminded of the indigenous people in the Americas who experienced Spanish galleons for the first time. They saw them sea monsters or monster canoes and regarded rifles as barking sticks and fire sticks. New realities rely upon established ones to make sense of them.

On the one hand, the awareness that reality is a construct is humbling. It leads to the observation that we live somewhere in the middle between the ephemeral and immensity. It’s also empowering because, if my personal reality is a construct, I can alter it—make it better. What’s more, the leading edge of consciousness and technology that’s expanding our understanding and capabilities in both directions suggests that something grand is in process. From this perspective, and in the image above, I see us walking into that light with enthusiasm and determination.

The physical world is a domain, a segment, and hence a manifestation, of the intelligence of the cosmos. The vibrations that produce the phenomena of physical and nonphysical phenomena are part of the reality of the world, a world that is in-formed by, and manifests, the intelligence that is not only “of” the cosmos, but is the cosmos.

Ervin Laszlo, Author, systems scientist

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My other sites—

Love And Light greetings.com: A twice-weekly blog featuring wisdom quotes and perspectives in science and spirituality intended to inspire and empower

David L. Smith Photography Portfolio.com: Black and white and color photography

Ancient Maya Cultural Traits.com: Weekly blog featuring the traits that made this civilization unique 

smithdl@fuse.net