Letās take sight, for example. We see this bell, but we donāt really see this bell. What we see is the light that is reflected on the bell in my eye. Thatās what I see, but not really the bell. Like if I take another thing which has more color than a silver bell, this is a blue lighter, then the reason why I believe this is a blue lighter is because it reflects blue light. All the other colors of the white light that are falling on it, it absorbs. The only one color it doesnāt want is blue, it reflects it. So Iām saying, āThis lighter is blue,ā while this lighter is doing its utmost best not to be blue. Itās repulsing all the blue light. So a little difficult, this sight thing.
Scientifically, I also know that this object that looks very solid, isnāt solid at all. I mean, technically speaking, of course, it is solid. But, technically speaking also, it consists of many atoms, and in between those atoms, thereās a lot of empty space, but by magnetism and things like that, it keeps together pretty well. And then if I look into each one of these atoms, then I find even a lot more empty space. If an atom is big like this, then the more tangible part of it is maybe big like the tip of my little finger, I have no idea, but very small. Then there are still much smaller particles flying around there, they're called electrons. We donāt even really know if they are really particles or just light, or energy.
Anyhow, this thing which I see as solid is largely made of empty space and a little stuff in between. So we donāt see very well. A cat could easily see the temperature of this bell from far away, because it can see infrared light, and infrared light is light emitted by everything according to its temperature, according to its heat. Itās a heat ray. And I canāt see that. I can feel how hot or cold it is, but if I put it there, and look at it, I canāt see that. So Iām pretty blind in that respect.
If you look at how animals can see different rays, itās so amazing. They have a completely different picture of this universe. Like cats, they donāt see any other colors, they just see these shades of red, which indicate temperature. Thatās how they perceive the world, a pink world. And then some red, and maybe shades of yellow, I have no idea, but thatās about it. Then there are other insects with eyes which are made out of hundreds of eyes, and each of these eyes brings an image, so they have a view of the world in hundreds of images at the same time. You canāt even imagine. You canāt even imagine how they perceive the world. There are so many strange creatures. And there are strange humans also. Some people have this disease called Daltonism. They donāt know the difference between red and green. Can you imagine? To them itās the same color. So they also get a rather different picture. And theyāre people also.
Also it changes with perspective. If I put the bell like that, you get a completely different picture than if I put the bell like that, or when I put it like that, or maybe, like that. Itās a different bell every time it moves. So itās the same with the other senses. Our sense of smell is nothing. A dog could probably smell on my bell how many cats I have, while I can hardly smell the bell. And hearing, for starters, if you record your own voice and you listen to it afterwards, you think, āOh, thatās not me.ā Because what other people hear are soundwaves coming out of my mouth, but I hear them also from inside, through my skeleton and brain and flesh and everything. But even then, sound is very abstract, how it travels very far. And itās airwaves, but even then in empty space, there can also be sound. Then how does that work? I have no idea. But we certainly donāt hear very well.
Again, dogs, they can hear a lot more than we can. There are lots of frequencies which we donāt know. We just discovered actually that elephants can talk through a little hole here in their forehead, where they make some ultrasonic sound, I donāt really know how to describe it, but, in any case, we canāt hear it. And theyāve been talking to each other forever while people were around. You have these working elephants, you have no idea what theyāve been talking to each other about, maybe us, all the time. Amazing. So, in any case, we donāt hear very well, we donāt see very well. We donāt smell very well, and touch, thatās another one. So this bell is largely empty space, then my hand also must be largely empty space, so I canāt even touch this bell. Itās the empty spaces of my hand which are touching the empty spaces of the bell.
The taste of things changes, depending on which order youāve eaten them in. If you have a professional wine taster, he will have some bread in between every bit of wine, otherwise one wine will affect the taste of the other. So itās all very complicated. We have no clue whatās around us. And Iām not saying that from this, we can say there is nothing around us. Thereās something here, definitely, but what we experience from it is certainly not the truth. Thereās a very personal, human way of perceiving things. And we do a lot of recoloring, also. We fill in a lot of blanks with what weāve seen before. Like when watching TV, TV is a flat screen, but all the time we fill in the 3D. Somebodyās coming and we say, āOh, look, behind your back, a bad guyās coming with a knife.ā Thereās no behind the back anywhere on the TV screen - itās a flat screen. But we still do that, and we actually do that a lot in real life also, when we see 3D through our two eyes. A lot of that we actually just compute in our mind. Our mind gets all these signals, energies through the senses, and from that, creates a particular image. So this reality, we canāt really say that what we get there from our senses is in anyway relevant. Itās relevant for living maybe, yes, but not relevant for understanding anything, for finding the ultimate truth.
Itās like in this movie, the Matrix, thatās nicely done. They have this guy, and at some point he understands the illusionary nature of that universe, created by a computer, and then suddenly starts seeing everything as just energy, or data, moving everywhere, but nothing real. Itās the same thing that we are experiencing, thatās what science would say. If you ask what is around us, they will say, āWell, itās just a play of energy.ā Energy moving. Energy becoming more condensed and then it looks like matter, or less condensed and then it becomes like air, or maybe, more vibrating, and then it looks like fire, or light. Thatās just all energy.
