Chopra on Lenses of Perception

By itself, nothing “out there”
Has any definition without a perceiver.
When scientists claim to have deciphered
The mechanics of vision,
All they have done is found a map,
Which must not be mistaken for reality.

Everyone has seen photographs
Of what the world looks like
Through the multiple eye of a bee, spider, or fly.
Each of these insects sees through more than one lens,
And the photographs therefore present a cluster
Of eight or ten of twenty images, generally of a flower,
And we are to suppose that the insect brain
Sees the flower that way.

These composites, however, do not really capture
The actual experience of insect eyesight,
They only indicate what a human being might see
If he looked through several camera lenses
At the same time.

If all perception is personal,
Where do the “real”
Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures begin?
We trust our eyes to see “real” photons
And our ears to hear “real” vibrations in the air,
But it is easy to show that
This trust rests upon a very shaky foundation.

Why don’t we all see voices,
Instead of restricting ourselves
To the same worn rut of hearing?
Many deaf people do “hear” the wind in the trees
When they see the branches swaying.
Some junction point in their minds
Converts a visual signal into an auditory one.
Many blind people can likewise “see” faces
By feeling them with their hands.

A mental junction point has taken the signals of touch
And converted them to sight.
Presumably our brains could do the same thing,
But we prefer to let habit and memory take over.
We see through our eyes and feel through our fingers
Because we have been conditioned to do so.