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The Rodney Dangerfield of philosophical questions:
When a tree falls in
the forest, and no one is around to hear it, is there a sound?
It gets no respect, because
it seems to be one of those pointless questions that has no answer.
But there is an answer - an answer with profound spiritual and practical
implications.
No, there is no sound!
When the tree falls it produces a series of pressure
waves in the surrounding air. The ear drum converts these waves into a
mechanical signal which is transmitted by 3 small bones to the fluid filled
cochlea - the spiral bony canal of the inner ear. Hair cells of the cochlea
are the actual receptors. Each is tuned to a particular frequency of the fl uid waves. Hair cell vibrations are
converted [transduced] to electrical impulses, and transmitted along the
auditory nerve to the auditory cortex where intensity and frequency of the
vibrations are mapped. Neither pressure waves, physical movements of body
parts [bones, hair], nor electrical signals are sound. What we call sound
exists only in the mind of the perceiver.
Perception differs qualitatively from the
physical properties of the stimulus. The nervous system extracts only
certain information from the natural world. We perceive fluctuations of air
pressure not as pressure waves but as sounds that we hear. We perceive
electromagnetic waves of different frequency as colors that we see. We
perceive chemical compounds dissolved in air or water as specific smells or
tastes. In the words of neurologist Sir John Eccles: "I want you
to realize that there exists no color in the natural world, and no sound -
nothing of this kind; no textures, no patterns, no beauty, no scent."
Sounds, colors, patterns, etc., appear to have an independent reality, yet
are, in fact, constructed by the mind. All our experience of the natural
world is our minds interpretation of the input it receives.
In the classic text, Principles of Neural Science,
Eric Kandel observes:
"The organizational mechanisms of
vision are best demonstrated by illusions. Illusions illustrate that perception is a
creative construction that the brain makes in interpreting visual data....Learning does
not prevent us from being taken in by these illusions."
An illusion is responsible for the voluntarily selection
of a path that predictably leads to sorrow. The lessons learned from painful
experience do not prevent us from being taken in again and again.
Our logo, at the top left of this page, was composed
with this in mind. It is the Greek letter: psi, which represents the psyche [the soul],
surrounded by a figure that illustrates the illusory nature of perception. [Please
visit: Illusions of Perspective for more optical illusions].
Perceptual Bias is Invisible
to the Perceiver
The abuse of a loved one looks different after anger has given way to
regret. In hindsight, the anger was temporary, and its cause trivial. Looking back through
the filter of regret, the abuser may experience guilt, and vow never to repeat the
destructive behavior. But the next time the abuser is in an angry state the local
provocation will not seem trivial, nor will the local perspective appear temporary.
Because perception is a construction of the mind, our
biases are invisible to us and so we are taken in. When angry, the abuser is not aware
that his perception is biased by his local emotional state. His subjective reality is
state dependent, but he does not appreciate that. To him: "She is always
taking advantage of me!" Later when he perceives the same situation in hindsight
– when feeling contrite - he wonders, "Why do I always hurt the one I
love?"
Objectively, we can see that both anger and contrition bias local
perception. But subjectively, in real time, we think we perceive unchanging
reality - the bias is invisible to us. The
failure to appreciate that perception is state dependent is part of the Soul
Illusion.
State-Dependent Learning and Memory
State-Dependent Learning is shown in the laboratory by the
following observation: Rats who learn to run a maze when drunk perform
better when tested drunk than when tested sober. Rats who learn when sober
perform better when tested sober. What is learned in one
state may have little influence on the performance exhibited in a
different state. Likewise, memory is state dependent - when sad it is
easier to remember sad events than happy ones.
Like
sadness, the experiences of success and failure are states
or
"trances" that
influence perception, motivation, and performance.
Failure, for example, is a state associated with
certain feelings, response tendencies, and attitudes. These state
dependent phenomena produce poor performance and so there is a recursive
nature of such states. Failure tends to beget future failure;
on the other hand: Nothing
succeeds like success!
Illusion of Certainty
Because we feel certain that our current perspective is
objectively valid, we are not
able to fully appreciate that what seems to be a good idea now will
seem foolish later. There is some conjecture about what causes us to
feel more certain than we should that our current perspective
is valid. One interpretation: When acting in real time we
function best when we feel certain about the appraisals that gave rise to
the action. According to this view, selective construal - the
feeling of certainty about the validity of our current
perspective - is an integral part of real time experience.
Review
Motivation, perception, and response
probability distributions are all state dependent, and so they are
constantly changing according to local conditions. Despite the
continually changing bias, we operate with the
feeling of certainty that our current local
appraisal is valid and warrants action.
We make the same blunder again and again, despite
repeatedly learning the lesson that the first lapse was a mistake.
We do not profit from this expensive education, because we are biased by
local conditions at the crucial moment. When decisive action is
required to prevent an obvious disaster, we see no danger.
A Clinical
Tale
During our first session,
Mr. Lickfire told
of repeated self-destructive relapses. After each one he swore: "I've learned my
lesson this time, and I will never make that mistake again!" Each time he really
meant it, and yet each vow was eventually followed by a lapse, and each lapse by
regret. Now, in my office, he is about to do it again.
He is not stupid, and is
aware of his history, yet he makes the same mistake again and again. Why?
Key elements from Lickfire's story:
1) His vow is worthless - although he is genuinely committed to it when
he makes it.
2) His appraisal of the costs and benefits of the lapse is different
afterwards than it was just before the lapse.
3) High-risk states for Lickfire include stress [particularly anger and
frustration], and temptation [immediate access to the drug].
4) A lapse produces
immediate gratification, and he learns that the outcome of lapsing is reward. This learning
is bound to the state in which the lapse occurred
5) Later there will be a price to pay, but
he will be in a different state
when he pays it. The lesson that the lapse is ultimately punishing is bound to the
remorseful state, and so will not available to Lickfire during future
high-risk states - e.g., when anticipating getting high.
6) Each painful lesson will seem frustratingly familiar,
and he will not understand why he keeps making the same mistake [now the
powerful biases of the high-risk state are unavailable to him].
7) Ignorant of the Soul illusion he
torments himself by attributing his long and frustrating history of failure
to personal inadequacy. And he feels a certainty about his current
appraisal of his personal worthlessness and of the hopelessness of his
situation.
Escape from this demoralizing pattern is so difficult, not because behaving
successfully requires more strength than he has, but because his definition
of success
changes with local conditions, and he is blind to his changing motivation.
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I remember the time I was
kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he
wanted more proof.
- Rodney Dangerfield
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
- Henri Bergson
If you meet The Buddha on the road, kill him.
- The Buddha
Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that
case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.
- Woody Allen
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be
attained only by someone who is detached.
- Simone Weil
I will be devoting my life to finding the real killer of my
wife Nicole and Ron Goldman.
- O.J. Simpson
It is the enemy whom you do not recognize who is the most dangerous.
- Fernando Rojas
I never had imaginary friends when I was a child, I just thought I
had.
- Strange de Jim
"It is usually possible to discern a structure to people's
difficulties in which internal states and external events continually
recreate the conditions for the reoccurrence of each other."
- Paul Wachtel.
...You can fool some of the people all
of the time...
- Abraham Lincoln
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