Perception and Truth

My Perception, My Truth

The word "perception" comes from the Latin words perceptio, percipio, and means "receiving, collecting, and action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses. What one perceives is a result of interplays between past experiences, including one’s culture, and the interpretation of the perceived.

In the case of visual perception, some people can actually see the percept shift in their mind's eye. Others, who are not picture thinkers, may not necessarily perceive the 'shape-shifting' as their world changes. The question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" serves to demonstrate the way an object can be perceived in different ways. Just as one object can give rise to multiple percepts, another object may fail to give rise to any percept at all: if the percept has no grounding in a person's experience, the person may literally not perceive it.

Preconceptions can influence how the world is perceived. The processes of perception routinely alter what humans see. When people view something with a preconceived concept about it, they tend to take those concepts and see them whether or not they are there. This problem stems from the fact that humans are unable to understand new information, without the inherent bias of their previous knowledge. A person’s knowledge creates his or her reality as much as the truth, because the human mind can only contemplate that to which it has been exposed. When objects are viewed without understanding, the mind will try to reach for something that it already recognizes, in order to process what it is viewing. That which most closely relates to the unfamiliar from our past experiences, makes up what we see when we look at things that we don’t comprehend.

We obtain information from the external world, from our senses: taste, hearing, smell, touch, sight. Then we somehow integrate and analyze perceived information and make our decision. Decision is an “outcome of mental processes (cognitive process) leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice”. How do we make a decision, or even better to ask what leads us to make a decision? All our decisions are directed by our instincts, unconsciously. The basic human instinct is self-preservation or, in other words, survival and reproduction. But the decisions, which we make according to our instincts, are different. That’s because of the upbringing, different moral values, and our ability to analyze behavior and learn. We always behave in order to maximize our instinct requirements, our ability to survive, preserve ourselves our family or our kind. This way we have three basic levels of perception - Obtaining information, integration and analysis of information, and reaction. Our five senses is the input of information, while our actions and decisions are the output. The source for the input information is external world, while the output is our process of thinking based on our instincts. The understanding, which role instincts play in our life, is crucial. Instincts is the foundation of human society, is the only one thing that all humans have in common.

Let’s discuss a few illustrations. 

A glass filled to half of its capacity with a colorless liquid was presented to a group of five people and asked to give comments. First one said, “The glass is half empty”. The second one took some time and replied, “The glass is half full”. The third person echoed the views of the 2^nd   individual and the fourth person echoed the views of the 1^st individual. The fifth person took more than five minutes to make a conclusion and he said, “The glass is not half-filled but it is full. The bottom half is filled with water and the second half is filled with air”. These five individuals were then described by a panel of psychological analysts as pessimistic, optimistic, optimistic, pessimistic and over-optimistic respectively. 

All these individuals were then asked to take a sip from the glass and explain what it is. The first one came forward and took a sip, gave numerous expressions on his face and said, “I do not know what it is but I am certain that it is not water”. The second person took a sip and said, “It tastes like a cold-drink but I do not know which one is it”. The third individual from the group came forward, took a sip and said, “It is liquor. However, it is not a local or DESI liquor; it’s English or imported liquor”. The fourth one in the group said, “It is Vodka mixed with a Cold-Drink”. Last person in the group, who was looking very impatient and a bit tired, came forward and took a sip and said, “It is Kauffman Luxury Vintage Vodka. It is a Russian brand of Vodka. The word vodka comes from VODA, the Russian word for water”. After the second round, the panel of intellectual analysts described these candidates as Innocent, Ignorant, Informed, Educated and well versed (and probably experienced), respectively. 

Later on in the final stage of the assessment, this group was shown a picture of a woman and was asked to describe the picture and support it with suitable reasoning. The first person from the group who was 24 years of age described the woman in the picture as “Old and yet beautiful”. The second individual had a look at the picture and described her as “most beautiful woman that I have ever seen; she is attractive and her eyes are awesome”. The third person in the group described the picture woman as “nothing astonishing or worth commenting; an average looking woman”. Fourth one in the group took a closer look, as if he is trying to search something in the picture and he described her as “the ugliest woman I have ever seen”. He said that he have seen and been with many beautiful women and she is no where closer to them. In fact, with her facial expressions, she is looking cheap and vulgar. The fifth person in the group, a 45 year old guy, described the woman in the picture as, “a young lady from a rural community, trying to adjust with urban culture and willing to learn”.     

To elaborate more, let’s also discuss about some of our sensory organs and their role in perception. A curry or an eatable can be tasty or tasteless and spicy or plain based on the kind of food that you are used to or have been eating in the past. A particular type of music can be soothing or melodious for one and noise for someone else. One kind of aroma can be a scent or a fragrance for a person and an obnoxious smell for another. A touch by the same person can be hard or soft for two different people. In each of the above four scenarios, we have mentioned about two extremes of responses. Within these two extremes, there can be numerous other variations. Hence, the perception of each individual becomes his moment of truth.       

Let’s discuss some more examples of perceptions. Four people, at lunch time, sitting across dining table and having serving plates and bowls in front of them. An outsider can perceive this, as if all four of them are having lunch; whereas, in real they may not. It is possible that one or two of them are giving company to other two. In an another incident, a male and a female of same age group, going out together on several incidents, may be perceived as a couple having romantic interests and links.      

If you notice, in all these examples, none of the expressions, or perceptions was wrong. They all were correct and true. All these perceptions were influenced by the past experiences, knowledge, social exposure and family culture of each one of them. Every individual is different and so are their circumstances, situations and experiences, which in turn sway their outlook and their perception towards external things, nature, incidents, and events. 

I would say our perception of reality is infinitely more important than reality itself. It isn’t that reality is not important, since reality is what we base our perceptions on, but that perceptions are the ones that can make reality real. When we don’t believe in something, how can it be real? Until we start believing like we can, we can’t.

Let’s discuss. Kindly share your thoughts and opinions. 

Composed By: Sanjeev Himachali

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