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 junctions 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.

Adapted from Unconditional Life: Discovering the Power to Fulfill Your Dreams, by Deepak Chopra (A Bantam Book, 1991).