Dimension #2: Perception
We are all organic probes stumbling about
Perception is our receptor interface with the material world, and it is hugely limited by our biology. We are familiar with our five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Each one of them offers a small window into the Material world, and the flow is unidirectional: from outside to in.
Take sight for instance. Our vision is limited to 400 - 700nm in the electromagnetic spectrum - which has a range of 0.01nm to over 1 km. That is a tiny, tiny sliver of what we could possibly “see.”
We are literally almost blind!
The same can be said for all our other senses - we don’t have sonar capabilities and don’t “hear” as well as bats or dolphins do, nor do we smell as well as dogs do. In fact, we have a very limited and fractional supply of information regarding the material world that we work with in order to render our reality.
Unbeknownst to us, there is a lot more going on around us that we are completely unaware of.
Through our ingenuity and innovation, humans have developed machines that can sense wavelengths beyond the meager range our eyes, ears, and body afford us - we convert this additional information into digits. Doing so enables us to go beyond our biological limitations and perform mathematical calculations to understand more about the material dimension we render.
However, no matter how much additional data we capture through devices, the information must be translated and boiled down to something our bodies can natively digest - otherwise, they are no different than mathematical formulas that don’t have any experiential meaning to us.
We cannot escape this fact: those spectacular infrared pictures we see of distant galaxies taken by the Hubble Telescope have been "watered down” into colors that our eyes can see. It would be like listening to a rave from a bomb-proof bunker underground: you might just hear a few bass thuds.
Will this gap ever be traversed? Interestingly, we already have cases where brain or cochlear implants have augmented vision and hearing - there are numerous cases where the deaf can hear and the blind can see once again. If we look into how these remarkable achievements are made, they are done by synthetically replicating brain signals and activity - and this makes sense. For existing sensations and experiences, we have a map to reverse engineer. Such is not the case for new and novel extra-human “senses.”
Each One of Us Renders a Different Version of Reality
From this tiny sliver of the material world we are able to detect, there springs a vast variation of what we sense. Even amongst humans, there are a myriad of differences as we are not all biological carbon copies of each other.
For example, we all do not smell the same way. There are about 4 million cells involved with smell in our noses, and believe it or not, there is a huge genetic variability between populations in our ability to detect odors. People with different DNA detect the smell called androstenone differently. Androstenone is produced by pigs and is found in their meat. Depending on the OR7D4 receptor in our cells, we may find the smell sweet, foul, or not be able to detect it all. The current theory for this is through natural selection, where people from Asia - the place where pigs were first domesticated - have a reduced sensitivity as pork from uncastrated boars taste unpleasant to people who can detect it.
Our sensory input machinery has evolved over many thousands of years to be uniquely different from other animals. It is even different amongst humans. Therefore, it is likely that we are operating with different data sets coming in from the material world - our rendering engines that form what we call reality are not fed the same data, even if we are placed in the same exact situation.
We have different biological cameras, microphones, and other instruments that capture different signals. And we are not even talking about the processing of the data yet.
Why This Matters
Most of us roam this plant thinking everyone else is like us. Whatever we sense, experience, feel, understand, and think - we always believe that our “version” of reality is the correct version. It’s almost second nature to us, and we even call it “common sense” at times.
Yet, before even going into the processing of information, we are seeing that the data coming in to be processed is already different. Who is to say that if you have been fed the same data over your lifetime, that you wouldn’t think the same way that “crazy” person is thinking?
We should steer away from arrogance and hubris and place a high value on empathy, drawing upon knowledge that we have learned from science. Every time you find yourself wondering why someone else would think in such nonsensical ways, that is an opportunity for you to learn from the differences between that person and you and embrace it. For within the differences lies the clues to truth about who we really are.
The Sixth Sense
Then there is the question of other senses beyond the five commonly accepted ones. Remember, just because science has not developed a point of theorizing, mathematically calculating, and empirically measuring something, does not mean that something does not exist. We already know, through known unknowns such as dark energy or dark matter, that our understanding of the universe is vastly minimal.
What about the unknown unknowns?
Case in point: the pineal gland, which is the least understood gland of the nine in our endocrine system. It is located deep in our brains’ center, and it regulates our 24-hour circadian rhythm by secreting melatonin, affecting among other things, our sleep.
It is also widely known as the “Third Eye” that mystics revere as an important tool in interfacing with the spiritual world. Studies have shown that there is a link between the pineal gland and N,N-dimethyltriptamine, also known as DMT - the “spirit molecule.” And while there is no conclusively established link between the pineal gland and spiritual experiences as of yet, it is being discussed as a parapsychology, or the study of unexplainable mental phenomena for the time being.
As our understanding, through clinical trials and research expands, could we uncover other modes of perception - perhaps one that has been practiced since ancient times? I remain open-minded.
So far, we have discussed the first two dimensions: Material and Perception.
These are the two most basic and fundamental of the dimensions and are largely describable by science.
Yet, what we have uncovered is that:
There is no such thing a local reality, and nothing really exists until it is observed - we know this as a fact at the subatomic level
Our interface into the material world is not only vastly limited, but also widely varied to the point where two people in the same exact situation may have very different experiences
It is possible that we are capable of perceiving things that are not yet understood by science
These truths will come into play later as we delve into introspection, our perspectives on what’s going on with our lives, and other reformative reflections.
As I promised, things may not appear to be what they seem, and can be quite unconventional. This theme will begin to accelerate as we move on to the other dimensions which have more to do with our inner space and sense of self.
➡️ Watch the accompanying YouTube video for this article here:
➡️ Read the previous FoFty manuscript article here:
http://fofty.net
About Sang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangyshin