Perception is defined as: “the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.” This sensory information is your mental processing going on in your mind which determines what your perception of reality is.
Perception is usually done in two phases: internal perception, and also external perception. So how these thoughts are processed when they enter the mind will determine your perception.
Rene Descartes asked the question: “Do I exist?” Freudian psychology claims that “self perception” is an illusion of the ego. So the question remains to be asked: can our perceptions allow us to experience the world as it really is? And can we “really” ever relate to another point of view, other than our own mental perceptions?
Types of Perception
Internal perception (proprioception) relates to the perception of our bodies such as: sensing limbs such as arm and legs, the feeling of sitting or standing, hunger, feeling excited or tired.
External or sensory perception (exteroception) is the perception of events or activities outside of our bodies such as: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. All of these sensory perceptions are permanently entered into our minds to be recalled each time a sense is recognized. These are the external sense which drives our lives, and also plays a key part in your emotional perceptions.
The most philosophical problem with perception is the way knowledge is obtained. However in order to better understand our perception we must first look at our metaphysical viewpoint. Is your viewpoint to reality: “direct realism, indirect realism, or idealism? How you perceive these external perceptions will then determine what your outlook, or viewpoint is.
Extrasensory perception (ESP) is another type of perception to be considered. ESP is the ability to “acquire information by paranormal means; independent of any known means.” This term ESP was coined by Duke University researcher J. B. Rhine to “denote psychic abilities.”
ESP has sometimes been referred to as the sixth sense. This sense is all about: gut instinct, hunch, or intuition. Parapsychologists usually regard such tests as the “ganzfeld experiment” as compelling evidence for ESP. Whether this sixth sense has any influence on our perceptual senses is undetermined due to the disputed evidence base.
Sense of Reality
Among the most common beliefs is that our third dimensional perception starts in early childhood as “naïve realism,” in which you believe that what you see, is also true about yourself. Many people carry this naïve realism around with them the rest of their lives unable to perceive things in a different point of view.
The ego also plays a big part in your perception of reality. The ego is what controls your image of self. Any time a fear based emotion enters the mind the ego is alerted to rectify the situation. The rational mind kicks in to alert your perceptions of a fear based emotion entering the picture.
Now the third dimensional mind does what it does best: the mind remains totally alert, even when it’s not required. The ego has just sent off a false alarm, which requires you to take a quick perceptive look at your self image. Are you being threatened in any way? Is there something you need to do? The mind then goes on to rationalize out imagined fears until infinity, and beyond.
Sense of Self
If we feel that our self image has been invaded our perception narrows, and the viewpoint is also limited. Now you’re left holding the emotional bag at a snipe hunt, where of course there’s nothing to hunt. Each time this emotional game is played (in the mind) your beliefs and perceptions are tested and re-tested all over again. Soon you’re left doubting your own perceptions, and your instincts.
Each time your perception is tainted by the ego (and the mind) your sense of reality is distorted from a false sense of fear. The intuitive mind is usually shut down when fear enters our thought patterns; as your sense of self has been threatened yet again.
Now the whole ball game starts back over again. Each destructive emotion begins to overlap each other until you’re constantly living in a blind state of reality. Your mental time or “reality” is spent in a state of mental fear, worrying about what could or might happen next.
Destructive Thought Patterns
Your mind begins to re-live your regrets from the past, and worries about the future. Now the present moment is lost in the shuffle of the mind. Destructive emotions such as: regret, fear, envy, and jealousy begins to form and take over the mind. Sometimes depression enters the picture, which totally obscures your perception of reality.
A low “perception of self” is the most damaging perception which is instilled into the mind over and over each day. With a low sense of self reality is viewed through rose colored glasses; everything is distorted and out of focus. There is no clear perception.
With a low sense of self your abilities are now drastically limited. Your mind has already advised you of your failures, so why should you even try in the first place? You already believe that you’ve failed even before you got started. So you live in your false perception of mind, trapped in a cave like a mental hermit. Everything remains the same or gets progressively worse because of a false perception of ourselves and reality.
Learned Perceptions
As we live our lives we gain insight and information. From these insights we obtain truths in which we firmly believe. These are the hard and factual truths in our minds with no way for them to be discredited; or is there? Are we living in a figment of our own imaginations, and are we actually seeing a true reality?
I’ve always heard not to believe anything that you’ve heard, and only half of what you see. So we can probably take these hard and factual truths (in our minds) and throw out half of these because they’re only “our” perception.
The best way to increase your perception of reality is to live as close to the “moment” as you can. Throw out fear based emotions of the ego in the mind the moment they’re recognized. Have no regrets from the past, and no worries about the future. Enjoy each day which is given, and be emotionally present in the moment.
Your mind will soon learn to purge itself of destructive emotions as positive thought patterns reclaim your serenity. Your perception of reality is ready now to explore new uncharted territory. Who knows maybe this is all just a dream of the third dimension, and our perception of reality is just lacking.
Sources of information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasensory_perception
