Reality - reality?!

Krishna: Yes, somewhat. Not only differences in brains and brain circuits but because of sensory inputs , socially constructed perceptions too and several other things.

That is why I want to represent “reality” in this way. We’re seeing a story that’s being created for us by our brains. Visual illusions present clear and interesting challenges for how we live: How do we know what’s real? Illusions give us the chance to reveal how our brains work. The conflict between reality and perception also lies in the brain.

Most of the time, the story our brains generate matches the real, physical world — but not always. Our brains also unconsciously bend our perception of reality to meet our desires or expectations. And they fill in gaps using our past experiences.

There is reality beyond our physical senses. For instance, human beings can only see visible (for us) light. Other animals can see other lights too and therefore their world perception will definitely be different! For instance, the colors and patterns that a butterfly sees are invisible to man. Butterflies have extreme vision. The colors of flowers, the patterns of color on its own wings appear much different to a butterfly. This is because, the butterfly can see ultraviolet light.

Snakes like vipers, pythons and boas have holes on their faces called pit organs, which contain a membrane that can detect infrared radiation from warm bodies up to one meter away. At night, the pit organs allow snakes to 'see' an image of their predator or prey — as an infrared camera does — giving them a unique extra sense.

So these animals' world will be somewhat different from that of ours. Then who is seeing an illusionary world and who is seeing reality here? If your world was real, it should be independent from perceptions of any kind of creatures. That is every creature exists on earth should share their similar view of the world but in fact each of these animal share only some part of reality and other parts are beyond their cognitive ability.

Reality should be independent from our view and this is why your world you see now is just an illusion created by your brain. Science clearly shows that!

You think your skin is clean but a microbiologist like me can 'see' millions of microbes on everybody's skin. So your reality is different from mine! You can realize my reality by using a microscope, though.

If our senses don't provide the correct information about the world, we can use scientific tools and methods to get that. Yes, absolutely. Science is the most reliable way to seek out the truth. But it has its limits because it is still being developed by humans. If a tool is not fully developed, it only tells you some parts are correct and the rest is still being questionable. How can you be sure if our next humankind’s discovery won’t tell you a totally different story from everything we’ve ever known?
Even with the aids of science, we still can get into numerous illusions all the time because of our limitations in using science right now.

We cannot get rid of our own perception and therefore everything that hasn’t got a satisfactory explanation by science is some kind of illusion. But don't worry, a day comes when science can construct the exact reality for us. Have patience and wait till that day arrives.

For a person suffering from Schizophrenia, the brain creates illusions and the person ‘thinks’ it is reality. It is not actual reality though.

A dying person’s brain constructs different scenarios which result in near death experiences (1).

Modern fighter aircraft can attain high levels of gravitational forces that put most humans at risk for

gravitationally-induced loss of consciousness or G-LOC. The gravitational-stress reduces blood flow to the head and causes pooling of blood in the abdomen and extremities which result in G-LOC. When gravitational stress is applied well above tolerance, there is a short time period during which normal brain function persists, despite loss of adequate blood flow. At the end of this period, consciousness is lost, and the gravitational stress is reduced back to normal conditions. The length of the unconsciousness averaged 12 seconds with a -5 to +5 standard deviation and a range of 2 to 38 seconds. The estimated average length of time blood flow to the central nervous system was altered during the loss and recovery of consciousness was approximately 15 to 20 seconds.This causes Tunnel vision, floating, automatic movement, autoscopy-the experience in which the individual while believing himself to be awake sees his or her body position outside of his body, out-of-the-body experience, paralysis, not wanting to be disturbed, dreamlets of beautiful places, euphoria, dissociation, pleasure, psychologic state alteration, memories and thoughts inclusion, very memorable experiences, confabulation, strong urge to understand etc.]. It's this reason that fighter pilots wear G-suits and learn techniques to keep their blood flow to their head in order to not pass out. (1)

Drugs like hashish, LSD, or DMT too can ‘change your reality’ by creating hallucinations.

When other people misperceive reality, we may not agree with their interpretation, but we can understand where it comes from.

The visual illusion is generated in the visual cortex. Located at the back of your head, this is the part of your brain that directly processes the information coming from your eyes. Maybe the visual system “sees” it wrong. The alternative is that the visual system “sees” it just fine, but some other part of the brain overrides it, creating ‘a new reality’.

There’s a whole world of visual analysis and computation and prediction that is happening outside of the visual system, happening in the frontal lobes, according to specialists. That’s where the “story” of reality is constructed. The remarkable thing is that — even when you are told what is actually happening — you still see it in the illusory form! You can’t seem to consciously override the ‘wrong’ interpretation. (2)

The stories our brains tell us about reality are extremely compelling, even when they are wrong.

Why are we seeing a story about the world — a story — and not the real deal? It’s not because evolution made our minds flawed. It’s actually an adaptation.

If we relied solely on this outdated information, though, we wouldn’t be able to hit baseballs with bats, or swat annoying flies away from our faces. We’d be less coordinated, and possibly get hurt more often.

So the brain predicts the path of motion before it happens. It tells us a story about where the object is heading, and this story becomes our reality. That’s what’s likely happening with some illusions. It happens all the time. (2)

Reality monitoring is our ability to differentiate between externally derived perceptions and our own internally derived thoughts.

The brain regions that appear to play a prominent role in our ability to determine reality from imagination: for example, a region at the forefront of the brain called the anterior prefrontal cortex and, in particular, a specific brain fold within that region, the paracingulate sulcus (PCS). Neuroimaging studies have shown that activity and connections in these regions may be a useful tool for determining an individual’s proclivity for misattributing imagined internal details for real external ones.

These findings are particularly relevant for understanding clinical conditions. Research has found that, in study participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the anterior prefrontal region shows reduced activity, and this seems to be associated with reduced reality monitoring performance. Variability in the PCS brain fold can distinguish people who hallucinate from those who do not, which might in the future provide promise as a potential biomarker for subsequent development of schizophrenia or psychosis (3).

Differences in reality: Though we may be experiencing the same events happening in the world , our perceptions and interpretations of our shared realities may be very different. Take for instance authoritarian leaders like Trump or Putin. Liberals and conservatives differ psychologically, contributing to the polarization because they ‘perceive reality’ in different ways.

We have a false sense of personal knowledge called “the illusion of explanatory depth.” Our sense of understanding is a kind of hallucination that emerges from the belief in others’ understanding.

Someone may believe they understand something about an issue simply because the people around them think they understand it, because the people around them think they understand it, and so on. An entire community can end up with a strong sense of understanding even though no one has any real understanding at all. (3)

In these instances Sociologists understand that ‘reality’ is socially constructed, meaning that people shape their experiences through social interaction.

Our minds aren't passive observers, simply perceiving reality as it is. Our minds actually change ‘reality’.

Nocebo Effect and The tricks your brain plays with you when you take a placebo are very good examples. We get the feeling that we are suffering or feeling better, even though there is no actual harm or cure.

The brain works really funnily sometimes. So it is all in the brain. It plays tricks with you!

Footnotes:

1. How Genuine Science Explains Near Death Experiences
2. "Reality" is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and...
3. Getting a Grip on Reality