Can you trust your senses??

OK...try to remain open minded reading this and ask yourself the question again after youve read it fully.





If I see an object sitting in front of me, lets say a shoe and you can see it too. You may tell me that you can see exactly the same as I do but how do I know what you are really experiencing?





We may both call it blue but can you say with certainty that were both experiencing the same thing, given the fact that %26#039;blue%26#039; is just a label and although individually we may experience the same thing each time we look at it, in effect we could be seeing something completely different. Since it remains constant we give it this label each time we experience it.





Taking this small example we can apply it to the rest of our senses and soon we can see by following this logic that although each experience we have is intrinsically personal and may remain constant, we have no way of knowing for certain that other people%26#039;s senses are the same as our own.

Can you trust your senses??
I agree with you. I may actually be seeing blue as yellow but as I have been taught that colour is blue it is not blue to me forever. What you may see that blue as is beyond me, however as you said, this colour stays constant and therefore that is now blue. So then I can ask what yellow is?





Nothing makes sense if you think about it, but yet it all makes sense. I had this phase and it drove me nuts thinking about how certain we are about uncertainty. Once in a while it is fun to think about these things, but don%26#039;t think too much! It%26#039;ll drive you crazy and you won%26#039;t be able to just go with the flow. In fact I got pissed that no one else seemed to care about these things, but I found it%26#039;s easier for me to function without thinking about that %26quot;Why%26quot; or %26quot;Is that true%26quot; side of everything.
Reply:Read %26#039;%26#039;Politics of Experience%26#039;%26#039; came out in the 60%26#039;s Report It

Reply:Other people%26#039;s senses are NOT the same as our own because difference senses are more innate in some people based on there life style and characteristics.





There is a difference b/t sensing and experiencing. For example i don%26#039;t know much about wine so when i have a glass it tastes like either bitter or sweet grape juice with alto of that %26#039;alcohol%26#039; tastes. I mostly drink it to unwine. But when a cynosure of wine has a sip the get a totally different experience because of the purpose they us there senses to experience the wine. They hold it in there mouth longer, they swirl it around, they sniff the cork.





Does that make since?


Pretty much you can trust your senses as long as you know the depths of what your trying to experience with them.


(another example is the difference between what a photographer and a painter see when creating a work of art on the same %26quot;subject%26#039;).


Its a matter of how you use your senses to experience life.
Reply:everyone is different and see same but thinks different. its the mean of matters
Reply:Oh, that%26#039;s absolutely so.





For one thing, people can not convey, using words, NO more than 10 % of what we mean. And I think that is absolutely insufficient to express what we experience. So nobody can ever really know another human being.





And our senses, especially our vision (but not only) so much depends on so many things... the sensitivity of the eye... the concentration / amount of attention we pay to the object... etc., etc.





I am perfectly certain that no two human beings see / hear /feel / taste / smell the same irritants.





But we can still get along reasonably :))





To answer the question at the top... yes, I do trust my senses, in terms of relying on them to perceive informtion that is sufficient for making my own choices. Choices that are right for me and that I am not going to regret.
Reply:The question was %26quot;Can you trust your senses,%26quot; not can you be sure they give you data that matches everyone Else%26#039;s. The answer to the question is that,yes, usually we can and should trust our senses. An important part of the experience of being human is being in touch with our animal nature. We must take care, in the crush of civilization, not to lose this.





Animals rely almost entirely on their senses and before human interference with their habitats their senses served them well and usually still do.





When we feel the tingle of the hairs standing up on the back of our neck, sensing danger, it may not be civilized to run off if there is no apparent sign of that danger. Is it still smart to beat a hasty retreat? I believe it is unless our human brains tell us that it is a danger manufactured for our entertainment, like a horror movie. Animals do not always understand this, hence your dog growling at the T.V.
Reply:My God! You have exactly the same way of thinking as me. I often wonder whether each and everyone of us is unique in the way we view the world. I even wonder if, when I look in the mirror. Do I actually look like the image I see, or to other people, do I look completely different. Sometimes people do interpret colours and smells in different ways. So which is the right one. Makes you feel sort of on your own in the world. Didn%26#039;t want to get to heavy about it. But it makes you think doesn%26#039;t it?
Reply:No, sense perception is discounted in almost all accounts of knowledge as fallible and thus must be abandoned as a means of justification.
Reply:no


yes


-choose
Reply:Yes.
Reply:As long as we are consistent in how we perceive something, this would never be a problem, we will always agree it is blue, whatever blue may be to each of us.
Reply:I think you can trust your senses, but like you said, it%26#039;s probably a different experience for each person. But to name a object or to identify a colour is just a generic thing so we all roughly know what you or someone is talking about.





My friend for instance had been identified as colour blind for two specific colours.. I think he sees the colour green as blue and blue as green (for instance/example), so his in a minority in that sense.





I have no idea how they identified that in the hospital. Anyway when I see a blue object, we both call it %26quot;Blue%26quot; from our teachings from a young age. But in fact his experiencing the colour %26quot;Green%26quot;.





So when he said that his favourite colour is Blue, his favourite colour is actually Green the same as mine. But we both identify the same object with the name of the colour... but in fact experience two different sensations.





So you can trust your own senses, on about how you feel about certain things. But you may not trust your friends in a given sense. Sometimes.... man this is deep and weirding me out a little.





It%26#039;s like something out of the Matrix.... are we actually alive or just plugged into a computer???





Hell I am always plugged into a computer.....
Reply:Quite simply what else is there to trust? Or senses are our comunication with the universe, nor are they prefect, that is why portions of our brain are given over to interpreting the data that comes in. This is where the individuality comes in and this is a feature not a fault in our senses.





The key here is simply to look outwardly to what you senses tell you rather than inwardly to what you think about it.





Even what I saw last year looking at the same object is diferent to what I see now, I have learned since then. I am a Lighting Designer, one monht an object is the most bueatyful thing I have ever seen, after lighting it for a month I never want to see it again!! The same goes with my photography. When I see the results of my work I apreciate what it is that I first saw and I hope to comunicate that to an audiance. But it is a journey of diversity of perception across a short space of time.





If you want to see this for yourself, meditate on an object, sound or any sensory response. Meditate on it for at least one hour a day, staring at it, examining it for at least one hour every day for a week. See how you see that object at the end of this.





A word becomes a sound becomes a vibration becomes a word again. An object becomes the sum of its parts becomes a its sublte hues of colour, the reflections of diferent light becomes the whole object again. You will be astounded my the results.





This excersise will tell you so much about colour too - you will be shocked at what you learn.





As for the question about if we all see the same colour, well we see the same frequencies broken down into three bandwidths. Red Green and Blue. The main indication that we have that we percieve the same thing is that diferent colours have a in wired emotional response that seems to come from our evolution. That and the fact that diferent colours compliment eatchother universally.
Reply:Everyone is different and sees things differently. That is what life is all about
Reply:I have pondered over this for years, if like you say colour is a label, how do people know they are colour blind? i mean, when i was younger my parents told me the sky was blue and the grass was green.... so when i see sometihing that looks like the colour of the sky... its blue etc, so how do you know you are not seeing the same colour as everyone else?? I digress... apologies... in answer to the question i believe you can trust your senses because they are your interpretation of the stimuli, although it may not be the same as everyone elses it is still valid.
Reply:First of all... good question and a good try to understand the complexity involved.





But i think, you are getting confused between what your senses deliver to your mind and what in turn you interpret of it.





Senses basically are nothing but data collection devices of your body which is sent to your mind through electronic impulses.





And thereafter how your mind analyzes and interprets this data is what you experience. So... though your experience is a function of data collected, it is not necessarily 100% dependent on it.





An experience is essentially driven by the culture, personal experiences, associations, education and many many more variables which are totally personal to every human being.





So, though you can trust that the senses of all of us give us the same information... it is hard to trust that another person Will interpret/experience the same set of data in same manner.





Hope it answers your question.
Reply:Yep I agree, I have thought about this before and I think we can%26#039;t be certain that everybody sees, hears, tastes, smells etc in the same way. Maybe this is why we are all so different in the things we like.
Reply:If you have to ask that question, then I would think that you doubt your own.
Reply:You have to be able to trust your sense, even if they are flawed, in order to survive. Questioning your senses just leads to insanity.
Reply:You can trust them.Coz you have to believe in yourself.But,everyone%26#039;s senses is different.
Reply:I trust my senses because they are my own. However, I know for a fact that what you see isn%26#039;t exactly what other people see. My idea of certain colors and my husband%26#039;s idea of certain colors are different. I think it is how you are raised and what area you are raised in. A person dosen%26#039;t think of an object by a certain name until someone else provides a name.



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