How about the opposite end of the brain, cerebral cortex? (rational, etc.) Ah, this is a very important part. We can never accept as rational that which makes us feel fear. Without exception, fearful behaviour for fearful circumstances are typically described as being insane.

Where perception comes in… Let’s say I have a very acute sense of visual space. I might be able to approach the end of a high rise and look over with little discomfort, because to my vision I am still very much safe and in no danger of falling. For me, it would seem rational.

Let’s say you have difficulty with your depth perception. Any time you look into the deep range of something, like off the side of a building, your field of vision swims. You might not even recognize that it’s doing so. Your visual acuity isn’t weak. You know what you are looking at and can identify all the objects beneath you, but you get dizzy. Does standing very close to the edge there seem rational to you?

No, because if you get dizzy, there is a very real threat of falling. I have trouble with edges myself.

Now it’s actually a collection of these things that come together to define the entire domain of what you come to feel is rational, reasonable behaviour, and indeed, both people in that scenario are still correct. Paradoxical, no? This isn’t even a dramatic example. It would be quite common to find such a difference between people. My wife had no difficulty standing next to the edge of the cruise ship we were on.

So begin doing the math, adding up each of the distinctive perceptual traits of an individual, and the sum of these will shape the assessment of any new information. Taste in food. Taste in clothes. Taste in friends. We tend to have difficulty relating to people who make us feel uncomfortable with ourselves, and by ourselves I mean our senses in this case. For someone with auditory trouble, discussion of music structure, music literacy in general, well… It tends to sound metaphysical, like my classes.

We not only live in the worlds of our perceptions, we ARE the sum of our ways of perceiving. We are more than that, but good point. Your reality is shaped and structured by your perceptions, your perceptual profile. It’s like your body, and it does come from your body but is projected like a shadow out into the world, and like a shadow it colours every new thing you experience. Without keeping our perceptual bearings, so to speak, well… The result proves rather fear provoking like in schizophrenia.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~