Book of Nature. This is going to be a bit more ambitious a topic than I usually attempt.

We tend to take our perception of the world and the people in it for granted. We are pretty confident that we see what we see and hear what we hear, and we don’t really bother to look too much at the process that presents any of that to us. But there are some almost universal assumptions that get in the way of perceiving as I am going to describe tonight. I have some strange questions to ask, but they are important for getting oriented on the topic at hand so I hope you will bear with me.

Before I ask the first question a little bit of explanation… Even science is now saying something very important for understanding human perception as it stands now. For most people, they don’t even register a sensory impression until significantly after the initial stimulation. You hear a sound a measurable amount of time before you are aware you heard something, and what actually registers for you is the feedback of a “recognition” process. You never hear the sound your ears picked up, but instead you hear what you expect that sound to be. The world is full of details that get lost in this process, because they “don’t make sense.” People don’t even recognize that they screen them out.

It’s why it’s hard to ask people what they heard as witnesses? Everyone saw or heard the same crime differently? That is indeed why.

Ok, so the questions… How do you become aware that you are awake?

I smell coffee being made, or hear people outside, or the alarm cruelly rings.

When my dream consciousness gives way to my waking consciousness. Thinking. Visual signals.

I orient on surroundings I remember from before.

Sometimes I dream I wake up. It can be hard to tell then.

For myself, I feel my blood begin to pick up speed and my nerves spasm as they seize on the muscles around them and attempt to get my physical form oriented and organized. But there is a reason I ask this question.

The transition from sleep to waking state is full of details, but we usually screen them out and instead our habitual mind tells us we “just wake up.” How often do you remember the process of release as sleep paralysis kicks in or your hypnagogic state begins to absorb your normal conscious thought processes?

So you awake from sleep before your eyes even open? Yes. It seems like a strangely slow process to me, but people describe it as if I just pop out of bed.

I guess being jarred awake wouldn’t seem very restful so it should be gradual.

Yes, I have a slow rezzing way of waking up of late.

There are certain pictures on the walls I have seen my whole life, some of which I painted myself, but I don’t recognize them until I am fully awake.

Well, those same processes are going on in your being all day long. The processes by which your mind organizes your sensory impressions can be slowed down, even held still for a moment. By the time you fall into your normal pattern of “perception”, you are already making too much noise for much of what is going on around you to fully register. Instead of really sensing it, you reflexively tell yourself what it is.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~