Nature Of Perception

Nature Of Perception

Nature of Perception
That which is seen, tasted, touched, heard, and smelled is only the face value of the object being observed. Human senses have developed to suit our body’s needs. Our perception of sweetness has developed from a need for high energy foods like honey so our sense of taste tells us “sweet” or “good” so we will eat more. So sugar is sweet because our bodies like it. Our perceptions are calibrated to our particular role in nature. That particular role happens to be keeping ourselves alive and reproducing and is accomplished with our finely tuned senses and neurological response to them
The senses that we have been so generously endowed are our blessing. They have no purpose or hidden priorities but keeping our species alive. When we smell a gentle breeze that carries the scent of a warm apple pie exuding thin tendrils of mouth-watering steam from its golden-brown crust, we think “mmmmmm” and perhaps your mouth will water and you will be drawn in by this appetizing morsel. We don’t want pie because the smell is good. We like the smell because the pie is good for us. Similarly, and more individually, the smell may bring you back to your grandmother’s house when you were a child, being bounced on your father’s knee at Thanksgiving dinner and feeling the simple joy of comfort in the childlike simplicity of life. The memory-evoking scent is also a survival mechanism. The sense of smell is closely intertwined with memories allowing one to associate smells that we learn in our lives with particular events, places, people, and emotions. So perhaps the smell of a burning leaf will evoke fear in a person who has been traumatized by a house fire but to the outdoors-person it means warmth during a clear chilly autumn night. In that way each is protected: the outdoors-person from the bitter cold nights in Vermont woods, and the traumatized one from their clumsy hearth stocking skills.
Sounds too have psychological triggers.The sound of a howling coyote...