 |
|
It’s funny how our Perception works. A popular perception holds that blind people have a highly developed sense of hearing. As the thinking goes, our five senses work in concert with one another such that the loss of one is compensated by increased sensitivity in the remaining four. These are some examples to prove that.
- Virtual Haircut
This is a demonstration of the stereo effect. Listening to it, you feel as though you are in a barber’s chair, with the barber moving around you, clipping away at your hair. As the barber “moves” to your right, the volume increases slightly in the right channel and decreases in the left. Similarly, increases in the volume of sound from the clippers give the impression that he is bringing them closer and closer to each ear. The illusion demonstrates our ability to locatesounds in space; by comparing the inputs to the two ears, we can work out where a sound is coming from.
- Matchbox Rattle
This, like the barbershop above, is another stereo illusion. In this illusion a man shakes a matchbox all around your body and lights matches occasionally.
Download Here - Scale Ilussions
This illusion was discovered by Diana Deutsch, and is an example of our brains “grouping” similar notes together. Two major scales are played: one ascending, one descending. However, the notes alternate from ear to ear – for instance, the right ear hears the first note of one scale, and then the second note of the other.
There are several ways in which people perceive these sounds, but the most common is to group the high and low notes together. Rather than hearing the two scales, people hear a descending and re-ascending melody in one ear, and an ascending and descending melody in the other. In other words, the brain reassigns some of the notes to a different ear in order to make a coherent melody. Right-handed people tend to hear the high melody in the right ear, and the low one in the left, while left-handers show a more diverse response. You can read more about this illusion here.
Other great links for audio illusions:
None of us as individuals can get past the logical barrier that all of “you” might be part of a set of artificial data. So whilst our perceptions of others like ourselves who appear to have their own set of beliefs, together with an apparent ability to behave in ways beyond our control, all combine to reassure us psychologically (and make it even more difficult for us to believe that all this is illusion) it doesn’t actually eliminate the possibility of illusion. Unless we can find or offer some kind of “guarantee” that at least one or more of our perceptions COULD NEVER BE mere illusion, then it is meaningless to discuss the probability of the rest of the picture being “real”. And whether we care to admit it or not, we’re ALL in exactly the same position with respect to what we believe to be the rest of the world. We all appear to share the same basic beliefs about our existance and none of us know of any logical proof that our belief is correct.
So – all it means when we say “we exist” is that we have an overwhelming conviction that we are not merely imagining everything. So overwhelming that is unlikely that anything could persuade us otherwise. Yet despite this, we are compelled to admit the logical possibility that it is all one or more dreams.
This is the limit of perception.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” ~ Albert Einstein
“We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.” ~ Anais Nin
