© David Staume 2006

Filtering, spin, and compartmentalisation

Our senses are wondrous things, but they only allow us to perceive a minute part of the world. And then, to further remove us from reality, the way we process this information guarantees that it’s distorted. When you think about it, information coming in from the outside has to run a gauntlet of filters, spin, and compartmentalization before it’s perceived. It’s an interesting thing to contemplate, because it makes you wonder: if we rely solely on your five senses, can we really know anything at all?

We can only see things that are reflected by a very narrow band of wavelengths, and then, only things that are within our field of vision. The things have to be large enough, facing us, distinguishable from the background, and on the surface. And we can never see them as they are, but only as they were, with a delay set by the speed of light. That’s very quick I grant you, but you could be looking into deep space, and even if you’re not, you get the point: even if the delay is only a nanodoodle, you’re still slightly behind the times.

In addition, we can only see things in three dimensions. It may sound as if I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel to prove my point, but things seen in three dimensions give little indication of their function when they are viewed in only two dimensions, so it’s reasonable to assume that things existing in additional dimensions will give little indication of their function when viewed in only three dimensions. A sphere, for example, looks very different in two dimensions – when it’s flattened into a circular disc – and this gives little indication of its function as a football; and a dice looks very different in two dimensions – when it’s unfolded and flattened as six attached squares, each with a different number of dots – and this gives little indication of its function when thrown on a backgammon board.

It’s the same with our other senses. We hear things within a very narrow band of the sound spectrum, and then only if they are loud enough, and distinguishable from the background. And just like sight, what we hear is delayed by the speed of sound. Likewise, we can only taste, smell, and touch things that are sufficiently intense and distinguishable – and then only if we can actually get their particles into our mouth, or nose, or get close enough to touch them. And I won’t even begin to suggest how limited our three dimensional perception of a four-dimensional smell would be!

But that’s not the end of the matter. It’s only the end of filtering. Next we get spin!

Before information can be processed by our mind it is coloured and energized by our emotions. This changes the character of the information we receive in the same way as our view of the world is changed when we look through coloured glass. A blue window only allows in blue light, which makes the world appear to be tinged with blue. An emotional state of depression, will – in the same way – tinge incoming information with a sense of despondency: bad things will be unjust, and good things will be inadequate. An emotional state of jealousy will tinge incoming information with a sense of resentment: the success of others will be unfair, and our own success will be measured against that of someone better off. An emotional state of love will tinge incoming information with a sense of optimism: setbacks will be lessons, and bad things will be temporary.

The world outside isn’t tinged with blue, of course, it’s an illusion – but it’s a powerful one, and it strengthens and justifies the emotion that caused it: become depressed, see the world as depressing, get more depressed, and so on. It’s easy to see how a self-reinforcing negative spin can drag a person down. Fortunately, however, there’s also such a thing as self-reinforcing positive spin.

But that’s not the end of the matter either. It’s only the end of spin. Next we get compartmentalization!

Our mind is a pattern-making system that processes by division. It works by seeing differences and putting experience into compartments. The more experience we have, the more boxes we have; the more boxes we have, the more perspectives we can see, and the better our perception of subtle differences. If our experience is limited, our mind has fewer compartments to work with, and things that are different can end up being put in the same box. If, for example, you have never seen an Asian-looking face before, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to see the facial differences between my Japanese, Chinese, and Korean friends. Your mind will put them all in the one box, until such time as your experience makes some more. The same paucity of compartments can be seen in the expression ‘You’re either with us or against us’, when there are, of course, positions in between.

Adding to the mind’s capacity to distort is its tendency to suppress anything that it can’t put in any box at all. This may occur with perceptions that are vague and undefined, not of immediate use, or liable to embarrass or bewilder us. If our mind can’t put something in a box, it can push it below the threshold of consciousness. Clairvoyance (literally ‘clear vision’) is therefore more likely to be brought about by a reduction of suppression than by an increasing of perception. Add to this the mind’s habit of ignoring things while ever they’re abundant – clean air, for example, which we only seem to notice when there’s not enough of it. Put all these together and we can seriously wonder if we are capable of perceiving anything accurately at all.

With all the filtering, spin, and compartmentalization inherent in the gathering and processing of sensory information, it’s reasonable to view our senses as limiters rather than facilitators, as censors rather than senses – but the more important lesson, I think, is the need for other and better ways of knowing.

Is that my intuition in the background, trying to be heard through all the clatter?

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