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The Reality of Our Senses

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer to this question, originally posed in 1710 by philosopher George Berkeley, is, quite simply, no. Why? Because sound is nothing more than vibrations captured by the ear which sends an electrical representation of these vibrations to the brain for interpretation. A tree falling in the forest does create vibrations but if there is no one around to capture and processes these vibrations then there is no sound.

So, is what we hear an accurate representation of the vibrations? Again, the answer is no. What we experience as sound cannot be compared to the original sound the source makes since the source can’t make sound. Only hearing equipped animals can make sound through the process described earlier. So, what is it that we hear? Sound is an experience created by the brain to represent certain physical activities that create vibrations i.e. the drawing of a bow across the strings of an instrument, air being forced out of the lungs across the vocal cords of a crying baby and, yes, a tree falling in the forest.

So, all the time we believe there is sound all around us, we are wrong. In actuality, there are vibrations all around us being captured by the ear and interpreted by the brain to create what we experience as sound, a representation of the activity that created the vibrations. Simply put, vibrations are all round us but sound, quite literally, is all in our head.

All of our senses work in the same way that our hearing works as far as representing something outside of our brain. Our bodies are covered w sensory receptors which send representations of these receptions or “data input” to the brain for interpretation. Without these sensors we would not be able to see the person next to us. We would not be able to hear, smell, taste or feel them. For all intents and purposes, we would be completely isolated. We would not be able to experience anything in our physical reality.

All this goes to demonstrate that we are, in reality, isolated. How is that, you might ask. Because everything we experience in our world is a mere representation of the real thing. When we look at something, what we see, what we experience is only a representation of what we are looking in the very same way that a picture of a person on a magazine cover is a representation of the person, not the person their self. Since this rule applies to all our senses, we are truly isolated, in every sense, from the real world; from everything and everyone. Ironically, we are separated from the physical world by the very thing that provides us w our only link to this reality: Our brain. ~ Trabue Gentry