Perception Deception

The Dress in Question

An interesting topic was addressed on the PBS show NOVA. It’s called Your Brain: Perception Deception — and can be found on youTube if anyone is interested in viewing it. One example, given in this program, is The Dress — the dress which to some seemed white and gold, while others saw a blue and black garment. Apparently, there were huge disagreements over what color this dress was. The end result of this discussion is that color occurs within the brain. The light that enters your eyes is not color; the brain interprets it. Light comes in different wave lengths, which change when they hit different surfaces. There is quite an in-depth discussion of the reasons for this, but this doesn’t hold much interest for me and I won’t bore you with my elementary interpretations. What I have gleaned from the explanation is that our perceptions are not only colored by past experiences and knowledge, but by environmental differences, too. This has strengthened my desire to hold no strong opinions which, after all, close my mind to other ideas — perhaps even the fact that the dress is blue and black!

“If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. I can see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see or not. What I have chosen to see has cost me vision. Now I would choose again, that I may see.”
—A Course in Miracles W-52.4:2-6

“The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 406:11-12