1 4 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 9 2 Senses Let us start with the sight, which is a pride of our species sensory faculties – at least in comparison with our other sensory capacities. As everybody knows, our sight is able to detect electromagnetic radiation from a very narrow segment of the electromagnetic spectrum (from about 380 to 740 nanometers). Thus, we are blind to very many things which really exist in our environment. Visible light does not inform us even about all properties of the objects we see. Also, resolution of our sight is finite and so we are not aware of vast amount of detail on the surface of objects (not talking about their inside, which is typically unseen) – we as if see only a blurred version of them, an extremely approximate picture. It is as if we looked at the globe which does not picture more that countries and greatest rivers and cities – detailed complexity of Earth’s mountains are reduced to simplified patches and many important things are not seen at all: we would not see trees, buildings, people, animals, flowers – we would see practically nothing. And the microcosm of our hand, or of a flower is equally full of important complexity. But before our eyes there appears only extremely simplified object containing almost nothing from what is really before our eyes. This real microcosm, which is really significant for us (through its bacteria, viruses, chemicals), is not seen at all by our sight. Almost all important structural and functional aspects are hidden from us. In reality, we are thus practically blind. We do not live – through our sight – in reality, but in almost completely reduced and impoverished version of it. The picture is, in addition, distorted in a very fundamental way, which we will discuss shortly. If we examine others of our senses, situation is no better. Our hand passes over the piece of wood almost without feeling, as if dead. It is not sensitive to the actual complex shape and microcosm of the piece of wood – of its “mountains”, ravines, deep abysses and great, strange caves. It does not feel life of small insects, parasites, unicellular organisms. Many physical fields holding together its atoms, mingled together in vastly complicated shapes, are not felt but in a simplified version of its solidity – one datum replaces almost infinite amount of data. This almost unlimited complexity is squashed into most reduced overall shape, property of solidity and its degree, with addition of smoothness or roughness and few others. Our smell can inform us about the presence of some chemicals, but not all. We cannot precisely determine the quantity even of those we do smell. And certainly, we cannot detect positions of a molecules in the air before us and structure of their dance in time and space. Similar is true of our hearing and taste, and about all of our sensory apparatus overall. But our illusion is deeper than that. According to theory of relativity, the space itself is not as straight as we imagine it to be on the basis of our sensory input. Time also is different from what we know about it from our ordinary sensory experience: from the point of view of one observer, time goes slower for another observer who is moving relative to the first one. Moreover, time goes faster when we are farther from the Earth’s surface than if we are standing on it: in a stronger gravitational field, spacetime is curved more, and time goes slower. We are not aware of any of these things, although they are a reality everywhere around us. Reality is not quite like we imagine it to be. You may object now, that these things we now exactly thanks to the power of our reason. That is true but let us not generalize from this to its universal applicability and boundlessness. We are talking still about our biological sensory equipment. Quantum physics introduces even more fundamental surprises. According to it, all elementary particles behave differently from what we are used to expect on the basis of not only our senses, but also, it seems, on the basis of our logic and reason. All of the quantum world is fundamentally different from what we are able to imagine. And this quantum world is all that exists – what we see as macro-objects are just massive parts of this quantum reality. According to quantum theory, particle of matter cannot be said to be in an exact position independently of our measurement of its momentum. The more precisely we measure its position, the more indeterminacy will remain in its momentum and thus in velocity. This particle is in some sense not at one definite space location but exists everywhere with some probability before we execute a measurement. And even after that, there will remain some measure of indeterminacy of its position and its momentum, extending beyond inaccuracy in measurement and therefore inexplicable by it. Very strange fact that measurement and thus observation (maybe, in some way, consciousness) enter into picture as irreducible factor is not known from our experience with physical objects as we know them form our sensory experience. A ball is not everywhere if we are not looking, jumping into some position only because we look at it – or maybe because it becomes conscious. Also, in our sensory experience it is not true that we are able to determine where the ball is only at the expense of determining its velocity. We do not know from our sensory experience a law according to which when we see the ball clearly, we are not able to see whether is it moving or no, and how quickly; and, on the other hand, when measuring its speed, its position does not get hidden from us. Let us note here, that the position of the ball, in quantum world,
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