The five stages of perception
The first stage involves an energy-event within space-time. This is Etic Reality. The transition from stage one to stage two involves part (not all) of the original energy traveling toward one of the sense organs.
The second stage involves the activity of the sense organ after being impressed by part of the energy that reaches said organ. Note that not all of the energy is absorbed by the sense organ even in extreme cases, like when we are hit by a hammer, we still do not absorb all of the energy of the hammer. Even at this stage—even if nothing was required for further perception—we would still be dealing with part, not all; we would be dealing with abstraction, uncertainty, and fallibility. The transition from stage two to stage three involves part of what happens after the sense organ is stimulated by part of the energy flowing to us from the space-time event. This period consists of very, very many signals traveling to many parts of our organism.
The third stage involves the organismic reaction which can be quite complex. For instance, if the energy-packet happened to be “Your mother has been raped and murdered by terrorists” the stomach, tear ducts, and heart at least will be involved in processing the signal, as well as the amygdala. It is obvious that with subtraction, perception also involves an addition of pre-existing emotions, which is what Freud meant by “projection.” The transition from stage three to stage four involves the transmission of all of this to the brain. Obviously, what the brain recieves is already highly colored by the subtractions and additions previously mentioned; but the brain itself, except perhaps in a newborn infant, already has a set of preconfigured programs, or a “filing system” for organizing and classifying incoming signals.
The fourth stage involves the “percept”, the basic mental “image” or “idea” that emerges after the right hemisphere has processed the original energy signals plus the additions and minus the subtractions. The transition between stage four and stage five invovles the most subtle and nefarious stage of all, the feedback between the incoming energy (plus additions and minus subtractions) and the language system which the left hemisphere happens to use habitually (including symbolic, abstract languages like mathematics).
The fifth and final stage of perception is always verbal or symbolic and hence is coded into the pre-existing structure of whatever language systems the left hemisphere has been previously taught. This process is not one of linear reaction but of synergetic transaction. This finished product is thus a neurosemantic construct, a kind of metaphor. Thus language can be seen as a kind of metaphor.
References
- Wilson, A., Robert (1986). The New Inquisition Chapter 1 Models, Metaphors, and Idols (Page 22 · Location 324). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press
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Type:🔵 Tags: Psychology / Neuroscience / Semantics / Philosophy / Epistemology Status:☀️