All the information that we have about the world we live in is conveyed
to us by our five senses. The world we know of consists of what our eye sees, our hand
feels, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our ear hears. We never think that the
"external" world can be other than what our senses present to us as we have been
dependent only on those senses since the day of our birth.
Modern research in many different fields of science however points to a
very different understanding and creates serious doubt about our senses and the world that
we perceive with them.
The starting-point of this approach is that the notion of an
"external world" shaped in our brain is only a response created in our brain by
electrical signals. The redness of the apple, the hardness of the wood, moreover, your
mother, father, your family, and everything that you own, your house, your job, and the
lines of this book, are comprised only of electrical signals.
Frederick Vester explains the point that science has reached on this
subject:
Statements of some scientists posing that "man is an image,
everything experienced is temporary and deceptive, and this universe is a shadow",
seems to be proven by science in our day.(147)
In order to clarify the subject, let us consider our sense of sight,
which provides us with the most extensive information about the external world.