Linking perception to thought

Every perception leaves an afterimage, just like a taste leaves an aftertaste. We can test this easily on ourselves. Stare at a bright light for a few seconds then look away. You can still see its traces. It seems so natural to us that we should have this after-effect, that words should ring in our ears, or that a song should get stuck in our heads.

This simple aspect of our perceptual life leads to some strange results. We’ve all experienced the following: we are sitting in a room and a background noise – the washing machine, a vent, or something else – turns off. We hear it turn off, but the whole time it was on, we had not noticed it. In other words, we hear the silence after the sound.

Beliefs Drive Arguments

We do not spend a great deal of time articulating our beliefs. If we did, the world would be a radically different place. Instead, our beliefs form our ideas and impressions without any conscious awareness. It is when these beliefs come into conflict with other people’s beliefs that they rise to consciousness. But they are not stated, even at this time. For example, when we are arguing with a friend over capital punishment, we do not state our belief that all human life is sacred, we give reasons why capital punishment is wrong. We do not realize that all of our thoughts, reasons and justifications are an echo of what we already believe is true.