I am relaxing on my favorite lawn-chair enjoying the breezy, sunny, summer weather in the cool shade of an oak tree and quaffing a cool beer. A little squirrel is carefully approaching, ready to flee if I make a move. I absorb the environment through my five senses which connect me to reality. It suddenly occurs to me that I am the only person in the whole universe who observes these immediate surroundings. Just me! Isn’t that miraculous?
My senses are recording the sounds, the smells, the landscape, the temperature, and the taste of the beer and my brain organizes all this information to create not only a picture in my mind but also to create a feeling of peace and contentment, just for me alone.
I will never know how another person, when experiencing a similar set of conditions, would perceive this scene. The grass reflects a certain frequency of light that we all call green, but I will never know how another brain interprets that same frequency. Perhaps my “green” is “red” for someone else? What about smell and taste? Are they the same for everybody? Obviously, they are not, because we have different likes and dislikes. But there is no way to know. Emotionally, we also differ in our reactions to similar situations.
Yes, we are unique and alone. We cannot read the thoughts of others. We can guess their thoughts by observing body language but we cannot ever be certain to know what another person thinks. I know that some magicians pretend that they can read minds and some people believe in extrasensory perception (ESP) but, over a hundred years of serious research in ESP and meta-physics, the results have been fruitless. Even money rewards, such as James Randi’s one million dollars if scientific evidence could be shown to verify ESP, have never been claimed.
Yes, you are alone. Observe through your senses what it is like to be alive. That experience is different from person to person and you will never know how other brains construct the environment that we call the reality in which we live. Although we are alone, that does not mean that we are necessarily lonely. Enjoy your life as much as you can; it is the only one you will ever get.
My senses are recording the sounds, the smells, the landscape, the temperature, and the taste of the beer and my brain organizes all this information to create not only a picture in my mind but also to create a feeling of peace and contentment, just for me alone.
I will never know how another person, when experiencing a similar set of conditions, would perceive this scene. The grass reflects a certain frequency of light that we all call green, but I will never know how another brain interprets that same frequency. Perhaps my “green” is “red” for someone else? What about smell and taste? Are they the same for everybody? Obviously, they are not, because we have different likes and dislikes. But there is no way to know. Emotionally, we also differ in our reactions to similar situations.
Yes, we are unique and alone. We cannot read the thoughts of others. We can guess their thoughts by observing body language but we cannot ever be certain to know what another person thinks. I know that some magicians pretend that they can read minds and some people believe in extrasensory perception (ESP) but, over a hundred years of serious research in ESP and meta-physics, the results have been fruitless. Even money rewards, such as James Randi’s one million dollars if scientific evidence could be shown to verify ESP, have never been claimed.
Yes, you are alone. Observe through your senses what it is like to be alive. That experience is different from person to person and you will never know how other brains construct the environment that we call the reality in which we live. Although we are alone, that does not mean that we are necessarily lonely. Enjoy your life as much as you can; it is the only one you will ever get.
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